The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-30
rzsF=.F=sTa.FssFasFasTsA sAFsaFEsFasFasFseFFsFs ABBY MORTON DIAZ. AUTHOR AND SOCIAL. WORKER
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 rhenceforward Ichabod Morton devoted 1 only so much time as was necessary. to material tasks and gave himself to the working out of the ideals foreshadowed in his vision. Whatever promised to make the race wiser. 3uster. handsomer and | happier-education, liberty, brotheriy love, yet above ell brotherly love this was what Abby MortDn's father pursued for the rest of his life. He imhued the little girl with his spirit, took her with him to meetings, taught her the meaning of ad- vanced public movements at an age when most girls are playing with dolls. In her childhood at one time she did with out butter to save 12 1-2 cents week to contribute to philanthropic fund That is partly how 1t happens that Abby Morton Diaz Is what she is Ad- ded to the love of progress and reform movements in her case was practicality that enabled her to take hold of things with hands as well as with head and heart. She was eminently the New Eng land woman who could do anything. In sketch of Mrs. Diaz in the Woman's Journal Alice Stone Blackwell mentions how in the acquisition of practical knowl- edge she picked up everything that came along" So, with her two sons to pro- vide for, she taught school; she gave singing and dancing lessons; when noth- | ing else offered she went out nursing; she wrote plays for Christmas and other en- tertainments and herself was both stage manager and leading lady in the perform ances.
 l At last Abby Morton Diax began to write, urged by an appreciative cousin, Edwin Morton. Old readers of the Att lantic Monthly will recall, printed in its pages years ago, an idyllic love story. Pink and Blue.'' Talk of your short story writersl
 Pink and Blue'' was Mrs. Diaz's first story. It was accepted, though she did not expect 1t to be. The editor of the Atlantic. then James T. Fields, accepted | several more of her stories Mir. Fields paid for each one. but when the series was ended he sent the young author Q check for s6o additional, saying he really
 did not think he had paid her enough fol
 them in the first place.
 | Imagine such . thing happening to [
 magazine writer nowadaysl This wal
 the beginning of a life of such intense
 and varied literary activity that it hal
 scarcely been equaled in America ar else
 where, and it still continues. Mrs. Diaz | became a contributor to the leading mag.
 azines and a writer of books. She had 8 | sense of humor which made her cooks de | hghtfuI, especially those for young people The best known of these is probably '"Tht | William Henry Letters" Others ara King Lily and Rosebud" ''The Cats Arabian Nights" Lucy Maria" "Bybury l to Beacon Street. and "Only a Flock oi | Women" have seen a list of twenty l two books. besides a number of p9mph' | lets, of which Mrs. Diaz Is author.
 l After awhile, besides writing, she be | gan speaking and featuring. always fol
 the upbuildins of the perfect race. foi
 peace and human brotherhood, for arbi | tration instead of war. for equal rights | of good citizenship. The Women's Edu.
 cationai and Industrial Union of Boston ii | now hourishing and powerful organiza.
 ton. That 1t is so is greatly due to Abby | Morton Diaz. She worked for it, fairly
 carried it upon her shoulders in its early
 days. She was its president for twelve | years. No woman has done more for hel own sex than Mrs. Diax She says, "Tht
 elevation of woman is the advancement | of the race"
 Like all New England women of the old stock, Mrs. Diaz is perfect househeeper consequently profoundly interested 1T
 household economics. Her book, "pomes
 tic Problems" has solved these for niany | a perplexed woman. Tn 1re Is not space
 here to mention half oi quarter of hei
 achievements. A life built up thus O
 good deeds must be pleasant vista to
 look back upon. Mrs. Diax could not have
 accomplished half so much If she had no
 had magnificent vitality. She has it still
 She knows how to conserve it. W-atever
 her hand found to do she has done witl
 her might, and the summing up is great
 Always. too, she has continued learning
 as she went along, topping on with wha perhaps she considers the greatest lessor
 of all, as expressed in a recent privat
 letter from her; Thought moves tn world" Katherine Blades.