The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-03-02

common 10 TIE puDlIC- II NOuli oOSlii
from this that Harrington has suffered
much from the public prints and many
stories of him that we have all come
to believe, so constantly had they been
repeated, are here stated to be mere
Pigments of some reporters over-zeal-
Gus imagination. The doughnut fac
tory is one of these, the tale of his
exploiting his engagement as an adj
vertisement of his books was another.
1t would seem as if the gentleman
from Indiana" had been much maligned.
This writer paints him as the most
modest and retiring of men; one who
shrinks from notoriety, who has not
much head for business, and with the
usual impracticability of the genius.
Harrington is a Princeton man, and
even in his college time was known to
his comrades as somewhat out Of the
ordinary though in those days 1t was
not known just what particular bent
his genius would take. He had a gift
for verse, and the ability to draw not
half badly, and he thought he could
write even in those early days. In
deed he was concerned in an obscure
magazine called 'John-a Dreams"
when he first left college, an affair
chiefly humorous and not long lived.
He also had a voice and in the glee
club always sang Danny DeeVer," to
the great edificatiOn of those present"
And even now when he is famous and
his books have reached the goal Of
quick sellers" when he finds himself
among friends of the college days they
do not ask him to read from his works,
but ne is obliged to stand up and
sing Danny Deever" with all his might
and is encored until he beats a re-
treat. After reading this intimate ac-
count of Harrington it is easier to be-
lieve the story of his breakdown when
Id ,,1-. ,A1i iIa1 n
which he had to confess he could not
do. The stare of the crowd embarras-
ses him and he prefers home and his
own friends 1t was association with
James Whitcomb Riley which inspired
Harrington with his desire for liter
airy career. He liked the man and his
art. In college he was made editor of
one of the magazines and his peculiar
style of humOr became the feature of
that publication, but it is evident that
his success came as it should, from
hard work, for in those early days he
studied the best of literature with an
eye to the formation of his own style.
This writer says of him: "A quiet
playfulneSS perVadeS both the inner and
outer man. His demeanor is marked
by a delicious, unconscious drollery
strongly accentuated by the alert twin
lIle of the eyes, and becOmingly over
Whelming against the background of
mobile, SeriO-c comic facial expressions.
His wit, ever brilliant, is never bolster
Gus, and his very seriousness is never
without this subtle playfulness. He
peculiarly may be said to have "a saw
ing sense of humor" One of his ways
IS to illustrate his personal letters with
caricatures of himself, which he does
very cleverly. This writer claims him
for a romanticist and not realist,
though he has been otherwise classified.
Monsieur Beaucaire" and 1.-THE Two
Vanrevels' certainly seem to testify to
the truth of this estimate. There was
a time when Harrington devoted all
his time to the writing of plays which
We're submitted one after another to
Mr. Richard Mansfield, who sent them
back in a kindly spirit, and this,
though discouraging, has not changed
his determination to succeed yet in
dramatic construction. Altogether it
would seem that Booth Harrington is
loVable sort of a man with undoubt-
ed abality and has within him the
promise Of some day going beyond what
he has yet achieved in literature.
Women Who Have Written.
3 A very interesting book, though not
exactly late one, is Little Pilgram-
ages Among the Women Who Have
Famous Books Here in
twenty chapters are told the life eX-
periences of as many we'll know wom-
en- who are like old friends to us all.
Perhaps the least we'll known Of them,
but not by far the least interesting, is
Anna Farquhar, who is now Mrs
Bergengren, of Boston, and who made
a name for herself by writing Her
Boston Experiences" for the Ladies'
Home Journal. She went to Boston to
visit friends, and merely put down
carefully her impressions of the city of
culture, and what she had to say she
said in witty, sarcastic manner. This
gave her some vogue, and before long
she had established herself in Wash
ington to study it's social and official
life. The result Of this was the pub
LEGATION in the same paper of "The
Inner Experiences of a Cabinet Off
GERS Wife" which ran for a year and
kept all of Washington guessing as to
who could give such an accurate de-
scrlption of the inner life of an Off
clal household. 1t is even said that
the publicity given in this way to many
political wheels within wheels, which
govern the etiquette of Washington
drawing rooms, was a good thing and
that some small abuses were correct
ed because of 1t. Like Harrington,
Anna Farquhar was a native of In
diana, but went to school in Maryland,
travelled in England and spent many
she can fairly be called cosmopolitan.
She was endowed with a sweet, nat
ural voice and studied with the hope
of making music her life work but i'll
health kept her back and finally in
London she was told her physique was
not equal to musical career, and it
was then that she first turned her
thoughts to literature. Her first book
was "A Singers Heart" in part her
own experience. This was only mod
erately successful, and she became
better known by her work in the La
dies Home Journal In 1900 she mar
ried Mr.. Bergengren, Boston musi-
clan, and continues her literary work
Her last work was 1.-The DEVILS
Plough" Anna Farquhar is a sister
OF Mrs. Frederick Seixas, who was of
st. Paul until a year ago, when she,
With her husband, removed to Seattle
where they now reside. Another in
teresung sketch in the same book Is
of Gertrude Atherton, of whose person
atty we do not seem to know as much
as of some less famous writer's 1t is
certain that the public takes a great
interest in Mrs. Athertons books,
though it is more or less difficult to
ticket her and put her and her quail
ties in their proper pigeon hole. One
critic may liken her to George Eliot:
another will damn her with faint
praise" The writer of these short BIZ
ographies seems to think Mrs. Ather-
ton would prefer to be judged by
Senator North" but surely She has
done better work, and her last contri-
button to literature, THE Conqueror."
Is much more likely to hand her name
down to fame than anything that went
before it.
Mrs. Atherton is a Californian by
birth, and must be now between forty
and fifty years of age, and is a very
attractive looking blonde, if the pic
ture accompanying the sketch be at