The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-07-24
DELIGHTFUL CHAT WITH
 MRS. GERTRUDE ATHERTON
BY ETHEL ARMIES.

At least never speak of me as 6 little woman, please" Gertrude Ather. ton leaned back in her small rocking chair and fixed her bright blue eyes quite squarely upon the interviewer.
 T have always had a peculiar and ab- solute detestation of that phrase" she continued, rocking vehemently. T am moi it-I never was-and-" there was the very slightest rustic of the humor up her sleeve, '.I will not be made 1t. Give me, beg you. the full benefit of"
 Your four feet eleven and one-tenth? ?' The temptation was irresistible.
 Not considering the question of my my height exactly" Mrs. Atherton be- came sensitive.
 ''Depth?' the interviewer mildly sug- gested. and the author of The Conquer ors broke into a ringing little laugh and tossing her yellow bangs back from her forehead with nimble fingers replied archly:
 Granting you've plumb line" then quite suddenly the rocking chair came to dead standstill. Do you like pretty gowns?" Mrs. Atherton asked with zest, but of course you do I dote on them-l will show you one," she jumped up like school girl and opened her wardrobe. Here is one just finished-isn't the color exquisite? Just that shade of palest yell low Is so becoming, don't you know-and I do love embroidered things. l always did, when I was little mite of thing and watched my mother dress. Yes, she was a southern woman, and she was very beautiful. How l used to admire every thing that was hers, even down to her powder puff. How I used to watch her every afternoon as she dressed to receive the numberless visitors. Then would run away. Yes, that was when we were at our little ranch in California and would fly away to the pasture and look at the long line of buggles and carriages and buckboards belonging to my mother 8 admirers-and then plunge into the woods. My mother never failed to send the admirers who bored her to hunt for me. and It was a wild goose chase. When chose to be found I would be. Then was carried back and spanked. Every day I got a spanking, oh l was dread fully spoiled-just as bad as I could be. Even Sir Roger de Coverly did not tame me down. 1 was always longing for ad- ventures and l had no adventures The first things I ever wanted to write? Oi course they were stories of adventure for boys-wild, savage stories full of brave deeds and narrow escapes. My life exciting? Not a, bit on earth. Oh dear, no; I only wish it had been. The only exciting things that ever happened to me I dreamed. Why had the tamest most conventional, most uneventful life you ever heard of-as a girl.
 q was born in San Francisco--that is why. I grew up in my grandfather's old fashioned library, and with the horses on the ranch. What do you think, sucf a little colt as l. nibbllng out of the Spectator and galloping quite wild into the forest of Sir Walter Scott? am glad anything else, never anything modern ol American as to books, only Hume, Dick ems, Scott. Pope and Sir Roger. I never even read Hawthorne until after my mar. riage. Yes, 1 went to q boarding school one in Kentucky, jdst mere dash of 1t then back again to California where was married at 1T and-I-went-to-liv in Menlo Park" Mrs. Atherton drew 2 | long breath.
 "Menlo Park. Did you ever see it | Did you ever hear of 1t? Oh, you do moi want to. It Is a beastly place. It Is g tea and iced-cake suburb just outside oi Frisco. It is done into sets and patches like a crazy quilt It has a fence-sC high-all round 1t. It Is laced to death-- it cannot breathe. Aristocracy dating