The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-04-10
MACPIF CLUB FINDS
ITSELF FAMOUS
Big Demand for Stories Writ.
ten by English Girls Who
Stunned Publicity.
cial Foreign CORRESPONDENCE.


been published, and romances by two 9TH
ers announced to appear shortly, this
Orga nizatiOn finds itself rather famous
but the present writer had the good luck
to know the ''Magpies'' before any of
them dreamed of day when greatness
would be thrust upon them. In conse-
quence some rather interesting details of
which no mention has yet been made, can
be given about this quaint little club of
English girl writers. With two excep-
lions, all the members OF the Maggie
Club live in the country. But the Eng
lish country is not like the American
country and it would be hard for an
American girl to realize the seclusion in
which these young writers have been
brought up. Most of them are clergy
mems daughters, living in village rec
tories, and until they We're discovered
in the manner to be hereafter described
had depended almost entirely on the clas-
sizes for their reading, and had not even
heard of current periodicals as famous as
HarperS and the Strand magazines OF
these girls five were acquainted to begin
with. All of them wrote stories in an
aimless sort of way, which they showed
to each other. and gradually this little
circle Widened until it included nine or
ten members. These formed the Mag
pie Club, and then came the idea of
the Magpie Magazine The girls found a
woman friend who was willing to act as
secretary and to her each Maggie" sent
every month a piece of fiction signed with
her nom de plume. These were written
on paper of a uniform size and when
all the contributions were received they
were stitched together and bound in a
permanent cover bearing the name THE
Magpie Magazine" The magazine, by the
way, included a number of blank pages,
upon which criticisms were to be writ
ten. and after 1t was bound the periodical
was sent in turn to each member Of the
club, who read it and then set down In
it her opinion Of its various items
have read a number of these criticisms,
and to describe them as free or out
spoken would be drawing it mild indeed.
They were the most striking thing about
the Maggie" apart from the really I'M
common literary quality Of it's contents.
Most of the stories IN the Magpie, too,
revealed a knowledge of life on the part
of their authors which was really startling
when one considered these girls environ
ment.
The Maggie Magazine" had existed in
this way for a year or two before the
girl discovered it who was eventually to
introduce the ''Magpies' to the read
ing public. This was Miss Constance
Smedley, whose novel AN April Prin-
cess recently a success in America
was not then published, but who already
had attracted attention by her short
stories, dramatic criticisms and the one
act play of hers which was produced by
Mrs. Patrick Campbell. Miss Smedley be-
Weekes. whose novel. Marlborough the
Premier has just been published, and
through her with the Maybe club of
which Miss Weekes is a member.
A regular feature of the Maybe Mag
azine is a serial story. Marlborough the
Premier ran in the Maybe, and to 1t
Miss Smedley, who soon became an en-
I'M 1cti 1INnp Of he ri. ,%v,sl~
uted her April Princess" Oddly enough,
in spite of the amount of writing that
was done by the ''Magpies'' not one of
them ever had thought Of publishing
their stories. Miss Smedley, however,
after having read a few numbers Of the
Magpie told herself that the stories there
in We're distinctly salabEe. Among the
Magpie productions which struck her as
perhaps most promising were three nov
els which had run as serials in the anna
teur magazine, Marlborough the Premier"
by Miss A. r. Weekes; Love in Chief"
by her sister, Miss r. X. Weekes, and
Lance in Rest by Miss L. A. Talbot.
The Harpers had recently published Miss
Smedley's book of essays, The Boudoir
Critic" and so this young writer adj
vised her Maybe friends to send their
books to the American firm. They fol-
lowed her advice and the three ronances
were accepted almost Immediately. An
other Maybe novel, THE New Eden"
found a publisher In Dublin, and the early
notices of it have been fiatterfng. One re-
viewer, in fact, declared that at last a
successor to The Duchess had ap-
peared. Miss Smedley tells me that
number Of short stories originally con-
tributed to the Magpie Magazine have
been literally snapped up by different
London periodicals, and says that the
files Of the periodical written by these
English girls for their own amusement
contain much work that needs only to
be made public to be recognized as I'M
commonly good.
The announcement of the impending
sale of the original warrant OH which
John Bunyan was arrested 230 years ago
and clapped into Bedford jail for a can't
ing crop-headed vagabond has evoked
many expressions of fervent hope from
English bibliophiles that the document
will not be allowed to cross the Atlantic
Interest in Bunyan relics is very keen
among collectors, and 1t is sure to fetch
a big price. Three years ago a first edi-
ton of the "Pilgrim's Progress pub
lished at SO cents-fetched SS375 But
when the warrant was first offered for
sale at Sotheby's many years ago, in some
ineXplicable way it eIuded the vigilance
of some of the keenest eyes among Eu-
rOpean antiquaries. Perhaps this was
due to the way it was cataIogued among
a lot of valuable old manuscripts, the
entry relating to it reading: "Bunyan-
Letter to the constables of Bedford reIa-
tive to the Imprisonment of John Bunyan
for preaching Autograph signature and
seals. March A. 1874" The only man who
recognized its value was the late w. G.
Thorpe, who tells the story in his "StilI
Life of the Inner Temple" BY Flying low
and saying nothing he managed to buy
the document on the fateful day of the
sale for a few sovereigns. Great was the
dismay of the rich collectors gathered
at the auction when Mr.. Thorpe explained
to them what a treasure they had allowed
to slip through their fingers. In the war
rant Bunyan's name appears twice, the
first time spelled "BunnyOn'' and the sec
ond "BunniOn." 1t is signed by thirteen
justices of the peace, six Of them bar
onets and seven esquires and little they
could have dreamed that In their ordering
the arrest of the said ''Towne TINKER"
as he is styled in the warrant, they were
doing the only thing in their hands that
would preserve their names from COM
plete oblivion The document will be sold
at Sothebys on April %
Hayden Church.