The San Francisco call., 1906-05-27
speeial pispatch to The can.

Special Dispatch to The Call
LONDON. May eff the stars count
for anything in human affairs, it must
was in the ascendency when the Baron
ess Orczy was born. After achieving in
a few years a phenomenal success as an
author and playwright with none of
those heart-breaking struggles and dis
appointments which are supposed to be
inevitable preliminaries in literary and
dramatic triumphs. she has just inherited
a large estate in Hungary, her native
land. 1t was one of the most popular
of her books, "A Son of the People, .
now in its tenth edition here. which was
the means of bringing her the first It'd
ings of her good fortune.
That book has been translated into the
Hungarian tongue. 1t depicts the lives
of peasantry and the great landed
seigneurs who rule over their vast estates
much in the same fashion as did feudal
lords in England centuries ago. Such
man was the uncle of the Baroness
who recently died intestate, and thereby
the bulk of his great fortune passed to
ais niece
In the great rambling old house in
which he resided the early years of her
own girlhood had been passed. But the
lawyers did not know her address here
The Hungarian translation of her book
however gave the address of her London
publishers. To them the lawyers wrote
inclosing a letter for the Baroness. She
found it awaiting her on her return from
a theater late one night and thus
learned that big estate had been added
to her title. She is now in Hungary
looking over her property.
You can hardly imagine" she said be-
fore her departure. with what delight
shall wander over the old place which
have not seen for many years But
shall not be tempted to remain there
poetic and romantic as il all is. Eng
land is my home, where 1 have found
happiness and recognition. and 1 should
never be happy away from it long Be
sides l have books and plays to write
have no idea of abandoning my work
because ! have inherited a fortune
Many of the incidents described in "A
Son of the People happened in the
neighborhood which she is revisiting On
her fathers estate occurred the burning
Of the crops which she has so vividly
described.
You could hardly believe" she said
when referring to the matter. that in
these modern days workingmen could
be so superstitious that they should re-
gard a steam engine the work of the
devil. Such was the case, however and
my father had to pay dearly for his
advanced ideas"
It was no doubt because his efforts
to sow the seeds of progress among, the
people brought him only disaster that
Baron Orczy, who had been a distin-
guished diplomat. eventually settled in
England. bringing with him his then
f1fteen-year-old daughter, who, at that
time, knew not a word of English, of
which she is now so fluent a master
But here her father found the people
too progressive for him and lost his
entire fortune The Baroness then cut
herself adrift from her wealthy AMI
aristocratic relations in the home land,
resolved TO make her own way in the
world. How she succeeded is best told
in her own words:
II originally meant to be an artist
great artist-nothing short Of Angelica
Kauffmann's fame would satisfy me-
| studied art very seriously for years.
and strange to say was most enthusiastic
about it-strange, because 1 never had
more than very superficial talent FOR
it, and never seemed to have had the
faintest desire to write or exhibit the
slightest talent for it,
But / was always a great reader and
an ardent playgoer, and l suppose was
quite unconsciously storing away in rly
mind ideas and knowledge of technique,
observation of character and dramatic
notions which must have fermented for
years and stood nle in good steal when
I finally took UP literature as the work
of my life
II had exhibited several times at that
much maligned institution, the Ecyal
Academy. encouraged as 1 was ia those
days by my dear old friend. Edwin Long,
I Il. A.. the creator of that wonderfully
popular picture, The BabyIonian Mar
riage Markst. / spent many happy day.
! in his studio watching him paint and
sitting TO him for some of his most pop
ular pictures. He disliked professional