The Newtown bee., 1906-12-07
ADYERTlsuSs RATES:
THE HOME CIRCLE
 WINSTON CHURCHILL.

WINSTON CHURCHILL.
 A sKHTCH OF HIS LIFE AND WORK.
 Winston Churchill, the author of 'tOoniston," "Richard Carvel," "The Crisis' and ssThe Crossing" was born In St Louis. Mo-, November 10, 1871. He b the oldest son of Edwin Spauld- ing Churchill of Portland, Me-, and Emma Bell Blaine, of St Louis. The first 16 years of his life he spent in his native city, which was In fact his home until he built Harlakenden House, his present residence at Cornish, N. H. In St Louis, 1t will be Iemembered, the laid; and St Louis again formed the obiective point of MT Churchill's next novel, ."The Crossing." From Smith Academy in St Louis he went to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md.
 Tho chief qualities which are incul- cAted into . youth at the United States Naval Academy are self-reliance and determina tiOn, and those graduates of lt who have not chosen the Navy for their career have usually made eminent successes of what they have elected to do. Winston Churchill had not been Q year at the Naval Academy before he became interested in American history and American problems, and before he finiohed his course he had made up his mind to devote his life and energies to these-not only with the pen, but as An active participant. Much ot the for s'Richsrd Carvel" he gathered while still . midshipman at the Naval Academy; and in the brief intervals between scientific studies and drills he began to read some of the history
 which he afterwards used.
 Before his graduation, however, he had made up his mind that he did not want to spend hls lie in the Navy, that his abilities lay in the line of writing, and that fiction was his vo- cation. He ranked among the first i've or six In his class, and has the honor of having reOrganized the Naval Academy crew, whose captain he was for Q year; Was also capable member of the foot ball team. It was at Annapolis that he gained his knowledge of fencing, which he used to good purpose in safsn ereat in Sss Ia2s lSs and indeed in any vigorous sport that takes him out of doors. He resigned from the Navy on his graduation,
 worked for 8 time on the Army and
 Navy Journal, and then joined the staff of Tho Cosmopolitan. While he lived at 1rvingtOn-0n-the- Hudson, working steadily on the magazine, he continued his experiments with fiction. He never tried to publish any of his first work, and 1t Is not now in existence. That year f1696) he married Miss Mabel Harlskeuden Hall, of St Louis; and not long afterwards he established his homo at Oornish.
 He found himself at this time in 6 fairly enviable position. He was not obliged to spend his life doing hack work, and could take abundant leisure to perfect any piece of writing which with his rare good fortune much rar- CT good sense. He was ambitious, not only to write good stories, but to write the very best books of which he was capable-t0 do something really worth while. Joined with talent of 8 very high order, MT Churchill has deter imitation, . keen sense of ultimate values, and knowledge of the world; and he lS in earnest about whatever he undertakes, and energetic and system stic in carrying 1t out.
 He buckled down to the drudgery of authorship with . hearty good will, and put into 1t all his spirit and ali his unusual capacity for hard work. While he was living in St Louis, after leaving the Cosmopolitan, he hired to 1t every morning, and worked as regularly as if he had . set of books to keep instead of novel to write.
 Before he began "Richard Gar vel, and also while 1t was on the stocks, he visited Virginia and Maryland, and studied up the country and the old records with great thOroughneSS; and he also read vast amount of history and other literature which gave the spirit of the period. During the seven or eight months in '9S and '99 when he was writing the book from be- ginning to end for the fifth time, he Mas living on the Hudson, about thir- ty miles from New York. During fast to one o'clock, then for some hours after luncheon. Late in the after noon he would take a long horseback ride, and after dinner he would go at his work again, continuing sometimes far into the night. In the midst of his work on "Richard Carvel," while he was staying at Lake George, he ran out of historical material, and wrote for the third time, "The Celebrity" This novel was the subject of deal of comment on its first appearance, in 1897, and many people still regard 1t as the brightest and most amusing and original piece of work which MT has done.
 After finishing his work on "Rich- ard Carvel," Mr Churchill, in the spring of 1899, went to live at Cornish, N. H., where he had purchased large farm on high ground on the banks Of the Connecticut, just opposite Wind Bor, Vt. This beautiful little village hos since become one of the lesser It, erary centers of the United States, MT Churchill, Robert Herrick, Nor man Hapgood, Percy Mackaye, and Mrs Florence Scovel Shinn. On tte estate which he had bought MT then built Harlakenden House, which is modelled upon one of the mansions of colonial Maryland.
 Mr Churchill'S equipment for writ Ing fiction is almost ideal. He Is man of very unusual cultivation, while at the same time he is full of the zest of Ifs; fond of all sorts of out door sports Ehd pleasures, and favor- ite everywhere. In particular, he is Daid to be an excellent comrade for any Dort of excursion. In him are mir gl d the strains of Cavalier and Puritan, who were tho founders of this country md the creators of its institutions. The tide of Puritan emigration that lovA6 vaatward from New TnQlQnd