The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-27
STORIES ABOUT
 NOTABLE PEOPLE How Author of Mrs. WiggS Made Aunt Famous VIM. MULDR0WS DREAM Tried to Found Western Metropolis In Missouri, But Selected Site
 Which Was oVerflowed
 Every Year.
VIM. MULDROWS DREAM
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN.

Someone has said that the lightning of genius never strikes twice in the same family tree, but a notable exception is the case of Mrs. Fannie Caldwell Ma cauley who became by accident, the author of a popular novel. Mrs. Ma cauley is an aunt of Mrs. Alice Hogan Rice author of Mrs Wiggs of the Cab bage Patch" Mrs. Macauley was Miss Frances Caldwell, a wealthy girl of good social position in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky. She married young Eng lishman whose purse was shorter than his pedigree, and who had no faculty for saving money. After a few years of married life, during which her fortune dwindled to nothingness, Mrs. Macauley secured a divorce. Being a young woman of spirit she took a course in kindergar- ten work and secured position to teach the heaten in Japan She left America about the time her niece published the first of her books.
 Mrs Macauley is a young woman and she and Miss Hegen had been chums for childhood When she found herself among strangers in remote part of a foreign country, where there were few persons who spoke English, Mrs. Ma cauley poured out her homesck soul in a series of intimate personal letters to her niece. Although they were not writ ten for publication, or for any purpose other than to tell of her loneliness and her strange experiences, the letters were spiced with d brightness and humor that no amount of homeslckness served to blight They were good literature.
 A member of the firm that published Mrs. Wiggs" in London visited the author in Louisville, and Japan having been introduced as q topic of discussions Mrs Rice spoke of her aunts experiences there, and showed the publisher some of the letetsr she had received. He was so much interested that he immediate ly offered to publish the letters Mrs. Rice decided to make a book of them. Of course anything with the name of the author of Mrs. Wiggs' was assured of a gool sale, but Mrs. Rice believed that ner aunts letters were good enough to sell upon their own merit. By editing out the parts of the letters too personal for publication, and by running d con ventional love story through them, the author soon had a book ready for the publishers. No liberties were taken with the letters other than to strike out that which was too personal in it's character When the book was ready for print 1t was almost wholly the work of the kin dergarten teacher in Japan. Mrs. Rice ar ranged that 1t should be published onymously in London, and under the pen name Frances Little" in New York, the royalties to go to Mrs. Macauey
 Then came q trip to Japan to convince the writer of the letters that it was her duty to become an author, and that no effort was required of her except to give her consent. As a result "'fhe Lady of the Decoration" came from the presses and found a ready welcome. After five years of hard work in Japan Mrs. Ma cauley returned to America for q holiday, to find that from her home letters" had accrued an income which made 1t un- necessary for her to return into exile The capital arising from the royalties has made Frances Little" financially inde- pendent, the proceeds at present amount ing to more than the amount of her for- tune when she was a belle in the Blue