Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-05
Special Correspondence of The Star.

Special Correspondence of The Star.
LONDON, September IS, 1907.
X n ISIS Beatrice Grimshaw, who attract
N ed a good deal of attention by her
~. lively stories of the doings of a
South Sea Island princess called Waltz
went back to her beloved South seas
Gently to get more literary material. Ac-
cording to a letter just received by
friend in London, Miss Grimshaw has been
spending a month in tie metropolis of
Vavan Island somewhere around Tonga,
but has now tired of the dizzy delights of
that fashionable watering place, where
white women have been seen quite often,
and has retired to an abandoned house on
an island off Tonga, which has no other
human inhabitant whatever. She says:
Il have been making a serious study of
canoeing, and am getting pretty well,
1 shall be able to get over to the main
land when l want. Sw mining is restricted
because of sharks. The common and the
hammer-head shark both frequented the
waters / used to battle in at Otea Wavan),
SO 1 never went in without a few native
girls, who splash and striek enough to
brighten away a whale. Last battle l sight
ed something queer near patch of coral;
swan in shore. got a canoe and padded
out to look-and, behold, a sting-ray six
feet long, navy blue, with large white
eyes, and a whiD-lash tail armed with
poisoned sting, which it can drive right
through your arm leg! This pleasant
beast looked up at me inteligent!y. and
then SUNK into a cave in the coral l
didn't go in there again, in spite of its
modesty.
You can picture me when this reaches
you living Crusoe life on an island of
an acre or two, with no companions but
the cocoanut trees and the land crabs. l
look forward to it very much; 1t will be a
new experience
Should Miss Grimshaw tarry long among
the Tonga Islands she will have a literary
companion to help her enjoy being lone
some. That veteran author and explorer.
Oliver cambridge, who has Travelled 20O,col
miles in the last twelve years, intends TAX
ing I'D his permanent residence there. He
Is now on the of another journey to
India to execute a special commission for
an elaborate work the native princes.
When l have finished that lie says, Il
shall settle down on one Of the Tonga Is
lands where the natives are OF remarkable
beauty, and | shall live a la Stevenson
Is literary fame worth the pre- that is
paid for it? The answer of Helen Mathers
to that query is most emphat cally in the
negative.
Looking back" she says, Il can only re-
gret did not take the crucial turn: ng point
in my life that led on to ease and wealth,
and away from fame, for once you have
that seiZes and ever after holds you It's
slave. There is much drudgery, much self
denial even some heart -bredk, involved In
the profession of ltera ture-it takes too
much out of you, however easily nd rapid
ly you write, in my case; it takes you
too much out of the sunshine, and 1t Is not
one l should ever recommend TO any man
or woman Fame Is lantern of which
the bright side is turned outward to the
world, but the dark side to ourselves, and
while others play the one who perhaps
contributes to their play works in lonel-
ness and often in dsheartenment. l regard
being happy and famous as Incompatible
1t is not at all likely that any literary
aspirant viii be moved by this to seek the
lowly vale of contentment and obscurity
rather than the dizzy heights of popularity.
I doubt If shining literary lights generally
would indorse Miss Mathers opinion that
fame and happiness are Incompatible. Marie