Arizona republican., 1908-11-03
THE MOST REMARKABLE
 WOMAN OF THIS COUNTRY
Mrs. Jack" Gardner of Boston to Whom Uncle Sam Has Been Paying Attention.

Boston, Oct. 25-Special Core spondence to The Republican.-Some- body in Boston is always putting somebody else into a book When Hawthorne wrote Blithedale Romance everybody recognized that, though he was not a realist in the modern sense of the word, he had definite persons in mind-members of the queer little colony of socialists who made Brook Farm famous in the annals of Ameri- can literary history. The genial "Autocrat" delighted in little personal touches. When William Dean How els was still a Bostonian he wrote a series of novels in which there was no doubt as to local color only a short time ago The Opal' by an anonymous author astonished sO- ciety in the Hub and the metropolis by a recital of an episode known actually to have taken place.
 And now Mrs. John l.. Gardner, Mrs. Jack" as she is more usually called, the wealthy Boston art col lector whose name has rightly or wrongly become associated with deeds extraordinary, fantastic and un- expected, has been featured, though in minor role, in a literary produc- tion. Mrs. II. A. Mitchell Keays. a western writer. author of The Road to Damascus" He That Eateth Bread With Me" and other works. who has been living in the precincts of Harvard university for some time past, in her latest novel, T and My True Love" includes among her characters Mrs. Planter" of Moor way Court" The personality has immediately been recognized as drawn from Mrs. Gardner of Fenway Court, just as people are already speculating as to what governor of the characterization of the flashing bachelor, "Eben Gregory" and whether the actress "E6ith Boring don may or may not be regarded as identical with Miss Ethel Barrymore, and whether "Iliel Sargent" the play wright, has any actual prototype.
 The tone at all events of social life in Boston, including it's domin- ance by one lady, is aptly suggested when Christiana says fractiously, I'm sure it doesn't matter how late we are at that old musicale"
 " It will annoy Mrs. Planter dread fully protested Mrs. Warder Going to Moorway Court to a function is always to me like going to church at Saint Peters and being waited for at the door by the pope"
 And later when Christiana urges upon the governor of the state that he should marry Mrs. Planter, she receives the reply:
 She's ten years older than I am more"
 " They'll be ten less of her then remarked Christiana consolingly. And then think she looked pro found, youH have that place, and all her heaps of money, and pictures, and statutes, and-'''
 Just such wonderment why some notable has not succeeded in marry ing the most famous widow in North America is so characteristic of so- cial speculation in the New England capital.
 For no American woman, it is safe to say, has been more in the public eye than Mrs. Jack" none is quite so well known throughout the length and breadth of the land, although it is often surprising to find how few people have a definite Knowledge of her personality and accomplishments. Thus four men not long ago, each from a different city, meeting at hotel, were asked what they knew of Mrs. John l.. Gardner of Boston. They asked, nearly in chorus: Who's that? Mrs. Jack" On being told that that lady was meant the man from New York replied:
 Why, she's the lion tanner, isn't she?"
 The Philadelphian said: "Oh, she's the woman with that big Venetian palace"
 The man from PittsburG remember ed that Mrs. Gardner had bought Japanese kimono over his wife's head at an auction sale, and the citizen of Chicago recalled that she was a wO- man who had fine feeling for music and liberal purse opened frequently to the needs of impecunious perform CTS.
 Each had remembered a single fact or incident about a personality that has impressed itself upon the public as few women have been able Since Isabella Stuart of a fine New York family was married to one of the wealthiest and most aristocratic of Bostonians she has consistently lived up to reputation for doing remark able things. The Gothamite's recol- lection of her lion tanning was due to the circumstance of her borrowing a good sized cub-She Iiever actually owned it as some newspapers stated which had been on exhibition in an animal show. It is a fact that for some days the animal was installed in the Gardner mansion where he ran things, including the servants, pretty much as he pleased. and, according to rumor, ran some of them so far that they never returned to the mansion. The creature was merely an ex- uberant little romper, like any other kitten, but servants and neighbors failed to appreciate the fun. When, however, the newspapers discovered what Mrs. Gardner was doing the incidents of her playful gamboling with his youthful majesty naturally made good copy.
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