The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-12-30

magazines In that era it was con-
sidered almost as indecorous for a
woman or girl of any social position
to write for publication as it would
have been for her to lead a ballet.
So. to mask an identity that would
not stay masked, the fifteen-year-old
author coined the Pea name, Marion
Harland," and kept-even from her
own family-the guilty secret that
she could write.
Her first move, "Alone," written
when she. was eighteen, sold 100000
copies in less than three years, and
made the title, Marion Harland,"
too, familiar to the reading public for
its wearer to disregard it in favor of
her own name. 1t was not until she
had reached middle age that Marion
Harland" took up the task of cook
book making, by which she is today
best known. A friend, arguing
against such q homely use of her tai
ent, once protested:
But household writing is not
literature"
'.No," answered marion HarIand, :"
'but it is something better. 1t is
helpfulness."
While conceding that it is a diff
cult task to keep the trades people
from invading their section of Fifth
avenue in and around Fifty-seventh
street, once recognized as the hub of
Gotham's wealth and fashion, the deci-
sion of Harry Payne Whitney, son of
the late former Secretary of the Navy,
to capitulate to them has caused deep
chagrin to Mrs. Coils P. Huntington.
Mrs. Huntington owns a handsome
home on the southwest corner of Fifth
avenue and Fifty-seventh street, di-
rectly opposite the Whitney house
Vanderbilt, mother-in-law of young
Whitney. What Mrs Vanderbilt
thinks of the action of her son-in-
law is not known. but those familiar
with her views respecting the intru-
sion Of shopkeepers into select resi-
than likely that she is not pleased
over it. BY many it is taken as
foreshadowing the early surrender of
the millionaire residents of that por-
tion Of the Avenue south of Central
Park to the call of business. The
Huntington mansion cost about 81
O0O. 900 to build and the Vanderbilt
house which takes in the entire block
up to Fffty-eighth street about $1,000
oOO For years both Mrs. Vanderbilt
and Mrs. Huntington have been i'm
portuned to lease their homes to
tradesmen who offered them a larger
sum than they could ever hope. to re-
ceive from a private tenant but
each steadfastly adhered to their res
olution to stand pat against any in
vas'on of the district by business
Both will now probably sell their
homes and go further uptown.
In the suggestion of Mrs. Phillip
Snowden the gifted wife of one of
Englands Parliamentary members
that the suffragist movement tends
to abolish the "old maid as an in
stitution is probably seen an ex-
PLANTATION for the great accessions
that being made to the cult in Goth
am. On the eve of her departure
for England, Mrs. Snowden spoke in
terestingly on the subject which is
nearest her heart She said:
1.-The suffrage movement in England
has abolished the old maid among
educated persons and set forward ten
years the age at which the phrase
is still applied opprobriously among
the lower classes"
1.-The suffrage movement has glor-
flied spinsterhood." Mrs Snowden
added. Educated men no longer dare
to use the phrase, old maid, as
term Of opprobrium, and even amona
the ignorant it is not applied untfi
an unmarried woman crosses the Ru-
bicon Of thirty.
Here IN America where the old
chivalrous spirit survives, have
never heard it used. But then, as I
said a while ago, there is an econo-
mic reason back of the Americans