The Washington herald., 1911-10-22
SCENES IN OLD RICHMOND
ALONG FRANKLIN STREET
Visit to the Home of Mary Johnston, the Authoress,
Is Described
Is Described.

One walks slowly along Franklin street.
Richmond, from Capitol square toward
the Jefferson Hotel 1t is late afternoon;
a twitter of birds is in the air, and at
open windows and upon wide verandas
and portiCoes charming girls in white
gowns sit, book in hand. or chat in low.
pleasant voices. In side areaways the
inevitable Southern negro stands talking
with his dusky neighbor. 1t is a digni-
fed old street-wide and we'll shaded,
with stately, hospitable residences upon
either side Somehow, Virginia homes
of the better class impress the stranger
as having about them, in atmosphere
and architecture, a sense of sweet dig
nifty that does not characterize imposing
residences In more nortkerly States. Per-
haps it is the doors and windows hos
pitably open. perhaps it is the grace and
greenness of clinging vines and the per-
fume of lowers-at any rate the dignity
is certainly there and equally there is
the sense of homelike serenity and
sweetness.
The residences on East Franklin street
become increasingly spacious as the fig
u-eS upon the door posts decrease nu-
meriCally, Until the houses of the 100
block appear to concentrate within them
selves all the pleasantest architectural
features Of the neighborhOod. The homes
uron the even number side of the street
stand back from the pavement upon
high, green terraces separated from the
thoroughfare by a stone retaining wall,
and the wall is Surmounted by iron rail-
ings. Many of these are cverhung with
vines, AMI all within the ratings is cool
greenness, grassy plats, little hedges of
box, clumps of rose bushes, while iron
gateways open &c stone steps that as
cend to the terrace. Brick or flagstone
walks lead to the dwellings, and there
is a sense of seclusion that is pleasant.
Miss Johnston rs Hostess.
Your destination is the home of Miss
Mary Johnston, author of The Long
Roll" Lewis Rand" ITO Have and to
Hold" and other well known works of
fiction.
Miss Johnston herself accords to the
stranger the cordial. quiet welcome of
the Southern hostess. she is, trihe
more slender and girlish looking than
one might suppose from recent photo
graphs, but the oval face and dark hair,
softly parted and worn low in the nape
of the neck, are distinctly the charming
Southern type. Her soft silken house
gown is cut low at the throat and is of
blue-a su3dued tone that somehow sug-
gests the blue in old frescoes and tapes
tries.
The talk turned to books and book
making, and a few minutes conversa-
ton concerning Miss Johnston's latese
work of fiction. The Long Roll" led to
the question, Had the author read the
recent open letter written by the Rev.
James Power Smith, formerly captain
and aid-de<caInp on the stan of Gen.
I. ]. Jackson, in wi ich he criticized the
portrait drawn of Gen. Jackson in The
Long Roll as an unfortunate carica-
ture. forbidding as IT Is unjust?" 4" In the
same letter the writer also took excep-
tions to the description given in The
Long Rolf of Little Sorrel. Gen. Jack
sons riding horse. to the authors de-
scription of a Characteristic gesture of
the great lCs-der-an upward jerking Of