Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-06-16
SIMPLE RITES At
F FUNERAL Of
MRS. BRYAN
Many Mourn Death Of Woman
Writer-Was One of Highest
Paid in United States.

Simplicity will mark the funeral Of
Mrs. Mary E. Bryan, one of the
South's leading women writer's who
died Sunday night at her home in
Charleston. Ga. Many prominent per-
sons. however, will be present to pay
the,l ,2st respects to the pioneer au-
thor,c-.
Mrs. Bryan's prolific pen has touch
ed the hearts of Southern people for
the past half century. Besides con-
tributing to many magazines, she also
published AZ books.
Financially her work met with
great success. Shortly before her
death, Mrs. Bryan's held the position
of editor of The F'ireside Companion,
in which position she is said to have
received a salary of $4,000 a year,
probably one of the highest ever paid
to q woman in the United States.
Mrs. Bryan first gained recognition
IN the literary world when her work
appeared in SCOTS Magazine, which
was published shortly after the Civil
War Later she went with The Sun
ny South for which periodicals she
wrote for twelve years. When this
magazine was taken over by Uncle
Remus' Magazine, Mrs. Bryan became
editor of a department in the latter.
1t was during her connection with the
Uncle Remus periodical that Mrs.
Bryan's most appealing work was ac-
complished.
Through her magazine articles and
poetry she won the hearts of the le-
gions of her readers. Rapidly she
arose to national prominence. Her
novels and books of the Southland
have found themselves into the libra
ries of every city of the world.
The Georgian publishes herewith
Mrs. Bryan's latest poem, entitled
"Paestun," which appeared in the
October, 1912. issue Of Uncle Remus's
Magazine:
IF you could come tonight
Across the snowy fields about your
home,
Across the ocean white with wintry
Here where the grass is sweet,
Where warm sea- pulses beat.
And classic marbles melt in soft
moonlight,
1t might not seem so strange, dear
love, that
Should wait on this far shore for
Fate's reply
To the scarce-hoping queston-"Live
or die?"
Here all is dead-long dead
Deep under earth-waves frothed with
foam of flowers,
Here lines Of massive tombs, broken
and reft
OF treasures rare-the imperial ashes
left
To blow on sands and in each rocky
cleft.
Here girdling walls protective once
nf hQr
Long lying, vast, like some dead I'll
tan's arms.
But beauty lingers-Beauty has bee /
spared;
Beauty so rare the centuries have not
dared
To mar it. Marvellous as a dream.
Wrought Of the ivory of the moons
soft beam
The Temples rise; Earth has naught
else so fair.
Majestic and yet light as clouds on
air.
When built? BY whom? What mat
tiers, they are here
And seem eternal as yon stars clear
sphere.
But cold and still and dead!
And back with you are throbbing life
And clinging arms and lips that fond
words move,
And wild, fierce hold on life when
hope has fed
1t would be harder there to lay my
head
On the low pillow Mother Earth has
spread.
sTis best, then, that this land of nys-
terry,
IN, ,,,,-
be-
We shall not be apart; Death will
unite.
To the freed soul 'twere but an in
stant's flight
From this old land of mystery and
blight to you and light"
Mrs. Bryan is survived by her three
children, Mrs. Pearl Byrd. of Clark
ston Mrs c. A. Wilson. of St. Louis,
and Fred Bryan. of Charleston.