The Washington herald., 1913-03-24
THE Charm OF
little WOMEN
1t Pictures the Home Life IN a
Tenderly Reverential
Way.
BY FRANCES SHAFFER.

In a way. one understands the re-
luctance of the Alcott family to lay
bare to the public the beautiful home
life of the impractical but altogether
lovable March family. Because the
winsome Little Women who won their
way straight to the hearts OF little and
big folk half a century ago were not
just Meg and Amy and Beth Of an
authors pretty fancy. but Meg and Amy
and Beth, the authors sisters, who. un-
der other names. lived and loved and
Concord. Mass.
And frolicsome. tomboy, delightful Jo
was Louisa NJ. Alcott herself. The gen.
tie dreamer-father. whose ideals never
turned into money; the adorable Mar
mee," as they called their little mother:
the pretty. honey" but shabby library.
the old orchard. the attic where genius
burned" for 10. the very poverty itself
were family and home realities. And to
dramatize the pure little story of home
life seemed bit like lifting the curtains
and letting all who would look behind
the scenes. For when the play was
first presented in New York, some Of
Miss Alcott's descendants sat in a box,
watching scenes very like pages from
the happy. simple lives of their own
home folk in the long ago. Indeed. one
of the twins proudly displayed on the
mimic stage in all the glory of early
babyhood. was on hand to note the well
come given the little women. himself
grown very sturdy and very much a
man.
Found Its Way TO Stage.
And could Miss Alcott have looked upon
the scene. she could have been nothing
but glad and proud and happy that after
fifty years of glorious book life, the story
from which she expected SO little and
gained so much. had found its way to
the stage and had been given new charm
and fresh approval.
Little Women might have been
butchered and all its quaint, pretty quail
ties have been lost cf spoiled. But it
was not. For Miss Marian de Forest.
who dramatized it, and Miss Jessie Bon
stelIe, who staged II, both of whom had
always loved the sweet little classic, in
stinctively preserved and brought out the
very things that were needed to make
folk to-day fall under it's simple spell,
just as others did in the years agone.
Perhaps it was instinct. and perhaps
exceeding care.
At any rate. the Alcott descendants and
the great company OF boys and girls.
and of older folk. who have read and
read agin the story Of those lovable little
women, had no illusions shattered by
the dramatization. If 1t was a peep be-
hind the curtains it was a very whole
some look at home life made mighty
true and altogether delightful.
10 in the story bitterly bemoans the
family poverty. and Miss Alcott in her
diary shows that it was no pretty fic-
ton. for when she records her decision
TO go to war as a nurse II she could
find a place" she adds. "If I am away |
there is one less to feed and warm and
worry over" For 1t was Miss Alcott
who went to war, not the father, as
the story has it,
And Jo was no happier over the ac-
ceptance of her first story than was
the real Louise, once a publishing house |
sent her a check for her first contribu |
ton And the real Louise flung her hat
in the air and shouted in the tomboy |
fashion of 10: and she followed the
boys in their footraces, just as IL she |
was one of them.
Worried Over Family.
She worried about the family troubles |
Just like 10. received her checks from |
publishers only to send a big part Of
them home, where there was perpetual |
need of money. And when Little Wom-
en- really came into its own, with roy
alties rolling in. her greatest pleasure
was in being able to meet the wants and
the needs of the whole impractical fam
y.
But in one important detail of the Jo
IF the story was not the 10 Of real life.
Miss Alcott. they tell us. never had an
affair OF the heart. but her girl readers
were SO determined that 10 must be