The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-12-11

some TYNE OF woman is a very popular
theme. Edith Wharton. Anne ougia
Sedgwick. Ellen Glasgow, Gertruue
ktherton. Robert Herrick. Mary watts
and many others have done TINS supJect
and done Il, we'll. The fiction OF to-day
il full OF girls-clever girls. dull girls.
tempted glr.s, fallen girls and even q
few righteous girls. each with her own
problem, each representing some particu-
lar phase OF the worlds unrest. These
heroines, though depicted accurately ana
often powerfully. are usually lone IN
broad strokes. Nowhere have l seen
PICTURES made so vivid. with such rich
detail, as In saturday Shi'u ""u
Julia Page" go,
This is expressed in an article by WILL
lam Dean Howells in the North Amera-
can Repie,o. Mr.. Howells said:
Mrs. Norris puts the problem or the
fact or the trait before you by QUICK
vivid touches OF portraiture or action.
short Of the highly dramatic!zed nara
. tive Of the greatest masters. this Rus
SLAMS. namely, her method 10 very mas
terly, and she works in material mucn
A to us (shall l sayC cultivated
Americans than either the English or
the Russian novelists. We cultivated
Americans q arr making so bold AGAIN.
are better acquainted with tho Nihilists
and mobiles OF Petrosrad Zone already no
IOnR0I 0Ay6 OF
county families Of the English country
than with the rich and poor OF san
Francisco, whom Mr. Norris introduces
70 IA in their form Of society.
"Shs has the secret of closely ADDING
detail to detail IN a triumph OF what an
other California author has called III
tisism. but what seems to be natures
way Of achieving largism. At any rato
Il seems to me that largism - what Mrs.
Norris achieves within the limits or her
generous canvas, though she denseiy
covers every Incl Of It with life STUDIED
n Pre-Raphaelite m'nuteness."
Mrs. Norris lives at Port Washington
L. l., where she works In a sunny stuoy.
Here in a recent int rview she told ABOUT
her work. She has the gift OF saying
what one most wishes to hear without
being asked. We began with the exisen-
cfes Of modern domestic life.
"Housework has never been drudgery
to me- she said. II have always liked
II. I like % stoves and shiny ANS
and dough and clean kitchen floors. with
babies rolling about to be stumbled over.
she laughed. "as the n woman VINO
really enjoyed dish washing"
you can't have had much Of II to do
then" .
"Oh, but I have. My mother and
father died when I was IS. and II turned
out at the same time that the money was
gone too. There were Ave children
younger than 1 and I was determined
that we should stay together. The three
oldest of us got positions with just
salary enough 10 keep US going. My Sis
ter and I prepared breakfast for the
flock before going TO work and hurried
home at the end of the day to get din
ner. make the beds and put the little
ones TO sleep. We were very happy.
My friends say" she added. smiling.
that It would be quite impossible for me
TO write n booi; without inserting some
where a family of SIX"
This achievement seemed an amazing
thing for a nineteen-year-old girl 10
have done.
cit wasn't courage" she c~ontradicted.
at was the way We were brought up.
My father. you see. was n rather rare
person. He believed in discipline for his
children. He used TO tell us that there
WAS only one excuse for not obeying In
s,antly and nat was sudden death. We
learned so early the futility of Sinking
that we nave been saved many heart
aches, ! fancy. in our later life. He was
fond OF making phrases and he used
often TO say to US: If you have n Mig
task TO accomplish do Il step by step
while you are working on one part for
get the rest until that is finished I
have always tried to do that. 1t makes
things easier"
She was asked when she began tc
write.
II didn't really begin until I wa:
married. she explained. Before that
o. course, ] made attempts. / was society
reporter In San Francisco for two year:
and worked on other newspapers too
turning out thousands of words a da!
sometimes. But you can't cali tina
writing. l got a few small things ac'
cepted. but i had so little time and train
ing that 1t was discouraging. Still.
va sure all along that ! could write. Il
I had q chance she continued. shaking
considered her egotism. land when
married and We took a fat in New Yorl
tho chance came. Many people, perhaps
wouldn't have called even that leisure
] did the housework n ] went out ever,
day will my purse In my hand and dix
the marketing. Even milk and news
papers l paid a for. ! had such
horror OF bills and debt. But such house
keeping for two people. after my famil.
Of six, afforded what seemed to me al
tnnnity of vacant hours. l filed then
up with writing. Tho Atlantic MONTH";
finally accepted a story and after tina
things were easy. Mother I intende,
as a short story for a prize contest. blu
II turned out 10 be too long for that an,
acting on the advice of a publisher
heightened It and made it into a book
In 1918 I finished The Rich Mrs. Bur
eoyne.' and in 1914 Saturdays Child
and now here is Julia Page"
Would you mind telling how you hap
pened to take that particular subject
1t Is so different from the other books.
oh, I've been breaking my heart owe
che thing. ever since I did settlemen
work in California. Almost every da.
some moor little girl would come in Their
destined to bear the burden of her dis
grace through life and the man VIII
caused II bearing nothing. / couldn'
stop thinking OF the injustice OF II an
! knew even then that ! shouldn't be abb
to get it off my mind until I had write
n book of some sort. bringing out the un
fairness as clearly as possible. Not tina
.Aa- lAhIA.H LIZ ~ "a lnaaca 49,