The sun., 1916-10-28

rumber Of students was limited to TWEEN
ty-five and there were forty taking the
examinations. She describes her anxiety
while waiting for news OF the result.
and when finally II comes that she Is one
Of the fortunate twenty-five she says
that she steals OF TO the other end OF
the house to be alone. She Is no longer
helpless and dependent. but has a career
before her and Is going to manage her
own life and her own affairs to attain
what she wants to attain.
The story OF Miss Llgcrlof's life is
well known from this point on. How
she wrote The Story OF Costa Berling"
during her vacations from teaching. how
she frequently ~despaired Of ever finish
Ing II, how she won "a MAJ azine prize
with part OF the manuscript. and how.
bit by bit. through the recognition OF
sheer merit, she went orwar until
now. as pointed out by an article In the
Yale Record:
She ls the only woman to receive the
Nobel prize for literature. the only one
thought worthy OF a seat among the
eighteen immortals OF the Swedish Acad-
emy. the author Of the two best sellers
In Sweden next to the Bible, the most
beloved woman in Sweden. and the only
one. besides Ellen Key. whose fame has
spanned the world. Selma I.agerlof holds
~ uliliut DoFlllbls Nlf'l Snt hNtfllbTlti
her habit OF reserve and appeared as the
outspoken champion OF suffrage at the
international suffrage congress held In
Stockholm in 1911, the feminists Of
sweden considered II the most impor-
tant victory they had won in years. Her
speech, which is worthy to be preserved
among the classics of the movement. Is
enthusiastically northern, and breathes
the northerner's passionate love OF
home
Hut the story OF these struggles IL an
appealing one as told by Miss Lsgerlof
herself In another place. Speaking auto
Geographically. she says OF her early IT.
erary struggles:
surely II II needless to state that
what she wrote was the least original
and the Crudcst that has ever been nut
upon paper. But this very naturally she
herself did not see. She went about at
home on the quiet farm. filling every
scrap of paper she could lay her hands
on with vers" and prose, with plays and
romances. When she wasn't writing she
sat and waited for success. And success
was 10 consis; in this Some stranger
who was very learned and influential.
through some rare freak OF fortune. was
TO come and discover what she had writ
ten and find II worth printing. After
that. all the rest would come Of Itself.
Meanwhile nothing OF the sort hap
pcned. N when the girl had passed
her twentieth yea she began to grow
inpatient. she wondered why success
did not come her way. Perhaps she
lacked knowledge. She probably needed
10 see "a little more % the world thar the
homestead OF Narmland. And seeing
that I; would be n long time before she
could earn her livelihood as AN author,
/, was necessary for her I" learn some
thing-ind some work In life-that she
might have bread while she waited for
herself. Or maybe II was simply this
hat the story had lost patience with
her. Perhaps IL thought thus since
this blind person does not see that which
lies nearest her eyes, let her be forced
To go away. Let ner tramp upon gray
stone streets let her live in cramped
city rooms with no other outlook than
gray stone walls let her live among
people who hide everything that il UNI
usual in them and who appear to he all
alike. II may perchanVc teach her to
see that which IL waiting outside the
gate OF her hone-all hat lives and
moves bet ween the stretch OF blue hills
which she has every day before her
eyes
And 50. one autumn. when she was
two-and twenty she travelled up tn
Stockholm To begin preparing herself
for the vocation OF teacher.
THE girl soon became absorbed in her
work. She wrote no more, but went IN
for studies and lectures. II actually
looked as though tho story would lose
her altogether,
"At that moment tho girl determined
that she would write tho story of Warm
lands Cavaliers. and never for an in
slant did she relinquish the thought oi
ID but many and long years ELAPSED I've