Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-06-14
A PROPHET
OF OPTIMISM
Jean Webster Made Her Readers
Happy, Found Happiness
Herself and Then
Died

the other, day In New York soon after
giving birth to daughter, Two notices
sent to newspapers gave the first news Of
her death. One told of the birth Of a
daughter; the other related the death Of
mother She was born in Fredonla, N. Y.
July "a 1876. Her mother was a sIster
of Mark Twain. She was graduated from
the Lady Jane Grey School, at Blnghan.
ton, N. y, in 1896, and from Vassar az
bachelor of arts in 1901. She was mar.
ried to Mr. Mckinney, a New York law.
yer, in June of last year, when she was
Ss years old
Even while at Vassar Miss Webster
wrote several short stories which maya.
zines accepted. Her first book, when
Paddy Went to College, appeared two
years after her graduation. In success.
sion then followed THE Wheat Princess" y
Jerry Junior" "The Four-Pool Mystery"
Much Ado About Peter" Daddy Long
Legs" and Dear Enemy" Probably the
widest known OF her books was Daddy
Long Legs" published in 1912 and con.
verted later into play. She travelled
extensively. She lived some time in Italy
and in 1906 made a tour of the world with
her uncle, Mark Twain, whose influence Is
said to have been vital in her writing ana
whose style she greatly admired.
The Delights of Imagination
Many of Jean webster's magazine
stories and all of her best sellers" were
built about girls and~their colleges. She
was not devotee of the modern school,"
with it's problems of sex and its charac-
ters, who are made so extremely nervous
simply because they are alive. In fact
Miss Webster's heroines belonged to that
type of girl which is natural, never NOR.
bid and cropping for a something it knows
not what Yet Jerusha Abbott, heroine OF
Daddy Long Legs" had every right to z
be morbid Miss Webster, however, gifted
Jerusha with an Imagination, and in one
of her letters to her unknown benefactor
the founding girl from the John Grier
Orphan Asylum told of her dreams in
this spontaneous fashion:
You know, Daddy. 1 think that the
most necessary quality for any person
to have is imagination. 1t makes peo-
| pie able to put thcmselves~n other peo-
ple's places 1t makes them Kind and
sympathetic and understanding. 1t
ought to be cultivated in children. But
| the John Grier Home instantly stamped
| out the slightest flicker that appeared
Duty was the one quality that was en-
couraged
When Judy first went to college and
contrasted it with the John Grier Home
she wrote to the Dear Kfnd-Trustee-Who.
Sends.O Orphans.to.Co College" her observation
| that college gets nicer and nicer. l Ike
the, girls and the teachers and the classes
and the campus and the things to eat
We have ice cream twice a week. And
we never have cornmeal mush."
Jean Webster took a girl from an or
phan asylum and made 4ady' of her,
but a "lady" that gave thought to some-
thing else than tea dansants, fox trots
| and what-goes-on- -on-ln-conservatories.
didn't know that Henry the Eighth was
married more than once or that Shelley
was a poet" Jerusha laments. i dldnt
know that people used to be monkeys ana
that the Garden of Eden was beautiful z
myth. l find that am the only
| girl in college who wasn't brought. up
on Little Women. 1 haven't told any
body, though that would stamp me as
queer)."
In another letter Jerusha tells her idea
of a good time" II am going to haVe
a beautiful time on vacation" she wrote'
There's another freshman who lives IN
Texas staying behind, and we are plan'
ming to take long walks and-if there's
any ice-learn to skate. Then there u
stH the whole library to be read-and
three empty weeks to do 1t in"
Jerusha's Great Adventure
Getting educated was the adventure
for the imaginative Jerusha. Every aay
there was something new Witness this'
"Sir--I have the honor to report tresh
explorations in the field of geometry ON
Friday last we abandoned our former
works in parallelopipeds and proceeded 10
truncated prsms. We are finding the
road rough and. uphill" Whoever has
fought with this sort of foe knows run
we'll that the participants in the European
fracas are comparatively only mollycou,
dies Anybody can stand up 10 get sho'
at, and II anything happens it's all over
in an instant; but it takes a real heroihs
to march on to truncated prisms. Thers
aren't many such heroines
Again the inefficiency of education u
shown by this: II am having sublinguai
gland swelling. And I've been studying
physiology all the year without ever near
ing of sublingual glands. How futile ;
thing is educationl"
The trustee who sent Jerusha TO collese
was strange man. who did not want nus
right hand to know what his left hana
did. Besides, sd Jerusha was told hs
hated women, and for that reason she was
never to know who her benefactor was.
However, she was instructed to report py
correspondence to his private secretary
once a month and always to be respecttul'
The latter instruction was most impres.
siyely given by Mrs. Lippett, in charge OF
the John Grier Home. Therefore JerushA
reported in her very first letter as fot
lows:
l. You are tall
g You are rich.
g. You hate girls.
/ suppose 1 might call you Mr.. Girl
hAter But that would be insulting 20
me. / might call you Dear Mr., hien
Man. Only that's sort OF insulting 70
you, as though money were the oniy
important thing about you. Besides
being rich is such very, external quar-
4 Lob. all