The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-03-23
Unflagging Indus
try Stands Out
Above All in Her
Life Story Of
Misfortunes Sur
mounted and Tri-
umph Long De-
ferred
RyARTHUR BARTLErTMAURIcE
MELIA BARR is dead.

"A 10 the thousands VINO nao
- found entertainment and in
struction in the books that for forty
odd years she had been turning out
In such profuslon the news has
brought regret but little surprise. AL
most at her eighty eighth birthday, she
had long been drifting into the twi-
light. AS a literary figure, neither
personal memory nor the written rec
ord ever invested her with a youth.
To her, reward and recognition came
only with the ripeness of years. The
hours Of he triumph were, hours Of
graceful old age, when, for example.
as the guest of honor at some public
reception. young women gathered
round her and made pretty speeches
and prettier curtseys and kissed her
cheeks and her hands and she wished
that they were all her daughters.
Il write mainly for the kindly race
Of women" she once recorded. II am
their sister and in no way exempt
from their sorrowful lot. / have
drunk the cup of their limitations to
he dregs. and II my experience can
help any sad or doubtful woman to
0utleap her own shadow and to stand
hravely out in the sunshine to meet
her destiny, whatever It may be, I
shall have done we'll" That was her
sreed Of a lifetime; a creed born Of
6tttsr necessity and suffering. 1t is a
creed that has sustained a score of
ether courageous women of letters,
oersisting splendidly in their labors
and refusing to be dispirited by tenn
porary adversely. 1t merely happens
that Amelia Bars story and example
are the story and example for the mo-
ment closest to US.
It is the habit to hold up Anthony
Trollope as the supreme illustration
Of literary diligence. With his own
mothers memory before him could
the somewhat prosy Anthony have
well been otherwise?
Married at 80. which meant vastly
more q hundred years ago than
now, in the first ten years OF her mar
ried life becoming the mother Of six
children, four of whom died of con-
sumption at various ages, Mrs. Troll
lope saw her husbands affairs going
steadily down IN the world. She was
so when she published her first book.
When doing this she was aware that
unless she could succeed in making
money there was no money for any of
the family. Admiration for her cour-
age Is not lessened by the fact that the
book in question was the very unfiat-
tering, Domestic Manners OF the
Americans"
More surprising than her industry
. was thaksNe manaSed tQ~kSap that
industry a thing apart. It was not
necessary that any one who lived with
her should see II. She was at work at
her table at 4 o'clock IN the morning,
and had finished her work before the
world had begun to be aroused. Cap
ping her burdens was a husband, high
~ endowed, but destined to continual
failure, embarking in one hopeless en-
terprise after another. spending on
each all tho money he could at the time
command; and. above all. cursed
WIN tCLAPcT 81 hiitdbiO tsAot o'SAA
those whom he loved best could not
endure II. At that she maintained a
csrtain Joviality for others. OF her.
hsr son said that ,'she could dance
with other peoples legs. eat and drink
with other peoples palates. be proud
with the lustre OF other peoples
fnery."
For f1fty-four years Of her seventy
foui of life. Harriet Martineau was de-
pendent upon the use Of an ear trum-
pet. When she was in her early EOS,
death took in quick turn her eldest
brother. her father, and the man to
whom she had been engaged. The scant
maintenance left by her father was
soon lost, and Harriet. being precluded
by deafness from teaching, turned TO
authorship. At the rate of SIS year
she reviewed for the Monthly Repost-
torn" Unitarian periodical. eking
out her income by needlework. Her
poverty forced her to accept from
publishers the most disadvantageOus
terms, but from dawn II! dusk, day
sitter day. she plodd| on. writing