Chapter XIII: Book THREE: Encyclopedic Biographies, (6)

Like many other authors, Richard Harding Davis comes of literary stock, his father being S. Clark Davis, editor of the Philadelphia Public Ledger, and his mother Rebecca Harding Davis, whose works of fiction have brought her a certain amount of public notice. After graduating from the Lehigh university of Pennsylvania, Mr. Davis made a reputation for himself in newspaper circles in his native city. He is a versatile writer and prefers fiction to fact. He first attained prominence through the medium of his Van Bibber Sketches. War correspondent as well as novelist, his life has been filled with stirring incident. Mr. Davis has been charged with egotism by his critics, but every man who is conscious of his individuality is subject to such attacks. Married Cecil Clark, daughter of J. M. Clark, of Chicago, April 4, 1899.

HAMLIN GARLAND.

One of the best-known makers of magazine literature is Hamlin Garland, who was born in West Salem, Wisconsin, September 16, 1860, of English-Dutch parentage. In 1881 his studies were completed in Cedar Valley seminary, Wisconsin, and he next spent some years in traveling and teaching in the east. Later he took the lecture platform, was an occasional writer of sketches and short stories, and spent some time in Boston studying and teaching. He is an ardent advocate of the single tax doctrine and several of his works have to do with the struggles of the poor against existing conditions. He has also written a number of books of fiction.

DAVID G. PHILLIPS.

David G. Phillips, one of the latest of American authors to achieve a measurable success and to give promises of a literary future, was born in Indianapolis in 1866, his father being a banker in that city. After a season spent in the local public schools and a preparatory collegiate course, Mr. Phillips went to Yale, and while there determined to become either a journalist or an author. On graduating he decided to go into newspaper work and so became a member of the reportorial staff of the New York World. It was not long before he attracted the attention of Mr. Joseph Pulitzer, the proprietor of the World. Mr. Phillips was in consequence given an editorial position. After some time spent in the service of the World, Mr. Phillips resigned in order to turn his attention to novel writing. Of his books A Golden Fleece and The Great God Success have been fairly well received, but his last work, The Confessions of a Crœsus, is distinctly the best thing that he has done in the way of pure literature.

CHARLES GEORGE DOUGLAS ROBERTS.

C. G. D. Roberts inherited his literary instinct. His father was the Rev. G. Goodrich Roberts, and he is a cousin of Bliss Carman, the poet, while several of his ancestors were professors in English universities. He was born in Canada in 1860. Graduating from the university of Brunswick, in 1879, he afterward and for several years taught in educational establishments in Canada, but in 1895 devoted himself exclusively to literary work. In 1897 he became associate editor of the Illustrated American, but is best known as a writer of nature stories, several of which have passed through two or three editions.

WILLIAM THOMAS STEAD.

William T. Stead, the founder of the Review of Reviews, and a constant contributor to a number of American newspapers, was born on July 3, 1849, at Embleton, England, being the son of the Rev. W. Stead, a Congregational minister. When fourteen years of age he was apprenticed to a merchant at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, and began to contribute to local newspapers. His journalistic promptings at length became so imperative that he deserted the commercial world, and after a preliminary struggle became assistant editor of the Pall Mall Gazette. Later he founded the Review of Reviews, and subsequently the American Review of Reviews. He takes an active interest in the larger questions of the day, such as international arbitration, psychological problems, etc. Mr. Stead has a place in his generation and fills it admirably.

VANCE THOMPSON.

Vance Thompson, a well known journalist, author and playwright, was born on April 17, 1863. He graduated from Princeton in 1883, and was subsequently a student of the University of Jena in Germany. He is well known in metropolitan journalism, having held the position of dramatic critic for more than one New York newspaper, and he has also contributed liberally to leading magazines and daily publications in general. He is also known as a musical critic. Mr. Thompson founded a fortnightly publication entitled Madamoiselle New York, which was characteristic of both him and his, and is the author of several plays, pantomimes and books. In 1890 he married Lillian Spencer, of New York.

STEWART EDWARD WHITE.

Stewart Edward White, the author, was born at Grand Rapids, Michigan, March 2, 1873. He studied at the high school of the town of his birth and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1895. Subsequently he came east and took a course in the Columbia law school. Mr. White is still a bachelor, is a fruitful contributor to magazines, and has written some novels which have been given a respectful hearing, these including The Westerners and The Claim Jumpers.

OWEN WISTER.

Owen Wister, who is best known to the public through the medium of his novel, The Virginian, was born at Philadelphia July 14, 1860. He prepared for college at St. Paul’s school, Concord, New Hampshire, and was graduated from Harvard in 1892, being admitted to the Philadelphia bar some years later. Instead of following the profession of a lawyer, however, he engaged in literary work. Apart from his novels, he has been a prolific contributor to magazines and other periodicals. His books are eminently readable, if they are nothing else.

POETS.

THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH.

Judging from “The Story of a Bad Boy,” which is partly autobiographical, Thomas Bailey Aldrich spent his boyhood just as all wholesome-minded, healthy boys do, in having a good time. He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, November 11, 1836. While he was still a baby, his family went to New Orleans, but he was sent back to his native town to be educated. After a common school course, he prepared to enter Harvard, but his father failed in business and soon afterward died. Although young Aldrich’s relatives were prepared to pay the expenses of his college course, he preferred to be independent and decided to begin a business career. So it came about that he entered the offices of his uncle in New York city at the age of sixteen. About this time he began to contribute articles in prose and verse to Putnam’s Magazine, The Knickerbocker Magazine and other periodicals. His literary ability finally got him a place in a publishing house as reader of manuscripts and of proof. His first book, The Bells, did not attract much attention, but in 1856 he published The Ballad of Baby Bell and Other Poems, which struck the popular fancy. About the year 1860 he became an independent writer, contributing to various publications, but chiefly to the Atlantic Monthly. In 1870 he became editor of Every Saturday, a high-class literary weekly, which was founded in Boston and effectively edited, yet only lived four years. In 1881 he succeeded Mr. Howells in the editorial chair of the Atlantic Monthly. In this same year both Mr. Howells and Mr. Aldrich received from Yale university the degree of LL.D. Mr. Aldrich retired from the Atlantic Monthly in 1890. In 1865 he was married to Miss Lillian Woodman, of New York city. Several children were born to him.

BLISS CARMAN.

Bliss Carman is a native of New Brunswick and began life as a civil engineer and school teacher. The muse won him, however, almost from boyhood, and he has written steadily, slowly and safely, which is equivalent to saying that he has written progressively. Like many of the Canadian writers, he came to the United States to seek recognition. Here he met three other Canadians—C. G. D. Roberts, James Clarence Harvey and the late Richard Hovey. They formed a talented quartet of struggling poets, and their little world known as “Vagabondia,” was one of the most fascinating centers of American Bohemianism of the better type. Literary and artistic people coveted the privilege of entering therein. Mr. Carman and Mr. Hovey published several volumes of songs from “Vagabondia.” The subject of this sketch is best known by his Coronation Ode and his Sapphic Fragments. There is a fine and tender quality in Mr. Carman’s poems that accounts for their popularity among people possessing that which is known as the “artistic temperament.”

RICHARD LE GALLIENNE.

Richard Le Gallienne, who has a personality which accords with that of the traditional poet, is an Irishman by birth. In spite of his critics, his place in the world of letters is assured, mainly by reason of his poems, of which he has issued three volumes. Robert Louis Stevenson, an Elegy, is one of the best known of Mr. Le Gallienne’s works, and ranks among the classic elegies of the English language. It is not too much to say that it compares favorably with Gray’s Elegy in a Country Churchyard, Swinburne’s Ave Et Vale, and Morris’ Wordsworth’s Grave. In Mr. Le Gallienne’s verses, love, romance and dainty imagery are effectively mingled, and, as a rule, the results appeal to both heart and ear. His more ambitious works are those that have to do with literary criticism. He has also written books on Kipling and Meredith, which for vivid, close-range studies of the lives and purposes of two writers whose ideals are diametrically opposed, have rarely been equalled. The output of so-called literary criticism is so voluminous that it “tires by vastness,” yet the demand for the product of Mr. Le Gallienne’s pen still exists. He is also the author of a number of novels. That he is of industrious habits is proven by the fact that, while only thirty-six years of age, he has produced thirty works, the last being an English rendition of the odes of the Persian poet, Hafiz. Mr. Le Gallienne is an example of the possibilities that are inherent in every man, who, having determined on a given line of work, proceeds to follow it to success. He has never been to college, but has educated himself and so possesses all that belongs to a college curriculum. He has undergone the disappointments, deferred hopes, and all the rest of the unpleasant things that belong to the struggling literary man, and has conquered. The moral is obvious.

ROBERT MACKAY.

Robert Mackay, who is one of the youngest, but none the less promising of America’s poets, was born in Virginia City, Nevada, 1871. His father, who is among the oldest of the living “Comstockers,” settled in Nevada over fifty years ago, when the state was practically unknown to white men. The subject of this sketch began his literary work when a mere boy as a reporter on the San Francisco Chronicle. Subsequently he was editor and assistant editor of several papers on the Pacific coast. In 1895 he determined to travel over the world. The trip occupied the greater portion of five years, during which period he visited lands where white men were seldom seen. Naturally he gathered many experiences, and much valuable data. While Mr. Mackay has written a great many poems he has never compiled them in book form. He has a theory that too many young writers throw themselves on the mercy of a public which do not know them and necessarily do not care for their callow wares. He therefore proposes to mature his work until he is satisfied that it has a fighting chance for public favor. Nevertheless he is by no means a stranger to the public. Those poems of his that have appeared in a number of periodicals have made him many friends. Mr. Mackay’s verses are finely fibered. Technically correct, they are acceptable to those critics who place mechanism on the same plane with motive. But they are more than finished specimens of the verse-maker’s art. With deft and tender fingers he plays upon the heart chords of humanity, and these ring responsive to his sympathetic touch. His themes are those that are as old as the race, and as imperishable. Mother love, wedded love, patriotism, the eternal yearning for the higher life, the eternal problem of the hereafter—such they are—and they are treated by him with a facile sincerity that marks him as a true poet—one who writes not for the sake of writing, but because of inner spiritual promptings that will not be denied.

CINCINNATUS HEINE MILLER.

The personality of Cincinnatus Heine Miller, better known as “Joaquin” Miller, is as picturesque as has been his career. In turn a miner, lawyer, express rider, editor, poet and newspaper man, Mr. Miller has amassed a fund of experiences such as rarely falls to the lot of the ordinary individual. That his literary gifts enable him to reproduce in vivid fashion many of these same happenings is a matter for self-congratulation on the part of the reading public. What is yet more fortunate is that he preserves in his poems the breath of the prairie, the air of the mountains and the “tang” of that west that is rapidly passing into nothingness. The poet was born in the Wabash district of Indiana, November 10, 1841. In 1850 his parents removed to Oregon, and there is but little doubt that the wild and beautiful scenery amid which he spent his childhood had had much to do with fostering his then undeveloped poetical instincts. When the famous rush of gold seekers to the Pacific coast took place in 1859, young Miller was among the Argonauts. He does not appear to have been particularly successful in his hunt for gold, and returned to Oregon in 1860. Then he began to study law, supporting himself in the meantime by acting as express rider in Idaho. In 1863 he started the Eugene (Ore.) Democratic Register, which, however, had a brief existence. Later he opened a law office in Canon City, and in 1866 went to London, where he remained until 1870. It was in that city that he published his first book of poems. It received a most favorable reception, and established him as a poet of a unique type and quality. Returning to this country, he did some years of newspaper work in Washington, D. C., but finally drifted back to the Pacific coast, and devoted himself entirely to literature. In 1897, acting as correspondent for the New York newspaper, he visited the Klondike to compare modern miners with those of ’59. Some of his best known books of poems are Songs of the Sierras, Pacific Palms, The One Fair Woman, Songs of the Sunland, etc. He is also a playwright. One of the most important and successful of his dramas is The Danites. He lives in a picturesque home, known as the Heights, at Oakland, California.

HENRY VAN DYKE.

“Life is an arrow; therefore you must know
What mark to aim at and how to use the bow,
Then draw it to the head and let it go.”

These words, as well as the career of the well-known author and clergyman, the Rev. Dr. Henry Van Dyke, emphasize the fact that he has successfully pursued his all-absorbing ideal. He was born at Germantown, Pennsylvania, November 10, 1852, his father being the Rev. Henry Jackson Van Dyke, who is of Dutch colonial blood. At the age of sixteen, and after graduating from the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, young Van Dyke entered Princeton college and received the degree of A.B., with highest honors, in 1873. While an undergraduate he was awarded the junior oration prize and senior prize in English literature. He was also reception orator on class day, and on commencement delivered the salutatory and belles lettres. Upon graduating in the theological course from Princeton seminary, in 1876, he delivered the master oration. Later he went to Germany to pursue his studies in divinity at the University of Berlin, and, in 1878, returned to the United States, becoming pastor of the United Congregational church, Newport, Rhode Island, and remained there for four years. In 1882 he accepted a call to the Old Brick Presbyterian church, Fifth avenue and Thirty-seventh street, New York, which was founded in 1767. At that time the church membership was small and its financial condition far from satisfactory. But, thanks to the untiring efforts of the new pastor, it became one of importance, spiritually and in other ways. Since 1900 he has been professor in English literature at Princeton university. He is the author of numerous books of wide circulation.

CANADIANS.

DR. WILLIAM OSLER.

The most eminent medical man of Canada, and perhaps of the world, is Dr. William Osler, who has recently been appointed by King Edward to the exalted position of Regis Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, England. This means that Dr. Osler will be the chairman of the faculty of this great university. He will be its head. No greater distinction than this could come to any medical man. Aside from the honor of his appointment and the salary of $10,000 per year, his position will bring Dr. Osler a private practice which will make him one of the most highly compensated physicians in the world.

Dr. Osler was born at Bondhead, Ontario, July 12, 1849. His father was a minister of the Church of England. Dr. Osler went to school at Port Hope, Ont., and afterward entered Trinity University in Toronto, where he received his academic degree. The only distinction he attained at college was the reputation of being a hard student. He followed out then the injunction which he has since often made to students of his own, namely, “love to labor.”

After leaving the University, Dr. Osler entered the office of Dr. Bonell in Toronto as an assistant. Here he studied three years and then entered McGill University at Montreal, where he was graduated in 1872. He then went abroad, and returning to Canada in 1875 was elected to the chair of Institute of Medicine at McGill. Some remarks of his apropos of his first plunging into teaching are worth quoting. “My first appearance before the class filled me with tremulous uneasiness and an overwhelming sense of embarrassment. I soon forgot this, however, in my interest in the work. Whatever success I achieved then and throughout my subsequent career has been due to enthusiasm and constitutional energy.”

Four years after Dr. Osler became connected with McGill he was appointed a member of the visiting staff of the Montreal General Hospital. In 1883 he was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London, England.

Dr. Osler became in 1884 professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He was invited in 1889 to create the chair of Professor of the Practice and Principles of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Medical School at Baltimore. It was his work here that lifted him into world-wide prominence as a physician. In 1890 he was elected dean of the medical faculty of Johns Hopkins. Meanwhile he had built up a very large private practice, and was one of the doctors called upon to treat President McKinley after he had been shot in Buffalo.

In spite of the fact that Dr. Osler’s great powers of concentration have been one of the factors in his remarkable success in his profession, he is a strong believer in having a broad outlook, and avoiding too great an absorption in any one line of work. He has said in an address to students:

“Do not become so absorbed in your profession as to exclude all outside interests. Success in my profession depends as much upon the man as upon the physician. The more you see of life, outside the circle of your work, the better equipped you will be for the struggle. While medicine is to be your calling, see to it that you have also some intellectual task which will keep you in touch with the world of art and letters. When tired of anatomy refresh your mind with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Keats, Shelley and Shakespeare.

“I advise you to have no ambition higher than to join the noble band of general practitioners. These are generous hearted men, with well balanced, cool heads, who are not scientific always, but are learned in the wisdom of the sick room. No man can stand higher in the love and respect of the community, and wield a more potent influence, than the family doctor....

“As to your work, I have a single bit of advice which I give with the earnest conviction of its paramount influence in any success which may have attended my efforts in life: Take no thought of the morrow. Live neither in the past nor the future, but let each day’s work absorb your entire energy and satisfy your widest ambition.”

SIR GEORGE A. DRUMMOND.

A high and representative type of the Scotchmen who have done so much for Canada is Sir George Alexander Drummond, who for many years has been very actively identified with the best elements in Canadian commercial and social life. Sir George was born in Edinburgh in 1829, and in 1854, after graduation from Edinburgh University, came to Canada to assume the management of the extensive sugar refinery which had been established in Montreal by the late John Redpath. Though the refinery was for some years very successful under the direction of Sir George, it was closed in 1874 because of the appalling effects of a high tariff. It was reopened, however, in 1879, when Sir George founded the Canadian Sugar Refining Company, which has exerted a strong influence in the upbuilding of the prosperity of the Dominion. Sir George steadily grew in commercial power. He became a director of the Bank of Montreal in 1882 and vice-president of the institution in 1887. For two years he was president of the Montreal Board of Trade. He also assumed the presidency of the company which owns very valuable coal and iron mining properties at Londonderry, Nova Scotia, and he has been connected with many other enterprises of importance.

His activities, however, have been by no means confined to commerce. He has been president of the Art Association of Montreal, and possesses one of the finest art collections on the continent. He is an enthusiastic golfer and has been president of the Canada Golf Association. He has busied himself with philanthropic projects and was made one of the trustees of Victoria Order of Nurses in 1897. He was called to the Senate of Canada by the Marquis of Lorne and was knighted by the Queen.

AUTHORS.

JAMES LANE ALLEN.

Among the many literary lights which the south has given us is James Lane Allen. He was born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1849, and comes of one of the old Virginia families. Shortly after the Civil war broke out Mr. Allen’s father lost his fortune, and James in consequence had to work and attend school simultaneously. He graduated with honors from the Transylvania university, Lexington, in 1872. Then he began to teach for a livelihood. Subsequently he was called to a professorship in Transylvania university, and later was a professor of Latin and higher English at Bethany college, West Virginia. In 1884 he went to New York to make literature his profession. He was then unknown in that city, but soon gained recognition as one of the most poetic and dramatic of American novelists. Of his many books The Choir Invisible, A Summer in Arcady, and Aftermath, are perhaps the most in demand by the reading public.

GEORGE WASHINGTON CABLE.

A novelist who works on original lines is George W. Cable. He was born in New Orleans, October 12, 1844. At the age of fourteen necessity compelled him to seek employment in a store. In 1863 he joined the Confederate army, serving until the close of the war. Returning to New Orleans, he became an employee of a mercantile house, and later studied civil engineering. It was at this time that he began to contribute to the New Orleans Picayune and was at length given a position on its editorial staff. He returned to business life, writing in the meantime, however, for Scribner’s and other magazines. His sketches of Creole life were so well received that he finally decided to devote himself to literature. He has produced a number of works whose chief characters are almost all of the Creole type, is a successful lecturer, and takes an active interest in religious affairs.

WINSTON CHURCHILL.

Winston Churchill, the novelist, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, November 10, 1871. He received his early education at the Smith academy in that city, and when seventeen years of age was appointed a cadet of the United States naval academy at Annapolis. Graduating therefrom in 1891, he joined the cruiser San Francisco, but his tastes being more literary than naval he resigned and became a member of the staff of the Army and Navy Journal, of New York. In 1895 he was made editor of the Cosmopolitan magazine, but a few months later resolved to identify himself with independent work on original lines. His first book, The Celebrity, won recognition and a certain amount of popularity. Mr. Churchill’s reputation as a novelist rests for the most part on Richard Carvel and its sequel, The Crisis, which is hardly less popular than was its predecessor.

FRANCIS MARION CRAWFORD.

A clever and popular writer is Francis M. Crawford, who was born at Bagni-di-Lucca, Italy, August 2, 1854. He is a son of Thomas Crawford, the sculptor, and comes of a long line of literary and artistic ancestors. Francis was educated in New York schools, subsequently entering Harvard, but did not complete his course there. He was also a student at Cambridge university, England, and at the universities of Karlsruhe and Heidelberg, Germany, and the university of Rome, where he gave special attention to Sanscrit. In 1873 Mr. Crawford was compelled by circumstances to adopt journalism as a means of livelihood. Some years later he turned his attention to literature proper, his first book, Mr. Isaacs, appearing in 1882. Among his other well-known works are A Cigarette Maker’s Romance, The Three Fates, Zoroaster, etc. He is also an artist of considerable ability and has traveled extensively. He and his wife and children live near Sorrento, Italy.

RUDYARD KIPLING.

Rudyard Kipling, the poet and novelist who, perhaps more than any other writer of this generation, has voiced the militant spirit of the British empire, was born at Bombay, India, December 30, 1865. His father was John Lockwood Kipling. Rudyard was educated at the United Services college, Devonshire, England. Returning to India at the end of his school days, he became the assistant editor of the Civil-Military Gazette, and subsequently was connected with the staff of the Pioneer, a prominent newspaper of the country. The well-known Soldiers Three series and those other of his works which have to do with army life in India were the outcome of his Pioneer experiences. In 1892 he married Caroline Balestier at Brattleboro, Vermont. Mr. Kipling has not only a marvelous faculty of describing things as they actually are, but he also has the prophetic instinct of the true poet. As a case in point may be cited his famous Recessional, written at the end of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee. The full significance of the poem was only realized by the British during the disastrous and humiliating periods of the Boer war. In prose and poetry he has been alike fruitful.

THOMAS NELSON PAGE.

Thomas N. Page was born in Oakland, Hanover county, Virginia, April 23, 1853. The Civil war interfered with his education, and left the Page family in an impoverished condition. Nevertheless he, during this period, was gathering material which resulted in the production of those two delightful books of his, Marse Chan and Meh Lady. Later he managed to secure a course at Washington and Lee university. At the law school of the University of Virginia he secured his degree in a year, and, after being admitted to the bar, practiced in Richmond from 1875 to 1893. During his leisure hours he did work which placed him on a high eminence as lecturer and literary man. His books are many, and for the most part have to do with the war between north and south and the reconstruction period following its close.

CHARLES MAJOR.

Charles Major, the novelist, was born at Indianapolis, Indiana, July 25, 1856. He was educated at the common schools at Shelbyville and Indianapolis, after which he studied law and engaged in practice at Shelbyville. But his literary tastes were stronger than his legal inclinations, and he began to contribute to magazines and to write novels. His most famous book, When Knighthood was in Flower, was issued in 1898, and reached an edition of several hundred thousand. In 1885 he was married to Alice Shaw.

NOVELISTS.

GERTRUDE FRANKLIN ATHERTON.

One of the most vivid and entertaining interpreters of the complex characteristics of American womanhood is the versatile and entertaining writer, Gertrude Franklin Atherton. She was born on Rincon Hill, San Francisco, California, October 30, 1859, daughter of Thomas Lyman Horn, of German descent, and on her mother’s side descended from a brother of Benjamin Franklin. She was educated at St. Mary’s Hall, Benicia, California, also at Sayre Institute, Lexington, Kentucky, and by private tutors. In addition to this, she had obtained a good foundation in the classics, English especially, from the teachings of her grandfather. Before leaving school she was married to George Henry Bowen Atherton, a native of Valparaiso, Chili. After his death, in 1888, Mrs. Atherton went directly to New York city, beginning literary work in earnest. As she never received courteous treatment from the press of her own country, she settled in London in 1895, and there met with gratifying recognition. Some of her most important works are: “The Doomswoman,” 1902; “Patience Sparhawk and Her Times,” 1897; “His Fortunate Grace,” 1897; “American Wives and English Husbands,” 1898; “The Californians,” 1898; “A Daughter of the Vine,” 1899; “Senator North,” 1900. The latter is the first attempt in American fiction at a purely national novel, disregarding section. The Leeds Mercury styled “The Californians” an oasis in fiction, while the British Weekly declared Mrs. Atherton to be the ablest writer of fiction now living. The brilliancy of her portraiture and the humor and freshness of her dialogues are undeniable. A western writer says, “The early days of the missions and Spanish rule have given her a most congenial field, and she has successfully reproduced their atmosphere in her best novels; against the background of their romantic traditions she paints the world, old, strong of passion, vague, dreamy, idyllic, yet strong and elemental.”

AMELIA EDITH BARR.

Amelia Edith Barr was born at Ulverton, Lancashire, England, March 29, 1831. She was the daughter of the Rev. William Huddleston. Her mother’s family were among the followers of the noted evangelist, George Fox. She was educated in several good schools and colleges and was graduated, at the age of nineteen, from Glasgow high school. In 1850 she was married to Robert Barr, son of a minister of the Scottish Free Kirk. In 1854 Mr. and Mrs. Barr came to America, settling at Austin, and later at Galveston, Texas. Her husband and three sons died in 1857 of yellow fever and Mrs. Barr was obliged to support herself and three daughters with her pen. Two years after Mr. Barr’s death she came to New York city and received immediate encouragement from Mr. Beecher, of the Christian Union, and Robert Bonner, of the New York Ledger. She taught school for two years, meanwhile writing various sketches and miscellaneous articles for magazines and newspapers. The work which gave her the greatest fame, “A Bow of Orange Ribbon,” appeared in serial form in the Ledger. Since 1884 she has devoted her time almost entirely to the writing of novels and short stories.

FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT.

There are very few who are not acquainted with “Little Lord Fauntleroy,” one of the sweetest children’s stories ever written, but not so many perhaps are acquainted with the interesting life story of its author, Frances Hodgson Burnett. She was born November 24, 1849, in Manchester, England, and while yet attending school she developed a talent for writing short stories and poems and even novels. When her father died her mother brought the family to America in 1865, settling at Newmarket, but a year later removing to Knoxville, Tennessee. She then completed a story which was planned in her thirteenth year, and succeeded in disposing of it to Godey’s Lady’s Book, in which it was published in 1867. Other interesting short stories followed in this and in Peterson’s Magazine, but the turning point of her literary success was “Surly Tim’s Trouble,” which appeared in Scribner’s Monthly in 1872, attracting a great deal of attention. At the invitation of the editor more of her publications were published in Scribner’s, one of the most popular being “That Lass o’ Lowries,” which appeared later in 1877 in book form. Mrs. Hodgson has been twice married, the first time, in 1873, to Dr. Swan M. Burnett, from whom she obtained a divorce in 1898, and the second time, in 1900, to Stephen Townsend, an English author. Mrs. Burnett, by winning a suit against the unauthorized dramatization of “Fauntleroy,” secured for authors of England the control of dramatic rights in their stories, for which Reade and Dickens had spent thousands of pounds in vain.

PEARL MARY THERESA CRAIGIE.

The authoress, Pearl Mary Theresa Craigie, more familiarly known as John Oliver Hobbes, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, November 3, 1867, daughter of John Morgan and Laura Hortense (Arnold) Richards. She is descended from early settlers of New York. After being educated under private tutors, Miss Richards, in 1883, went to Europe, continuing her studies in Paris. In 1887 she was enrolled as a student at University College, London, where, under the tuition of Professor Goodwin, she obtained an adequate knowledge of the classics and philosophy. In early childhood she was fond of writing. One of her first stories, entitled “Lost, A Dog,” appeared in Dr. Joseph Parker’s paper, The Fountain. This story was signed Pearl Richards, aged nine. Another of her stories, entitled “How Mark Puddler Became an Innkeeper,” appeared in The Fountain of February 10, 1881. At the age of eighteen she decided to make literature her profession and immediately took up a special study of style, especially dramatic dialogues. Her first book, entitled “Some Emotions and a Moral,” 1891, is an excellent example of success under difficulties. This book was composed during months of weary illness and amid the strain of domestic anxiety, but its success was immediate, for over eighty thousand copies were sold in a short time. Since then she has written several other novels.

MARY ELEANOR WILKINS-FREEMAN.

“Wonderful in concentrated intensity, tremendous in power,” this record of the heart tragedies of a dozen men and women is not surpassed in our literature for its beauty of style, the delicacy of its character delineations, and the enthralling interest of its narrative. It is the praise merited by “Pembroke,” the greatest work that has come from the pen of the author, Mary Eleanor Wilkins. She was born of Puritan ancestors January 7, 1862, in Randolph, Norfolk county, Massachusetts, and received her early education in Randolph, later removing to Brattleboro, Vermont. She afterward attended Mount Holyoke seminary, South Hadley, Massachusetts, but previous to this she had already begun her literary work, writing poems and then prose for Youth’s Companion, St. Nicholas, Harper’s Bazar and finally for Harper’s Magazine. “A Humble Romance and Other Stories,” 1887, placed Miss Wilkins in the class with Mrs. Stowe, Miss Jewett and other conspicuous authors as a delineator of New England character. The simplicity and the astonishing reality of her story brought a new revelation to New England itself. Her literary style displays a fearlessness of the critic and the dominating thought to be true to her ideal. “The Pot of Gold and Other Stories,” 1891, and “Young Lucretia,” 1892, are among her popular juveniles. “The New England Nun and Other Stories,” called forth the most lavish praise. Her next work of importance, as well as her first novel, was “Jane Field,” 1892. When “Pembroke” appeared, in 1894, it was praised almost indiscriminately in England, some critics even venturing to say that George Eliot had never produced anything finer.

ANNA KATHERINE GREENE.

The simple stories and poems, written in her childhood, were the beginning of the career of the authoress, Anna Katherine Greene, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, November 11, 1846, daughter of James Wilson and Anna Katherine Greene. Her early education was obtained in the public schools of New York city and Buffalo, and she completed her course of study in Ripley Female College, Poultney, Vermont, graduating in 1867. Returning to her native city, she engaged in literary work, and, in 1878, produced her first important novel, “The Leavenworth Case.” She attracted immediate attention in literary circles. It had been carefully prepared and was given to the public only after repeated revisions. It had a phenomenal sale—already, in 1894, exceeding seven hundred and fifty thousand copies. From that time on there was a great demand from the publishers for books from her pen, and during the next seventeen years she wrote and published fifteen novels. The story of “The Leavenworth Case” was dramatized and produced during the season of 1891 and 1892, her husband, Charles Rohlfs, to whom she had been married in 1884, sustaining the leading part, Harwell. The book is also used as a text-book in Yale university to demonstrate the fallacy of circumstantial evidence.

SARAH ORNE JEWETT.

A writer paid a just tribute to the subject of this sketch when she wrote: “The secret of Sarah Jewett’s great success outside of its artistic perfection, is the spirit of loving kindness and tender mercy that pervades it.” She was born at South Berwick, Maine, September 3, 1849, daughter of Theodore Herman Jewett. Her parents were both descendants of early English emigrants to Massachusetts. Sarah, owing to delicate health in childhood, spent much of her time communing with nature, where she received material and the inspiration that eventually made her such a popular writer. She was educated at Berwick academy, in her native city. When a mere girl she began her career as an author by contributing to Riverside Magazine and Our Young Folks. At nineteen she sent a story to the Atlantic Monthly, and has been averaging nearly a book a year ever since. Miss Jewett adopted the pseudonym “Alice Elliott” in 1881, but after that she used her own name instead.

CONSTANCE CARY HARRISON.

Constance Cary Harrison, who is better known to the reading public as Mrs. Burton Harrison, was born in Fairfax county, Virginia, April 25, 1846. She was educated by private governesses, and while under their tuition gave proofs of being the possessor of literary ability. During the Civil war she lived with her family in Richmond, Virginia. At the end of the conflict she went abroad with her mother to complete her studies in music and languages. Mrs. Harrison has traveled much and has lived in nearly all of the continental capitals. She married Burton Harrison, a well-known New York lawyer, and since her union to him has resided in the metropolis. Her works are many and range from children’s fairy stories to works on social questions, and again from small comedies to books on municipal problems.

ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS WARD.

Heredity and environment conspired to make Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward a woman of letters. Her father, the Rev. Austin Phelps, was pastor of the Pine Street Congregational church of Boston at the time of her birth, August 31, 1844. In 1848 he became a professor in the theological seminary at Andover, Massachusetts, and thus his daughter Elizabeth grew up among a circle of thinkers and writers. She received most of her education from her father, but also attended the private school at Andover and the seminary of Mrs. Prof. Edwards, where she took a course of study equal to that of the men’s colleges of to-day. At the age of nineteen she left school and engaged in mission work at Abbott Village and Factory Settlement, a short distance from her home. It was here she began an acquaintance with the lives and needs of working people, which resulted in books such as “Hedged In” and “Jack, the Fisherman.” Her first story was published in the Youth’s Companion when she was only thirteen years old. In 1864 she published “A Sacrifice Consumed,” in Harper’s Magazine, which earned her right to the title “author.” The book which has given her greatest fame, “The Gates Ajar,” was begun in 1862 and was published in 1868. Nearly one hundred thousand copies were sold in the United States, and more than that number in Great Britain. It was also translated into a number of foreign languages. Probably Mrs. Ward has written more books worth while than any other woman writer of her time. In 1888 Miss Phelps was married to Herbert D. Ward, and has co-operated with him in writing several romances.

REFORMERS.

GEORGE THORNDIKE ANGELL.

George Thorndike Angell was born at Southbridge, Massachusetts, June 5, 1823. He was educated in the public schools and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1846. After study at the Harvard law school he was admitted to the bar in 1851. For thirty-four years he has headed the work for the humane treatment of animals and helpless human beings. In 1868, when a young man of twenty-two, he founded the Massachusetts society for the prevention of cruelty to animals. He has served as its president since its inception, no one being better fitted to fill the position. He has propagated his ideas on humanity to animals by many organizations, and forty-four thousand “bands of mercy” speak for his efficient and zealous management. As an editor and publisher, his activity has been enormous, for in one year his societies sent out 117,000,000 pages of literature. His work for dumb brutes is so well known that it has overshadowed those other forms of philanthropy with which he has to do, and which in the case of an ordinary man would have made him a reputation. The work of the Social Science Association, of which Mr. Angell is a director, is of a varied nature, and ranges from the prevention of crime to the detection of food adulteration, or from the betterment of tenement houses to obtaining a higher standard of citizenship.

SUSAN BROWNELL ANTHONY.

Susan Brownell Anthony was born at Adams, Massachusetts, February 15, 1820. Her father, a Quaker, was a cotton manufacturer and gave her a liberal education. When she was seventeen years old her father failed in business and she had to support herself by school teaching, which profession she followed for thirteen years. Aroused at the injustice of the inequality of wages paid to women teachers, she made a public speech on the subject at the New York Teachers’ Association, which attracted wide attention. She continued to work in the teachers’ association for equal recognition continuously and enthusiastically. In 1849 she began to speak for the temperance cause, but soon became convinced that women had no power to change the condition of things without being able to vote at the polls, and from that time on she identified herself with the suffrage movement. She has written a great many tracts and was at one time the editor of a weekly paper called the Revolution. Her work, The History of Woman’s Suffrage, which she prepared in conjunction with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage, attracted wide attention.

FREDERICK ST. GEORGE DE LAUTOUR BOOTH-TUCKER.

Frederick St. George de Lautour Booth-Tucker was born at Monghyr, India, March 21, 1853. He was educated at the Cheltenham college, England, and, after passing the Indian civil service examination, was appointed assistant commanding magistrate in the Punjab. He resigned in order to join the Salvation army in 1881, inaugurated the Salvation Army work in India in 1882, and had charge of the work of the army there until 1891, when he was made secretary for the international work of the organization in London. Since 1896 he has been in charge of the affairs of the army in the United States, in conjunction with his wife, Emma Moss Booth, whom he married, after which he adopted the name of Booth-Tucker. He is the author of a number of religious and other works and has considerable ability as an orator and organizer. Mr. Booth-Tucker has a magnetic personality, and with the practical side of his nature stands him in good stead in connection with his chosen walk in life.

ANTHONY COMSTOCK.

Anthony Comstock, who has been described as the most honest and the best-hated man in New York city, was born in New Canaan, Connecticut, March 7, 1844. He received his education in district schools and academy and later at the High School at New Britain, Connecticut. Early in life he began to earn his own livelihood, and in order to do so followed several vocations in succession. His brother Samuel was killed fighting for the Union cause at Gettysburg, and Anthony, volunteering to fill his place in the regiment, enlisted in the Seventeenth Volunteer Connecticut Infantry and saw much service during the war. He was mustered out in July, 1865. On January 25, 1871, he married Margaret Hamilton. In 1873 he was appointed postmaster inspector in New York, later became prominent in Young Men’s Christian Association affairs, and finally identified himself with the New York society for the suppression of vice. Mr. Comstock’s services in connection with what is his life work are too well known to be recapitulated. Possessing courage, moral and physical, of the highest order and a keen sense of his duties to the community in his official capacity, Mr. Comstock has for years been a terror to evil-doers, especially those who pander to vicious instincts. He has brought nearly 3,000 criminals to justice and has destroyed over 80 tons of obscene literature, pictures, etc. Altogether he is a notable figure in the complex life of New York, and the making of bitter enemies has necessarily followed on Mr. Comstock’s career. But these, many and influential as they are, have never successfully attacked his motives or his integrity.

WILBUR FISKE CRAFTS.

The Rev. Wilbur Fiske Crafts was born at Fryeburg, Maine, January 12, 1850. His father was the Rev. A. C. Crafts. In 1869 the future author, lecturer and clergyman graduated from Wesleyan University, Connecticut, subsequently taking the post-graduate course in Boston University. On leaving college he became a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, holding charges for several years therein and laying the foundation for the reputation which now attaches to him. Later, however, Mr. Crafts decided that the tenets of the Congregational denomination were more to his liking, and accordingly accepted a call to a Congregational church in Brooklyn. Still later he became a Presbyterian pastor in New York. Resigning from the ministry, he was made superintendent of the International Reform Bureau, the object of which is to secure moral legislation in the United States and Canada with the assistance of lectures, literature and personal example and influence. He is the author of many works, the majority of which are of a religious nature, or deal with social questions.

ELBRIDGE THOMAS GERRY.

Elbridge Thomas Gerry, born in New York city, December 25, 1837, was named after his grandfather, who was one of the vice-presidents of the United States and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Mr. Gerry was educated in the New York public schools, and graduated from Columbia college in 1858. He was admitted to the bar in 1860. He acted as vice-president, until 1899, of the American society for the prevention of cruelty to animals. He was chairman of the New York state commission on capital punishment from 1886 to 1888. Since 1891 he has been president of the annual convention of the New York societies for prevention of cruelty. He is trustee of the general theological seminary of the Presbyterian-Episcopal church and also trustee of the American museum of natural history, and of the New York Mutual Life Insurance company. Besides that, he is a member and director of various corporations and societies. Since 1876 he has been president of the New York society for the prevention of cruelty to children, which society is generally known as the Gerry Society. He has one of the largest private law libraries in the United States. Mr. Gerry is one of those conscientious citizens whose work for the public good has been as continuous as it has been successful.

WILLIAM REUBEN GEORGE.

William R. George was born at West Dryden, New York, June 4, 1866. He was educated in the common schools. His parents came to New York city in 1880, where he later engaged in business. Becoming interested in poor boys and girls, he, during the seasons of 1890 to 1894, took two hundred of them to the country for from two weeks to a month to spend a portion of their school vacations with him. Impressed with the large number of children endeavoring to live by charity, he conceived, in 1894, the plan of requiring payment in labor for every favor the youngsters received, and, in addition, instituted a system of self-government. This was the beginning of a junior republic, which was put into practical operation in 1895 and has continued successfully ever since. He was married November 14, 1896, to Esther B. George, of New York. To Mr. George belongs the credit of inaugurating a novel and praiseworthy method of fostering good citizenship.

CHARLES HENRY PARKHURST.

The Rev. Dr. Charles Henry Parkhurst was born in Framingham, Massachusetts, April 17, 1842. His father worked on a farm in summer and taught school in winter. Until sixteen years of age Charles was a pupil of the Clinton (Mass.) grammar school. The two years following he acted as clerk in a dry goods store. At the age of eighteen he began to prepare for college at Lancaster academy. At the end of the course there, he went to Amherst, from whence he graduated in 1866. The following year he became principal of the Amherst high school, remaining there until 1870, when he visited Germany. On his return he became professor of Greek and Latin in Williston seminary, holding that position for two years, during which period he married a Miss Bodman, a pupil of his while a teacher at Amherst. Accompanied by his wife, he next made a trip to Europe to study at Halle, Leipzig, and Bonn. Again in this country he received a call to the pastorate of the First Congregational church in Lenox, Massachusetts, where he soon gained a reputation as an original and forceful pulpit orator. On March 9, 1880, he became pastor of the Madison Square Presbyterian church, New York city, the call being the outcome of his work at Lenox. He immediately began to take a lively interest in city and national politics, and one of his sermons attracted the attention of Dr. Howard Crosby, president of the society for the prevention of crime, in which society Dr. Parkhurst was invited to become a director. A few months later Dr. Crosby died and Dr. Parkhurst was chosen as his successor. Dr. Parkhurst has done more for reform in New York city than any other single individual. His courageous course in connection with the Lexow investigation of certain phases of life in New York will not be readily forgotten.

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON.

That which is popularly, if somewhat vaguely, characterized as the “Cause of women” in this country, is closely identified with the name of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Many years of her life were spent in promoting the cause of her sex politically and legally, and that her work has not been fruitless is proven by the fact that as long ago as 1840 she advocated the passage of the Married Woman’s Property bill, which became a law in 1848. That measure alone is sufficient to obtain for Mrs. Stanton the gratitude of her sex. She was born in Johnstown, New York, November 12, 1815, being the daughter of Daniel C. Cady, judge of the New York State Supreme Court. She obtained her education at the Johnstown academy and the Emma Willard seminary, Troy, New York, graduating from the latter institution in 1832. Eight years later she married Henry Brewster Stanton, a state senator, anti-slavery orator and lawyer. From the first Mrs. Stanton identified herself with “Woman’s Rights,” and she it was who called the first woman’s rights convention, the meeting taking place at Seneca Falls, New York, in July, 1848. Continually working on the lines indicated, she has for the last quarter of a century annually addressed congress in favor of embodying woman suffrage in the constitution of the United States. In 1861 she was president of the Woman’s Loyal League, and through the medium of her personality made it a power in the land. From 1865 to 1893 she held the office of president of the Woman Suffrage Association. In 1868 she was a candidate for congress. Her eightieth birthday, which took place in 1895, was celebrated under the auspices of the National Council of Women, three hundred delegates attending the convention.

PHILANTHROPISTS.

MRS. PHOEBE APPERSIN HEARST.