The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 8, 1897, Page 21

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, AUGUST 8, 1897. = § TE WOMEN LAY JTHE WoxEN SCIENTIST (THE WOMEN EDUCATO RS Z - T“g m THE (-‘2-./' WOAEN WRITER WOMEN SPEAKE: WOMEN E & =8\ S \_\J‘\_{él))) © Rs, OFF y A0)) &Y = E WOMEN AR - TISTS. ME WOMEN MUSICIANS - > \-x-)(,.v'é'?*‘ < ) i & ///r/ What are the women writers doing for San Francisco? One might better ask, Who among the women do more for San Francisco than those who record in print its daily and weekly impressions, its con- ceptions, its varying moods, and who put intodefinite voice what one half of the City is evolving in the ceaseless whirl of mental progress and development? The women | writers are a whole criterion in them- | selves. They may be taken as a veritable expression of feminine capsbility in what- ever region they may stamp themselves | upon the public view. And it is in that capacity that this article purposes to por- iray them. | Among the poets Ina Coolbrith, Emma Frances Dawson and Flora Macdonald Shearer have expressed the highest spint- ual conceptions of the City, the State and the West altogether. Miss Coolbrith is | one of the best-known Californians of | either sex in literary circles anywhere 1n this country. It is unnecessary to write | an obituary of her—a solemn resume of | her life from the cradle to the grave, or | even up to the present time—since, hap- | pily, she is still with us, and hasn’t earned the reward of greatness which comes only to the dead. For the mstim‘unn: of being & great woman dead she will} some day win eulogiums which are denied | her while she persi-ts in being only a | great woman alive. The feat of dying is | deemed praiseworthy by those who are in the business of immortalizing peovle. But | those who prefer people unobsuarized | are content to know Miss Coolbrith for | t <he has done and is doing, and are | ling that she have herself l2id into a e t0 make a hero-worshipers’ holi- Her poems on California have done | uch as any other written words have done to spread abroad the fame of the | Golden State’s hills and valleys and their | mantling tones of suniight billowing over | tue trees like shimmering tentcloth in the | breeze. In many of the leading maga- | s of the East her voice has peen | raised with marvelous sweetness to sing | of the land that she has long known so well, and kings and queens in letters have | knelt entranced—rising wherefrom to be- stow upon the performer the graceful designation of “Sweet Singer of the West.” Everybody in California has noted Am- | brose Bierce’s tribute to Emma Frances | Dawson. It has made for her what fame | she has, since her own voice was never ready to go forth into public without invi- tation, and never would have made itself heard in the market places of letters if some soliciting purveyor of literary things had not hauled her into the light and told her what she was doing and what she was worth to those of us who are looking | for something to read. It is entirely to | her creait that her fame has come %o her so. Ambrose Bierce isn’t commonly ad- dicted to throwing pentuls of fame around with lavish indiscrimination, or with anv | other kind of indiscrimination. All thei MURIEL BAILY. | though she is a genius, she is painstaking. RA MEDONATE \FLO SHEARER repute which sticks to a person after he is done with him (or her) may safely be con- firmed by the general publicasa conserva- tive estimate of his (or her) worth. Miss Dswson’s writings are intricate and deep. Her “Itinerant House” stories resemble Mr. Bierce’s own work in that line by virtue of their grim prospectings into the unknowable and their powerful way of making what their authors don’t know knowable to the rest of us by a flashlight picture in the darkness of our mutual ignorance. She does nothing idly. Al- She is doing a great deal to maintain the diznity of literary work in California, and | is a singular example of that ideal inde- | pendence and res-rve in art which we read about, but seldom see. Flors Macdonald Shearer is another | delver into the mysteries of life. She catches glimpses as they fly pact the door of her soul and pins them, iike impaled butterflies, to the sheets of her songbook while they are still quivering in the in- definite. Those of ner collection of psychic snapshots which are comprehend- able are measurably grand as poetic gems, PLUNKETT FERGUSON and are fit literary leaves to grace any part I of *‘California’s Book of Feminine Accom- vlish ments,” Geraldine Bonner has done some ex- culled from a heap of mixed rebbles cast | ceedingly clever work in California. She up by the sea of chance. creations as have been gathered into pub- Such of her| wa:connected with lishable form have been caretully weeded A the literary activity of the Pacific Coast before she came to San Francisco to reside, eight years ago* FLORENCE. MATHESON. f In fact, her first writing for the public | neatness that she had mastered in her .| published oy the press was for the Argonaut as its New York correspondent. In that capacity she manifested a fine perception of the picturesqueness, delicacy and literary careful training for her career as a writer. Much of her work in California has been anonymous, but many stories have gone abroad over her signature and have been Harpers. One story which excited considerable comment upon publication was “The Californian,” which appeared in Harper's Magazine. This attracted attenuon both at home and abroad, and while a controversy arose concerning the accuracy of Miss Bonner's estimation of certain things the sketch other of this school. When San Francisco journalism possesses more writers like Miss Tompkins and Miss Baily it will be in possession of a cleaner reputation. It has been Miss Tompkins’ enviable priv- ileze and proud position to defy openly | the modern clamor for sensationalism and tosetupa palpable opposition di- rectly in the face of it. To say that her work is as admirable as her motives is to praise too extravagantly. Let us rather be content to say that it is good, and to mean it. If I were asked toname the best all- round woman writer in San Francisco I siouid without hesitation say ‘“Liliian Ferguson.” She is not the best story writer, nor the best poet—but she isa good story writer and a fair poet, and the best woman journalist—all of which, I take it, entities her to the dis- tinction which I have menticned. She, too, bolds aloof from the *“new” journalism, and, what is more, she has done so throughout the whole course of HARDIMAN MILLER . was a decided hit from a literary point of view. She has been well known as a writer of musical and dramatic criticism, for which she has a decided fondness. Much for the benefit of California litera- ture may be hoped - ‘rom her pen. Although well k.own in the City as a newspaper writer, Muriel Baily nas won her chief distinction as a poetess. She has written verse that has brought her praise from high literary authority in this part of the country. Her poetry dis- closes a strong conception of the senti- ments which appeal to all of us, The melancholy breaking of a wave on the beach or the last rays of the sun tinting the peak of a mighty mountain are sub- jects particularly appealing to her. **After- glow,” a poem written by her a year or so ago, has perhavs been as widely read as any local praduction that has appeared in late years. As a newspaper writer Miss Baily has done her most satisfying work with subjects embracing a strong thread of human interest. Endowed with a fine, sensitive comprehension of the various emotions and soul conflicts of humanity, she has been able to arrest many a moral injustice ere it could go beyond redress, and to turn many a sigh into a smile as it quivered on tne verge of hopeless gloom. She is one of the conservaiive school of young writers which has risen at this lute day as a revival of legitimate journalism, and a reaction from the flashy and fleshy sort which has held the stage for the past few years. Miss Jaliet Wilbor Tompkins is an- TG . that romarkable contagion, having been standing by when it began, and having & ol ( work, and handles it in an attractive and interesting way. For some time Mrs, Matheson has been doing special work almost exclusively, and seems in a fair way to attain some locai renown for her- self in this line. Her writing indicates a strong news sense and also the ability to know what is interesting and pleasing. Mrs, Matheson has done work for most of OQLBRITH stood by during all the time that it raged, which is more than the younger woman journalists were in a position to do. Mrs, Ferguson refused to be swept into the current when it was at the highest tide and was carrying aimest everything be- fore it. She kept to her own course, wrote persistertly, and—in spite of the prevail- ing fashion — successfuily in legitimate fielas, To-day she is doing the highest grade of journalistic work—paragraphing for the weeklies, turning the lighter inci- dents of the day into skits of dainty prose and sparkling verse, and doing an occa- sional story in a more serious vein. Some of her verse finds a welcome place in the Eastern magazines, where it speaks most eloquently for the culture and refinement of this City by the Golden Gate. Florence Percy Matheson is well known as a writer of short stories and also as a newspaper worker. She is capabie of al- most anything in the daily routine of office the publications in the State, and for some time has been connected with THE CALL. Many of her short stories have entertained magazine readers at home and abroad. Another writer of short stories is Mrs. Florence Hardiman Miller, whose work has been done mostly for Eastern publi- cations, with several of whose editors the lady has made favorable acquaintance. She is a careful writer and finds little time to devote to the requirements of newspaper work, which embrace, first of all, a more rapia style than she permits herself to indulge in. Whatever measure her by virtue of rigid circumspection in this respect. Her stories are polished and bear the impress ofan educated and pains- taking writer. Among strictly newspaper women Alice Rix bolds a much-advertised place. She is one of the leaders of the ‘‘new’” journal- ism, and in her line holds a position which A AN GERALDINE BONNER. shines like the sparkles of champagne— and is just about as secure. Mavel Craft of the Chronicle has done work within the Jast few years that has made some of the oldest reporters en- vious. Shecan handle anything from a murder to a marriage, and do both in the same evening without allowing one to influence the other. An indefatigable worker, conscientious and thorough, this woman has won herself a place in the newspaper world by a course of plodding and digging which many a masculine re« porter might emulate with profit. Eleanor Croudaceis one of the younger writers of the State. Sheis a graduate of the university at Berkelev, and might be said to be just merging on a career. She has done newspaper work for the Bulletin and has also writien short stories for va- rious local publications. Cora M. Older has been doing newspaper work in San Francisco for a number of years and has gained a creditable position for herself in this line. During the past two years there have appeared in the Bulletin a number of articles from her pen that have ma- terially enhanced the value of that paper. Adeline Knapp has made her reputation with pretty little transcripts from natare that have appeared from time to time in the different publications of the coast— chiefly in THE CALL. A thorough student and lover of nature, she goes deep into the various moods of woods and sky. Every bira and flower is known to her, and she knows all about all of them. Spring, summer, autumn and winter all ADELINE KNAPP. have their various charms for Miss Knapp of success she may have won has come to | and she knows how to reproduce them in words. She is California’s naturalist at large. ——————— By a simple rule the length of the day and night, any time of the year, may be ascertained by simply doubling the time of the sun’s rising, which will give the length of the night, and doubling the time of setting will give the length of the day. How Joaquin Miller Would Appear in His Search for Gold at the Klondike, SCENES FROM “ROSEMARY” IN WHICH The Possible Picturesque Tableau of Boss Rainey’s Attempt to Persuade Supervisor Rottanzi, Food Inspector Dockery and the Customs Officer as They Would Appear in the Inspector’s Brandy Episode. L w7 " ] Yim Gl L JOHN DREW SUGGESTS POSSIBLE LOCAL SITUATIONS. (Costumes of Fifty Years Ago.) \ How Ned Greenway Would Look While Escorting a Lady . to the Theater.