Show co = = A RUSTIC WORKSHOP Sarah Barnwell Elliott Writes Her Stories In a Log Cabin Facing the main thoroughfare of the sothern university town Sewanee stands the home of Sarah Barnweil Elliott El-liott author of Jerry The liurket Sperrit and other sketches of Tennessee Tennes-see mountain life It is a manygabled cottage peeping out from gum and maple trles now a perfect blaze of color under a declining November sun Miss Elliott is the daughter of many bishops She was born under the very aegis of ecclesiasticism ecclesias-ticism so to speak being the daughter of Bishop Stephen Elliott of Georgia sister of Bishop Robert Elliott of Texas niece of the first missionary bishop of China Rt Rev William Boone and cousin of Bishop Boone his son She is by concession a Colonial Dame with four colonial governors in the direct di-rect line of descent and it is not surprising i sur-prising to find in her family distinguished distin-guished physicians divines writers and educators Miss Elliott responded to a tap upon the outside door and graciously said Come in There < is a fire upon the library I li-brary hearth and you find me alone as for the present I am only camping I The interior of this gothic house has the setting of 100 years back of it Dingy books line the four walls of the library and the glancing flames of an I open wood fire play over oldfashioned portraits highbacked chairs and a lot of MS piled upon a table near a pleag ant window seat These old tomes are collections of Miss Elliotts fathers and grandfathers lifetime in Greek and l i Latin French German and Hebrew But it is not amid these Quaint sur roundings that Miss Elliott finds her inspiration for work Her sanctum is a log cabin the counterpart cf that depicted de-picted in Jerry which lies across a leafcarpeted hollow in a skirt of woods to the rear of the house You see it would be impossible concentrate here so near the front porch she says where in summer the young nieces who come to visit me occupy the hammocks and chatter like magpies Let me give you a glimpse of the place I y I Miss Elliott led the way Irom the front ot the house and pushed oueh the I blind of a rear window admitting the western sun hanging low amid the overarching trees Across the ravine amid much intermingling color the I squared logs of the cabin showed themselves them-selves The Fellmeres was your first book Miss Elliott = ur cd A HOME OF TVEABY BISHOP Yes written when I was in my teensI do not know why I should have given it such a somber controversial I tone unless even then ecclesiastical problems were festering in my mind My life has been largely passed among I divinity students and college professors I profes-sors and naturally my earlier work took its tone from so serious an environment I envir-onment And your short stories I Those written several years ago paid my way through Europe I And your mountaineer types in your later stprips Have been faithfully studied I love I these shy proud people All our barter and trade here at Sewanee is with the Cqvites who fearlessly climb up and down these rugged places to bring us what we eat Many a time when a I mere girl I have gone off on horseback and stayed all night with these Cove pepple just to unlock their reserve I and get them to talk then too I have I done much mission work among them Do you really care to examine some of my art treasures Miss Elliott Inquired in-quired noting my admiring glances This teapot was bought by my father at a sale of Louis Phillip > es effects in Paris that pitcher is English and of very ancient diamond cut this spoon is made from a rhinoceros hide and these are curios brought by Bishop Boone from China Yes those candlesticks candle-sticks are ancient date but I see you recognize the value of my pictures That figure piece over the piano is by Parmighiano a pupil of Corregglos and that is the head of lo painted by Correggio himself It belonged to a princess who was persuaded by her father confessor that it was of too lascivious las-civious a character to have in the collection lection of a Christian woman so it was cut out and another head substituted in its place My brother Bishop Robert Rob-ert Elliott when abroad took the trouble trou-ble to hunt out the pictures of that collection col-lection and found that the threads of a certain canvas ran the same way with the head of this picture You can see that these shoulders never belonged to this head It belongs to the same collection and is a head of one of the Orsini These four were sent to my grandfather from Rome by a certain Italian noble who was under heavy moneyed obligation to him and have been treasured by usever sincejust as they are in their wormeaten Florentine Floren-tine frames Few know perhaps that there are four such valuable pictures real old masters in a private collection in this country I propose to place them on exhibition some day in New York with a pamphlet written by myself telling of the interesting way in which they i were come by Miss Elliott possesses those two most excellent things in woman a gentle step and a quiet voice She is a blonde of charming appearance and belongs essentially to the type of womanly wom-anly woman Her manner is composed and dignified digni-fied as one assured of her position and conscious that she will not have to seek the world but the world must come to her She speaks with unsparing un-sparing praise of the work of others and never alludes to her own efforts unless Dressed to do so and then in the shyest way Her manner is characterized by a cordial reserve if one may so express it MARGARET C BISLAND |