OCR Text |
Show A Charming Writer. Nfw York, i- Tho south haa lately ustonihhod anddolighted tho literary liter-ary world by adding largely to the rutin- MRS. BIRTO HARRISON. ber of bright and vivacions woman writers, and among the brightest and best is the lady who is socially kuown to New York as Mrs. Burton Harrison, but signs her name Constance Cary Harrison. Har-rison. It must be said in the beginning that fortune did much for the fair authoress au-thoress by giving her a singularly varied and curious experience; but she hal used her materials with the ready adaptation adap-tation of true genius. She was but a girl at the family mansion man-sion in Fairfax county, Va., when th civil war began, and the ladies hastily abandoned the place after burying the family silver in the cellar. Vancluse, aa tho place was called, was soon a ruin, tho house was destroyed, and on th site was one of the forts in the defenses ol Washington. Nevertheless they found their precious things after tho wat jlosed, and were not entirely ruined in fortune. The ladies were at the station in the rear of tho Confederate army during dur-ing the battle of Manassas or Bull Run, ami became painfully familiar with wat and destruction elsewhere all furnishing furnish-ing scenes and incidents for Irer subsequent subse-quent work. When the war closed Miss Cary went abroad with her mother, witnessed the closing scenes of Louis Napoleon's reign, and then returned to New York to be married. mar-ried. On both sides the lady is descended descend-ed from the oldest leading families in Virginia. Her father, Archibald Cary, was a kinsman of Thomas Jefferson, and descendant of the first president of William Will-iam and Mary college, and her mother, Motiimia Fairfax, inherited intellect and taste from a good line. Her earlier stories plainly show that her first impressions im-pressions of life were gained while the influence of "family" was still great in Virginia and caste was a fact. Mrs. Harrison's first contribution to the magazines was "A Little Centennial Lady," in 1870. Among her best known productions aro "My Lord Fairfax, of Giveaway Court, in Virginia," "The Home and Haunts of Washington," "Bric-a-Biac Stories," and that great recent re-cent Huccess "The Anglomaniacs." She has lately written a curious work involving involv-ing the history of a Virginia family and plantation since 1GG0. |