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Show OUR CATHOLIC WRITERS THIS ARRAY PROVES "CATHOLIC LITERATURE IS NOT WANING. Men and "Women Who Have Done Much to Advance the Cause of Catholic Letters In United States. That Catholic literature has become decadent, as a writer in the Church Progress of St. Louis said some time ago, and is fast waning, is very far from true. There are now quite as many excellent writers as there ever were; but it seems that the great body of Catholics in this country do not recognize them for what they are worth. They do not accept them as great until the world outside has stamped them as great; and they are the last to discover this, their chosen sign of approval. Permit me to mention men-tion some of the writei-s of Catholic literature, with the books they have written, writes G. B. in the Washington Washing-ton Catholic News. Foremost among them is Eleanor C. Donnelly. Miss Donnelly was born in Philadelphia, which has always been her home. Besides being a constant contributor to current literature, she has published some dozen volumes of poems. Her "Life of Father' Barbelin. S. J" won from the. press most flattering flat-tering comment: and she has excelled in religious compilations, such as "Lig-ouri "Lig-ouri Leaflets," "Pearls from the Cas- I ket of the Sacred Heart," "Little Compliments Com-pliments of the Season." Among her latest works are "Poems," "A Tusun Magdalen and Other Legends and Poems," Po-ems," "The Lost Christmas Tree." It is claimed that one of Miss Donnelly's poems, "The Vision of the Monk Gabriel," Ga-briel," furnished Mr. Longfellow with the theme of his "Beautiful Legend," written eight years later. It Is most interesting to compare the one with the other to bring out the beauties and j the spirit of both. A GIFTED FAMILY. Miss Donnelly comes of a gifted family. fam-ily. Her father wa-? a well-known physician phy-sician of Philadelphia and her mother ! a woman of remarkable intelligence. Her biother is the eminent Baconian, Hon. Ignatius Donnelly. Mrs. Donne!- j ly, in the seventies, began those famous ! "Saturday Xights" noctes ambrosiae which her daughters have continued. Among the writers now well known ' who frequented thi delightful salon ! were Agnes Repplier. S. Weir Mitchell, Maui ice Francis Egan, Mrs. Whitely, author cf "The Falcon of Langeaa" ' and "For the Lilies of France," and I many other authors. The music was I always first rate and the feature of the evening was a little comedy acted by the young people. Miss Donnelly's latest book, "Lot Leslie's Folk," is in prose. It is a thrill- i ing record of adventures among the j French and Indians, and the critics ! insist- that it has all the charm of I Cooper, without Cooper's. verbosity. It j reminds one of that charming prose ! poem of Mrs. Dorsey's, "Coaina," but i it is of a different species, yet it has something of the glow of that American Amer-ican classic. Mrs. Donnelly still continues con-tinues to reside in the ancestral home in Pine street, in the old part of Philadelphia. Phila-delphia. Her summer house is at Sea Isle City. One of her most attached friends was the late Miss Sara J. Smith, whose collected works are in course of preparation. CHRISTIAN REID. Mrs. Frances C. Tiernan, whose pen name, Christian Reid, is familiar to a large circle of readers, was born at Salisbury, N. C, where her people have lived from the first settlement of the country. Long after her father's death she lived a lonely life In the Fisher homestead, an old-fashioned house s.'at in a grove of old oaks and cedars. Miss Fisher began to write when very young, I and the success of her first novel, "Va. j lerie Aylmer," which appeared in 1870, spared her the difficulties which beset I most authors in their early efforts. Thereafter she wrote constantly fori several years., publishing many books. I of which "Morton House," "A Question I of Honor" and "Heart of 8teel'' were I received as the most successful. . j In 1887 she was married to Mr. James , u. iiernan, ana since mat time has resided chiefly in Mexico. This was good fortune for many of her readers, for she sent back to them charming stories of Mexeican life. The best known of these are "The Land of the Sun." "Picture of Las Cruces" and "Carmela." Besides these, Mrs. Tier-nan Tier-nan has also written "A Cast for Fortune," For-tune," "Mabel Lee," "Carmen's Inheritance." Inher-itance." "Hearts and Hands-," "The Land of the Sky." "A Summer Idyll" and "Misr- Churchill." The list of all her book is a very long one. Since the death of her husband. Mrs. Tiernan has lived in New York. Her best book is, no doubt, "Heart of Steel." Mrs. Tiernan knows the society so-ciety of the south by heart. She never descends- to dialect. The real grando dame is depicted by her to the life, and it haf been truly said of her that any girl who wants to know the tone of the best southern society will do well to live for awhile with her heroines. She is not a popular writer, because popular taste has1 become brutalized. If mothers had thought or time to give to the reading of their daughters they would soon produce a better era. The slangy, the "fast," the irresponsible, the cigarette-smoking girl does not ex-i.yt ex-i.yt in Christian Reid's novels. Mrs. Tiernan has all her life lived among the gentlewomen of the south; this is ! evident from her novels. She has done much to dispel the false impression j taken from Amelie Rives and the dia-! dia-! lect inventors that southern girls are hysterical, and that the whole south is I devoted to bad English. ' MRS. ANNA HANSON DORSEY is no more her name must be written with reverence. She war the real pioneer pio-neer of Catholic literature in the country. coun-try. Her 'Student of Blenheim Forest" For-est" evoked deep appreciation and interest in-terest from all parts of the world. Her fame rests on, a list of good books that make a. library of themselves, and no Catholic, home ought to be without them. Later writers have followed her, but none has eclipsed or even equaled : her. j Miss Anna Hanson. Dorsey was born I in Georgetown, D. C, Dec. 17, 1815, and ' descenu:i from a number of the mosj brilliant and patriotic colonial and rev. olutionary families of Maryland. She , was a convert to the Catholic faith, j All her books have enjoyed a never-: never-: diminishing popularity. The list is a very long one. including "The Oriental I Pearl." "May Brooke," "The Young j Countess." "Tears on the Diadem." "Woodreve Manor," , "The Flemings," "Coaina." -The Old Gray Rosary," "Guy, the Leper," "Zoe'si Daughter." "Warp and Woof," "The Old House at Gle.naran," "The Fate of the Dane," "The MadPenitent of Todi." "The Snow Angel" and finally, the greatest of all, "Palms," pronounced by all the critics to be the equal of "Ben Hur," During the c ivil war Mrs. Dorsey was an earnest lover and ard'ent advocate of the Union cause, and her patriotism gave birth to seme stirring lyrics. Her "Mother and Son" was said to be the best piece nf literature evoked by the Cutter miaewacre. She hats been the recipient of the highest honors -that the church in America can offer, being a Laetare medallist. Her work 'has been 'twice especially blessed from Rome, and the tribute paid her by the lishopst was one. of the most highly-prized happenings of 'her Hfe. The daughter of thi gifted woman is ELLA LORRAINE DORSEY. Mites Dorsiey'a masterpiece is "The Czar's Horses," declared to be "one of the best short stories written." "Midshipman "Mid-shipman Bob" pettled her position as one of the ffnfet writers of storiets for children. Miss Dorsoy began her literary liter-ary career wlien she was about 16, as special correspondent on. the Chronicle Chron-icle and Critic, two Washington papen. Later she wrote specials for the Chicago Chi-cago Tribune and other important pa-Ders. pa-Ders. In April. 1886, Harper's Magazine published "Back from the Frozen Pole" and the Catholic World published "The Czar'si Horses," which last was attributed attri-buted to Archibald Forbes. 'and went around the English colonies as far aa New Zealand. The same ye.'ir "Midshipman "Mid-shipman Bob" was published, which was so well received that it was reprinted, re-printed, and had a large sale in Fng-land Fng-land and Ireland, and was translated into Italian. From that time she devoted de-voted herself to Catholic boysthrough the Ave Maria, and published between 1886 and 1890. "Jet, the War Mule," "The Salem Witch" and ::Tiny Tim," besides many other interesting: etories known-to the, young Catholic readers?. Mrs. 'Mary T. Waggaman is cele- bra ted for her .vivid children's! stories; and her daughter, Miss Waggaman, is a post of great promise. The Pan Francisco Monitor lately declared that eome :f her vers.es in the Ave .Maria had a polish and tiweetr.rss- which modern American poetry generally I lacks. I Speaking of the Catholic authors 1 who write for the entertainment of the children, I must mention, above all, j J REV. FRANCIS J. FINN. i Boms an? the most difficult readers to j write fcr. They have no interest in ' any fictitious percsnns except 'those cf I their own ago and of their own hearts. The good littles boys, who underwent; untold riereecution for their religious eccentricities in the stories, tbat were peppered and sr. ted with strange morale! for the boy reader to swallow, did not appeal to the healthy young ; mind. Francis J. Finn realized this, and gave them real boyc, who did real things and lived teal lives. In the kind-r.es'., kind-r.es'., the'cheerfulners, the earnest sympathy sym-pathy and the idealism of Father Finn, the boys found a new leader. Fattier Finn takes the boy as he is. He has no illusions ahout him. but trivet to make him better by showing that boys may be honorable and spiritual minded without losing all the qualities which j the glowing man ef-teem.3 anil loves in) hie heroes; and what the boy loves in h'i- 'herces' he irvra to imitate. i Father Finn was born in St. Louis. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1879, and wa? ordained priest in 1893. All his books, from "Tom Playfair" to "Ethel- I red Preijton," are too well known to be j mentioned here. His latest work is, like ! the ottiers, a book for boys', "The BetH j Fcot Forward." It has had a great succests. WALTER LECKY. Walter Lecky is another name familiar fa-miliar to raaders of Catholic literature. Mr. Le'cky's literary history is tne genesis gen-esis of many a literary, man, who begins be-gins with the newspaper and ends with the book. He attained his first success on the Montreal True Witness. At the age cf IS he was a newspaper man in Chicago, doing feportorial work on the Times, Herald and Mail. From Chicago he went ;outh; and from New Orleans the love for change and adventures took him over the wter, where he filled his notebooks with the things he had seen and hsard throughout Europe. He is also familiar with Mexico, through which country he traveled on foot. From this comes Mr. Lecky's intense love for natui-e and the excellent descriptive! de-scriptive! pa.-.;age:3 which are found in his work. His books are "Green Graves in Ireland," "Down at Caxton's." "Pere Monnier's Ward" and "Mr. Billy Buttons!." But-tons!." Mr. Leoky now liveis in a little mountain town in the Adirondacks. THE SADLIERS. Mrs. Mary A. Sadlier is another whese works are widely read and have exercised a. great influence in the history his-tory of Ca.tholic literature in this country. coun-try. She began writing for La Belle Assemble, a London mfl?a7,',a h-vict. she was still Miss Madden. She edited for some years the New York Tabid. Here Mrs. Sadlier wa.s associated with such illustrious men as Dr. Brownson. Hon. T. D. McGee, Henry Giles and marjy ethers. Her books are numerous. numer-ous. Some of the most interesting are "Catholic Anecdote?," "The Lost Son": of her translation.?. "The Confederate Chieftains" and "Red Hands of Ulster." Ar.m T. msn Sarllier wnc Iinrn and oducated in Montreal. Her contributions contribu-tions to various periodicals are well known. One cf hei; earliest ventures was "Sove'n Years ar.d Mair," a novel-etts novel-etts published by Harper's in their Half Hour stories. Her principal books? are "Names that Live" and "Women of Catholicity.'' She has done bes'des many translations from the French and Italian. .Or.3 of the mo?.t successful of Catholic Cath-olic writers is - - . REV. JOHN TALBOT SMITHk whose stories carry' the atmosphere of the small mountain towns bordering on Canada. Father Smith wasi ordained in 1881, and appointed curate in a little m'-Mion on Lake Champ-lain. Here he Studied, the life that was1 to be the background for some of his most oharminsg stories. He succeeded P. V. Hickey as editor of the Catholic Review, Re-view, a position he held for three years. Some of his most successful works are "A Woman of Culture," "Solitary . Island," Isl-and," "His Honor, the Mayor." Father Smith ifl now in New ,York. The last name I shall mention, and perhaps! the best known to readers at large, is . CHARLES WARREN STODDARD. Dr. Stoddard's books are examples of t the most exquisite delicately-colored prose, and have been received as such by all critics without exception. It is unnecessary to f ay more of one whor-j reputation, is so widespread. These name.3 are but very few among the many Ca.tholies that write for a Catholic public. To indicate them all would take a volume. Catholic literature liter-ature might be uraderffoing a process of . cftanpre; but to nay that it is decaying is to be radical without sufficient cause |