The Ladies' World.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 20 June 1910, Page 4

The Ladies' World.

AN INTERVIEW WITH ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.

(Woman.)

Few of .those listening tp the orctlvestrti at a certain >well-K w vn West End hotel the other eveniig Kt.c-w thki/i) the most widely-r d : ul li\ing poet, Elk Wheeler Wilcox, was also owe of the gathering, and as T tutored the lounge 'I wondered which of the many ladies press it voi.iil prtove to be tho famous Annericin author of "Poems otf Passion" aod "Poems of Power," tho sales of whiuli 'hooka are reckoned! in hundreds of thousands, and I>y the tweitieth and .thirtieth editions.

A little to my surprise it was to a quietly-dressed uMiasuming little lady to whom I was introduced, hut in the course of conversation 1 discovered thalfc it was no ordinlary woman who was talking, but one who, as her work testifies, has a deep knowledge of human mature, its strivings and its passions, and who with "artless art is able to piny uipon the heart-strings of emotion. "This is •not my first visit to this country," she told me,".for I was here at the time of Queen Victoria's death, when both 'tilio ipeople and the woather seemed wrapped in gloom. Hjiving just visited the sunny laiidis of Nortli Africa, Jam gllad to fund that Loudon can be sunny too." I asked her if she Jiad yot written anything on London, the groat Metropolis of the world.

".Not yet," she replied, 'but I can 'feel its fascination and glamiour, especially with the magic of spring in the air, and I feel sure that before many d'avs are past I shall have to give expression to its effect upon me. "ft is a leurious point, by the way." she aded, "and contrary to the usual idea that poets can only write when communing with n-a nitre, I find I can always do my work best aim id the hurry and bustle of town. The life and movement .stimulate nie, and frequently when I feel the inspiration for writing coming mpoin me I leave my country holiso and run up to Neiw York to do my actual writing.

'It was on my former visit to London, for instance,' continued Mrs Wilcox, "that J wrote what T tliiink was oivo of my most touching poems. 'The Queen's Last Ride,' on the day of Queen Victoria's funeral. It was cn.bled ito America and then hack to Knighuid for use in a London paiper, all \v it'll in twenty-fours, and King P'dward signified 'his appreciation of the verses by choosing them 'to he simp; at the .comemcuiatii'on.' services in <Mio (following years, a. compliment of which T am very proud." Asked whether her stay Would be a Ions; one, Mirs Wilcox saiid: f 'l should like to stay thi'ough your London season, but my own lovely home in America, on the shores of Conneeticu't, is parti culm rlv beautiful in the spring, -and I' must return to see it. hut I hope toheaible to pay flyinsr visits to Scotland, and if possible, to Ireland, before T sail."

As so much of Mrs Wilcox's verse deals with /the .'tender passion; it was ibut .natural that the ecu versa, ti'on should' drift to that of women and her present economic position in society.

"I am not a Suffragist," she told me. "Mentally lam with them, lint emotionally Tam not. I have, however, just com nie ted a poem, "The Rattle-cry of the Wonien,' which crystallises my thoughts on tlie maltter, and will.' I think, he of Assistance in the fight. The. whole riucstion. however, is on a very different footing in mv own land from w!hat it is in this country, for in America women have so many more rights than they have here.

"T notice air unrest with regard to their position in every part of the would T have visited. Even with tJho Arabs, lamong w-liom T have just been, the women are agitating foi more equitable divorce conditions. Desip;ite nil indications to the contrary, T think iwomen are more considered mild better looked after than has over been the case 'before, and I trust that women, both by hei own fuller development and by the broaking-down of artificial barriers, will shortly reac'h iher. rightful plane."

Reverting 'to the subject of her poetry. T ventured to ask if she had experienced the lot of so many pouts—long years of struggle without 'recognition before success overtook her.

"Well," she replied with n smile, I can't say T did. J began writing under 'the name of 'Eloise' in the 'New York Mercury' when I was fourteen, and before six months were past there was such a demand for my work that T dropped the pseudonym, and wrote as plain 'Ellla H heeler. The appearance of jiw love lyrics, 'Poems of Passion"' caused something of a sensation at. ni'flt, but when .people ifoiMiid that they were 110 unhealthy, morbi-l P o(>ni , s - as WAS suggestwl, J found •myself fully established in the public favour a position T think T' have been able fully to keeip, judgiiiic bv tlio appreciative letters ' of' thanks awl confidences T now receive from all parts of the world. Mrs Wilcox's latest volume of verse is entitled "Poems or Progress, awl her London publishers u,V M ;, r T If txro "ew hooks \\hat Life Means to Mo," I, e in" her autobiograhy; and, the cither an ■illustrated novelette, "The Dairy of a faithless Husband," which 'she tola me is .a. .hook men will like and women _ will criticise severely." Before T left I asked ,Mrs Wil'cox hat. was lior favourite poem of the hundreds she had written, and the oHowuig Imes were what sho wrote I'm tl,e r «,"t of, my volumo of Poems of Power, ' containing what I consider some of her best work • £o many gods, so manv creedsSo many paths thajb wind and, 'wind, T 'if t'u's fcJ ' e art , of kind Is -all the sad world needs.