Is A Hard Worker

F you desire lo know how many particular and determined old gentlemen there are in the world you need only begin a Ufe of Lincoln in one of the popular periodicals of the country. Ida M. Tarbell, who had recently attracted so muoh attention by her remarkable work in McClure's, sits all day long, these scorching days, perusing interminable reminiscenc.es, letters of counsel, of grave caution, of suggestion, and of praise, from every town and mail station in America. It vvould seem that every man in the country above sixty years of age enjoyed a personal and intimate acquaintance with Lincoln. Now and then Mies Tarbell puts her letters and her manuscript aside to welcome an ancient visitor who has come all the way from everywhere to have a little chat about his old friend. However disiriting the weather, however long the letter or the cali, the patience and pleased attention of this young woman never flags. Miss Tarbell refers to herself as an old plodder. She looks upon her historical and biographical work as a job to be done thoroughly, and goes to her labor every day very much as a good mechanic to shop, dinner-pail in hand. Every word of praise from tongue or pen awakens a momentary astonishment. She does not even now realize that she is famous, and she never would, however much the world miglit talk about her. She would simply j think that her circle of acquaintance ! was growing unaccountably large, and wonder how she would be able to best serve all her friends. She is so thoroughly broad and democratie in her nature that even the most narrowminded and bigoted person would never suspect it. Life is an everyday matter to her, but the most ordinary incidents of its routine are too real and full of significance ever to become common. She has no pride in her success. She plods porsistently through any task ; fore her, meeting every new emergency j with a new resource, and when her underiaking is finished she puts it aaide ae a cooper does his completed cask. She puts down simple realitias in simple words, strong and clear. She accepts Ufe as she finds it, without theory or friction. She takes people as they are, without' prejudice. She is both sensitive and sensible. Her biographies are vital because they are true. She does not idealize where she admires, nor worship where she loves. It is because she never invests her characters with any thing not theirs, and because she is never tempted by sentiment to conceal or evade, that even Napoleon and Lincoln, heretofore rendered impossible or preeerved as mummies, are now before us, alive and well, raised from the dead by the pen of a plodder. Miss Tarbell was born on a farm near ritusville, Pennsylvania. She spent her girlhood among the mountains, in the oil región, for her father was among the first producers in that field. She retains a vivid memory of those years. rhey are full of dramatic interesttoher, as indeed they must be to all those who passed through those exciting times. Her school life was spent in Meadville. From the seminary rhe stepped almost directly into editorial work, and it was largely due to her iBdustry and judgment that Chautauquan grew from a pamphlet to a well-edited magazine, possessing an influence outside of the organization on which it rested. She left the Chautauquan to go abroad, and spent several years in Paris. She lived in the Latin Quarter, wrote articles for the American papers, becaine acquainted' with artists, musicians, people of the pen, and people of all sorts. She collected material and observed. She led a contemplative and an active life, and would probably still be a contented student in the Latin Quarter had not McClure whisked her away in one of his whirlwinds back to America. In the last year Miss Tarbell has completed a "Life of Napoleon," published in McClure's Magazine, a "Life of Madam Roland," Juflt issued by the Scribners, the first half of a "Life of Lincoln," now running in McClure's, and several short stories and syndicate articles.