Eliza Moore, tenth of the twelve children of Richard Henry and Betsey Holmes Chinn, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on the first day of February, 1832.
Eliza Moore, tenth of the twelve children of Richard Henry and Betsey Holmes Chinn, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on the first day of February, 1832.
Three years later Judge Chinn moved his family to New Orleans, where he continued the practice of law until his death in ’47.
On August 24, 1852, Eliza Chinn and James Alexander McHatton were married in Lexington, and for ten years thereafter they lived at Arlington plantation on the Mississippi, a few miles below Baton Rouge, leaving hastily in ’62, upon the appearance of Federal gunboats at their levee.
During the remainder of the war they lived almost continuously in army ambulances, convoying cotton from Louisiana across Texas to Mexico.
In February, 1865, they went to Cuba, and lived there until the death of Mr. McHatton, owning and operating, with mixed negro and coolie labor, a large sugar plantation—“Desengaño.”
After her return to the United States Mrs. McHattonwas married to Dwight Ripley, July 9, 1873, and the remainder of her life was passed in the North. In 1887 Mrs. Ripley published “From Flag to Flag”—a narrative of her war-time and Cuban experiences, now out of print.
The reminiscences which make up the present volume have been written at intervals during the last three or four years. The final arrangements for their publication were sanctioned by her the day before she passed away—on July 13, 1912, in the eighty-first year of her age.
E. R. N.
UNLIKE ANY OTHER BOOK.
UNLIKE ANY OTHER BOOK.
A Virginia Girl in the Civil War.
Being the Authentic Experiences of a Confederate Major’s Wife who followed her Husband into Camp at the Outbreak of the War. Dined and Supped with General J. E. B. Stuart, ran the Blockade to Baltimore, and was in Richmond when it was Evacuated. Collected and edited byMyrta Lockett Avary. 12mo. Cloth, $1.25 net; postage additional.
“The people described are gentlefolk to the back-bone, and the reader must be a hard-hearted cynic if he does not fall in love with the ingenuous and delightful girl who tells the story.”—New York Sun.“The narrative is one that both interests and charms. The beginning of the end of the long and desperate struggle is unusually well told, and how the survivors lived during the last days of the fading Confederacy forms a vivid picture of those distressful times.”—Baltimore Herald.“The style of the narrative is attractively informal and chatty. Its pathos is that of simplicity. It throws upon a cruel period of our national career a side-light, bringing out tender and softening interests too little visible in the pages of formal history.”—New York World.“This is a tale that will appeal to every Southern man and woman, and can not fail to be of interest to every reader. It is as fresh and vivacious, even in dealing with dark days, as the young soul that underwent the hardships of a most cruel war.”—Louisville Courier-Journal.“The narrative is not formal, is often fragmentary, and is always warmly human.... There are scenes among the dead and wounded, but as one winks back a tear the next page presents a negro commanded to mount a strange mule in midstream, at the injustice of which he strongly protests.”—New York Telegram.“Taken at this time, when the years have buried all resentment, dulled all sorrows, and brought new generations to the scenes, a work of this kind can not fail of value just as it can not fail in interest. Official history moves with too great strides to permit of the smaller, more intimate events; fiction lacks the realistic, powerful appeal of actuality; such works as this must be depended upon to fill in the unoccupied interstices, to show us just what were the lives of those who were in this conflict or who lived in the midst of it without being able actively to participate in it. And of this type ‘A Virginia Girl in the Civil War’ is a truly admirable example.”—Philadelphia Record.
“The people described are gentlefolk to the back-bone, and the reader must be a hard-hearted cynic if he does not fall in love with the ingenuous and delightful girl who tells the story.”—New York Sun.
“The narrative is one that both interests and charms. The beginning of the end of the long and desperate struggle is unusually well told, and how the survivors lived during the last days of the fading Confederacy forms a vivid picture of those distressful times.”—Baltimore Herald.
“The style of the narrative is attractively informal and chatty. Its pathos is that of simplicity. It throws upon a cruel period of our national career a side-light, bringing out tender and softening interests too little visible in the pages of formal history.”—New York World.
“This is a tale that will appeal to every Southern man and woman, and can not fail to be of interest to every reader. It is as fresh and vivacious, even in dealing with dark days, as the young soul that underwent the hardships of a most cruel war.”—Louisville Courier-Journal.
“The narrative is not formal, is often fragmentary, and is always warmly human.... There are scenes among the dead and wounded, but as one winks back a tear the next page presents a negro commanded to mount a strange mule in midstream, at the injustice of which he strongly protests.”—New York Telegram.
“Taken at this time, when the years have buried all resentment, dulled all sorrows, and brought new generations to the scenes, a work of this kind can not fail of value just as it can not fail in interest. Official history moves with too great strides to permit of the smaller, more intimate events; fiction lacks the realistic, powerful appeal of actuality; such works as this must be depended upon to fill in the unoccupied interstices, to show us just what were the lives of those who were in this conflict or who lived in the midst of it without being able actively to participate in it. And of this type ‘A Virginia Girl in the Civil War’ is a truly admirable example.”—Philadelphia Record.
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.
THE GREATEST LIVING ACTRESS.
THE GREATEST LIVING ACTRESS.
Memories of My Life.
BySarah Bernhardt. Profusely illustrated. 8vo. Ornamental cloth, $4.00 net; postage 30 cents additional.
The most famous of living actresses, Sarah Bernhardt has lived life to the full as a builder and manager of theatres, author, painter and sculptor. She turned her theatre into a hospital during the Siege of Paris. She played French classics in a tent in Texas. She wrote “Memories of My Life” with her own hand, and with her own inimitable verve.
“Great is Bernhardt, and great is any true description of her life, for nothing more fascinatingly brilliant could have come from the mind of the most daring of fictionists. The autobiography is as interesting to those who care nothing for the theatre as to those devoted to it.”—Baltimore Sun.“It is the work of a genius which feels and sees with instinctive insight and understanding, and puts into words such a bright and varied panorama of life as it has been given to few authors to portray.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer.“Out of an overflowing reservoir of reminiscence the author pours out a flood of anecdote and of dramatic story, and she always gives the idea that she is only skimming the surface and that other treasures lie always below.”—San Francisco Argonaut.“The book is interesting and entertaining from cover to cover, and is related with a vivacity that is engaging.”—Toledo Blade.“The eventful life lived by Madame Bernhardt both on and off the stage is told with great charm. Not only has the greatest actress of her generation more to tell than the majority of persons who write memoirs, but she has the gift of recounting the things that have befallen her with a real literary skill.”—Publishers’ Weekly.
“Great is Bernhardt, and great is any true description of her life, for nothing more fascinatingly brilliant could have come from the mind of the most daring of fictionists. The autobiography is as interesting to those who care nothing for the theatre as to those devoted to it.”—Baltimore Sun.
“It is the work of a genius which feels and sees with instinctive insight and understanding, and puts into words such a bright and varied panorama of life as it has been given to few authors to portray.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer.
“Out of an overflowing reservoir of reminiscence the author pours out a flood of anecdote and of dramatic story, and she always gives the idea that she is only skimming the surface and that other treasures lie always below.”—San Francisco Argonaut.
“The book is interesting and entertaining from cover to cover, and is related with a vivacity that is engaging.”—Toledo Blade.
“The eventful life lived by Madame Bernhardt both on and off the stage is told with great charm. Not only has the greatest actress of her generation more to tell than the majority of persons who write memoirs, but she has the gift of recounting the things that have befallen her with a real literary skill.”—Publishers’ Weekly.
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.