Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1888 — Her Song Came at Last. [ARTICLE]

Her Song Came at Last.

Philadelphia Press. . “Young people with literary aspirations,” said Richard Watson Gilder, the editor of the Century, the other day, “have some very absurd ideas about the prejudice editors hf magazines are supposed to have against beginners or unknown writers. As - a matter of fact *we are always on the lookout for a really good piece of work from any source. Two years ago a young woman, a teacher in a Massachusetts school, began sending us verses. There was something good in everything she sent and something rough or uneven as well, which just prevented our being able to accept it. We became very much interested in her, however, and one day when a perfect gem of poetry came to us from her there was a general rejoicing. It began with this line: “Perchance I’ll sing my song to-day,’’and the idea w r as thatasthe writer woke in the morning she thought perhaps, on this day I will do the work that lamtodo in in this world. The thought was an invigorating one. Any man might say, perhaps on this day I will win my battle, paint my great picture, or do whatever the deed may he by which I will be remembered and which will be my excuse for having existed. We sent her, by general consent, a check for a much larger amount than we were in the habit of giving. We received it by retun mail, with the brief information that while the girl had been writing the poem we so much liked she had been very ill, and' on the day she sent it she had died. But she had sung her song.”