LOUISA WAS "JO"

Evening Post, Issue 50, 27 August 1935, Page 15

LOUISA WAS "JO"

THE REAL "LITTLE WOMEN"

LIFE OF SELF-SACRIFICE

"When I was young 'Little Women' was a household word in every; schoolloom," slates a writer m the "Syd-ney-Morning Herald." "Put me on, even now, at any page, and I think I could tell you, in Miss Alcott't> very words, paragiaph after paragraph, of the girls' adventures. It wasn't that we didn't like boys' books, for Indians and cowboys had their undoubted thrill, but a btory of girls like ourselves, who were never very distinguished, but who, we felt, did the same things a little differently, held an endless fascination.

"I suppose all is changed now, but the success of fee picture will have brought the old book back again in the: limelight.

"What was she like, this Louisa Alcott, who so obviously knew what girls did? Cornelia Meigs, a name that might have come out of 'Little Women' itself, has just written her life, and her book has become a best-seller in America (Dymock's.)

'"Of course; Louisa was 'Jo,' that shock-! mahed would-be ;boy,: would-be authoress, whom iwe\ all loved and laughed at and wjshed.to copy^ ■• Jo had to be the man of her family, !'We haven't got no boys,', and so. had.; Louisa. She had to jn^e.money,'so. to keep her family Ifrpmlwant; she;"set down the daily happenings- ofifhe girls, and except for-a:few yeaxs of fame before' her' death.v'she" 'wasirpluite. content to vise her penlfori Uoity^piu;poses; only to ;keep; a -roof .byeri.'JWarmee's' head; In the- firsfci'- twenty-eight .years pf Louisa's; life itheyiihad-inpyed theirl pantechni«^^rrjßd3^urniture'-;;tp | tw.entyioine. houses^b&toretthey .finally settleditbtwatch Elizabe^ (dying months In;Otq^d\House, irrey-i erenttyicaUed by touiisatApple Slump after a certain puddinigi'popular'in;the family,; butlof!^no«eleganicef^fpr?smart occasions.■:::?:.•,.'■.■.-■ ■;,(:';!■%'-sS?;^?^;;v•■■ ■' '•'<'

■;i'Tnelfehadb\vy.; :ia^r^pj;-ifie%;bobk, awayKphj: active: seMce^^'i^chaplain, iwas) indeed ;BrpnspjnP Alciott;. father /; of the irealiljittlej^Wpmen^butvhe'; was aj> tiially-a soldier in the; feaufe;bf theories of education';;'commonplace" jiow, but then fifjsvyearsiahead^Pflth^ir period; As-a:.teacher;.hev^as<;cpnistantly... .Sis-

missed for his revolutionary ideas.' Louisa herself was thfe recruit to .Civil War Service, and heir: lon^mane 'of chestnut hair, 'my brie beauty,' was;an offering to; her country, • cut off, as it was, as a:resultl of typhoid fever, contracted, in^ the. military hospitals, v' ,; In the .book you remember she;-sold her hau-; with, bitter tears to make her cpntributipn tp the family's' Christinas.';:-. ■i[i ::- ]y'-^J^''TUEI BopTS.''-:ir ::'::;^v v;" Anna -.;; ('Meg') /Louisa '?■ ('Jb);:'; Beth^ MayCAmy')^ they'Uved,their; girlhood in .cheerful poverty,.:;conspling!: themselves' with... their newspaper,; which lives verbatim in the book;. and their play-acting. ' ; -Dp)ydu-.remember 'The Boots,' for; {which a*part\ had always to:be written? She say's: .'I laid hands upon, someiskins of ;tanned leather and .cut put crude profiles .of iwhat a nobleman's boots ought:to :be; -'These I sewed together, oyer ■ and;- over - like patchwork.' The result';:: was ■ truly magnificent., Louisa,'trod .the boards of the barn theatre.; in a blaze of :glory.; : "Some of the acclaim '.was- for Anna ('Meg'),: some -for 'J0,'.,; andva f great deal, deservedly, was for ;thevboots.;:

"What about Laurie; -that : cheery black-haired boy with: whom \ye were all in 'love? We .? &hust go; further afield for i him. : : After years of', toil Louisa! was : taken, as '■ companion: by an:inyaUd, on ,a ; tour-in Europe.; There she inet:a";-thhi;' lbnely.'-romantic boy, a young Pole exiled from Jhis; country; Her maternal soul was /touched, ' she mothered him and enjoyed his- company. ; f But, true to- her even in -.print,:she .gavef'hini !tb: the -pretty,: selfish Amy in.:her book,; arid sent her. sister on ■-: long^ ; delightful journeys with him in .her:chapters.! "Louisa had no very long life. .At fifty-six;.she felt worn; but mentally and;; physically.- She v ;had nursed 'Marmee' and given her last comforts. She had paid; to educate ;: widowed 'Meg's' two boys. She :had adopted arid brought up. poor 'Amy's' orphan daughter, when she felt her own energies failing. Her last charge, ■ her father, was fading ' slowly .and happily out of life, when she caught a chill and died, just realising that he needed her no longer. She had had what she .wanted from life, 'Just to look after;them all.'"