IA PRIESTESS OF PEACE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 6 September 1913, Page 12

IA PRIESTESS OF PEACE.

When some yyars ago the Nobel Prize was «*w«rdea u< ux o liaroness Bertha voc Suttner,a good many people asked each other who was this authoress who was deemed worthy of this high honor. As a. matter of fact, the Baroness yon Suiiner, who has just celebrated her 70th birthday, is one of the most famous of peace propagandists. It was she who, by her book "Lay Down Your Arms," published in ]889, converted to her pacifist doctrines the dynamite manufacturer, Alfred Nobel, and suggested to the Czar the idea of an international congress, which subequently became The Hague Conference. At the first and second of these conferences the Baroness was one of the most prominent unofficial personages. At the second conference she used to hold a sort of salon which was attended by •all the important delegates, and she delivered before.them at least a dozen lectures 011 various aspects of the peace movement. The Baroness yon Suttner was born, a writer in the Daily News says, in Prague. Wlnm she was 33, she married Baron yon Suttner, the marriage being a romance. Owing to parental objections on both sides, the pair were secretly wedded and tied to Tiflis in the Caucasus. Here they lived for nine years, supporting themselves by teaching, giving concerts, keeping books for commercial firms, housedesigning, and journalism. While in the Caucasus the Baroness and her husband began to write under assumed names for German papers, and after their return to Europe nine years later they continued their literary work. It was after her return to Germany that the Baroness conceived the idea of writing her great book, "Lay Down Your Arms." Before writing it, she studied the history of the last European wars and he documents of the Red Cross Society, but what most deeply impressed Iyer, we are told, were Florence Nightingale's descriptions of her experiences in the Crimea. The authoress experienced great difficulty in getting this work published, though it was by no means her first book, but once it appeared its effect was remarkable. Lon^ articles from the pens of leading critics appeared in the newspapers, and soon after its publication it was quoted in the Austrian Parliament. It was translated into eight languages, and ran into edition after edition, and is still greatly in demand. The Baroness yon Suttner still continues her peace propaganda, and when rot on a lecture tour, or attending Congresses, lives quietly at Vienna.