THE AUTHOR OF 'LITTLE DROPS OF WATER.'

Southern Cross, Volume 12, Issue 15, 9 July 1904, Page 3

THE AUTHOR OF 'LITTLE DROPS OF WATER.'

In Galesburg, Illinois (says a writer in ‘Success’), there lives .an elderly lady whose rhythmic words nearly every English-speak-ing person has recited. She is Mrs Julia A. Carney, the author of the famous poem ‘Little Drops of Water,’ and she is nearly eighty-two years old. While Mrs Carney has devoted most of her life to writing—> publishing a greater part of her widely-read poems anonymously—her popularity rests upon the one short poem, ‘Little Drops rf Water,’ as it is popularly known, or * Little Things,’ -which, the author says, is the real title, A short time ago, says the writer, I had the pleasure of visiting Mrs Carney, who lives in a small, prettily-situ-ated house. I was escorted to her room, and found her at a small writing table. Something in the radiance of her pleasant countenance told me that I was more than welcome, and without hesitation I took advantage of the situation. I directed a few questions concerning the author of ‘Little Drops of Water.’ The poem was written while Mrs Carney was attending a class in phonography held in the old Tremont Temple, Boston, fifty-nine years ago. She wrote it in ten minutes merely as an exercise in metre which a professor desired the students to practise. The next morning she made a few changes in it, adding a verse or two, for she enjoyed teaching a Sunday school class, and thought that it might be well to read her verses as a poetic lesson. This she did on the following Sunday, and the parents of some of the children who heard the lines were so impressed that they sought a publisher for the young authoress. Several periodicals published the poem soon after.