File:New York, the metropolis - its noted business and professional men. (1893) (14802359603).jpg

Identifier: newyorkmetropoli00spra_0 (find matches)
Title: New York, the metropolis : its noted business and professional men.
Year: 1893 (1890s)
Authors: Sprague, John Franklin.
Subjects:
Publisher: (New York) : New York Recorder
Contributing Library: Columbia University Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: The Durst Organization

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Mrs. Frank Leslie
As an example of what an American woman can do, and how perseverance and pluck will overcome all obstacles, Mrs. Frank Leslie can be pointed to with both pride and wonderment. The career of this clever woman indeed almost reads like a romance. Mrs. Leslie was born in New Orleans, of parents descended from Huguenot emigres. Her name was Miriam Florence. She was educated by her father, who was a scholar and a gentleman. Literature and the classics were her earliest impressions, and Latin, French, Italian, German and Spanish were taught her simultaneously with the native American. This strong foundation of knowledge she brought into excellent use in the future.

From an early age she devoted herself to literary pursuits and her first printed effort appeared when she was but thirteen years old. Cincinnati was the scene of her earlier labors and then she migrated to New York. In the Metropolis fate guided her footsteps to the famous art publisher Frank Leslie, and her journalistic career was from that moment launched on the flood tide of success. One of Mr. Leslie's editors was taken grievously ill and the fair Louisianian volunteered to fill the break. She did so with such success and happy grace that the art publisher became smitten with her charms and talents, and the romance culminated in a pretty wedding at St. Thomas's Church, Fifth Avenue. Despite the disparity in the ages of the couple the marriage was an exceedingly happy one. The young bride became her husband's co-worker and efficient helpmate in the literary and artistic conduct of his numerous publications. Socially, Mrs. Leslie has reigned queen from the earliest days of her marriage. In New York and at Saratoga she entertained charmingly and splendidly. In- deed, her regal welcome of Dom Pedro of Brazil and his Empress at her splendid Interlaken Villa on Saratoga Lake is a matter of history. In 1877 the Leslies made a business and pleasure trip from New York to San Francisco, in a train of special Pullman cars and with a picked corps of artists and writers. The journey was designed to portray the wonders of the Far \Vest in the Illustrated Newspaper, but it also resulted in Mrs. Leslie's entertaining and bright book " From Gotham to the Golden Gate," published by Carleton. But now the sunshine oi life began to dim for the clever pair and the clouds of misfortune gathered thickly.

Late in 1877 Mr. Leslie got caught in the financial panic and he had to make an assignment for the benefit of his creditors. His death speedily followed. He died on January 10, 1880, leaving to his wife the solemn injunction to carry out his obligations. Mrs. Leslie was left a monumental task. She was to work at her dead husband's desk until all the debts were paid and the great Frank Leslie establishment freed from incumbrance. She nobly faced the ordeal and she came out with triumph and honor. The burden of $300,000 was wiped away, and to-day the Frank Leslie Publishing House, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Sixteenth Street, is one of the most flourishing in the city of New York. It is a show place for business visitors, and its charming mistress and guiding star is one of the most successful and popular woman workers in Gotham. Mrs. Leslie still entertains lavishly. She makes annual visits to Europe, where her popularity is as great as it is here. She is Vice-President of the Professional Woman's League and foremost in all good deeds and suggestions for the benefit of woman in journalism. It is above all in professional life — in the literary, artistic and journalistic circles of New York, that the versatile genius and rare personality of this world-famous woman find congenial scope and exercise. Her devotion to her editorial and publishing work is a matter of taste and inclination, rather than of business exigency: her heart is in it. This is the informing spirit, the feminine tact and energy, that has kept Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly Magazine on the crest of its great popularity, steadily in the van of progress at a time when unexampled competition has given to illustrated periodical literature fully half a century's development in the space of five or six years. With the prestige of professional success and prosperity crowning that already secure, and perhaps (secretly) more highly prized, succes de jolie femme, it is no wonder that Mrs. Frank Leslie has been petted by the press. We had almost written spoiled by the press, but that word would l)e ill-chosen indeed to a gracious personality so conspicuously ^//spoiled as hers. What it is really meant to intimate is that, with the most courteous intentions in the world, the newspapers have at times been diffuse in a manner for which, doubtless, the fair object of their attentions would not wish to be held responsible. The private Mrs. Frank Leslie is a noble, refined and sensitive woman, besides being beautiful in person and exquisitely well- dressed. In conclusion, and to sum up the record of a good life which cannot be done justice to within the circumscribed limits of a sketch. Miss Rose Elizabeth Cleveland wrote in " Literary Life : " " Mrs. Leslie is that most gracious and attractive of all human beings — a woman's woman. She has proved herself one of the greatest, most