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

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



Text Appearing After Image:
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

enterprising of the publishers of this age — the equal in enterprise, ability and discretion of any man in the world."