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538 duty did not occur to the new owner. She gathered about her a brilliant staff of writers, went faithfully and patiently to her "desk's dead wood," worked early and late, was both economical and enterprising, and. after years of struggle, won her battle and made her paper a foremost power in the South, yielding her a handsome, steady income It has been under her management for fifteen years. To those in her employ she is always kind and courteous, and her staff honor and esteem her and work for her with enthusiasm. In 1878 she became the wife of George Nicholson, then business manager of the paper and now part proprietor. In their hospitable home the gentle poet's proudest poems, her two little boys, Leonard and Yorke, brighten and gladden the peaceful days. She has published but one volume of poems, "Lyrics by Pearl Rivers" (Philadelphia, 1873).

NIERIKER, Mrs. May Alcott, artist, born in Concord, Mass., in 1840, and died in 1879. She was a daughter of A. Bronson Alcott. Early showing a decided talent for art, she was trained in that direction in the Boston School of Design, in Krug's studio, in Paris, and by S. Tuckerman, Dr. Rimtner, Hunt, Vautier, Johnston. Müller and other well-known artists. She spent her life in Boston and Ixwulon, and after her marriage to Ernest Nieriker she lived in Paris, France. Her work included oil and water-colors of high merit, and her copies of Turner's paintings are greatly prized in London. where they are now given to students to work from in their lessons. Her work was exhibited in all the principal American and European galleries. She was at the height of her powers at the time of her death.

NIXON, Mrs. Jennie Caldwell, educator, born in Shelbyville, Tenn., 3rd March, 1839. Descended on her mother's side from the English Northcotes and Loudons, she received from her father the vigorous blood of the Campbells and Caldwells of Scotland. Reared in ease and affluence on the fine old family estate, she exhibited at an early age a marked fondness for books.

Her education was interrupted by her early marriage, which took place in New Orleans, but the following year, spent in foreign travel, did much to quicken her intellectual growth by developing her natural taste for art and cultivating that nigh poetic instinct, which is one of the leading characteristics of her mind. Recalled to America by the war, which swept away her inheritance, and widowed shortly afterward, she determined to adopt teaching as a profession. Though already possessed of an unusual degree of culture, she again went abroad, with her two little children, and courageously devoted herself to hard study for several years in France and Germany, in order to acquire a more thorough knowledge of general literature before attempting to teach her own. On her return she entered at once upon her chosen career, varying its arduous duties by lectures to literary club and by the use of her pen in purely literary work. In the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition, held in New Orleans in 1884-85, she represented Louisiana in the department of woman's work, and in the following year she was appointed president of the same department in the North, Central and South American Exposition. When the Sophie Newcomb Memorial College for young women was founded, in New Orleans, in 1887, she was invited to the chair of English literature, a position which she continues to fill with great ability. Of late years she has contributed to leading periodicals many articles on the topics of the day, essays in lighter vein, fiction and verse. Of special note is her scholarly set of lecturer entitled "Immortal Lovers." which were delivered before the Woman's Club of New Orleans. Her style, though forcible and vivid, is at the same time singularly flexible and graceful. As a poet she shows that tender sympathy with Nature which is the poet's greatest charm. To her other gifts, she adds the homely grace of the good housewife. Strangers and residents in New Orleans will not soon forget "The Cabin," abandoned since the marriage of her children, that "little home innocent of bric-a-brac," described by Maud Howe in her "Atalanta in the South," where choicest spirits were wont to assemble and where the genius of hospitality brooded in the air. The frank, liberal, high-souled nature of the poet-teacher, strengthened by self-control and enriched by many and varied experiences, has made a lasting impression on the community in which she lives.

NOBLE, Mrs. Edna Chaffee, elocutionist, born in Rochester, Vt., 12th August, 1846. She spent her childhood in happy, healthful living until the age of fourteen, when she went to the Green Mountain Institute, Woodstock, Vt, where she studied for four years. After a year of study there, she was allowed to teach classes, and she has been connected with schools in one way or another ever since. She first taught in district schools, where she "boarded around." and later was preceptress of an academy in West Randolph, Vt., teaching higher English, French and Latin. She was the first woman to teach the village school in her native town, where she surprised the unbelieving villagers by showing as much ability as her predecessors. When the committee came to hire her and asked her terms, she replied: "The same you have paid the gentleman whose place you wish me to fill, unless there is more work to do, under which circumstances I shall require more pay." The committee thought they could not give a woman a