Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/609

604 friend she once wrote: "To have happiness is to have the best of life, and I know I have as much of that as ever falls to the lot of woman." Her attitude is not one of expectancy as regards applause

or recognition of her writings, for she admits that nothing surprises her more than occasional infallible evidence that some of her oldest sketches are still going the rounds of the newspapers. She has been a contributor to the Cincinnati " Times, " Chicago "Tribune." "Christian Union." "Good Cheer," and the Milwaukee "Wisconsin," "Sentinel " and "Telegraph." She wrote also for the "Milwaukee Monthly," which was at one time quite a popular magazine. One of her best sketches, "A Forbidden Topic," was incorporated in the book entitled "Brave Men and Women." In telling what the women of Wisconsin have done, it will not do to omit a pleasant mention of "Gale Forest," who, as a writer of decidedly meritorious, though not voluminous, prose sketches, occupies a sunny little niche by herself.

RENFREW, Miss Carrie, poet and biographer, was born in Marseilles. Ill. She is a daughter of the late Silvester Renfrew, one of the pioneer settlers of Hastings, Neb., who died in 1888. She is one of a family of five children.

She was carefully educated and reared in a refined and cultured atmosphere. She received all the educational advantages of her native town, and she has supplemented tier school course with a wide course in reading. In childhood she was a thinker, a dreamer and a philosopher with a poetic turn of mind, but she did not "lisp in numbers" She waited until reason was ready to go hand in hand with rhyme, and then she began to write verses. She had not studied the art of rhyming, and some of her first productions showed the crudity to be expected where there was a lack of training in modes of expression. In spite of all drawbacks of that kind, she wrote well enough to attract attention, and her maturer work leaves nothing to be desired in the matter of form. In 1885 she became a contributor to the Chicago "Inter-Ocean," the "Woman's Tribune" and other prominent journals. In 1800 she began to contribute to the "Magazine of Poetry," and her poems have found wide currency. Her prose work includes a large number of biographies of prominent Nebraska women for this volume. She has written much in verse, and her work shows steady advancement in quality. She stands among the foremost of the literary women in Nebraska.

RENO, Mrs. Itti Kinney, novelist and social leader, born in Nashville, Tenn., 17th May, 1862. She is the daughter of Col. George S. Kinney, of Nashville. She was a high-strung, imaginative child, remarkably bright and precocious, and while still very young she was sent to a convent in Kentucky, where she remained until her education was completed. She was graduated with first honors, and her valedictory was delivered by the embryo author in the form of an original poem. Her debut in the great world was marked by the brilliance that wealth and social influence confer, and soon she became one of the belles of Tennessee's capital. She became the wife, in May, 1885, of Robert Ross Réno, only child of the late M. A. Réno, Major of the Seventh United States Cavalry, famous for the gallant defense of his men during two days and nights of horror, from the overwhelming force of Sioux, who the day before had massacred Custer's entire battalion. Through his mother Mr. Reno is related to some of the oldest families in Pennsylvania, and, though possessed of private wealth, he has expectations of a brilliant fortune, being one of the heirs of old Philippe Francois Renault (anglicized Reno), who came over with Lafayette, and who left an estate valued now at $200,000,000. For several years after her marriage Mrs. Reno led the life of a young woman of fashion and elegance. In