Christian Association building, and assisted in establishing a mission kindergarten on the west side of Milwaukee.
BELL, Miss Orelia Key, poet, born in Atlanta, Ga., 8th April, 1864. Her birthplace was
OMELIA KEY BELL.
the Bell mansion, a stately Southern home in the heart of the city. The house has become historic, as it was, soon after Orelia's birth, the headquarters of General Sherman's engineering corps, and the room in which she was born and spent the first three months of her life was that used by General Sherman as a stable for his favorite colt. Miss Bell is of gentle birth on both sides of her house, and is very thoroughly educated. A poem by her father, "God is Love," has been the key-note to some of her highest and sweetest songs. She suffered loss of home and property but met her reverses with a brave front and a song in her heart, and her spirit, strong in courage and purity, has voiced itself in countless melodies that have won for her both fame and money. She writes always with strength and grace. Power and melody are wedded in her poems. Her warmest recognition from the press has come from Richard Watson Gilder of the "Century," Page M. Baker, of the New Orleans "Times-Democrat," Charles A. Dana, of the New York "Sun," Mrs. Frank Leslie, Henry W. Grady, and Thaddeus E. Horton, and her own home papers the "Constitution" and the "Journal." Her poem "Maid and Matron" has been used by Rhea as a select recitation. To the instructions of her friend, Mrs. Livingston Mimms, leader of the Christian Science movement South, and founder of the first Church of Christ (Scientist) in Georgia, Miss Bell owes the inspiration of her most enduring work, the International Series of Christian Science Hymns, to the writing of which she gave much time.
BELLAMY, Mrs. Emily Whitfield Croom, novelist, born in Quincy, Fla., 17th April, 1839. She was educated in Springer Institute, New York City. She taught in a female seminary in Eutaw, Ala., for several years. Mrs. Bellamy has written under the pen-name "Kampa Thorpe," "Four Oaks" (New York, 18671, and "Little Joanna" (New York. 1876). Besides her novels she has written many short prose articles and poems for the periodical press. Mrs. Bellamy now resides in Mobile, Ala.
BENEDICT, Miss Emma Lee, author and educator, born in Clifton Park, Saratoga county, N. Y., 16th November, 1857. The daughter of a quiet farmer, she early gained from the fields and woods a love for nature as well as the foundations of robust health and a good physique. Always fond of books, at the age of twelve years she had read nearly everything in her father's small but well-selected library.
EMMA LEE BENEDICT.
At school she was able to keep pace with pupils much older than herself, besides finding time for extra studies. Her first introduction to science was through an old school-book of her mother's, entitled "Familiar Science," and another on natural philosophy, which she carried to school and begged her teacher to hear her recite from. At seventeen she began to teach, and the following year entered the State Normal College at Albany, from which she was graduated in 1879. After a few more years of successful teaching, she began to write for educational papers and was soon called to a position on the editorial stall of the New York "School Journal," where she remained for more than three years. A desire for more extended opportunities for study and a broader scope for literary work led her to resign that position and launch on the sea of miscellaneous literature. A very successful book by her, "Stories of Persons and Places in Europe" (New York, 1887), was published in the following year, besides stories, poems and miscellaneous articles which appeared in various standard publications. Miss Benedict
