Woman of the Century/Margaret Wynne Lawless

LAWLESS, Mrs. Margaret Wynne, poet, born in Adrian, Mich., 14th July, 1847, and there passed her childhood and youth. MARGARET WYNNE LAWLESS. The educational facilities of the place were more than ordinary, as it possessed an excellent high school and a well-equipped college. In the former she pursued her studies, attaining at an early age great proficiency, especially in the classics, Latin and Greek, and graduating when fourteen years old Up to that time she had shown no especial literary taste, but when she went back to her alma mater to take a post-graduate course, she intermingled with her studies a rhymed translation of the first of the Satires of Horace She discovered the gift which was hers, and for some time she drew upon her resources without stint, sending poems and fiction to eastern magazines, where they found ready acceptance and fair remuneration. A few years passed away, and then a nearly mortal illness prostrated her in mind and body, and she gave up her pen, as she supposed, forever. In 1873 she became the wife of Dr. James T. lawless, a practicing physician in Toledo, O., which city is still their home. Her life has been a busy one, for she is the mother of eight sons, the oldest of whom has just entered college. A few years ago the poetical fire became again alight, and she began to send forth her work, this time with a clearer perception of the meaning of life, with a better understanding of her own powers, and with higher purposes. Before, she wrote for the mere pleasure of writing, now there was a message for her to deliver, and it came most readily and clearly in lines glowing with poetic fervor. Mrs. Lawless is not a prolific writer, but her name is not a strange one in many of the leading magazines and papers of the country, such as "Lippincott's Maga- zine," "Frank Leslie's Magazine," the "Catholic World," and others. Many of her poems have found a welcome place in the " Travelers' Record " of Hartford, Conn. The absorbing cares of her family have thus far prevented Mrs. Lawless from giving full scope to her gift, and yet she has done enough to win for her a wide recognition.