Nicholas Lingan, was educated in St. Omers, France, where his kinsman, barrister Charles Carroll, had been sent in his youth, and he was the first man in the District of Columbia to issue manumission papers. His objection to slavery extended down his line to his latest descendants. Mrs. Dorsey declined to answer "Uncle Tom's Cabin." because, as she said in response to the demand made on her by public and publishers, "with the exception of the burning of the slaves hinted at" of which she had never heard an instance I, "everything represented as the inevitable result of the system of slavery is true, however kind and considerate of the slaves the masters might be." She was brought up under the influence of the old emancipation party of the border States, who were conscientiously opposed to slavery, but never made themselves offensive to those who were not. Her father, Rev. William McKenney, belonged to an old Eastern Shore family, which has been represented in the Legislature, the courts and on the bench for generations. In politics her race were all Federalists and old-line Whigs, and she was an ardent Unionist during the Civil War. Her oldest brother was one of the last men in the Senate of Virginia to make a speech against secession. Her only son served in the Union Army and got his death-wound while planting the Stars and Stripes on the ramparts at Fort Hell. In 1837 she became the wife of Lorenzo Dorsey, of Baltimore, a son of Judge Owen Dorsey. She and her husband are converts to the Catholic faith. She has devoted herself exclusively to Catholic light literature, of which she is the pioneer in this country, with the exception of two ringing war lyrics, "Men of the Land" and "They're Coming. Grandad," the latter dedicated to the loyal people of Fast Tennessee, who suffered such martyrdom for their fidelity to the old Mag. She began her literary career by a touching little story called " The Student of Rlenheim Forest," and this was followed rapidly by "Oriental Pearl," "Nora Brady's Vow," " Mona the Vestal." "Heiress of Carrigmona," "Tears on the Diadem," "Woodreve Manor," "The Young Countess." "Dummy," "Coaina. the Rose of the Algonquins." " Beth's Promise," "Warp and Woof," "Zoe's Daughter," "Old House at (llenaran," " Fate of the Dane." "Mad Penitent of Todi." "A Brave Girl." "Story of Manuel." "The Old Grey Rosary." "Ada's Trust," "Adrift." "Palms," and others. Her books have brought her the friendship of whole religious communities, prelates and authors, and across the seas the venerable Catholic Earl of Shrewsbury and Lady George Fullerton were among her warm admirers. "May Brooke" was the first Catholic book published in Edinburgh since the Reformation, and "Coaina" has been twice dramatized and translated into German and Hindustani. Pope Leo has twice sent her his special blessing, first by the Cardinal Archbishop James Gibbons, and the second time by her granddaughter. Miss Mohun, at a recent special audience She has also received the gift of the Lætare medal from the University of Notre Dame for distinguished services rendered to literature, education and religion. Mrs. Dorsey is now an invalid, and is living with her children in Washington, D. C.
DORSEY, Miss Ella Loraine, author, born in Washington, D. C. in 185-. She is the youngest child of Mrs. Anna Hanson Dorsey, the pioneer of Catholic light literature in America. Born a few years before the breaking out of the Civil War, her early childhood was spent amid the stirring scenes of border life. The entire kin on both sides were in the Confederacy, with the exception of her father and her only brother, who received his death wound on the ramparts of "Fort Hell," where he had dashed up with the colors, caught from the color-nearer, and stood cheering his comrades to the charge. Miss Dorsey represents old and illustrious families of Maryland, counting among her kinsfolk and connections two signers of the Declaration of Independence, eight signers of the Act of the Maryland Convention of 26th July, 1776, two Presidents, seven Governors, thirty-six commissioned officers in the Continental Army, and a number of the young heroes of the famous old Maryland Line, who died on the field of honor at Long Island. Harlem Heights and Fort Washington. She began her literary career as a journalist and was for several years the " Vanity Fair "of the Washington "Critic." leaving that paper to take a special correspondence on the Chicago "Tribune." John Boyle O'Reilly and the Rev. D. E. Hudson, editor of the "Ave Maria," urged her into magazine
ELLA LORAINE DORSEY.
work. Her first three stories appeared almost simultaneously, "The Knickerbocker Ghost" and "The Tsar s Horses." in the "Catholic World." and " Back from the Frozen Pole," in "Harper's Magazine." "The Tsar's Horses" traveled round the world, its last reproduction being in New Zealand. It was attributed at first, because of its accuracy of detail, to Archibald Forbes, the war correspondent. Miss Dorsey's specialty is boys' stories. "Midshipman Bob" went through two editions in this country and England in its first year, and has been since translated into Italian. Scarcely second to it in popularity are "Saxty's Angel" and "The Two Tramps," while two poems printed in the "Cosmopolitan" have been received with marked favor. Miss Dorsey is the Russian translator in the Scientific Library of the Interior Department, Washington, D. C. Site is an enthusiastic member and officer of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and her later work is "Three Months
