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.