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(Editor?s Note: The following article is first-, in a scries of portraits of memorable New Orleans women.) ?V c By STELLA PITTS Her husband was dead, his business was deeply in debt, and the young widow was faced with a decision; declare bankruptcy and be done with it. or take over her husband?s job and try to ir ive the situation. ?	1 ?	..
She thought it over for three /.months, and then declared, despite the opposition of her fan^v* ?Hi stick.?	?.	4
.' ?.Thus did 27-year-old Eliza Holbrook known to her readers as ?Pearl Rivers ? become the first woman publisher of an important daily newspaper in the United i> States.-	?	^	?????.	v
happened in New Orleans exactly ?,.100 years ago. ? N 5? ? ?	.
;1-"In .assuming control'of the ?Daily Picayune,? Eliza Holbrook took a--lead-' ing position among the ranks of a growing^number of courageous, enterprising.: and visionary women in New Orleans ? who made names for. themselves in all'' fields of endeavor?literature, medicine, ? ?/. education and-journalism, among them,' f ' r They did so long before anyone had ever :j heard of the Equal Rights Amendment - or the .Women?s Liberation Movement. ??VVBAisfed 011^ plantation >yliich faced a .. branch qf .th&Pearl' Riveri^SQOth Mis-:
, sissippl; Eliza Jane Poite\jent little ,
? indication in her early ygcfrs that she ?' ?might'become a ?pioneer.? She loved ' the out-of-doors and, by the time she was >,14, was writing dreamy poetry described . as ?delicate pictures ol the simple beau-
tyshe found.?--.------	??	???.-
But by the time she was IB, she was I sending copies of her work to the New ? York ?Journal? and to several New Or-j leans newspapers.. They were quickly ? accepted, and she assumed ^the pseudo-nym ?Pearl Rivers? in honor of the < countryside in which she was born.
It was on ayisit^ New Orleans that she met Co(r%J*l>iIolbrook, editor of -the ?Daily Picayune,? who offered her a . position as literary editor at a starting I salary of $25. a week. ;i'o her family?s amazement, she accepted, becoming the . first woman in conservative New Or-leans?and one of the first in the entire South?to earn her living on a newspaper.
Eliza quickly showed her creative talent: she introduced fashion news and stories on art, expanded the book review , column and published the fiction and ' poetry of many writers. f In 1872, Holbrook sold the paper, and ? he and Eliza were marned-~he was 64, kcshe was only 23.
The next year Holbrook bought back the paper, but it was in deep financial trouble, and when he died in 1876, it was $80,000 in debt.
s Once she had made her decision to be-v come publisher, Eliza called the staff to-? gether and said: ?I am a woman. Some of you may not wish to work for a woman. If so, you are free to go and no hard feelings, But you who stay?wiil
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v A" few resigned, but'most of, th$ su ?-"remained. It wasn?t long beforp th< '?'realized: theirfnew..publisher, ?'ey though a ypung woman, was as dynan ffe^a; leader .as any one who, had precede
# Restoring, a spirit of advepturerto '%? '4 1-	?	fiewspaper,*?	she	fii'st	tackled,	thei	fine*
^cial prqbieffts and resolved t^pn^'i* ?^'creased theVadyertlsing, and;then beg. a crusade for ?a release from the tyrp
??PEARL, RIVERS?'
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She alsQ married her.business ma^i i;' ager, George' Nicholson^i^':l878/ aM together they formed the successful pu i?
" iishing - partnership oL;?NichQlSon - at' 4 ; V Company.? -1' *:i' >
The..achievements of ?Pearl, Riven i? were seemingly endless: she built up ??;"staff of .strong, talented writers (inclui ^';ingrthe-' famed advice-to'the-lovelo^
: ^columnist Dorothy Dix);?she Introduce 'T/^e 'society column in New .Orleans^ .?persevered despite local society's shock >^.ed reaction that?it was. ?shabby, jshodtf^ w and shameful??; she created-the.Pic/ ?;yun? ?weather frog?;!(and- she'intro it'duced':such new. ^departments <kc,
I /.JLilliput Land? for young 'people^ fa$U , ions for women and men/ theatricals -? r; a new and larger scale,",personal note '< hints for the home (including dliiW menus), medical advice, science aM agricultural development.. She aUc. introduced comic drawings; columns current ovents. and fiction .from sutw writers as H. G. Wells, Rudyard KipUn^ Emile Zola, Mark Twain and A. Ctona*, Doyle. ?"	f
Under her leadership, the coverage news was expanded, headlines w&r*-enlivened, the paper?s first political cdv toon was published, the number of Uli^f -?? trations was sizeably increased, and fte.
, circulation was tripled./	?
-	She. crusaded vigorously.-for laws protect animals and achieved succe#/
i.:.when tlie Society for the Prevention * ^Cruelty to Animals was founded.
1 -fbrleansin 1888.-? : in 1893, the ?Daily Picayune?-open ";a bureau in Jackson, Miss.?it had maU-jtained a Washington-correspondeKr isince 1872.' In 1806,,the year of Eliza*<f > death, the paper issued its first speq<M ?edition, 24 pages devoted to the develop iment of Mississippi. It was delivered a special train which mads the run Memphis, 394 miles, in 11 hours, ?	?
Eliza Holbrook Nicholson died just days after her husband/and $ rMI paper, ?The Times-Democrat,^ editor alized that ?hardly a philanthropic ins? tution in the city, hardly one of the mav^ benevolent schemes constantly set up New Orleans, to benefit the deservir^
/ poor or the helpless but found in Mn Nicholson an ardent sympathizer,
, powerful.helper with voice, mpnev labor, time and pen."	?	v
-	^ She was only 47 years old. -V..*;