The Tasmanian Sisters

An exploratory look at The Sunday at Home recently turned up a story with an interesting title – to a Tasmanian anyway – in the volume for 1899-1900 (Vol. 47).

The Sunday at Home, subtitled in some years "a family magazine for Sabbath reading", was produced by The Religious Tract Society in London from 1854 until 1912. The Launceston Mechanics' Institute collection includes a substantial run of the magazine although it is far from complete.

The story in question, 'The Tasmanian Sisters' by E.B. Moore, appeared in serial form over two issues with the assertion that it was "Founded on Fact."

Nothing has been discovered about E. B. Moore, although the Religious Tract Society had previously published a novel Lucia: A Spanish Tale of Today in 1896 under the same name. There is no reason to assume E. B. Moore was a Tasmanian, and the detail in the story does nothing to settle the question.

Chapter One opens thus;

The evening shadows were settling down over Mount Wellington in Tasmania. The distant city was already bathed in the rosy after-glow.

It was near one of the many lakes which abound amongst the mountains round Hobart that our short tale begins.

and the story, over four chapters, is set in Tasmania, on Gibraltar, and on board the Minerva.

This Sunday at Home version of the story is not recorded on TROVE, but a later version is, published in The Empire Annual for Girls of 1911 where it is described as "a story of loving service and changed lives". 

The final section of the story is omitted in this version, as is the illustration.

For those who wish to read the story (or part of it), the Annual has been made available on Project Gutenberg and in other places.

This illustration by Sydney Cowell was used for the second instalment of 'The Tasmanian Sisters' in The Sunday at Home.