The first thing Miss Davis published was a little poem in blank verse which appeared in 'The Times-Democrat;' it was an address to a group of giant pines at Beauvoir and was signed 'The Colonel.' She was a member of a little literary club in New Orleans called the 'Pangnostics,' at which each girl read a paper at an appointed time. 'The Daughter's of the Confederacy' chose for her subject Robert Emmet, in whom she felt a strong interest because Mrs. Davis' grandfather, Colonel James Kempe, of Natchez, had been one of Emmet's men before he was sixteen. Besides questioning her mother closely as to the stories which her great-grandfather had told about the ill-fated struggle for freedom in the home of his youth, she read at least twenty books on Irish history or subjects related to it, in order to prepare herself for writing, 'An Irish Knight of the Nineteenth Century,'[15] as the piece was called, contains a vivid portrayal of the oppression of Ireland from the earliest times and a sympathetic sketch of the young patriot, whose life was a romantic tragedy. The author shows as great enthusiasm for freedom as does Schiller in his 'Robbers.' Charles Dudley Warner, who was present when the paper was read to the club, was much pleased with it, and Mr. and Mrs. Davis were so proud of it that they decided to have it published, expecting only to distribute copies gratuitously among their friends. However, it went through three editions, and although she had only a small percentage on the books, which sold for twenty-five cents, it brought the young girl $300. Mr. Ridpath once told Mrs. Davis that it had gone through many Irish societies and awakened much enthusiasm. The next publication, entitled 'Serpent Myths,' appeared in 'The North American Review.'[16] It shows wide reading and offers an interesting and ingenious theory to explain the origin of these myths. After this came some short descriptions of German life written for various papers and some clever bits of versification which were never published. Two or three years after her father's death she wrote for 'The Ladies' Home Journal' a very strong article against foreign education for American girls, on the ground that such education gives the pupil a different point of view from her own people and puts her out of harmony with her surroundings. This piece attracted wide attention in the North as well as in the South. She wrote for 'Belford's Magazine'[17] a clever criticism of Colonel William Preston Johnston's theory that Hamlet was intended as a characterization of James I, of England.