The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1862-04-18
WASHINGTON IRVING.
WHY HE WAS NEV ER MAKRIE
A TOUCHING STORY.

The New York correspondent of the
Boston Post writes as follows:
Much mystery has attached to the celib-
acy of Washington Irving. While upon
every other point of peculiarity of the
great writer's character and career his Ia
mliar friends have taken pains to inform
the wide circle of bis admirers, an aggrava.
ting reticence has always met the question:
ings of those who were curious to know
why matrimoDy made no part of bis expe>
rlence. There were occasional and very
vague references made to lang syne"
love-so dimly distant in the past as to
have the air of tradition-and the manner
of mentioning which made Irving appear
the model of constancy, if not the hero of a
romance. But the circumstances of bis
bachelOrhoOd remained simple, unexplain-
ed fact the theme of many wonderiDgs,
the warp and woof OF much imagining nay
more, the substructure of thousand sweet
sympathies outgushing from other hearts
whose loves had not been lost but gone be-
fore. 1t is doubtful il secret of the sort
all things considered ever before
SO carefully and completely kept. For
once the impertinent were held at bay, the
prying were banked, and the sympathetic,
even, discouraged. The set time for its
disclosure has not come, and, surely, when
his intmates and relatives were debarred
from the remotest reference to the subject
in the hallowed home circle of the literary
bachelor, it was but proper that the truth
should burst upon the world, if at ALL in
lrving's own selected time and in his own
pathetic language.
1t was while engaged in writing his "His.
tory of New York." that Irving, then
young man OF twenty six, was called to
mourn the somewhat sudden death of Ma
tilda Hoffman, whom he had hoped to call
bis wife. This young lady was the second
daughter of Josiah Ogden Hoffman, and
the sister of the two talented men, Charles
Fenno Hoffman, the poet, and Ogden Hoff-
man, the eloquent jurist. In her fathers
office Washington Irving had essayed to
study law, and with every prospect, if in
dustrlous and studious, of partnership
with MIR. Holman as we'll as matrimonial
alliance with Matilda. These high hopes
were disappointed by the decease of the
young lady on the 26th of April, 1909, in
the eighteenth year of her age.
There is pathos about Irvipg's recital
of the circumstances of her death, and of
his own feelings, that is truly painful and
tear impelling. He says: "She was taken
ill with cold. Nothing was thought OF it
at first; but she grew rapidly worse and
fell into consumption. cannot tell you
what l suffered. l saw her
fade rapidly away-beautiful, and more
beautiful and angelic to the very last. 1
was often by her bedside, and in her wan
dering state'of miGd she would talk to me
with asweet, natural and effecting eloquence
that was overpoweriDg. saw more of the
beauty OF her mind in that delirious state
than l had ever known before. Her maady
was rapid in its career, and hurried her off
in two months. Her dying strggules were
painful and protracted. For three days
and three nights l did not leave the
house, and scarcely slept. l was by her
when she died; all the family we're assem-
bled round her, some praying, others weep
ing, for she was adored by them all l was
the last one she looked upon. 4
l cannot tell you what horrid state OF
mind l was in for long time. Iseemed to
care for nothing; the world was blank for
me. l abandoned all thoughts OF the law.
l went into the country, but could not bear
solitude, yet could not enjoy society. There