New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-02-12

" You will collect from this that we have received
summons from the UndcT-Sherih, which was gwen
| over the pale TO William this morning" Dr Milford
| was In London. off and on during the rest of the
year. living like the Nabob that he was at Q fash-
onabe coffee house while his wife and daughierre
named at home, the former pacing up ana do"h
the garden walk Gf there was one at bertFah
| Housed, the latter scribbllng away at verse
IN the hope that she might somc day make
money by IT. They were in great distress ior money
al Bertram House e. shall depend on llttio supply
of cash tomorrow" Mrs. Milford wrote to her hus-
bandl Ito settle with Frank and Henry" servants
10 be dismissed as the few shllings ] have left
will not more than suffice for letters and such trcs
Whether the cash came not told. DR.. Milford
remained in london-beng, II is probable, in prison.
Mary had finished long poem, which Coeridge had
overlooked in the proof and it may interest the bib
biographical reader TO know that while he cut some
Of her lines, he added Others of his own which are
worth looking mp. Christina. OF the Maid of the
South Seas" was published in 1871 and as there was
then rage for stories in verse, which the most IN
different failed 10 disgust, it became popular, es-
peciay in America, where it passed through several
editions DR.. Milford still remained i'll London
out of ms prison, and in his coffec-house-
and Mary was at work another metrleal
romance. She cOuld not have been in good trim for
deplorabe condition. She advised her father to sell
all they had out of the funds and with the proceeds
and the sale of their books and furniture, clear off
their debts and let the house. that they might go
into cottage or small lodgings in London. And
she entreated him TO tell her the full extent OF his
embaTassments Whatever those embarrassments
may be- of one thing am certain, that the world
does not contain so proud, so happy, or so foud
daughter. | would not exchange my father, even
though we toiled together for our daily bread for
any man on nth though he could pour all the gold
of Peru into my lap While are together we can
never be wretchcd and when all our debts are paid
we shabe happy"
To men like Dr. Milford no amount of money can
he said TO be suffcent for the greater the amount
they have, the greater the temptation to squander
1T with all such men ruin is merely a question OF
time 1t would be unjust to DR.. Milford not TO say,
that the longer he lived the slower he in running
himself and his family; for while he was only eight
or nine years in wasting all his wifes fortune, it was
upward of twenty years before he rot rid of the
twenty thousand pounds his daughter won in the
lottery. 1t was upward of twenty years, that is,
before the family had 70 leave Bertram House for
eHsf though il reality they were as good as iuiDed
years before First they dispensed with the servant
ont of livery: then there ceased to be any lady's
maid The footnan had become awkward lad,
who waited UPON the table, went out with the car
Tiage and made himself useful in the stable and gar
den They could not ride when they wished, as the
horses had to be employed on the work OF
the farm by and by the carriage needed repairing,
so it was parted with, and its place was
not supplied 10y another. Then the pictures
were sent up to London ana sold hastily at auction
The collector was always threatening them for the
taxes, which were always in arrears and the trades
men refused to serve them until previous accounts
were settled On several occasions they did not
know where to procure food for the grayhOunds and
once Mrs Milford wrote TO her husband and i'm
plored him TO send her "A one-pound note, as they
were actually in want of bread. The cause of all thus
misery was the Doctors love of gaming. lie CON
sidered himself good whist player, but, like
many who consider themselves good players, he
found the cards always against him. lie sometimes
imagined himself cheated-a suspicion which his
daughter appeared TO share for in one of her letters
she advised him " to withdraw from inferior clubs,
and coniine himsefto Grahams. for there at least,
he would play with gentlemen But besides his
love of play Dr. Milford perpetually dab
bling in spccuationS. He went into coal,
and like Mcawber, found it not remunerltve; for
instead of realizing 81 800 year. as he expected he
lost all his capital except 600. lie invested 5000
in marvellous but forgotten invention for lighting
and heating houses but it came to nothing Nothing
that he embarked i'll prospered. and of course lie
was ill-used wrOnged, cheated, overreached. When
he left Berram House in March. 1920 there remained
nothing but the money in the funds some 5000
or thereabouts which the prudence of Mrs. AItfords
maternal grandfather had settled upon her daughters
descendants and of which the trustees, though often
solicited. would not relax their hold. Even the
interest of this sum was pledged to Dr. Nitfords |
creditors in short" says the biOgrapher, there
was nothing between the father and mother and
hopeless desttution bot the genius and the industry
of the daughter
This daughter was now in her thiTty-third year. |
That she had genius known 10 her friends rather
than the public at large; for though she was in
a sense recognized pOetosS, she cannot be said
TO have won any solid reputation yet. Either the
circumstances of the family, or her own tempera-
ment-a temperament that resembled her fathers in
it's craving for amusement, which she so fortu-
nate as TO find in books-bad prevented her from
sitting down to sustained work, since the publca-
ton of Christina" eight or nine years before or
else she had lost her early ambition But whatever
the cause il must exist longer since if the father
whom she loved so well. and who was now a man of
sixty, and the mother who at least ten years
older-f these helpless to be kept from the
work house It could only be by her industry. SO
she set to work at once, like the bravehearted reso-
lute little English woman she was, and became the
bread-wnner OF the family. They moved to Three
mile Cross. whence, in January, 1921 she wrote to
Hayden. the painter: :" / have been very bnsy-au-
daciously busy-writing tragedy. We poor
You know. When | III town / saw an
Indifferent tragedy, of which the Indifferent success
procured for the author three four hundred
pounds" This fact reused the emulation of Miss
Milford and tabingup the subject of FescO, she
produced tragedy which placed in the hands of
Talfourd then as young and unknown as herself IL
am also writing for the magazines she confessed to