New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-04-02
The wife Of Hawthsrse.


New York Tribune the following touching
tribute to tho late Mrs. Hawthorne:
We noticed briefly when it occurred the
death of the widow of Nathaniel Hawthorne
in England, and there perhaps it is best
that we should pause. When the gentle,
quiet life Of woman such a. this Gibbs
away into tho gentler quiet Of death,
silence over her grave has moro meaning
than any requiem. As cheerful song, or
. happy day in the autumn fields, her
memory becomes . pleasant, tender reality
with us forever; but We can not, if We
would, impart or share il with others.
There il . morbid curiosity through the
country, however, about Hawthorne and
all that surrounded him, arising out of the
as yet halfacknowledged feeling that in
10 only right that this curiosity should be
90 far Rratified ~ to do Justice to this
woman, when, if he had never loved,
Hawthorne would in all probability have
died undevelOped and unknown.
No biOgrapher Of the great rOmancer can
ever delineate the strange elements Of char.
acter that mixed themselves in him, and
were expressed in his figure and face; tho
hereditary abnormal tendencies toward
solitude and gloom; the almost insane dread
of contact with his fellow-men; the Oblique
apart, the world appeared to him. Friendly
hands may give M the outside facts OF his
life, the cut of his clothes, the attitude and
gestures which he used to those about him
While irving, out of . keen fear. Of being
ridiculous, to fit himself with their alien
habits of thought and speech; but the only
glimpses left to ~ OF tho real Hawthorne
are in his books. Tho man was Of his own
blood, alone, in the world Of thought, and
hesm ~vnA 1.n
outer world came only his wife. There was
somethine ct once conical and pathetic in
die dismayed appeal with which he turned
to hep when tho ordinary business Of life
bewildered and Jared on him. and the alert
ness and bright geLtleness with which she
served a. his shield and shelter. She be-
longed to one of those old families in New
England who have imbibcd culture with
the air. She had IN intellect of quick and
harmonious movement, which found apt
and pleasant expression both by her pen
and pencil. But there are 20 many Of
whom all this may be said! Now, when
women seek primarily selfdsvelopment,
there are 90 many artists and authors! 1t
NAV do Us no harm to look for . moment at
this one who had NO other aim than to be
simply q wife. There il o significance to
all women in the fact that, while the genius
and idiosyncrasies Of her husband placed
him ON an entirely different intellectual
level from her own, the infinite love be-
tween them made them one, and fitted her,
with her keen tact and wholesome sweet
ness of temper, to interpret between him
and the world. If 1t had not been for
that cheerfulness and sunny temper, which
kept daylight about him perpetually, the
moody genius of Hawthorne would never
have struggled through its shadows into
light. The world owed great debt to this
woman, who was contented to be only .
wife. M
There is q pleasant hill-slope near Con-
cord, full Of shady lanes and dusky with
apple trees, where Hawthorne and his wife
were used to walk at evening, cheerfully
talking a. they went. He sleeps there now
alone. We can not bear to think they will
leave the gentle, bright-faced lady to rest
in one of the damp churchyards of foggy
London. But however that may be-, we
think that somewhere, where he waited for
her, they must have met ere now. We like
to fancy that the wife's work is not yet all
done; that even in the limitless possibilities
of the hereafter. the homely love and care
which are left behind us here are needed
and waited for, and to believe that through
the lives to come this man and his true wife
will pass ON side by side together.