The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1871-11-10
ALICE cARY,s LOVE.


A story under the title of the "Un
known Love of Alice Cary" in thG
newspapers is still travelling through
the length of the land. It asserts thai
in her youth she was afiianced to Rufu!
w. Griswold that he was false TO hel
I-forsaking her for woman of the
world that long after, when ne returned
to New York friendless, poor and sick
she forgave him the great wrong that
he had done, and nursed him till he
died. This story, in many conflicting
phases, was often, TO her great annoy
auce told of her during her life.
| The fact that Rufus W. Girls void did IN
his last viii, bequeath to her his perso-
nal effects, was made much of in print
ed and private circles, and used as an
unanswerable proof that at enc time he
had been her lover. Within a week
have read, in a letter to the New York
Evening Post, that the will proved the
love and relationship between the two
persons beyond doubt. Yet no less,
in its foundation, the story is false.
Referring to it once, while we two sat
alone together, Alice said to me: 81
tell you just the truth. If you ever
think il necessary, you can tell it."
| believe it to be but Justice to her sa-
4
| too busy, to tell it now. Bereavement
in death and in life had made her Yves
tern home too desolate to be borne.
These with the impulse of the brave
will that served her to the last, brought
her to New York to make not the life
that she would have chosen for herself,
yet life worthy to be lived. "Igno-
rance stood me in the stead of cour-
age" she said. "Had 1 known the
great world as have learned it since, 1
should not have dared but l didn't
at that time was DIR. Rufus Griswold
He had compiled the books called "The
Female Prose Writers" and ''The Fe-
male Poets of America" He was
sharply on the look out for every new
genius in literature that appeared. He
had visited the sisters in their Ohio
home, and in 1850 obtained a publisher
for their first volume, and had added
both their names, with selections from
their poems, to his own "Poets of
America" He knew everything nec-
essary to their success in the sphere of
labor which they practically knew next
to nothing. He encouraged and helped
them in many ways, and thus command
ed their gratitude. For Alice to incur
a debt of gratitude was to pay it, even
a. the cost of her life. Yet even the
good will of one type of man to a wo-
man is often a misfortune. Her soul
may be white as snow; yet he cannot
take her innocent name upon his lips
without smirching it with somewhat of
his own vileness. His vanity has been
flattered by idle women, till conquest
has become not only the habit, but the
necessity, of his morbid and miserable
soul; till, where he knows he has not
won it, he yet is base enough to boast
of it. Such man Gudging by every
record left of him) was Rufus w. Girls
void. He was man of poetic temper
ament, of fine scholarship, of generous
impulses, and in certain directions of
rare gifts yet no less he was a man of
tickle faneies, of violent temper, which
often fell upon his dearest friends of
monstrous vanity and of ungoverned
passions. 81 was never engaged to him
in marriage; never loved him." said
Alice Cary to me. 81 could not have
loved such a man, though learned him
in his best phases. came to pity him,
because he was his own worst enemy.
AS friend owed him much, and be-
fore his death / found it in my power
to pay back my large debt of gratitude.
When he returned to New York,
poor and sick, with certain death before
him, I, with Miss, hired room and
tIlhJ IuOy I.GN6
made the romantic story of my nursing
Betsey that nursed him. You know
how big and strong she is; yet even she
became worn out, for his sickness was
long and very painful. Many unkind,
even cruel things have been said be-
cause he willed to me his personal eff
fects. Besides the books and pictures
which he bequeathed to his Historical
Society, these were all that he possess
ed, and he left them to me, mot more out
of personal regard than from desire to
pay, rs far he was able the money which
had expended for his comfort during
his long sickness" In the profoundest
sense Alice Cary never loYed but once.
The man whom she loved is still alive
yet gossip, with its keenest scent, has
never found or named him. With all
her fullness, OF affection, hers was an
eclectic and solitary soul. He who, by
the very patent of his being was more
to her than any other mortal could be,
might pass from her life, but no other
could ever take his place. A proud
and prosperous family brought all their
pride and power to bear on son to
prevent his marrying girl uneducated,
rustic and poor. Il waited for one
who never came back" she said, "yet
l believed he would come until read
in paper his marriage to another.
Can you think what life would below
ing one, waiting for one who would
never come" He did come at last. 1
saw him. His wife had died. Alice
was dying. The gray haired man sat
down beside the gray-haired woman.
Life had dealt prosperously with him, as
is its wont with men. Suffering and
death had taken all from her save the
luster of her wondrous eyes. From
her wan and wasted face they shone
upon him tull of tenderness and youth.
This they met, with life behind them
they who parted plighted lovers when
life was young. He was the man whom
she forgave for her bllghted and weary
life, with a smile ofparting as divine as
ever lit the face of woman.-1HdFy
Clemmer AmeS IN the Independent.