Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-11-18
ALICE CARY,s LOVE.
The Facts About Her Relations
with Rufus w. GriswOId.

SaklnQ her Tor woman OF the world
that long after, when he returned to New
York, friendless, poor and sick, she for
gave him the great wrong that he had
done, and nursed him till he died. This
story, in many conflicting phases, was
often, to her annoyance, told Of her du-
ring her life. The fact that Rufus w.
Griswold did in his will bequeath to her
his personal effects was made much OF
in print and private circles, and used as
an unanswerable proof that at one time
he had been her lover. Within 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 a doubt Yet no less,
in its foundation, the story is false. Re-
ferring to it once, while we two sat alone
together, bAlice said to iney" will tell
you just the truth. If you ever think it
necessary, you can tell it. believe i
to be but justice to her sacred life, with
which idle gossip is yet too busy, to tell
it now Bereavement in death and in
life had made her Western home too
desolate to be borne. These, with the
impuls3 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. Ignorance stood me in the
stead Of courage" she said y" Had /
known the great world as | have learned
it since, / should not have dared; but |
didn't. Thus came. The leading
Htterateur at that time was DR.. Rufus
Griswold. He had compiled the books
called The Female Prose Writer, and
The Female Poet of America He was
sharply on the lookout for every new
genius in literature that appeared. He
had visited the sisters in their Ohio
home. and in 1850 obtained 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 necessary to their
success in the sphere of labor which
they had chosen, while they practically
knew next to nothing. He encouraged
and helped them in many ways, and thus
commanded their gratitude. For Alice
To incur debt OF gratitude was to pay
it., if at the cost Of her life. Yet the
good will of one type of man to woman
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 hattered
by idle women till conquest has been
not only the habit, but the neces-
sity of his morbid and miserable
sonl till where he knows he has not
won it, he yet is base enough to
boast of it. Such man Judging by
every record left by him) was Rufus w.
Griswold. He was a man OF poetic tenn
permanent, of fine scholarship, of gener-
GUS impulses, and in certain directions,
of rare gifts yet no less he was man
of tickle fancies, of violent temper,
which often fell upon his dearest friends,
of monstrous vanity, and of ungoverned
passions. " | was never engaged to him
in marriage i never loved him, said
Alice Gary to me. 81 could not have
loved such 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 in part my large debt of graft
tude. When he returned to New York,
moor, and sick, with certain death before
him, |, with Miss --, hired room
and nurse for him. From that they have
made the romantic story Of my nursing
him for unrequited love. 1t was old
Betsy who nursed him. You know how
big and strong she is; yet even she be-
came worn out, for his sickness was long
aud very painful Many unkind, even
cruel things have been said because he
willed to me his personal effects. Be
sides the books and pictures which he
beaueathed to the Historical Society,
these were all that he possessed, and he
left them to me not more out Of personal
regard than for desire to repay as far
as he was able the money which /
had expended for his comfort during
his last long sickness" In the
profoundest sense Alice Cary never
loved but once. The man she loved is
still alive, yet gossip, with its keenest
scent, has never found or named him.
With all her fullness of affection, hers
wasl an eclectic and solitary soul. He
who, by the very patent of his being was
mere 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 unedu-
Gated, rustic and poor. " ] waited for
one VINO never came back, she said ;
vet | believed he would come, till |
read in paper his marriage to another
Can yan think what life would below
ing one, waiting for one who would never
Gomez" He did come at last. 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 want 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
full Of tenderness and youth. Thus they
met with life behind them-they who
parted plighted lovers. when life was
young. He was the man whom she for
gave for her blighted and weary life,
with a smile OF parting as divine as ever
lit the face of oman.-Nary Clemmer
Ames
a-