Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-06-14
Haod,s Married Life.
! The Westministor Reyiow.l


Socrates, Job, Milton Byron, Shelley
with many others, have been unhappy
in their wives. 1t is pleasant, therefore,
to know that Hoods case was bright
exception. Despite the SORROWS. hard
ships and lifelong disease that crippled
his energies and marred his life, the
union was singularly happy one. Mrs.
Hood was a woman of cultivated mind,
great moral worth and literary sympa-
thies. She was her husbands constant
nurse through an illness that never left
him; cheered him when dull, acted as
amanuensis, and during the last few
wears of his life, so devoted to him her
whole time and thoughts that latterly
Hood became restless and unable to
write unless she we're near. Seldom
have the words of the great novelist,
who was almost great poet, been more
nobly realized than in the person OF Mrs.
Hood
20, woman! "@
When pain and anguish wiring the brow,
ministering angel thou
She needed sweet temper to put up
with husband so brimful OF fun and
practical jokes as Hood. Nothing
seemed to ruffle her temper, and she was
always ready to laugh, even when against
herself. The reason was that she knew
and loved her husband perfectly. Moth
ing could shake her confidence in him,
and the rogue was apt at times to take
advantage of her faith. She required to
keep strict watch on every letter she
wrote, for if she left it for any time in
Hoods presence, he would take advan-
tage of her absence to change the is
into is, and after interlining here and
there the most extraordinary statements,
to add by way of climax some ludicrous-
ly comical postscript. Their children
tell us that she was capital subject
for his fun, for she believed implicitly
in whatever he told her, however i'm
probable, and though vowing seri-
ously not to be taken in again,
she was sure to be caught. Her
innocent face of wonder and belief
added greatly to the zest Of the jokes.
On one occasion, when living at the
coast, Hood gave his wife some useful
hints on buying fish. Above all things,
Jane" said he, las they will endeavor
to impose upon your inexperience, let
nothing induce you to buy plaice that
has any appearance of red or orange
spots, as they are sure signs of an adj
vanced stage of decomposition. Ac-
cordingly Mrs. Hood, on the faith of her
newly acquired knowledge, was quite
prepared to do battle with the cunning
iishwomen, one of whom called shortly
afterward. AS it happened, the woman
had nothing but place, which she turned
over and over, praising their freshness
and beauty. Mrs. Hood, however, was
too sharp-she was not to be taken in
the obnoxious spots were there. In vain
the fisherwoman protested that they were
fresh from the water. The cautious
buyer gravely shook her head, and with
look Of infinite wisdom, combined
with a certain sad pity for the
woman's supposed dishonesty, observed
Ny good woman, it may be as you say,
but / could never think of buying any
plaice with those unpleasant red spots.
Lord bless your eyes, NUM- replied
the astonished fisherwoman, with a shout,
who ever seed plaice without spots y
A suppressed giggle on the stairs behind
her revealed the joke, and turning her
head hastily, Mrs. Hood caught sight of
her husband hurriedly disappearing in
an ecstacy Of laughter, leaving her to
appease the angry sea-nymph as she
could. The most careless reader OF
Hoods life cannot fail to be struck by
the happiness of the poet and his family
in the midst of continual difficulties and
broken health. Mrs Hood is constantly
talking of her husband. Her private
letters TEEN with sentences beginning,
Hood said this, Hood did that,
Hood took me to such place" The in
tense lovableness Of the man manifests
itself in his life and poetry. He was
essentially a family man, joking with his
wife, contriying all sorts of tricks and
games for his children, and after "a Sc
we're nights labor stealing into their bed
room to leave upon their pillow some
comical sketch TO amuse them on waking
The first few years of his married life
were the most unelouded Hood ever
knew, and he much needed some little
happiness to hoard up against the bitter
years that were fast coming. The
young couple lived for some years in
Robert street, Adelphi. Hood was a
thorough cockney, and though doomed
by the faults of others TO pass the best
part of his life on the continent, was
never at home out of London. Only a
city-bred man-one familiar with the
misery and squalidness and sin of city
life-could have written the Song Of
the Shirt