Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1871-08-18
IFromsthe Chicago Republican. July 81
The Untold Love. of Alice Cary.

Alice Cary lived and died maiden
queen Of poesY. 1t has seemed to many
impossible that she should have carried
her tender and passionate heart through
the social and literary thoroughfares
wherein she was called to tread unpierced
by any enor nous shaft. And it was in
deed impossible. There is secret page
of the history of the deceased poetess
which has never been written, and seldom
of late years been told. To this Phoebe
Cary briefly and indefinitely aludes in
the sketch published in the Ladies' Re-
pository of last month, and widely copied.
The writer says substantially therein
that if her sister ever loved there is no
line in her published works to tell the
tale; over the mouth of the sepulchre
of her sad experience she rolled the
stone never by herself removed. The
doubtful "if' half conceals, half dis
closes the truth. IL seems intended to
stop flying rumors, while refraining from
an unequivocal and impossible denial.
As the story can only serve as foil to
the many virtues and amiable qualities
of its subject, we need no further excuse
for our effort to rescue the fragmentary
record from the oblivion to which the
mistaken and morbid kindness of friends
would fain consign it. When the Gary
sisters made their first pilgrimage to the
Eastern literary Mecca, Rufus Wilmot
Griswold was among their earliest ac-
quaintances. This gentleman was a
prominent htterateur when men of letters
were less numerous in New York than at
present. He was born in Benson, VI,
in 1915, and was, consequently, but
about five years the senior of the elder
sister. Having been educated as a prin-
ter, he became successively Baptist
preacher, journalist, and an author
As an editor he presided over the desti-
nies of the Brother Jonathan and the
New World, mammoth weeklies; the
New Yorker, celebrated literary heb
domadal; and Graham's and the Inter-
national Magazines. To the first month
ly mentioned he added considerable
character. The last resembled Harper's
Monthly, and was bought out by the
owners of that magazine after brief ex-
istence. La the wider field of letters he
should be spoken of rather as complain
than as an author. He published var-
Gus collections of the prose aud poetry of
England and America, and, in connec-
tlon with other authors, several works
of popular biography. No one was bet
ter acquainted with the state of literary
market, or with the publishers of the
metropolis, than Mr.. Griswold. The
two rural devotees of literature from the
far West were strangers, and needed
chaperone. He came to the rescue. He
gave them space in his books, fattered
them, encouraged their hopes, and as
sisted in finding market for their wares.
Toward Alice he more especially inclin-
ed. Their first acquaintance ripened in
to friendship, friendship into intimacy
and intimacy into love. 1t was said at
last that the parties were solemnly affi-
anced. This was nearly twenty years
ago, and Alice had then passed thirty.
He was still older, and would seem to
have passed the bounds of juvenile folly,
if those bounds are ever passed by man.
But he was base citizen of the world,
and she was quiet, retired, sensitive, do
mestic and unassu ming. Trouble came
between the two in the shape of woman
of society externally more attractive than
Alice Cary. This liaison produced a
separation. The engagement was brok-
Ell, and Alice, concealing her sorr3ws,
kept herself more closely at home, and
turned her attention more assduou .ly to
her special labors. The story needs not
to be fully detailed here. 1t has been told
over and over again ever since the world
has had literature. Several years pass
ed, and in 1857 Rufus Wilmot Griswold
iay uyipS VI iiuStfiuS disease III the
metropolis, in poverty and alone. His
literary ventures had brought inadequate
remuneration, aud he had Ii ;ed a life
which it was not altogether pleasant to
look back upon. But the sisters had
made many friends, and been reasonably
blessed by fortune. The injured woman
forgot her wrongs and forgave the past
with readiness characteristic of her sex.
She came again to the bedside of the man
who had 50 grievously deceived he and
watched him day after day and week
after week as life slowly ebbed away.
The sick room was made cheerful with
books, flowers, and all necessary expen-
ses. the money earned by days and nights
oflabor with the pen was freely lavish
ed. AT last death ended the sufferines
of the false lover, and the grave closed
over the secret of woman sorrow, now