Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-07-02
MARRIED LIFE OF GREAT MEN.

With people, great and small, the
course of true love does not usually run
smooth. But, rough or smooth, the les
son always hath moral. Poor Xantippe
has been the most abused spouse the
world has had for two thousand years.
Her violent temper, we are told, made
her scourge to her wise husband, Soc
rates but he owned that he had married
and endured her self. discipline And if
man needs any schooling of that sort,
what lady could be more successful
connubial disciplinarian than Xantippe? ?
One day she scolded him violently as
she stood at her open window, and sealed
the lesson by throwing a pail of water
on him. "Just as expected, he sweetly
replied; after the thunder comes the
shower.
The younger Pliny praises his amiable
wife in language as touching as it is sim
cere. He says: Her affection for me
has given her a turn to books. Her pas
sion will increase with our days; for II
is not my youth or my person, which
time gradually impairs, but my reputa-
ton and my glory of which she is en-
amored."
Milton married after short court
uncongenial disposition, and had no pa.
ship. His wife is said to have had very
tience with her husbands literary hab-
its. She complained bitterly of his SOL
itary house, Justify Aogged his nephews,
and in month after their marriage she
ran away. Possibly he was a literary
recluse, who gave much more time to
his books than to his blushing, rollicking
young country bride. Time heals many
a wound, as it healed the trouble in this
Miltonian home. The young bride re-
turned, and on the whole made him
right good wife. -
Dr. Samuel Johnson married Mrs.
Porter, lady almost double his age.
Her daughter describes him at this time
as of very forbidding appearance, his
structure OF bones being hideously
striking to the eye, and the scars of
scrofula were deeply visible" We may
add, and awkward gestures, which ex-
cited ridicule. Fearful that she might
marry him for his family rank or repu-
tation, he told her that he was descended
from untitled ancestors, that he had no
money, and that one of his uncles had
been hung. To lower herself to his
level, she replied that she had no more
money than himself, and although sb be
had not learned that any of her relatives
we're hung, she knew that several Of
them deserved hanging. Mrs. Porter
overlooked his uncomely looks and odd
ways, and said, This is the most sensi-
BILE man ever saw in my life" John
son Geclared it TO have been a love mar
riage on both sides. On their way to
church on horseback, to be married, |
they took their first lesson in the exer-
else of mutual authority. He afterwards
described it as follows: Sir, she had |
read the old romances, and got into her
head the fantastical notien that a woman
of spirit should use her lover like dog. |
So. sir. at first she told me that | rode |
too fast, and she could not keep up with
me; and when rode little slower, she
passed me, and complained that i
Jagged behind. / was not to be made |
the slave Of caprice; and resolved to
begin as meant to end. | therefore
pushed on briskly till was fairly out of
sight. The read lay between two
hedges. SO was sure she could not miss
It, and contrived that she should soon
come up with me. When she did, OBJ
served her to be in tears.
johnson was constitutionally a very
angular man, with sharp corners enough
TO annoy the most amiable wife. With
al they got along smoothly thereafter
And when she died, the stern scholar
refused to be cowforted the rest of his
life.