Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-09-15
Lady Franklin and Other wives.


Lady Franklin and Other Wives.
The facts Of her story have been excep-
tionally picturesque and dramatic. There
was the brave explorer, gone down into eter-
nal cold and silencc-into the chambers
where the snow and ice are born, that nin-
habited country Of awful night, and more
awful splendors Of light, whose mysteries are
but little less terrible 90 the living world than
those Of llades and there was the poor wife,
powerful only in her devotion, going from
one country to another asking help to find
and bring him back from death. When the
appeal of the woman was answered, and
twenty expeditions one after another, Mt n
cost OF over six millions Of dollars, were sent
out 10y shrewd practical governments, upon
this Quixotie errari, the heart of the world
was touched. Nothing In the old crusades
was more chiyalrlc than this response TO a
wife's appeal these money-making, mercc-
nary days need. more than the old poet, a
great thought now and then TO refresh them
and. as We told ourselves, we had it here
Thi, woman's conjuyal love was OF the grand
old heroic model it took MS back 20 the lays
OF Cato and Lucretia. We even felta little
surprise that the story should have missed
its way, and happened in our own age
among bepanniered and fashionable women,
and petty, interminable scaudal-gossip, and
suits in diyorco courts.
But. aftei all, II not worth our while TO
consider wheti7. the eternal Ice and snow,
and the great national expeditions, may not
have served as pedestal to lift thi. especial
woma's loyalty into notice and whether,
under the beirilled and fashionable and
commonplace lives of the women who live
next door. or iostle us on the horsecars,
there may not be found love and faith OF
just as large and pure proportions Love
and marriage are not, in spite Of appearances,
matters OF gush. and foul Jealousy, and
fouler passion, to be paved and gldated over
by the public The majority Of American
wives have no opportunity to prove the
depth of their loyalty in countless lives it
never finds louder expression than daily SER
vice, cooking, sewing the rearing Of chill
dren, trivial helps, modesties. forbearauces,
tendernesses, offered hourly for a life long,
but to which no thought or notice is given
by her who gives or him who takes.
There are, Of course, you tell yourself, un-
fortunate exceptions to this calm. unjostled
state of married life. There is, for instance,
Waugh's wife. whose pew is next to yours
in church. (Waugh is sueyer IA It he takes
Sunday to bring up his foreign correspond
cnce). You knew him when he was a
lighthearted young fellow on the farm near
Oldtown caring for nothing but " Annie
and the boy" and how TO make life whole
somer aud cheerfuler for them. lie is a
gaunt. spectacled old man now, hair and
eyes and skin of a like washed-out, bloodless
color. Waugh 4 Son are among the solid
est importers on White street. The old man
is down at the Office hours before his clerks ;
and at night receives men on business \
generation ago his wife fell out of her place
to him, and became piece of furniture in
his house. He does not know what 10 de-
with his money, it gathers and heaps around
him so fast his thoughts and affections
and soul went down into it long ago. No
body but his wife could hope to find in this
mummy the hearty, atfectionate lad whom
she loved and married. But she does hope
it. 1t is that old " Charlie whom she clings
to and watches for, and who, she believes,
will come back to her at last from this chase
of greed, in which he has lost health and
youth and haracter-eyerything but one
woman's love.
There is, too, that pretty, faded little
Mrs. Hicks, who sits opposite to you at ths
boarding-house table, and has no eyes nor
thought of anything but that very pug
nosed, disagreeable school-boy at her side.
Young Ned is the image OF his father, and
that is why she worships him. Everybody
knows where old Ned is, and she knows it,
though She tells u1 every day that ne " is in
Europe tor the firm" She used 10 creep
down the street at night, last winter, and
stand opposite a certain house on Thirty
fourth ,trecs, to see him come out with a
woman. llovalier than She was in her freshest
prime,) and drive off with her to opera and
ball; and she would stretch outher arms ai-
ter him, and pray TO God TO bring him back
10 her, aud believed, too, that he would do it.
Or-~to 60 down TO what YOU choose TO
call the oYer classes, where life is, of course,
you think, barred of all romance and deli
cacy Of sentiment-there is your washer
woman, OF WHOM you remember vaguely t.
have heard she had drunken husband.
You met the woman one day, and observed
what patient face she had, and that she
was too thin and bent to undertake such
heavy work. But that told you nothing of
the commonplace story of a comfortable
pleasant home to which her husband brought
her, or Of how they lost it and came to live
in the cellar of tenement house Lear by,
She remembers it every day she remembers
the handsome, sturdy young carpenter, who
used TO come ghistlng home, and all the
| love and care which ha gave her then
I There is not loving word OF that old time
forgotten How else could she pass GyeI
the years of misery and cruelty which she
and her children have borne from the
bloated, stupid wretch who lies there, and
not hate, and loathe him for them She
loes not hate him. She is tenderer, more
re, tie with him than she waa in those iirsI
days. She works for him like any slave
brinps him out of the gin-shops, trusts "
him. bel, ewes in him still, thinks that hf
will come b sck 10 her again, "a he once was
Surely there are solitudes into which men
90 down more / srrible than any Polar Sea
and women who S. and on the bank as ialtb
full as she who sent o 1t costly ships TO brlhe
back her beloved again surely 700 ~
time that we Americans nhderstooI 'na
this virtue and sanctity of married lle
not matter for rare dramatic eXhln'tioh
but the solid foundation OF our s.rength ahe
hope as people. Let us have no more gnsi
or tampering with it by so-caled friendship
1t is a plant best let alone, TO find ITS owi
healthy growth or to change the ilbre' II II
the salt Just now of our social lite-Whlci
needs salt. And if it lose its SAVIOR, that lli'
is thenceforth fit for nothing but 10 be Tram
pied under foot Of men.--N, T. Tribune
The fate of such "princely bankers al
Jay Cooke, and Mr.. Ralston, OF San Fran
cisco, should teach young men to be satisfied
with legitimate business methods, and
gradual approach to wealth. Those wh'
make haste TO be rich often get betrayed
into specuations that can hardly be distin
guished from gambling, and reckless eXtray
agance is apt 10 end in sudden failure. 4
rich friend of ours who died several year
since, after happy life prolonged into
good old age, was in business fifty years
Beginning a poor boy, he was determine'
to incur no serious risk Of bankruptcy an'
to be patient in the acquisition of fortune
In forty-nine out of the fifty years, notwitl
standing the fluctuations of t;ade, he adde'
to his property, and this steady increase en-
abled him to accumulate an abundance with
out failing 10 be constantly yet Iudiclousl
generous Such a career IS full OF seren
satisfactions denied to all who are kept pain
fully anxious by the risk of ruin even IN th