Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1878-10-24
THE BENNETT MARRIAGE.
A Thread of Romance in the Brides
Life---HOw Hiss Bennett Was Kept
From Convent.
Cincinnati Gazette

| James Gordon BENEFITS sister has en-
rolled herself among the sensible Ameri-
can girls whose fortunes are not car
ried off by bankrupt foreign noblemen.
The Irish Peer who was announced to
be III hot pursuit of her share of the
accumulation of the shrewd old Scotch
man who founded the Herald must
have been disappointed, for the gentle
man who married Miss Bennett a fort
night ago is a New Yorker and the son
of an old New York merchant. Isaac
Bell, Jr., the happy man, is comfortably
rich in his own right, besides having
| expectations from his father, Isacc Bell.
He Is one of the gilded youth of New
York, of whom James Gordon Bennett
IS the bright and shining example. As
a rule they are young men of laborious
leisure, dress English talk English, wear
English whiskerS, drive coaches as the
English do, and, in other respects,
found themselves upon the blarsted
aristocracy of the British Isles. Mr.
Bell, however, seems to be a sensible
man if he is fashionable, and his wife
Is quiet little lady, speaking and
writing several languages, an accomp-
llshed musician, and a great social fa-
vorlte. The match seems to be re-
garded in the circle of the gilded youth
as proof that the driving of coaches
and playing of polo tends to the for
nation of perfect existences; and no
doubt they would have liked to see the
bride'and groom driven to the altar in
Col. De Lancy Kane's four-in-hand.
Thorn yUoc o fbrooI oF, |.
brides life which the marriage has re-
called to those acquainted with the cir
cumstances. There was a time, as al
most everybody knows when Miss Ben
nett was bent upon taking the veil So
strong was her desire that it was with
great difficulty that her father could per-
suade her to put off for time her fare
well to the life of the world. Finally,
by portraying the lonely condition in
which he would be left if she should en-
ter convent, he succeeded in obtain
ing her promise that she would wait to
fulfill her cherished wish until after his
death. When she conceded that much
she did not know how much Of q victory
the shrewd old man had won. For he
provided in his will that in case she
should determine not to enter convent,
one-half of his property, excepting the
Herald, should be hers, and this would
be handsome fortune; If she should,
however, persevere in her original
intention, the whole property should
pass 10 her brother. The result was
just what the sly old Scotchman had
foreseen. The people who had been
urging the veil upon Miss Bennett. be-
ing catholics of the sort that amass
wealth for the church and hunt down
fortunes as a hound might hare, rath-
er than catholics of the sort that have
carried the cross into every land be-
meath the sun and have filled the an
imals of the church with the records OF
their piety and heroism, found that she
was coming to them empty handed, and
fell away from her as if she had been
smitten with the plague. She saw the
selfish and cunning policy that lay back
of much that had been said to her, and
like a sensible woman she changed her
mind, as all sensible women invariably
do. Therefore, she is now happy
wife, instead of being a hopeless nun.
James Gordon Bennett made her a
splendid wedding present-nO less than
$500, 900 In cash. 1t was hardly more
than he ought to have done, considering
that almost all of her share of the prop
erty is unproductive; but the number of
brothers who would have given away
more than their whole income for two
years is limited.