New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-08-22
ELLIS BARTLETT.
NOTES oNTHE BURDE1T-coUTTsM MARRIAGE.
BY CHARLES T. CONGDON.


BOYS FRIEND.
When saw the collocaticn of names In the teie-
grams frnm London about the Ashmead-BarteH-
Burdett-Coutts marriage. my memory seemed to
receive kind OF mysterious FLIP. Two OF these
names were familiar to m, in the political and
the fnarcial history of England Indeed. every
body at all acquainted with the Parliamentary agI-
tations of half century ago remembered Sir Fran
CTS Burtietr the father Of the Baroness. and how
he was committed to the Tower and what a favorte
he was with the London mob. Everybody knew
about Couttss Bank. Everybody had heard of the
baroness one of she weaithiest of Engshwomen
aud these have been of late much written
about that do not propose TO say another word
concerning them. People may go for further infor-
nation to the political registers and the encyeop3-
dias for all ne Nv special interest is with the
American people who are involved in this hymeDeal
botheratiou. l long ceased TO trouble myself
about mysterious or marvellous marriages. except
in the comedies of the Restoration in the novels
OF the time of Qneen Anne read with perfect in
difference of the projected union of the Baroness
and Of the American young gentleman who has be-
come British subject. People of the buest British
blood come over here and marry New-York
girls and at my age it would be absurd If this in
the least disturbed my equanmity. The height Of
benevOence is 10 that the brides papa. through
some mysterious Wall Street vcisstude, may not be
flounderlng in the Insolvency Court within brace
Of years. And are all so well bred rs not to
make fuss upon this side when pretty heresses
are carried of, do not why they should not be
equally civil upon the other side, | suppose that
Her Majesty OF England cannot eat the Baroness
Coutts even if she should try 1t never
considered Hat felony for Old Sir Peter Teazle to
create at the altar young Lady Teaz.e. Has no
yoHng man in England proposed to marry a
Venerable lady beGore' Have discrepancies of age.
of fortune, of position always been SO critically
considered Looking at it in philO-
sophical or, perhaps. | should say. in
chronological way, admit that 1T Is
little odd that lad should marry an old
woman if there be an old woman in this world, Of
which have doubt. There may be affection
and gratitude and sense OF obligation upon each
side, which after ALL may be as consistent with
happiness as that passion and pretty frenzy which
bring sixteen and fourteen together Pray allow
the Baroness and Mr.. Bartlett to know best! / be-
leve that there is no Act of Parliament to prevent
their union The Queen cannot put HIM IN the Tower
as George the Third did Sir Francis cut off poor
young Bartletts head, as Henry VIII. might have
done if such alliance had been attempted in his
time. The clever young American may be awfully
in love with her. for aught know. Who of us all
has not in his early days been in love with an old
woman
should not have undertaken to speak of these
things only have kind of sympathy with young
Mr. Bartlett, whose marriage with the Baroness has
been so much talked of. His father
one of my earliest associates and friends and |
here take occasion TO say that there is no better
blood in the world than the blood of the Old Colony
ROW Plymouth County, Massachusetts-and OF
this my old friend Ellis Bartlett. had plenty in
his veins. IT is quite as good that of the Bur-
detts and some What better than that of the Dukes
of st. Adams. i am IN no position. as write. for
genealogical research, but | should be willing to
prefer a small wager that the ancestors of Ellis
Bartlett If it could be determined. among
those stern and stalwart men who made matters I'M
pleasant for the Stuarts at Naseby and at Marston
Moor l write this paper because the father of Mr..
Bartlett, so much mentioned, sat side by side
by NE. years ago in the High School in New-Bed |
ford. Mass. and helped me kindly in my first strug
giles with the dead languages tall, raw-boned
youth be was then. destined for Amherst College, |
and preparing for his examination He was des !
tined Also it understood for the
sacred ministry in the COngre gational Church |
and / believe that he was in way, |
or was to be- a beneficiary of some
educational society. We boys didn't know much |
about that did not care much, for most of were
poor, and those who rich by means !
the classical ornaments Of our classes What | re-
member mostly about MY old friend Is that he |
was an excellent scholar. In ali comes back TO me
now-Ahow he who was a stun dy student, took me,
q little fellow. under his stout right arm. with a
Cape Cod strength in It, aud led me up and down
thebank Of the Scamander and under the walls of
windy Troy.
He would not let me be idle. fIfunked at recita-
ton. he took me into some quiet corner we
were dismissed, and admonished me with the color
upon his Puritan cheeks. For he was then in dead
earnest whatever ideas of the best life might af-
terward come to him. For my own par thought
him something wonderful. | recolect now that in
my opinion he was the best writer of English prose
upon this continent. and how / marvelied at the
dexterous turn of his sentences. and that
when he came 10 preach pulpit of his the
sensation in the pews would be notable. So was
quite willing TO enter into scheme which once |
during the pay-hour, he preached to me. 1t was
that should meet during those summer days, at
sunrise. al bis own room. and there read Homer
together. There was romance .gh in the sugges
ton TO tempt me into early rising and so in the
cool of the dawn. went down to him with my little
Homer and my big lexicon under my arm. and with
thoughts OF Achilles and Hector of Priam and
Andromache in my head. | am told that these sons
OF my early friend are excellent schoars-better,
doubtless, with their Oxford training, than we
were; but | wonder if they do not something of
their in England TO a clevecness and per-
sistence inherited from their father.
My friend Bartlett went to one college, and
went to another. Our paths of life which ran SO
closely at first, pretty widely diverged /; and
we never saw much of each other afterwards We
will not quarrel with youthful friendships because
they last longer. They with the fine fragrance
and the subtitle vitality OF the first years. My old
associate preached a little, j think, after
his graduation: dropped out of preaching,
as so many do; dropped into commercial
transactions of which know little and died some
where IN middle age. leaving three children, of
whom much has been lately said and especially