The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1881-09-22
YOUNG Men With old wives

1t is surprising how rapidly even the
great fall out of notice Carlyle anC
| George Eliot were literary wonders
and they are already dropping from OBJ
servation The latter was buried a
Highgate, which is already known a:
the resting place of Coleridge. The
| fact that her husband (John Walter
Cross was so much Ayonger (twenty
years. than herself 6ecasioned mucl
comment. This, however, is not with
out precedent in literary and social life.
One of the leading clergymen in this city
is married to a woman ten years his senior
and the union appears congenial. No
hammed's wife was twenty years older
than her husband, and it is much TO the
credit of the latter that he honored her
to the last. He ascribed much of his
success to her assistance and influence.
John Howard, the philanthropist, mar
ried, out of gratitude, woman who
was equally his senior. She died in a
few years, however, and his second
union was one of love. 1t was, howev-
er, also dissolved by the death of his
wife, and then he devoted himself to
philanthropy Napoleon's first wife,
Josephine, was his senior by five years,
being 80 at the time Of their marriage,
while he was %. 1t would have, been
well for him had he valued her conjugal
love, whose violation was the beginning
of his ruin. Aaron Burr also married
a widow, who, like Josephine, had two
children. Mrs. Burr was ten years
older than her husband, but the union
was very harmonious. She probably
allowed him that large liberty with the
fair sex to which he had been aceus-
toned, and thus avoided domestic
quarrels. John Wilkes, the famous
London agitator of the last century,
married lady who was ten years his
senior but she was not willing to over
look his irregularities, and hence OBJ
tanned a divorce.
johnson, the photographer, married
the Widow Porter, who had small
property. He was acquainted with the
family before the death of her husband,
and this helped in the matter of court
ship. Mrs Porter, was As, while her
husband was only 81, at the time of
the wedding. The parties started horse
back for the place where the ceremony
was to performed, and johnson thus
describes the journey to Boswell "Sir,
she had got iuto her head from old ro-
maqces that a woman of spirit should
use her husband like a dog. AT first
she told me 1 rode too fast, and she
could not keep up with me but when
1 Stacked my pace she passed me and
complained that | Jagged. | was not
to be made the slave of caprice, and
therefore pushed on till | was out of
sight. When she got to the destination
| observed that she was in tears"
johnson always mourned the loss of his
wife, and although he was only 43 at
the time of her death, he never married
again. How often in his subsequent
writings he refers to his lost companion
in the most afectionate manner!
When only IS, Shakespeare was mar
ried to Anne Hathaway, whose age was
%. Six months from the wedding day
the first son was born to this ill-mated
pair. The husband and father had no
means of supporting family, and when
the latter had increased to the number
of son and two daughters he fled to
London. The deserted wife supported |
her children as best she could, and
twenty years afterward her husband |
returned, and by his subsequent conduct
strove TO atone Tor his carly error.
Such facts as these prove that John
Walter Cross, in marrying Marian
Evans, had some striking precedent.