The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1882-01-05

Nearly twenty-five years ago met in
Naples my old Washington friends, Mr..
and Mrs. Robert Dale Owen. Dale
Owen was the diplomatic representative
of our government near the Court of Ma
pies. King Bomba was reigning. Dale
Owen was q remarkable man. / had
known him and his father. Dale of Ian
ark, intimately in Washington in 1856;
they advocated the same advanced views
Fanny Wright preached; but then they
we're men, not women; and free love has
always been O masculine privilege
Moreover, in 1S45 we were beginning to
expand as q nation, and were more
familiar with the license of the outside
world; SO Owen of Lanark, especially,
was quite the fashion in Intelligent
Washington society in that day; and
very agreeable, charming old gentleman
he was. When 1 met Dale Owen
in Naples twenty odd years ago
he had gone over to Spiritism,
and was writing his curious book,
Footsteps on the Boundary of Another
World" Hume, or Home, the great
High Priest then of the Faith or No
Faith, visited Dale Owen that season in
Naples. King Bomba's brother, Prince
Luigi, who was also Spiritist, used to
attend the interesting seances in the
saloon of the American Minister, and
some very remarkable feats of hocus-
pocus / witnessed. l used to listen to
chapters of Footsteps" hot from the
anvil and remember those months 1
spent in Naples as among the most in
teresting of my life. Bryant, the poet,
and many other distinguished Americans
and Europeans, Angelini, the sculptor,
DR.. Lardner and the like, were the
friends of Dale Owen and his very
clever and good wife. All these persons
i met with under the most favorable
influences, for the Owens, husband and
wife, were the best people in the world
for drawing out Of their associates all
they had of intelligence, and were always
ready to contribute their own generous
sum. Dale Owen, Mrs. Owen, and I
used to have long talks during our after
noon drives and walks to Pausilippo, or
under the beautiful trees of Cape di
Mont. and from them heard many an
interesting history of the celebrated peo-
pie they had met. The following account
of Frrnces and Sylvia Wright they gave
me, which romantic story had been re-
called to me by the death of Sir William
Guthrie at Siena, eleven years ago, and
the curious will case now before the Paris
tribunal.
Frances and Sylvia Wright, who were
left orphans at an early age, were of gen.
tie birth, and had large fortunes. They
were wards of the distinguished philoso-
pher, Jeremy Bentham, who had them
educated according to his own peculiar
crotchets, and very eccentric women he
made of them; they fitted into no social
map, no domestic form. Frances had
strong, masculine mind and character;
she took to the manly rearing Bentham
gave her. Dale Owen first met them at
La Grange, where remarkable set of
young persons were assembled around
their master, General de Lafayette; AIRY
Scheffer, the great painter, was one Of
the set. Dale Owen lost his boy heart
to Sylvia Wright, who was a marvel of
beauty; and AIRY Scheffer fell hopelessly
in love with Gen. de Lafayette's grand
daughter, Matnilde. Dale Owen said
Scheffer always put Mathilde de Lafay-
cites face in his pictures.
Sylvia Wright also went to America.
She was no orator, but quite as Quixotic
as her sister. She bought large tract
of land in the then far West. and hoped
to help humanity by some impossible
and grand agricultural schemes. The
Owens said that she was an accomplish
ed, elegant woman, and very romantic;
fond of the refnements and Injuries of
life, but possessed of desire to remake
the world according to the Community
pattern. Her solitary Western life nat
urally created morbid, exalted state of
feeling. One stormy night she was told
that the chief of her farm hands was
down with q fever. She went to his
cabin, found him delirous, and nursed
him faithfully several weeks. Owing to
her care he recovered. He was
great, handsome, coarse animal, with
out education, decent breeding, or good
morals; notwithstanding all this, tine re-
fined, beautiful gentlewoman, Sylvia
Wright, fell madly in love with this Lu-
man beast. She married him! OF
course he treated her like brute. It
vas the old story of ''Titania' and bot
tom" with her. After few months she
awakened from the horrid spell and
loathed her miserable mate; fed from
him; went 10 Europe, joined her sister,
who adored her, and died of heartbreak
and modification, leaving q baby
daughter. Here ended Dale Ovens
story.
Frances Wright married q Frenchman
named d'Arusmont. She adopted her
sisters child and called her Sylvia