Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1883-09-13
GENIUS AED MARRIAGE.
Love Matches Without Foundation
in Artistic Temperaments
"a Savage veneered n an Artis.
tic Mistake~-The mlseries OF
Soul Born 60 Scar, Hut
HOked TO- aand of Clay.
=, Ladr Wilde IN Lonann oa.en.

love for the whole after term OF human
existence is a fearful reality, too often
experienced, in all its dull depression,
when unrelated souls are bound 10.
gether by the ~irrefragable marriage
chain.
Ayoung writer Of promise aud rising
fame sees a pretty shop girl, a jewell
or's daughter, aud is fascinated at
once. She was so gentle and insinu-
ating, SO charming, with her little
curled head and her little white hands,
daintily lingering the glittering trim
kots, and her placid smile, that always
besmed a welcome. He iancies that
under her rule the disorder Of his
bachelor home will be changed 10 a
paradise Of comfort; aud they are mar
ried. But the sunshine came not;
only a gray, watery atmosphere of fog
seemed to envelop his life. When his
clever friends came as usual, and
thought flashed as at a Platonic sym-
postum, the wife sat by and smiled her
placid smile, and uttered the small
plsttudes OF mediocre natures, the set
collOquial phrases OF commerce, with
the most exasperating unconciousness
that she was q bore and a WEAKNESS to
them all. On the contrary, she fancied
she was quite an addition to the
circle $50 nice, lady like
and we'll bred. Then the horror
Of a dreadful truth fell upon the
husbands heart. He became
conscious that be would have to sit
opposite to this woman, and look at
the vapid smile and listen to her fimsy
talk, for perhaps half a century. There
was no help for him. No release.
Sometimes the tumult of his feelings
ragged In open war; and then she wept
and lamented that she had not mar
ried one Oh the other Of the young
shopmen who were dying about her,
aud were nov so well off. But after a
time matters grew worse. She began
toassume airs as the wife of an au~
thor, to give her opinion, and inter
rupt the conversation with her af.
fected gush Of praise. The husband
could see the suppressed laughter
upon the lips of the Platonist, and
their contempt for the little fool he
has made bis wife. This finished his
agony; he gave up his friends; be gave
up writing; fell into a state Of melan>
choly, and finally died, leaving all his
precious manuscripts confused and
incomplete. The widow crammed
them all into the fire, smiled as be-
fore, and eventually married one or
perhaps both of the admirinp shop.
men. And she still utters her little
platitudes Of commerce, and refers as
q martyrdom to her first marriage to
poor scribbler, who never could earn
enough by anything he wrote to keep
her in proper style.
DAUGHTER OF THE PEOPLE.
Buff the small, commonplace mind
Is exasperating, perhaps the untamed
freedom Of the half savage, the fear.
less passions Of a daughter Of the peo-
pie, would suit the requirements of
the exceptional soul Of genius. So
thought a young French artist as he
looked on the massive fgure,th heavy
coils OF black hair, the grand limbs Of
a superb Transtaverine, as he stood in
the mud Of the shadows fishing for
cells, How splendid she was in the
flashing sunlight, with her great ewes.
her scarlet bodice, her white chemi.
settle tucked up high over the great
sculptural arms; and then her mad.
merry laughter that stirred the air
like a rush Of the breeze through the
pine woods. lie made a picture of
her at ouce, which excited immense
admiration at tie Exposition. A Rle-
rious study Of sky and air, and the
full, rich life of youth, in a fash Of
color aud a glow Of light. At last he
had found an ideal to take into his
life. He hated the false, affected
woman ofsooiety, but here was a beau
tiful savage, a child Of the sun. and
the storms and the flowers; she would
give bis artist life eternal youth-so he
married her. She had no possessions
save a big red cat, and ne carried her
and the cat to Paris.
But when she put on the Paris dress
IKE other people, what a m%ournful
transformation Of the daughter Of the
sun. A great, splendid animal in a
little Paris bonnet, always fitting TO
one side over the heavy masses of bair.
was a failure; aud the great Roman
feet, made for splashing in the reeds
and the rushes, limped sadly in the
little Paris boots; and the effect Of a
Paris mantle on the great broad shout.
deIs was altogether deplorable. Even
her beauty seemed to have disappeared
with the loss Of her native picturesque
surroundings. Then her coarse Ian.
her large gestures, her bad
French, all these things agonized him
every moment. A savage yeneered
is an artistic mistake. lie saw it all
and sighed, and withdrew from the
world where he could never bring a
wife who talked as loud in society as
4 she was hailing a boat across the
I1ber and whose laugh shook the
room like an earthquake. However,
they have got over ten years OF married
lie. The heavy chin, the broad
shoulders, the vulgar mouth have be-. I.
some aceentuated; still the eyes are
iplendld, and the artist husband has
to endure a good deal, She !.
so good hearted and kind, though ,
bGa6 aim "a the back and
him 10 eat some dish
he has spent all the morn
.ng preparing, he shudders, and F,
silent aspiration rises to his b.,
ips that he had left her on her own !
Icil midst the reeds and the rushes.
With her cat and the cells and the fish. ;
irmen Of the Tiber. {
AN DEALT FIRST LOVE.
Other experiences in married life I
rave proved equally uncengenial 10 /
he strange, sensige, artistic nature.
. young dramatist, with eyes of FIRE [
md soul OF fame, fancies he will find !
lis ideal in the first love Of a pure /
ioung heart-simple, dooile girl. that |
can mould as he chooses by his
trong will, and breathe, as it were. a |
Irvine spirit into the clay. Eyes" /
70 said TO his friend, II liked her /
lear, innocent eyes, her calm OK. I
,ression that no passions had ever {
disturbed; ever her little provincial [
Iccent and ways | liked, for they sug-
'ested the pure innocence Of the /
life. And nov 10 say that |