The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1883-06-05
THE LORD BYRON.

made him Inc larger Ior tho SELL
teous everywhere. 1t was not his seq
Grafton from his wife lit was not the
fact that he lived an often dlssclute
life and made no disguise OF the fact
that he bad some mistress or other
pretty much all the time, In these
particulars he was little worse than
the average of the society in which
he lived, and was doubtless better
than some. TIE age that hOnored
clergymen who delighted to dine with
Lord Thurlow. the chancellor, at the
same table with his mistress and his
illegitimate children, and which deih-
ed Lord Nelson. Notwithstanding his
quarrel with his wife and open intima-
cy with Lady Hamilton-such an age
and society wound pot have visited
such sins so heavily. 1t has long
been believed, in a sort of under the
breath" way, that it was his disbe-
lief in the popular form OF religion
that really worked Byron's ruin, and
the author "the real Lord Byron
is not only sufficiently clearheaded to
see the fact, but he has the courage
to point it out. fine author is John
Cordy Jefferson The author scouts
as unutterably absurbed the Mrs.
Stowe story. Not that he thinks
Lady Byron did not tell the story to
Mrs. Stowe, or that she did not. after
a fashion, believe it, but he shows
how if most likely took its growth.
and conclueively shows how it could
not have been true at the alleged
time, and how Lady Byron did not
even mention it or hint at it whom she
began proceedings against her husband
for separation, and the author adds
that absolute proof, on this and other
points of dispute about Byron's life,
will be spread before the world on the
publication of the Hobhouse papers,
now lying under seal in the British
Museum, there to lie unopened until
year 1900.
Readers have been taught to regard
Bryon as man of mysteries tortured
by remorse for crimes TOO terrible for
confession, and guarding secrets too re-
7olting for avowal, while in simple
truth he went through life from first to
last with his heart and all its frailties
upon his sleeve, and lived from boy
hood to his last hour under glass, that,
whilst it magnified all his faults, put
all his virtues in miniature. With all
his perverse and baneful delight in
mystifying people about trifes, this
man of mystery could not, to save his
life, or what was far desrer to him.
his fame, hold within his own breast a
single secret that vexed it seriously.
Inspired at times by vanity to make
himself the enigma of his period, even
in bis most perplexing moods he was
nothing more than riddle to be
solved by any one of ordina' y shrewd-
ness with brain clear of romantic fan
cies. What marvellous stuff has been
written of the stern and cruel spirit of
the misanthrope. who, with the sensi-
bility and impulsiveness of the gentler
sex, could rot in his softer moments
see MYSTERY without weeping over it
and seeking to relieve it !! Who has
not been invited to ponder ON the ha-
bitual melancholy of the man, who in
his brighter time brimmea over with
frolic. and even in the sadness of his
closing year made the world ring with
Laughter and delight in practical jokes
Who has not heard of his gloomy brow.
black locks, dark eyes. and club-foot ?
And yet his face was not more remark
able for the beauty of its features than
for the brightness Of its smiles; bis
hair, light chestnut in childhood, never
darkened to the deepest brown of au-
burn /; his eyes were gray-blue,
and he hadn't a club-foot. Com
menting on the common impression
that he was excessively proud of his
ancestry, more of his .inege than of bis
genius, as has often been said, the
author says: SIT is not usual for those
who plume themselves on their ances.
trai advantages to attach themselves
strongly to persons of interior extrac-
ton. Though he may admit persons
of plebeian birth to bis intimacy. the
noble who is greatly prouder of his
pedigree than bis natural endewments
never fails to draw a line between the
acquaintance who are beneath him
and the friends who are his equals,
and while cultivating the former fol
the entertainment they afford him. to
give bis warmest affection and perfect
confidence only to those who are of his
own order. With the single exception
ofLord Glare, Byron's closest comrades
were found In ranks something OF
greatly beneath his own"