The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-02-23
HORACE GREELEYs DOMESTIC LIFE.
The Great Editor Afraid of His Wife-An
Eccentric Woman.
VA. Crofut, in Kansas City journal.

less nkelS 10 De exaggerated ana misunderstood
if put in plain type Ills domestic life was un-
fortunate and uncomfortable, and this was part
ly the result and partly the cause of his own &c
centric habits. Sidney Howard Gay, one Of the
TrbUne's best editorial managers in those old
days, insists that Horace Greeley is a myth, like
Hercules, Diana, I1ebe and Mrs Harris. "Thcre
never was any such man. he said to me awhile
ago. when the truth is known. it will be seen
that the Horace Greeley of popular fancy never
existed and that the real Horace Greeley was a
person of attributes Numerically the reverse.
| think he is mistaken here, ami that the real
Greeley, though somewhat different from the
ideal Greeley, is assuredly the same individual
In the fall of 1861 | came here to engage Mr.
Greeley to go to Washington and lecture. In
quiry at the Tribune office took me 10 his house
on Nineteenth street rang long and repeated
ly and at last a lady came down stairs to the
door with sleeves tucked brisly up her arms
and her hair twisted in a knot on the top of her
head. The following conversation took place;
is Mr. Greeley I'M"
HE is not
"Do you know where he s!'
II do not He is not stopping here now"
'Can ] see Mrs. Greeley
''Youdo-I am Mrs Greeley
''Do-was-is-does Mr. Greeley come home
sometimes!"
Occasionally. He has not been home this
week.
DO you know where he is stopping!
81 do not. He stopped at the Everett House
last week"
i went down TO the Motel ana inquired. lney
said he at the New York Hotel and there
l found him, raging up and down his room and
storming pile of dispatches on the table.
| seemed de trop, and inquired what was the
matter.
Natter he repeated, in high falsetto voice,
''enough, I should think. Battle yesterday at
Pittsburg Landing. Rebels whipped us, of
course. Our soldiers are being driven into the
Tennessee to-day. Our generals all dreaming.
Buell. ought to be shot, and Grant ought to be
hung!'
After awhile he quieted down sufficiently to
enable me to do my errand and take my leave
l have met lady this week who init
matey acquainted with the Greeley household
for twenty years.
Mrs. Greeley" she says, had not the knack
of making home. She was always clean, but
never neat-never neat in appearance, | mean,
because she was always washing something and
always disheveed. l have seen her take her
children. without garment on them, out into
the street and pump water on them to wash
them. When l was there one day, the servant
washed out an apron of her own and hung 1t out
to dry Mrs. Greeley jumped up, seized cary
ing knife, rushed out and cut the piece out
of the line containing the apron and flung 1t to
the girl, saying, How dare you hang your apron
on the same line with my boys clothesF There
neatness for you.
yet, when they lived on Nineteenth street,
she kept three goats in the house for the chill
dren to play with and when | let one of my
servants go there to live, she came running back
to me the next day. saying, L won't live there,
misslls, never' j asked what was the matter
Sure, have no bed at all but must just bunk
down on the pile of hay they got for the goats!
Mr.. Greeley asked me one Saturday to come
around in the morning and go to Chapns with
him. l went and when got there, there was
fracas going on in the vestibulc-he and his wife
and the children and the goats were all mixed
up together.
- The question is said Mr. Greeley, whether
the goats shall go up Broadway with us. Mother
%1,,A 4
the head of procession of children and goats.
That seems more like a secular following! | be
lieve we got off at last without them. though
Mrs. Greeley said, its only your cussed pride.
Mrs. Greeley had an antipathy for kid
gloves-she would never put them on. l re-
member bout she had with Margaret Fuller
on this subject. We all met on the street, and
instead Of saying good morning or some such
human salutation, Mrs. Greeley touched Margar-
cts hand with little shudder, and said: Skin
of BEAST skin of beast! Why what do you
wearF inquired the astonished maiden from
Maine. Silk, said Mrs. Greeley, stretching out
her hand. Margaret just tOuchedi it and shud-
dered. crying. 'Entrails of a worm entrails Of
wOrm!
II was once in a stage with Mrs Greeley, go
ing up Madison avenue when she suddenly pulled
the strap, whisked tin pail out from under her
shawl, and reaching it out TO Rev Mr.. Brett in
the other end of the bus, to whom we had Just
bowed said, You get out, please, and run to
that bakery ON the corner and get me two cents
worth of yeast! Mr.. Brett laughed, but he good
naturally got out. went to the shop. and brought
back the coveted bread elevator, the driver wait
ing meantime. his serenity broken only by
smile.
''When Mr. Brett returned he handed the lit
tie pail to Mrs. Greeley with the remark that
bread was evidently kneaded, to which she
piled: H-m!-old joke
''She was very eccent1ie-NIrs Greeley was.
He once told me that the day before, while
going down to Staten Island on the ferryboat,
she walked calmly up to passenger who was
smoking. snatched the cigar out of his mouth
and flung it overheard. i expected to be
knocked down the spot that minute, said
Greeley.
Before the birth of Raphael, their oldest
boy. she told mo that she lived on raw rice al
together She would take it by the handful
and chew it up. i can grind it Just like mill
she said. When Raphael was taken with his
last illness, a severe form of Group DR.. Curtis,
the physician, fought it for days and finally got
it to yield. Now, he will probably live. he said
to Mrs. Greeley if you keep him from taking
cold, If he catches cold he dies, Keep
him warm, keep the air from him. try no expert
ments. Any little exposure would be fatal In
two days the mother sent for him again, and on
arriving he found the child all chOlled up with
cold. What's the matter with himF he asked.
My God, what have you done! Taken off
warm wooden shirt and substituted thin cotton
one! The child will die. What did you send for
me for? Why didn't YOU send for an undertaken
deeply. She didn't mean to hurt him. of course,
but her frenzy for cleanliness was stronger than
almost every other feeling.
''She once gave me some advice as to how to
bring up my children. Lets see. said l. how
many children have your i have two she
said: and how many have you hadF Nine, she
answered Then, thank you, | said but if it
is all the same think l Il bring Up my children
my way. % very we'll she exclaimed, ! don't
raise children for this world, but the next
''She always called her husband Greeley
whether speaking TO him or of him. He was
afraid of her but once in while he would peep
out. l remember once we were assembled at
Greeley's, Saturday evening; Mr. Ripley, Mar
garet Fuller DR. Curtis, / and half dozen
others discussing the practicabiity of associated
homes We talked Of turning the Gramercy
Park Hotel into such one. 1T won't do said
Mrs Greeley; .everNbodY will be falling in love