The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1885-12-23
A WIFE TO BE PROUD OF.
Mrs. Hendricks Love and De-
v0ti0n to Her Husband.
HIS GUIDING STAR.
Her Refusal to Permit Him to With
draw His Name at the Con-
vention Of 1880.

Her Refusal to Permit Him to With
draw His Name at the Con-
vention Of 1880.
! WASHINGTON, December 16.-H one de-
sired to make a study OF how far the in
fiuence uf a woman could extend in Ameri-
can politics, he could have no better ex-
ample than Mrs. Hendricks. It is true that
to the mass of educated men and women
in New York she was merely the wife OF one
OF the foremost men OF the country; and
according to the restricted view OF public
affairs which it cannot be denied prevails
among the classes OF culture and leisure in
New York. Mrs. Hendricks is simply phe
nOmenOn-and not even a very Interesting
one. But that senseless law OF custom
which prescribes that the people who live
on Murray Hill and at Grammercy Park
shall turn over their political affairs to the
wards filled with voters recruited from Cas-
tie Garden, could never produce woman
so capable of being the true helpmeet OF a
public man as Mrs. Hendricks. In all the
| incidents of his career, in none was Mr..
Hendricks more fortunate than in having a
friend and helper like Mrs. Hendricks. She
is a woman OF strong vet not masculine un-
derstanding, and in her complete effacement
of herself for Mr.. Hendricks, and her un-
dying hostility to any who she knew or
| fancied did not justly appreciate him, she
was wholly and beautifully feminine. She
is extremely ready and graceful and can
accommodate herself to all varieties of
men and women without loss OF dignity.
| She was an intense partisan--Of Mr.. Hen
bricks. AS Mrs. Randall said once with an
honest smile: II am for Mr.. Randall-frst,
last and all the time" so it was with Mrs.
Hendricks. She thought him the greatest
and noblest of men, and despised the dull
| and insensate world that could only see in
him one of the foremost of the second-rate
statesmen. From the day he married her
Mr.. Hendricks was relieved OF that terrible
incubus which drags down so many public
men the burden of narrow circumstances.
For whether he had much or little, it was
always enough for her. She had naturally
good executive ability. and knew how to
manage an income with extraordinary
judgment.
! DEVOTED TO HER HUSBAND.
| Perhaps no man ever lived more entirely
| free from pecuniary harrassments than
| Mr.. Hendricks. What money he made he
handed over to her, and to the last penny it
was used for his benefit. She had no desire
| to be known as the best dressed woman,
| the giver OF the most elegant parties. the
owner of the most stylish turnout. 1t was
enough for her that she was tho wife .,f
| Thomas A. Hendricks. She wanted to Sc
| cure a modest independence as something
| essential to her own and Mr.. Hendricks
peace, but no more. She cheerfully spent
more than persons twice as we'll of as they
were thought necessary in entertaining
Mr. Hendricks friends. Indeed, at one
time when they had a house in the sub
| 6 T,,I: lie hat Mus
HenCrick' g object in living out OF town was
that she might have better opportunity
to bestow her hospitality upon the num-
bers of persons who came to see Mr.. Hen
bricks. Every Hendricks" man was made
welcome-and if by eating salt under her
roof he could be still more firmly attached
to Mr.. Hendricks there was noth3h, con.
| liked better. She maintained good s>t,.r +c
| her house. her dress and her belongings.
She was adroit itenough to know that dignity
us we'll as simplicity must be exemplified in
their mode of life, but for herself, every
! thing was subordinated to making the
world pay it's tribute to Thomas A. Hen
bricks. She has been sometimes-and un-
Justly compared to Madame Roland, but
hey ond the fact that they both understood
public affairs with singular thoroughness
the comparison ends. Talleyrand COM
planned that he never could go to see the
Minister of the Interior without seeing
Madame Roland's petticoats whsking
thought that neither herself nor any living
human being could presume to advise Mr..
Hendricks. 1t is true she sometimes intlu-
enced him contrary to his convictions, but
it was always from the belief that he was
not disposed to claim what he was en-
titled to. Thus, at the convention OF
1880, when the Indiana delegation became
convinced that they could nominate Mr..
Mcdonald if they had Mr.. Hendricks con-
sent to substitute Mr.. McDonald's name,
they got to Mr.. Hendricks house a little
after 1 o'clock in the morning, and calling
Mr.. Hendricks down got his consent to
withdrawing his name. But after the con-
sent was given, Mr.. Hendricks said: Gen
| tlemen, before you take that as final let
me consult Mrs. Hendricks. l have never
yet acted against her judgment" and when
! he went upstairs and saw her, he returned
with a. changed countenance II cannot l
cannot he said. Mrs. Hendricks had
taken fire at the first hint. Woman-like,
there was nothing magnanimous in her
rivalry. If Mr.. Hendricks did not get the
nomination he should not be put to shame
before the people Of Indiana, and SO she
combatted the cooler, more reasonable
man, and the woman's fervid conviction
| overpowered him.
ENEMIES AS WELL. AS FRIENDS.
She had her enemies, but nobody could
be her enemy who believed in Mr.. Hendricks.
and nobody could be her friend who failed
toward him. Even in the first blackness other
grief, she would not but that the President
! of the United States should come to pay
honor to her dead husband. She tele-
graphed back to Mr.. Cleveland a permis-
sion to stay away from Mr.. Hendricks
| funeral that was a command that he should
come or else be branded us a poltroon.
Like Sarah Jennings, who said that the
widow of John, Duke OF Marlborough, was
greater than any wife in all England, SO
with Mrs. Hendricks-even in her widow
hood she must be proud. as becomes the
| widow OF the man she esteemed the greatest
in the world. The women who live on Muir
| raw Hill, and who wear costumes from Pin
gat and Felix, and who boast that their
husbands and fathers have been out OF
trade for a whole generation, and who
do not knew actually whether they
live under a monarchy or republic,
would probably smile at the earnestness,
the aspirations that consumed Mrs. Hen
drioks-but surely hers was the nobler am
bition. Pingat and Felix would very soon
ruin the average public man, and it is an
absurdity born of idiocy that the
science of government IS beneath
the notice OF gentlemen. The only
form OF Anglomania that does not
seem to have taken hold of New York is
that wholesome English doctrine that pol
itics especially should be the business OF
gentlemen. The generation OF vipers known
as Mugwumps could never be fostered by
women like Mrs. Hendricks. Every the
Amelia Sedleys and Dora Spenlows in Eng
land know better than to bring up their
sons subject to the first caprice that assais
them in politics. But it is not with the
Doras and the Amelias that Mrs. Hen
bricks is to be classed. 1t is rather with
the valiant women Of the Scri riptures she
belongs-this woman ofwhom her husband
said after forty years OF companionship,
''She is my best friend, and l wish shat she
shall never be separated from me, even for
q moment"
A Sixty day Trial Trip.
New YORK, December 19.-The steamer
Dolphin left her anchorage in the Brooklyn
navy yard this morning and proceeded out
on her trial trip. She goes to Newport and
ii L. rAwv