The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-25
THREE BIG ENGLISHMEN.
Sir Charles Dixie and His New Wife
Story of Their Love and Marriage.
Author of "The Light Of ASia"-Sir
DrummOnd VOLTS Career.
Correspondence of the indianapolis Journal.

Correspondence Of the indianapolis Journal.
LONDON, Oct. 15.-When the scandal against
Sir Charles Dixie was at its height Mrs. Mark
Paetison cabled from India the announcement
that she was engaged to be married to him, and
that she would soon be in England for the cere-
mony thereof. Then everybody began to talk
about Mrs. Mark Pattison, whose husbands
posthumous book was at the moment gradually
finding its way into the hands of reviewers en-
gagged in the higher walks of serial criticism.
The Rev. DR.. Mark Pattison was a famous Ok
ford don. His wife, much younger than himself,
was a bright, clever, pretty accomplished woman.
She wrote criticisms for the press, and IL 1873
gave to the world two scholarly volumes entitled
The Renaissance of Art in France" which were
illustrated with drawings from her own pencil. 1t
has only Just come out as an established and ro-
mantle fact that prior to Mrs. Mark Pattisons
marriage with the Oxford don Charles Dixie was
in love with her. Whether he pursued his suit
and was rejected or not is a question did not
venture TO ask the lady who told me the story,
which is very creditable to all persons concerned.
1t seems that at a later day DR.. Mark Pattison
knew Of it. and was always especially gracious to
Dixie, for whom Mrs. Pattison always expressed
"~ SASobNSp ASDBNN" Az 1S"
was on too high a plane for jealousy. Mr.. Dixie
married and became Sir Charles. The two fam
lilies were on the most affectionate terms. By
and by Mrs. Dixie Ia lovely woman mentally and
| physically died. When Sir Charles was a wild
over, the Rev. DR.. Pattison expressed to his
wife that, if Sir Charles survived him. they should
marry. and he bequeathed to her the whole of
his property, amounting to about $3.50, DOC. On
DR.. Mark Patttson's death the widow and wild
over, who had been friends, as girl and boy, en-
gagged themselves to marry. A reasonable time
was to elapse. Mrs. Pattison went to India to visit
friends; and right in the midst of her new hopes
there fell upon the moral reputation of Sir
Charles Dixie the damning charge of Mrs.
Crawford. She alleged that he (belng her sis
ter's brother-inlaw) had availed himself of the
privileges of his position to destroy her honor.
She made this confession to her husband, who at
once commenced a suit for divorce, involving
Dixie. Under this cloud, Sir Charles withdrew
from his candidature for the Parliamentary seat
of Chelsea. When most he seemed to have
fallen in the eye of the world, there came from
India Mrs. Mark Pattison's declarations of their
engagement to marry. Sir Charles must have
keenly felt the nobility of this woman's devotion,
and IL has done much to rehabilitate him in pub
lie estimation. Not that anybody has yet the
right to condemn him. for the case against him
has not yet been tried. although the most terri
BILE innuendoes have been published by the lower
class of so-called society papers. And a few
days ago Mrs. Mark Pattison was made Lady
Dixie at st. Lukes, Chelsea, in presence of a
fashionable crowd. Mr.. Joe" Chamberlain (Bir-
mingham insists upon calling him Joe) was Sir
Charles's best man, and a multitude of Sir
Charles's Chelsea constituents outside
the church to cheer the bride and bridegroom as
n a n g ~ MD nnknua1 liz yOrlI IN fhair ~ ny
positions. A three days honeymoon, and Sir
Charles and Lady Dixie have returned to the
active duties of public life. Lady Dixie has no
idea of allowing her husband to consider the
cloud that hangs over him in the matter of the
Crawford suit, and Mr.. Joseph Chamberlain
knows we'll enough that the Liberal party can
not spare the personal support of his active
mind and eloquent tongue. Life is full of ro-
nance. The next act in the life of Sir Charles
Dixie, should it be in the divorce court, will be
a gloomy contrast to the bright, and gay, and
pretty scene at st. Luke's Church. 1t is reported
that the case of Crawford VS.. Dixie will be COM
promiSed. 1t is to be hoped the report will prove
true, not that the lawyers engaged in the
business seem TO expect any settlement out of
court.
EDWIN ARNOLD.
Edwin Arnold, author of ''The Light of Asia,n
and editor of the Daily Telegraph, is better
known in America than he is in London. He is
one of the most profound and interesting of
Oriental scholars, and yet one of the 'livest" of
political journalists. The first editorial he ever
wrote in the Telegraph was on the British en-
pire in the East. Since that time he has writ
ten upwards of six thousand leading articles.
During the two years and a half of the Eastern
question, which is stained with the blood of the
great war between Russia and Turkey, Mr..
Arnold wrote between four and five hundred
consecutive articles-leaders that were looked
for with interest and anxiety by all classes of
the people, the moro so that the Telegraph
found itself at variance, on foreign politics, with
the party it had hitherto supported, in favor of
the maintenance of British prestige and power in
the East. Edwin Arnold did this great work at
white heat, his editorials" being usually written
at the last moment, on the very latest points of the
controversy. If it is not too much to say for the
influence Of the Daily Telegraph at this time
that it was an important agency in sustaining
the Beaconsield government in Office. Mr..
Edward Levy Lawson, who had a proprietor's
control of the policy of the paper. entered heart
and soul into its action in regard to the national
policy of the time, and is entitled to the highest
consideration for his patriotic self denial. Hold
ing large proprietary rights in the Telegraph he
ran great financial risks in taking up arms
against the Gladstonian succession, which his
paper had hitherto supported. But in direct
sympathy with Mr.. Joseph Cowen, of the New.
castle Daily Chronicle, and Mr.. Leng. of the
Sheffield Daily Telegraph, his policy was first
English, and then political; first for the empire.
and then for the party. And so this great
journal, strongly radical in home and domestic
politics, became conservative in regard to the
duty of holding the empire. which is
a legacy from England's heroic travellers,
statesmen and soldiers. There must be
a good deal that is worthy in a
cause which attracts to it. from the very center
of the radical faith, such journalists as Cowen,
Leng and Arnold. His Light of Asia" pub.
iished in 1878, met with a reception of general
praise from the English critics, but in America
it enjoyed an immediate popularity which no
modern poem has obtained in England, and few
in the United States. A noble poetic interpreta-
ton OF a lovely life, and a great philosophic re-
former, ''The Light of Asia" is a work which
will keep for its author a high place in the fore
most rank of modern English poets. 1t rapidly
went into six editions in the United States, and
has sold 10000 copies. To the American edition
Of his 'Indian Song of Songsr the nublishers an.