Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-12-06
Something About the Helpmaets of
Literary Men.
Should Great Man Have Either Wife
or Children9
Eugene L. Dildier.


the love and mpathy of wife it IS the
an hor. Yet the annals OF literature fur
nisS the melancholy fact thas of all men
authors haze been the least happy in
their domestic lives, and, if the truth
must be told, the wives have generally
been the cause OF this state Of affairs.
| The story OF Socrates domestic difficult
les IS TOO familiar TO be repeated here.
We all know thgtl5 reouired much phil
osophlc patience to keep the family os
which Aanippe was the mistress. We
know that C@Sar's wife vas not ''abova sus-
| pic!on," and CIcero's home wife was hot
the happiest. Milton sang of paradise
Lost" bu5 did MOI find paradise in his
| own family, although he tried persistent
| ly with three successive lives. Shake
speare, from his own bitter experience,
announced as fact for all time that "a
| young man married is a man that's mar
ried." Addison made splendid match
| with the dowager Countess of Warwick,
and was obliged to escape to Willis cof-
fee house from the gilded misery of Hol-
land House, where my lady countess pre-
sided in awful state, and lectured her
gentle husband for associating with such
low fellows as Pope, Swift, Steele, and
other wits Of the golden age of Queen
Anne.
De Quincy writing of the wives and
children of literary men, says they it is
that, being mans chief blessings, create
| also for him the deadliest of his anxieties
that stuff his pillow with thorns, and sur
round his daily life with snares; and, he
adds, suppose the case of man who has
/ helpless dependents of this class upon
himself, summoned to face some sudden
| failure of his resources-that he should
lose the power of of exerting so delicate
| an organ as the creative intellect, when
dealing with subiecs so coy as those of
| the imagination-what a d6ening
thought is this to man OF family who
has ABSOLUTELY no:resources except what his
| pen yield. De Quincy himself Suffered
this terrible anxiety; so did Burns, upon
whom amongst all the children of genius
ahe primevai curse had fallen heaviest
tud sunk most deeply.
| The wife of a literary mar should be
either a piain-minded woman who should
occupy herself exclusively with house
| hold matters and shield her husbands
| peace by taking those cares upon her
| self or else a woman capable of entering
into his literary life. Few authors wives
| have been of the latter kind. 4 notable
instance, however, is afforded in the wife
of Alphonse Daudet. She is an invalua
BILE literary assistant to her husband.
She takes his rough, corrected manuscript
and makes q clear copy, correcting at
the same time any slight errors that may
have escaped her husbands notice.
Daudet then takes the manuscript in
hand again for final revision and careful
| polishing. Nine. Daudet afterward re-
| toe fba vol
| to the press.
Bulwer, in the glow of youth, fell in
| owe with pretty face, and made what he
supposed was a love match. He soon
found that loves young dream was hide
Gus reality-that mis- hopes of married
happiness had turned like dead soa fruit,
to ashes. The pretty bride became the
domestic fury. separation soon fol
! lowed, but she never ceased to be pain
ful feature of his life.
| Dickens domestic troubles have never
been satisfactorily explained, but he said
it was case OF incom pati5illty of tenn
| per. [ think it was case of egregious
personal vanity on the part of Charles
Dickens The amazing success of his
works raised him far above his original
social positions; he became the friend Of
Lady BIessington, Walter Savage, Ian
| dor, Tennyson, BuJwer, and others, whose
| refined and cultivated society made him
| seek for happiness abroad rather than at
home. His genius made him a peer of
the highest land, but his wife REM aimed
the same plain person who had shared
and solaced his early poverty and OBJ
scurity. He became q social lion, whom
princes and Dobles delighted TO honor;
her duties, as the mother of nine child
rem, kept her at home, and she was thus
prevented from cultivating the graces
and acquiring the manners which would
have fitted her for the aristocratic society
in which her husband found both his
taste and his vanity gratiied.
Life has been said TO be comedy to
those who think and tragedy to those
who feel; surely when Byron's life was q
profound tragedy, for of all the sons OF
maa few have felt more deeply than the |
author of Manfred" His noble brow |
was often darkened By a scowl his classic |
mouth was often disfgured by Sheer, |
but his heart was never dead to affection. |
He never turnod with cold Indifference |
from sorrow and suffering, whether that |
Of nation or that of an individual. In |
an unfortunate moment he married |
woman whose cold heart never responded
to his love, and whose mathematical mind |
could not appreciate his generous enthus
iasm. In this one year of married life
he endured lifetime of misery; and
then, without warning and assigning
no reason for her conduct, his wife left
him, and not only refused to return, but
would not answer his letters, and declined
to listen to his attem pts to effect recon
Citation. She was morally responsible for
his subsequent Irregularities and early
death. 1t was glorious death, and a
worthy termination of the most dazzling
literary career the world has ever known:
but Lady Byron was not the less guilty
for driving to an early grave one SO gift
ed and SO unhappy.
! have merely glanced at few illus
trious literary men whose wives have not
only not contributed to their happiness,
but have been lead to their feet. On the
other hand, there are many wives of lit
erary men who are the sweet, sym pathetic
companions of their husbands, but whose
loneliness is seldom known to the world,
because their sweetness, like the perfume
of the violet, is hidden from the sight of
men. / recall at this MON ent the devoted
wife of the southern poet, Paul Fl. Hayne.
She was not only his tender, sy npathetic
companion, but when ill-health prevented
him from undergoing the physical labor
OF writing, she v"s his ever-ready and in
telligent amanuensis, besides attending j
to his personal comfort, and by her taste
identifying their little cottage, and max
ing out of it an ideal home for poet. {
CoIored. Men Progressing.
Rev John NJ ColIett, pastor OF Eben- /,
ezer African Methodist Episcopal Church,
Dreached tn large audience uDDn the