Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-09

| VII SDeeCQ6S anu uOl
VI few found the
troubles of their
courtships greater than the annoyance OF
ofice-seekers. Scores of them owe their
prominence to their wives who have pushed
them to the front and kept them straight.
his success to the blonde beauty who pre-
sides over his household, and Sam Randall
would never have made his great reputation
had it not been for the restraining influences
| of the little woman who is now watching
over his bedside. Thomas B. Reed was
hardly in the Speakers chair before de-
licious stories began TO float down from
Maine that the man who weighs 300 pounds
would politically have weighed nothing if
it had not been for his plucky, pretty vile.
Sne was Susan Merrill, daughter of New
Hampshire minister and married "Tom"
when he had hardly confidence enough in
himself to propose to her. He was a big,
awkward schoolteacher then, and it was her
courage that induced him to study law, and
finally to enter politics. His Maine neigh
bors say he owes his whole career to the lit
tie woman who is so proud of him to-day
Yes, men owe much to their wives,
and it is interesting to find out why and
when and how women married as they did.
Take the calm matrons who rule Washing
ton society. If one catches them Alright
they will blushingly confess to bit of ro-
nance tucked away somewhere in their
lives.
PRESIDENT HARRISoN'S CoURTSHIP.
'There was none at all in our marriage"
was the laughing rejoinder of Mrs. Benjamin
Harrison when asked her for her romance.
1--WE just stood before my father and he mar
ried us. There was no climbing down a
ladder, no secreting notes in trees, nothing
that goes to makes up a romantic marriage.
I had known Mr.. Harrison three years, for
he was student at the college in Oxford,
O., and was in the seminary of which my
father was President.
"Our age? Well, that was bit romantic,
she acknowledged with laugh. "Wewere
both 20, and we had not much to start with.
Although 1 had no romance had an
awakening" she continued. "My mother
always wanted NE 10 learn everything about
housekeeping, and 1 always said, 'Oh, I'll
never need to do that. Much to my dis
taste I learned to prepare a dinner, bake
bread and mend. Ihad been married year
and was living in little house in Indian
apolis when my mother visited me. She
said very little until she was about to leave,
and then quite dryly remarked: I see, my
dear, you have been able to make use of
some of the things you learned"
Mrs. Harrison laughed as heartily as a
school girl at the recollection, and said
proudly: Even at this day 1 can go into
kitchen and prepare dinner from the les
sons learned then. A wife was house
wife then, for men rose more slowly than
they do now."
CABINET LOVE STORIES.
The'ladies of the Cabinet were romantic
"when they were girls" They all married
young save Mrs. Miller, and her reason for
waiting will tell later. Two of them, Mrs.
Blaine and Mrs. Window, were teaching
school when they met their husbands All
know how Harriet Stanwood, the pIucky
Maine girl, went to Kentucky to do what
then was an extraordinary feat, to "earn
her living" How the same need sent the
young Pennsylvania, James G. Blaine, to
the same village and how the two exiIes
soon fell in love and married. There are
several Kentuckians in Washington who
went to school to them and they all say Miss
StanWood was a handsome, high-spirited
girl. Two of their pupils were W. C. P.
Breckenridge and wife.
Strange to say, the Blaine children all
married almost as romantically as their
father and mother. They say that Mr. En-
mons Blaine was in love with Miss Anita
courage to ask her to marry him, and that
so lover-like a lover is rarely seen, and
everyone knows that the marriage of Mar
garet Blaine and the musician Damrosch
will have fine background OF romance
MRS. SECRETARY WINDOW.
Mrs. Window was a graduate of Mount
Holvoke, and like many another Msssa- |
chusetts girl of that day, went to the Car
West to teach. She settled at the little vii |
lage of Mt. Vernon, and year before her |
arrival there came to the same village a |
Young lawyer, William Window by name. !
He rose rapidly for those days, and within |
two years was prosecuting attorney for Knox |
county. Such success assured his future, |
and Miss Hatch, the Massachusetts school /
teacher, soon changed from the school room |
to the little cottage, which still stands in
Mt. Vernon.
Secretary Noble had gone out to Iowa be-
fore he journeyed back to Connecticut to
marry the attractive girl he had wooed be-
fore he started out to make his fortune. She
was Miss Halstead, the daughter Of a sue
cessful physician.
Mrs. Miller was 25 years old when she
married, but she had been engaged to the
young lawyer many years. First be had to
struggle to gain his law education, and then
when they were about to marry he entered
the army ana tnere was another long wait,
They married just before the close of the
war at the little village of Maumee, which
ut that time was expected to take Toledo's
place and be the largest city in Northwest
srn Ohio.
HOW W. c. P. BRECKENRIDGE MADE LOVE.
Mrs. w. c. P. Breckenridge 1.-THE woman
with the Madonna face, has bit of history
hat is as sad as it is lovely. Her romance
md trouble came after she married a hand
some Kentuckian. They had been married
put few months when the Civil War broke
,ut. Now old joe Breckenridge was
known throughout Kentucky as a staunch
Union man, and when his son "Willie"
entered the Confederate ranks he vowed he
would never forgive him. There was pitt
'ul parting between the young couple, and
t was doubly full of woe as the bride, being
lone in the world, must needs live with her
until the cruel war was over.
She herself was a Southern girl, and all her
ympathies were with her lover-husband.
AS time went Oh old Joe Breckenridge be-
anne more embittered toward his son, and
laily he made his young daughter-in-law
eel her dependent position. When the war
losed she was as beautiful a. woman, but