Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-05-24
BY Marrying Ladies who Enjoy
Reputation.
WHO ARE THEIR HUSBANDS?
Interesting Gossip About the Unknown
Better Halves of Some Well-Known
Women--The Valuable Assistance
Rendered Men by Women.
copyright 1891. All rights reserved.1
Is MARRIAGE A FAILURE2

thoughtful observer can doubt for a moment
that 1t exerts a profound influence upon the
life and character of all who enter into the
matrimonial relation. The proverD says
that man is what woman makes him, and
the converse of that proposition is equally
true for woman is certainly what man
makes her. 1t is has often been asserted
that women are always secondary to men !;
that without the directing and controlling
influence of the male sex she is like ship
at sea without rudder or compass when be-
set by heavy gales. and that even those
women who have made 4 brilliant mark in
the world and have padded their own canoe
down the stream of time without once ask
ing the tyrant man to lend hand at the
oar-such women, for example, as Joan of
Arc, Catherine of Russia, Queen Elizabeth
and Ouida-have always had some man as
the true source of their inspiration. While
we may not be prepared to fully indorse
this extreme view, there nevertheless re-
mains the interesting fact that the great
majority of the women whom the world
calls great have at some period OF
their lives been closely asso-
ciated with some man-either father,
brother lover or huSband-who
has exerted powerful influence upon their
career. How much that is of value in the
writings of George Elliott do we owe to the
long association of that gifted woman with
George Lewes. How mayn of the most SEN
suous, romantic passages IN the novels OF
George Sand do we owe TO the influence OF
her cherami-the dreamy, splrituelle
Chopin,
In view of these considerations all that
pertains to the husbands and close male
friends of famous women becomes frought
with an interest quite rs strong at that per-
tanning TO any personal trait or popularity
of those women themselves. On the same
principle that David Coppertield's aunt
-cl1I
what his nonresident sister Betsy would
have thought. and said and done if she had
ever been born, it may not be considering
too curiousy to ask what any of the noted
married women of our day would have been
if they had never married and if they had
welded some man other than the present
husband.
The unknown husbands of famous women
are undoubtedly class of men TO whom the
world owes much, for in many cases all
that has been best and nobleSt in the career
and character of the wife IS directly at
tributable to the husband, as we shall see
in considering the question of who and
what are the marital partners of some of
the best known women of our time.
Probably the best known and really the
best of American writers of fiction is Ma
ron Harland who in private life is Mrs.
Terhune. Her novels are not plotleSS,
prCSy records of embarrassing everyday
events" as Mr. w. D. Howells tells us all
novels should be. They are not didactic
essays meant to air the pet hobbies of the
writer They are interesting stories, with
well-conceived plots skillfully wrought out
Their characters are real men and women
such as we all know. Without any labored,
self-evident effort to
POINT A MORAL AND ADORN A TALE
they tend to make us better for having read
them. for they are always pure, healthful
and helpful.
Marion Harland is the wife of 4 clergy
man, Il man of scholarly attainments and
Singularly beautiful Christian character.
Though she made her debut as a novelist
long before she knew him-her first story,
Alone, " was published at her fathers eX-
penSe and made instantaneous and immense
success after many prominent and pre-
Sumably intelligent publishers had refused
it. when she was but eighteen years of age,
vet the high moral tone of her writings
became much more marked after her mar
riage. and is unquestionaby due in a great
measure to the influence of her clerical nus
band.
1t was on Christmas Eve away back in
the very early fifties that she plighted her
trothto Mr.. Terhune. He was then singular
~ tall and slender-irrevcrentp persons might
have called him ''lanky" Fortunately for
him, his good wife. unlike most women
of literary ability, had been trained to be n
model housekeeper, and was thorough
mistress of every thing that tends to make
home brightest, best and most attractive
She was a good sock-darner, pie-baker and
pudding maker as well as a good story
writer Under the benign influence of
her faultless cooking Mr.. Terhune's lank
form soon began to assume that plump and
pleasing rotundity which has characterized
it these many years. He was so well pleased
with the effect of his wife'S good house
keeping upon himself that he urged her to
,impart her knowledge of household matters
to other women through the medium of the J
press. and il is therefore 20 him that Amer
lean women are indebted for those admir-
able articles on household matters. which
for some years past Mrs. Terhune has been
contributing to newspapers and periodicals.
The husband of Mrs. Frances Hodgson
Burnett is just such a man as one would
fancy the authoresS of Little Lord Faun-
leroy would marry. He is a large hearted,
genial man, with an intense fondnesS for
children, fully equaling in that respect that
famous. lecturer and traveller, Citizen
George Francis Train. He is a physician
by profession and specialist in diseases
of the eye. His tender gentleness of man
ner and his great natural fondneSs for
them have made him peculiarly successful
in cases of this kind among children. He
has contributed largely to the literature of
his profession, and his opinion on all ques-
tons pertaining TO his speciality has great
weight among his professional brethren
He has performed many of the most difficult
and dangerous operations upon the eye
with very great success, and has been
fortunate in obtaining brilliant
results in great majority of the cases of
cataract upon which he has operated, the
operation for cataract being one of the most
important and exacting upon the eye sur
geon'S skill, as readers of Wilkie Collins
novel of
''PooR MISS FINCH"
well know. His fame as an oculist has
extended far beyond his Washington home
until he has become favorably known in
that connection not only throughout our
own country, but even abroad. 1t will
thus be seen that far from being merely |
Mrs Burnett's husband DR.. Burnett has |
4 very distinct individuality and useful |
and distinguished career of his own.
The most voluminouS writer OF fiction
that ever lived is unquestionably the lady |
who for more than thirty years has written |
over the signature of Miss NJ. E. Braddon
Not even the elder Dumas can compete with
her in point of quantity. More than fifty |
two novels have poured from her prolific |
pen, besides short stories and sketches that |
are simply numberless Even the seemingly |
literary activity OF Mrs. Oil |
phant must pale its Intellectual fire in CON-
parison with that of Miss NJ. E. Braddon.
In private life this wonderfully indus |
triouS writer is the wife of an Irish gentle |
man named Maxwell, big, bluff, sandy |
haired son of the Emerald Isle. whose ap- I
pearance strongly suggests that of Col. l
OEipp the Irish iuyenturSr in w s Gil