The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-06-24
TALKS OVER THE TEACUPS.
BELOVED ONES OF LITERARY MEN,
Where n Belle Seeks ConsOlation-Just Like
woman-Two Lovers United-Heine
and His Observation-Disclosures
Trial-odds and Ends.

to adore pretty little brainless simple
tons, Gays Anne Reeve Aldrich in the
New York World.
Fiction is apt TO represent them as
needing in a wife a sort Of mental pill
| Iowa restfully vacuous mind, which will
not weary their own great brains by de-
mands on their thinking forces.
| That is the reason usually given when
man of marked mental power allies him
self to fool, ss he sometimes does.
The world regards these occasions with
great satisfaction, for in its heart of hearts
it esteems genius kind OF lunacy on
which public opinion has set premium.
and finds it correct and proper that it
should wed imbeciity.
But is q genius in love a pleasing object
for the contemplation of his admirers?
When Bulwer's love letters were given
to an amazed and nauseated reading pub
lie, and it perused with unquenchable
laughter dozens of letters in which that
great novelist addressed the object of his
affection as City doggy" and subscribed
himself-to the extreme satisfaction OF the
reader-as Puppy" our reverence for the
man trembled on its foundations and he
seemed scarcely more hero to US than he
possibly did to his valet.
Keats letters to his sweetheart, Fanny
Browne, while they rise at times to a
mournful power, at other times are as
commonplace as the billet-doux of any
college boy, while Fanny Browne herself
did not seem to appreciate the distinction
of being the lover of poet. We are told
she WAS dark, sensuous and leopard-llke.
Perhaps the only pure and sincere pas
sion that ever graced the stormy life of
Byron was his boy-love for the beautiful
Mary Chaworth, and there was said to be
an element OF dignity about it that
checked the onlooker's inclination TO treat
it with the lightness usually accorded to
the fancles of youth.
| Little is known Of the young girl except
| that she was both lovely and brilliant.
Many of Byron's poems are said to con-
tain illusions to this early passion. Per-
| haps-who knows ?-he was happier to
| have kept this simple romance intact, for
| he asks bitterly:
Think you if Laura had been Petrarch's .ife.
| He would have written sonnets all his LIEF
And, indeed, every imaginative Bene-
| dict is said to hold "the other"-the shad-
owy image of a might-have-been in the
recesses OF his heart Oh, she is not SO
terrible rival oftentimes; perhaps it is
| only woman met once in a crowd; per-
| haps it is little dead sweetheart, over
| whose grave the grass has been growing
for half score of summers; perhaps it is
! the girl whom he decided that he never
really cared for; but rest assured, mes
| danes, if you have welded imam of
imagination" there will be moments dedi-
! Gated to vague memory.
| This literary man with an Invalid wife
is a well-knovn social type. 1t is he who
is ministered to with the hottest cups of
| tea and the cosiest seats at afternoons"
by the gushing and sympathetic young
girl. And there are so many OF them
| The men ] refer to are tenderly spoken of
as "hampered"-that is the pet worldly
the demands on their time from the vale
| tudlnarian.
Some of them cannot write in the room
with her; some cannot write in the house
| with her She go ELECTS those supersensi-
tive literary nerves. She becomes more
and more myth to society at large. She
is still amiably inquired after by his host
ess, who watches with OVERLOOKING admir-
alton what once heard lady character
ize as 1.-THE sweet patience of that brave
SOULS SMILE" and as a rule the brave soul
goes to receptions and accepts feminine
homage and pity with all the valor i'm
aginable, and his glory is greatly enhanced
by his supposed suferings.
"Just think" sighed in my ear lady
as she regarded pityingly an exceedingly
stalwart and hearty literary man at a re-
ception one evening. Just think of the
stress on his nerves, strained almost to
| breaking by his brain work, when he is
called on to sympathize with his wife who
is dying, they say, by inches with-well,
really, forget nowl 1t has a very long
Greek name, anyway, and it must be SO
| trying for such a sensitive. highly-strung
organization as his to bear sick-room at
mosphere! Oh, she must really long to
die and release him from such bondage !"
Perhaps, after all, l thought. it requires
a very strong constitution to live with lit
erary nerves.
The old proverb that "two of trade can
never agree" has been very successfully
set at naught by the lives of the Brown
ings, the Wards and many others.
| No woman ever had more magnificent
lines written to her than Robert Brown
ing addressed to his wife in Zone Word
More" and those who were privileged to
know them intimately speak OF theirs as
the absolutely perfect ideal welded life,
| for they were each an inspiration to the
| other. The idea that the artistic temper
ament should mate with the commonplace
| is as false as most conventional ideas are
| found to be ii closely examined.
There can hardly he worse misery con-
ceived than that of the sensitive creative
mind, doomed to life long companionship
with dull, material soul.
Who can ever forget the poignant agony
of David CopperfieId, allied to the foolish
little Dora, who for all her natural sweet
ness OF temper was about as fit to be the
| wife of such man as a butterfly would
be; and who, too, can ever forget the
scene in which for the first time he real
ICES with terrible clearness that there can
be 10 greater ban to conjugal happiness
than with uncongeniality of thought and
| purpose.
And the Doras in real life do not all die
so opportunely as did the sweet little sim
pleton of the story, and with each passing
day the literary artist spends with such a
woman the breech widens. They are one
flesh, but not one soul, and he finds that
remorseful tenderness is all he can be-
stow, and torn by conflict and worn with
mental suffering and lack of broad and
sympathetic comprehension, bis work
suffers. He grows morbid and intro
spective. His books, too, are tinged with