Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1892-03-20

photograph OF George EIllOt IN tue nited
States, and one of the very few in exist
ence, If any others from the Same negative
survive her own detestation Of the plate
Although only few words of autograph
accompany IL, comparison Of what there is
with the two pages of fac smile in the
Cross of Life" will show how even, neat
and uniform her handwriting was.
FAITHFUL INTERPRETER.
This photograph gives a far better idea
of the personality of George Eliot than any
other processing portrait IN existence.
There is subtle reminder of Giott's Dante
in the nose, as in the Rajon etching there is
suggestion of Fra Bartolommeo's Savonar-
ola. But all the artists that ever drew
could not make beautiful the long featured.
sallow and almost equine face of Marian
Evans. In one of her early let
ters George Eliot tells q friend that
she has had her ''propensities, sentiments
and intellect gagged second time l am
pronounced to possess she says, "a large
organ OF adhesiveness, still larger one Of
firmness, and as large of conscientiousness I;
hence. II turn outa very weather-cock and
a most pitiful trucker you will have data
for the exercise of faith, maugre common
sense, common justice and the testimony Of
your eyes and ears"-the friend she feared,
having apparent reason for setting her
down as indifferent and forgetful.
DESCRIPTION BIZ FRIEND.
Miss Betham-Edwards. who had many
opportunities through their common
friend, Barbara Bodichon, to see
George Eliot, has recently written
in a Renaissance of the latter that
George Eliot was sublime in her ugliness."
She describes Marian Evans as angular,
her large, sallow features lighted up by
those sad, internationally flashing eyes,
ever-peering, as it seemed, into the I'M
known and unknowable, her domesticities
and humanities painfully strained, her very
laugh having lurking dreariness behind
il, her black dress in harmony with
the sombre Rembrandt-like picture.n
That two such women as Barbara Bodi-
chon and George Eliot should have been
the friends they were-as George Eliot's
numerous letters to her show, and her
autograph on the first copy Of adam
Bede, n"to her who first recognized me in
this WORLDS easily applicable on the
ground of compensations. George Eliot
was "sublimely ugly" Barbara Bodichon
Eliot, when she cast of the swathings of a
religious mummyism and came forth her.
self, was destined always TO see the neither
side of experience and to expound the
mournful and detected mysteries of human
nature. Barbara Bodichon saw habitually
the jocundity of life; yet they held
the same positivist philosophy, re-
iected alike all that the world
still calls supernatural, 4" and while George
Eliot let miserably die nearly every imag-
mary heroine worth saving, Barbara Bodi-
choR believed that the downgoing Of GER
tain proportion Of the human species, which
she looked on as coldly in the scientific
sense as on fora and fauna in general. ef-
fciently and steadily promoted the welfare
and progress in the race. That Is, the one
woman was moralist, poet, artist The
other was a serene epioyer Of earth with its
multitude of beautiful and noble aspira-
tons everywhere moving the world on, as
she believed, and she took her own place in
it with practical appreciation that her term
would be short and that she should get out
of it and put into 1t all her power.
ANOTHER PECULIAR TIE.
There was another reason why the two
women, one so ugly and the other 50 beau
tjful. should have been devoted friends
Each was strongly individual and superbly
intellectual. Each supplied the light for
the others shadow, the shadow for the
others light. One was a contempiatiye
and inventor; the other was q philanthro-
pist and woman Of action George Eliot
wrote positivist fiction, full Of the implied
and enforced creed Of fatalism; Barbara
Bodichon went blitely out in the world Of
woman and wrote treatises TO rem
edy their wrongs under property
acts and founded a woman's col
leze to enter the wedge FOR them in univer-
sity gates. But In addition 70 these diner
ences. these diversities, with their intel
lectual companionship, there was contrast
deeper still. Little by little, with delicacy
toward those who hold his memory In re-
spect. It is coming to be known that George
Eliot was not happily placed In her domes-
tic life with Mr.. Lewes When Miss
Betham-Edwards speaks of George Eliot's
domesticities and humaDities being pain
fully strained. thin thread Of light enters
where in time door is to be widely
opened. Cross life OF George Eliot Is .
chivalrous monument 70 q great heart by q
tender and reverent hand. The taftooing Of
the Carlyles by Froude after their death
has made contsmporaueous English genius
vary Of like dastardiy risks Those TO
whom the fame and character OF marian
Evans. Spinster," as she signed her mar