Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1892-03-11
THE WIVES OF AUTHORS.
LITERARY MEN VERY MUCH
LIKE OTHER MEN.
Sometimes Marry Pretty Slmpl etcns.
Sometimes Pose as Martyr. and
Once Ina Awhils Contract
An Ideal Marriage.


posed to adore pretty little brainless
simpletons. Fiction is apt to repre-
sent them as needing in wife a sort
Of mental pillow-a restfully vacuous
mind which will not weary their own
great brains by demands on their
thinking forces.
That Is the reason usually given
when a man Of marked mental power
allies himself To fool. rs he some
times does. The world regards these
occasions with great satisfaction. says
the Saturday Evening Post for in its
heart OF hearts it esteems genius
kind OF lunacy on which public
opinion has set a premium. and finds
it proper that it should wed imbecility.
When Bulwers love letters were
given TO an amazed reading public,
and it perused with unquenchable
laughter dozens of letters in which
that great novelist addressed the OBJ
ject OF his affection rs ''ltty doggy
and subscribed himself-to the ex-
treme satisfaction OF the reader-as
Puppy our reverence for the man
trembled on its foundations and he
seemed scarcely more u hero TO US
than he possibly did to his valet
Keats letters to his sweetheart
Fanny Browne while they rise at
times to mournful power, at other
times are as commonplace as the billet
doux of any schoolboy while Fanny
Browne herself did not seem TO APP
preciate the distinction OF being the
lover of a poet. We are told she was
dark. sensuous and leopard like"
Perhaps. the only pure and sincere
passion that ever graced the stormy
life OF Byron was his boy-love for the
beautiful Mary Chatworth, and there
was said to be an element of dignity
about it that checked the onlooker's
inclination to treat it with the light
ness usually accorded to the fancies of
youth.
The literary man with an invalid
wife is a weil-known social type 1t
is he who is ministered with the hot
test cups OF tea and tho coolest seats
at afternoons by the gushing and
sympathetic young girl. And there
are so many of them. The men referred
to are often tenderly spoken of as
"hampered' by the demands on their
time from the valetudinarian.
Some OF them cannot write in the
room with her, some cannot write in
the house with her. She so affects
those representative literary nerves
She becomes more and more myth
to society at large She is still ami
nh in. l,i .Hc
watches with osertowing admiration
what we once heard lady character
iZe las 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 Imaginable and his
glory is greatly enhanced by his sup
posed sufferings.
The old proverb that two of
trade can never agree has been very
successfully set at naught by the lives
OF the Brownings and many others
No woman ever had more magnif-
cent lines written to her than Robert
Browning addressed to his wife in
'One Word More" and those VINO
were privileged TO know them init
mately speak OF theirs as the abso-
Iutely perfect ideal welded life. for
they were each an inspiration to the
other
Who can ever forget the poignant
agony of David Copperfeld allied 10
the foolish little Dora, who for all
her natural sweetness OF temper was
about rs fit to be the wife OF such q
man as butterfly would be, and VINO
too can ever forget the scene in which
for the first time he realizes with ter
rible clearness that there can be no
greater ban 70 coniugal happiness
than with uncongeniality OF thought
and purposeg
And the Doras in real life do not all
die so opportunity as did the sweet
simplcton Of the story. and with each
/ passing day the literary artist spends
| with such woman the breach widens
They are one flesh but not one soul;
! he finds that remorseful tenderness is
all he can bestow; and torn by the
conflict and worn with mental suffer-
! ing and lack OF broad and sympathetic
comprehension. his work suffers-he
grows morbid and interpretive.
We have heard of one hapless man
OF letters married TO woman of ma
tcrialistic temperament and when
ever he was depressed and smaring
under an adverse press review or a re-
/ jected manuscript this excellent lady
would plead with him TO take Peru
vian bark! A tonic was what he
needed she averred. Heaven help the
man OF Imagination welded to woman
] like this!