The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1892-11-16


ciety and its artistic and literary circles
at ones feet, to be assured OF an i'm
mense income, and to possess one OF
the most charming homes in London
would seem sufficient to induce any
lady to lay aside schemes OF social re-
form.
But Victoria Woodruff, now the wife
of John Biddulph Martin. the great
London banker, in spite of her comfort
and her social rank in London, is leav-
ing it all to commence a new campaign
in American politcs A portentous
document entitled 1.-THE Declaration of
Inter dependence" heralds her new
advent as the presidential nominee OF
tho woman's rights party.
She does not come alone. Second
only to her in this campaign is Zula
Maud Woodruff, her daughter, young,
dainty, and petite, but another Victo-
ria Woodruff for all that Should you
meet this young woman in London
drawing-room she would at first seem
simply a very fin de sieck girl. A few
minutes later you would learn that she
had ideas OF her own. In corner OF
the stairway. or behind ferns, perhaps,
bewIldering theories OF theosophy, psy-
coIogy, and Brahminism would be hurl-
ed at you, and you would discover in
her social reformer OF the most pro-
gressive type.
The procession OF savans that lave
crowded the Martin drawing-rooms have
all left their intellectual mark on this
young woman's brain. And her mother
has not been idle duringher dozen years
Of English social life, but has studied
her theories anew and has trained up
her daughter in the way she should go.
Miss Woodruff will yet be heard from,
and the fame of Victoria Woodruff will
be kept alive in new generation.
CHANGING over some muRty old news
papers the other day, says a writer in
the New York Herald, / came across
cartoon published in 1875, which de-
picted Victoria Woodruff and Tennes-
see Clafin driving a Roman chariot,
drawn by two bulls and two bears,
through the classic shades OF Wall
street, while financiers howled as they
were metaphorically crushed under the
wheels of this feminine Juggernaut.
Now the team is changed. Tennessee
Cladin is living quietly at Richmond,
near London, the wife OF Sir Francis
Cook. In her place Zulu Maud Wood
hull has taken the reins. Though bare
ly twenty-five, her powers are little less
than those Of her mother.
wurpr TuR MARTISs LIVE
While whirling through the "West
end" in hanson one rainy night last
summer a sudden impulse led me to
turn down narrow little street called
Hyde Park gate. where the Martins
live. Few Of the great houses in Lon
don show their glories to an outsider.
Massive brown-stone fronts are lacking.
The entrances are frequently on an un-
pretentious side street, and it is only
when one is once within that the beau
ties OF the home appear. So it was
with the Martin dwelling.
Even when seated in the drawing
room it was impossible to realize that
this was the abode Of one of the most
noted SOCIAL reformers" of the last
fifty years. 1t seemed merely the home
of one Of OF London's social queens. l
felt as il l was simply calling on little
Mrs. Nobody, very mediocre, but alto
pether charming and understanding
Just how to furnish home.
This impression died away. though,
as the conversation, which subsequently
ensued, deepened into the reform
channel" and as was shown through
the rooms laden with bits OF quaint
ness and odd and bizarre articles Of
virtu. Old shops, the continent, the
east, every conceivable place had ap-
parently been laid under contribution
for making tho house unusual. 1t was
an unexpected phase to find these two
political women so thoroughly imbued
with artistic knowledge and taste aud
living in the midst of such decorative
charm. After all, even in social reform
circles, pictures are much more attrac-
tive when they are "framed in gold"
OF historic interest Is the library.
There is the editorial seat OF the HUI
n1dnitdrian, that recently started month
ly, PUBLISHED here in England and on the
continent. which will riva! in its pecu-
liar interest the Woodruff C Cigfin's
Weekly Of more than twenty years ago.
Mrs. Martin edits it and Miss Wood
hull is enrolled as associate. The feat
ure OF the library is the old mahogany
fireplace and the doors taken from the
house OF the old Marquis Of Salisbury,
father OF the recent prime minister.
And all this belongs to woman who
as girl, thirty-fve years ago, lived in
a little, poverty-stricken cottage in
little unheard-of town, one OF family
OF four or five children, who weren't
considered as we'll bred as even the
other village children.
A happier family than the Martinsit
wonld be hard to find. The only
hitch" i'll may SO call it, to Victoria
Woodhull's coming campaign is that
her husband cannot bear to have her
leave England. Fortune has dealt
kindly with John Martin and his ia
nous "Grasshopper," that banking
house of Lombard street that is now
nearly century old. He can count
his wealth by the hundred thousand
pounds, very nearly up to the million
dollar mark.
And yet both Mrs. Martin and her
daughter, outside OF their bric-a- brac
and decorative tendencies, have the
simplest of tastes. Never particle OF
iewolry does Miss Woodruff wear save
a brooch at her neck. Not solitary
ring is to be seen on her hands.
Victoria Woodruff is but little
changed from her platform days. Her
voice is sweet and low, her face calm
and yet mobile. Her hair is well tinged
with gray, but she is still young. On
tho stump this fall her old power will