Evening journal., 1893-08-30
RuskIMs WEDDING ROMANCE.
zhe story OF the Eccentric Critics Mar
riage and Divorce.

zhe story OF the Eccentric Critics Mar
riage and Divorce.
John Ruskin did a strangely wayward
thing when he consented 10 get married.
He did most erratic and, to the public, a
most inexplicable thing when he arranged
for his divorce He had accepted some of
the loltiest traditions about womanhood
that men sometimes read and talk about,
and he looked for his ideal companion. One
night he met her in the drawing room of
London friend, who, without his knowing
IT, had brought the young lady to meet the
eyes of the great writer.
IL was June night. He was 35, and she
looked like Greek goddess. He was daz-
zled She was a tall, graceful girl Of 10,
with a face and figure as faultless as one Of
the statues of old. No one ever expected
Ruskin to fall in love, and he did not. She
was poor needed home and its comforts,
and 80 they were married.
Their welded life was peaceful, friendly,
kindly TO the highest degree, but there was
not spark of affection to enlighten their
existence. She admired the great man she
had married aud was grateful for the wealth
and comfort lac showered ON her. He wor-
shipped her As he would the marble made
lifelike by the sculptOr's chisel.
There was nothing human about the life
they led as husband and wife, and she was
woman who in her heart, like all true
women, laughed at the traditions that
made her sex love distant worship
One day Ruskin brought an artist TO
paint his wifc's picture. And the man was
Millais, and he was a bright, CHEEKY, hand
some fellow, human every inch Of him, with
a great and absorbing love for the beautiful
and Willingness TO tell Of his love
lie began to paint the portrait Of the
magnificent woman, and when he had fin
ished he was in love with his friend 5 wife.
Womanlike she saw It., and perhaps she
was not full Of sorrow and reproach. II
was the first tribute of real manly love that
had ever laid at her feet.
And Ruskinl His wide eyes saw the re
nance that was weaving around those two
lives, aud his heart realized how little af-
fection he had TO lavish ON the woman he
had made his wife. How he told her the
story of his pride in her, and the sacrifice
1 he was to make for her, while she lay prone
at his feet, is one Of the things which only
| he or she could tell.
1t is difficult to obtain a divorce in Eng
| land. but John Ruskin secured it for her
and one bracing morning in the early win
ter, a month after the divorce was granted
| Ruskin stood beside the couple in one Of
London's quiet churches and saw then
made man and wife.
That was a good many years ago, ant
since then Millais has become rich and ia
| nous and is now Sir John, and his wife il
/ my Lady Millais. The warmest, sturdies
| friend the struggling painter had in hi
toiling days was the man whose wife b.
had married, and through all the years o
! Millais' later success and greater homo
John Ruskin has been the welcome CUES
and daily visitor 20 the man and womal
whose ltves he so unselhshly crowned witt
happiness.
| II lisa strange story, and q Ae world know
little about il, and some men have con
demned him, as some women have censure
her. But the two men and that one woma
who knew best have been happy and col
tented with the change that John Ruskin'
pure unselfshness brought into their live'
And so the world should not complain
Chicago News.