The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-26
MILLIONS MIGHT
HAVE Been HERE.
THINKING PEOPLE SPECULATING ON
THE FAIR-COUZINS EN-
GAGEMENT.
A STORY RELUCTANTLY TOLD.
The BETRoTHAL WAS CURRENT
RUMoR HERE MORE THAN
A YEAR AGO.

| Inc little romance in real life and ma
| ture years connected with the courtshiu
and subsequent betrothal of James G. Fair
and Miss Phoebe w. Couzins, an account
OF which was published in Sundays CALL
has caused great deal of comment, dis.
cusslon and speculation as to what might
have been the ultimate result OF such a
| marital union. The intellectual and we'll.
informed people of this country know Miss
Couzlns power as speaker and writer on
political, social and economic questions.
This knowledge has suggested the ques-
ton, What would or could she not have
| accomplished for the world with the power
that few millions of the dead Senator $
money would have given her had it been
placed at her command? Seriously think
| ing men and women are inclined to believe
that If the marriage engagement had been
carried out it would have been the nucleus
OF social, political and economical revo-
luton.
But death and other potent influences
| lnterposed, and now the proposed alliance
OF these two famous individuals presents
itself only as one of the worlds possibili-
ties that might have been, but are no more.
Persons who were directly interested in
preventing the proposed marriage, and
others whose shallow perceptiveness pre-
cludes the possibility of seeing the depths
OF great natures in great men and women,
are disposed to make light af this episode
in Senator Fairs life. Some of them have
even gone SO far as to dispute the accuracy
of some of Miss Couzins' statements in the
published interview. These denials are
not warranted by the facts, as will be
shown later on, Miss Couzins is not a
woman who would seek notoriety or any
sort of advertising by parading her mis-
fortunes, sorrows or other private affairs
before the public. In the first place, she
does not need it. Her name and fame in
her chosen calling are household words in
all civilized lands and she needs only to
intimate the utterance of a thought in
order to secure listeners.
In Justice to Miss Couzins it must be
said that she did not invite publication of
her engagement to Senator Fair. Her
statement of the interesting episode was
fairly sought and reluctantly given. When
first questioned on the subject she firmly
declined to say anything for publication.
But when certain facts and CONTINGENCIES
were revealed to her she consented to tell
her story. And she told it, candidIy, with
out any needless coloring.
The fact OF the engagement was not a
secret 1t was known by rumor in San
Francisco more than year and a half ago.
A vague knowledge of it existed in certain
circles in Chicago even before it was heard
of here.
A Chicago newspaper man who is to
some extent connected with the Associ-
ated Press had worked up story, based
partly on facts and partly on rumors, sew
eral days before the publication of the
Fair-Couzins engagement in the CALL.
This gentleman telegraphed skeleton of
his facts and rumors to friend in this city
and suggested that it would be well to as
certain all the facts from Miss Couzins her
self, if possible. The suggestion was car
ried out.
Expressions of sentiment from those
who know Miss Couzins and her genius
and her sincerity of purpose, which were
heard in intellectual circles yesterday,
were in most instances expressions of re-
greet that she did not become Mrs. James
G. Fair before the ex-senator was parted
from her in Chicago on that summer day
of 1893.
Miss Couzins may have been mistaken in
regard to the identity of some of the men
who were with Senator Fair in Chicago,
but as to the main facts affecting herself
there is abundance of proof independent OF
her own statements.