The San Francisco call., 1897-11-07

L EhAL years ago III Tue uSlSuJ Ol
what is called the silly season" ,"
that portion of the year when society
folk have not vet come back to town,
and subjects for discussion are necessarily
limited. there appeared in a London
rnorning paper a series of brilliant article s
under the general title, How to Be Hap
nv Though Married" The stories created
a Juror. and column after column was
prin.ed in support or derision of their
author. Constant Reader" "a Sub
scr. Der" Happy Husband" "a Dis
gus ed Wife" all these descended like
wolves on the fold of the editor who had
d scovered a subject that came home so
powerfully to his readers. We have said
that the articles made interes ting read
ing; the correspondence commenting
upon them was simply revelation in the
ngnt it threw upon the intimate details OF
the English home, uDon the English
husband and the English wife.
The author who so stirred up domest IL
city on the other sice Of the wafer has fol-
flowed up his success this year with book
len.itled THE Love Affairs of Some Famous
Men, " issued in this country by the Fred
\er.-k ( a. Stokes Company. New York, and
for sale in San Francisco by William
Doxey, Palace Hotel. 1t is a really we'll
done though necessarily scrappy piece
Of work, remarkable for the large
area OF ground it covers, comprising
as il does the love affairs of such diversi-
fed notab!es as Martin Luther and DR..
Johnson, Garrick and Thomas Carlyle,
Sir Walter Raleigh and Lord Z don.
In using the words love affairs the
author wishes it to be distinctly under
stood that he employs the term IN its
broadest meaning. Not oil of his emine mt
subjects marry and live happy ever after
ward in that odor OF sanctity which is pre-
sumed to be the natural concomitant OF
nuptials solemnized in the broad light f
day by re- cognized legal or ecclesiastical
authorities. A number of them are re-
ported to have had love affairs be-
fore marriage; to others, again, the
nuptiaI tie afforded no bar to
their fondness for the society of
women other than their acknowledged
lie partne rs; but in any event the author
OF How to Be Happy Though Married ,
has collecIed a vast amount OF interesting
data that in many instances places the
character of some famous men before US
in aspects dissimilar to those III which We
are accustomed to regard them Through
their letters and in their daily conduct
they are exhibited to US. and the conclu-
sion at which the thoughtful reader will
arrive after perusal of the book Can best
be descri bed in the lines from Cha ucer:
\ Marriage is such ra bile rout,
That those who are out would fain get in;
Aud those who are in would fam get ou:.
The main impression derived from read
ing The Love Affairs of Some Famous
Men" is that, as a rule, men of genius do
not make good hus bands; indeed, as our
author remarks by way of introduction,
there are two species of husbands difficult
to live with-the genius and the fool-and
perhaps the chances OF happiness are
greater with the fool! The statement ap-
pears 10 be borne out from the experience
of brilliant men who have married women
below them in mental status. 1t is posi-.
BILE, too that it is wise TO investigate as
little as possible the private lives of those
men ofgigantic mentality whom We hold in