The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-21
GEN. CAssIus NJ. CLAY.
His Stormy Career, Diplomatic Tri-
umphs and Marital Experiences.

says the Chicago Times-Herald. 1t would
be just his luck and lot should she never
come back. 1t would be the usual pro-
gramme Of the relentless fate which has
followed him should she conclude she does
not love her husband with the same ardent
devotion she did three years ago, when, as
a tow-headed daughter Of poor Kentucky
family, she Joined her fourteen summers
with the eighty-four winters of one of the
last Of the bluegrass aristocrats. She has
gone back to the humbleness Of the sur
roundings IF her childhood. The attractive
ness Of scenes she knew before she accepted
the duties of wifehood is so alluring that
the general is beginning to fear she has
wearied of him. She is now seventeen, and
under the laws of the State she can do as
she pleases. There is no legal process by
which the statesman, soldier. diplomat, ora
tor and duelist can get back the young
heart that he took unto himself until the
said heart gets good and ready 70 return 70
bors that Mrs. Clay has refused longer to
be player in the pathetic romance of De-
cernber and May at the Whitehall mansion.
1t is one of the strange things In the life
of this man that the least worthy Things
that he has done have always been the
ones longest remembered and most widely
discussed. There are comparatively few
people who know that he engineered all the
diplomacy whereby the United states Sc
cured Alaska for song or that he suf-
fered more than any other living man Tor
the cause of the negro in the South. HIS
b nsT re'5 feared gnvthing tn that walked on
two feet or that his actions have invaria-
bly, been dictated by his own convictions.
with him. He tried to xiii several others
who got away. He fell in love with Rus
sion woman whom he had no right to LOOK LOOK
wife to meet His family was driven from
him by his insstence that the Russian sec
ton of his heirs should be recognized. He
q long number of years after the close of
these sensational incidents. He then got
the announcement OF his intentions to
marry a girl whose least unfitness for COM
partnership was the fact that she was
young enough to have been the daughter
of sOr. Of his son.
HIS YOUNG WIFE.
General Clay has had remarkable ex-
perience with his young wife She was an
orphan and went to his estate first as
assistant to an old Scotch woman, who
tended the sheep muck. like they do in the
old country. One day the aged master of
the piaea-slw the girl in the fields and he
told her he wanted her to be his wife She
was scared almost to DEATH and ran to her
brothers house with the story. The BROTH
er went at once to the general, demanding
an explanation. He made no explanation
beyond the fact that he meant what he had
girls family secured Quick consent for the
alliance. The generals sons objected most
vigorously, and q son is said TO have given
currency to an offer that 1t would be worth
$500 cash to any man who would safely but
completely cause Dora Richardson to dis
appear from the scene. The general scent
day he drove to town to buy ammunition
and weapons for a guard for his love.
Dora and her brother went to his house,
and for some time the famous old place
was protected from the inside by four men
with rifles, hired on the generals instruc-
tons to get only chaps who were not afraid
to shoot. preacher carried a flag of
truce. One morning, three Defenders ago.
ncon aamn OF W Hendg cPa S meOs and
Hawthorne-a hero OF the Mexican war and
favoIfte In the Cars court, Yale grad
uate in. the class of 1882 and a man of art,
letters and literature-was welded to a tot
taken from his pasture field, who could not
read: 1t vas no wonder the country
grieved: It is but little wonder that he is
now grieving, possibly deserted by the girl
for whom his fondness made an irreparable
preach between him and his kin.
Mrs Clay at once was installed in the
great mansion-One of the most imposing
and most historical in Kentucky She be-
came mistress of the halls and rooms so big
that 1t We're possible to drive a load of hay
up the front steps and turn around in the
vestibule without brushing the rare paint
down in the race Of Clays for nearly 200
years. The general watched his wife with
a worthy companion, he employed a gov
erness and teachers. and the work of edu-
cation was undertaken. She devoted her
teachers resigned in the face Of utter in
ability to show any progress. The Clay
homestead continued on to be one OF great
of note, but Mrs. Clay had but small
part in it all. The general found 1t neces-
sary. in the course of time to part with the
services of Mrs. Clays brother as a man
on the farm, and he went back to live
a place ten miles away. Mrs Clay soon
dyS ago Ment to hm foP Ts She hsa
not returned. The impression is that he is
again husband without wife.
A PICTURESQUE KENTUCKIAN.
General Clay is far from being the great
est man in America, but he is certainly one
of the most picturesque. He is about the
last of the old type which might be called
sensational. There seems to be none other
of his school living. There is at this time
no need of the courage which he mani
tested in public and private to an extent
that never had any equal in this country.
It used to be said OF him that he was the
best friend the coroners and surgeons in
Kentucky had He either killed his man
for the one or put him into very serious
need of the other. He was born eighty
seven years ago. His ancestry lived and
died where he now lives. owning at one
time a stretch of 1900 fertile acres. His
and he was graduated so long ago that
many of the Yale professors cannot even
remember the date or anything that hap
pened at that time. A mob prepared to
lynch him in Lexington for printing an
AbolItionist paper away back In the forties.
This was where he first became known as
an unsafe man for an opponent. He dec
GRATED his editorial Sanctum with two small
cannon loaded with nails and arranged
keg of powder so that he could touch the
whole arsenal off at moments notice He
freed his own slaves sooner than any one
else and took up the cause of freedom so
terriacallv and desperately that some of the
Northern men declared that it would have
been better thing for the movement had
he stood still on one occasion and suffered
martyrdom rather than have shot his an
tagonist I'm his tracks.
This man still delights in talking OF the
good old days when 1t was part OF an Amer
lean gentlemans right to fight a duel. His
first encounter was with DR.. Declarey. who
lived In Louisville and wanted to marry the
girl Mr.. Clay had picked out. The doctor
thought to better his own case by writing
lisparagingly of Clay TO the mother of the
sweetheart. The mother gave the letter to
Clay, asking an explanation. Clay got to
Louisville as soon as he could and took a
second along He found DR.. Declarey and
pounded his head with hickory stick. He
thought this would lead TO a fight with
pistols. It did not The doctor was so
much alarmed by the courage OF the rival
that ne took his own life. General Clay to
this day says he does not understand how
q man who is afraid TO fight invariably has
the courage to commit suicide. The woman