The age-herald., 1898-03-30
Mrs. Frances HOdgson Burnett
 And Her Marital Troubles

Another pathetic story, such as will occa- sionally find it's way to the surface, like the face of a corpse in stream, is that which tells of the infeIcities of Frances Hodgson Burnett, and her husband Dr. eva, Burnett A short while ago the statement was made in these columns that a suit for divorce was pending, but the in- cidents leading up to this calamitous end ing of what should have been a happy ,,nion of two cultivated, intellectual hu- man beings are not very generally known. If is a pity, a terrible pity, that the sue cessful literary and social career of so bril- liant a woman as Mrs. Burnett should De blighted at it's very zenith, with domestic trouble.
 Dr. Burnett is very highly esteemed, both personally and professionally, by the world at large He has risen to very gratifying heights of success as a specialist, and Is re- garded as a man of elevated character and of unusual mental endowments h. compatibility-that convenient term in di- yorce courts-is the only ground named for the legal separation of Dr. and Mrs. Burnett. after having been married twenty five years
 They have evidently been growing farther and farther apart, without any wrong do- ing on either side.
 Mrs. Burnett is woman of luxurious tastes; she is fond of the bright, sunny side of life; loves social pleasures; is ec- centric to degree; enjoys keenly her fame, and reputation; dresses extravagantly, and has had her otherwise sensible head quite turned by the court paid her in this coun- try and In Europe. She derives very large income from her books, which rem ders her entirely independent of her hus- band.
 Dr. Burnett is a man of undenable talent, but he is very quiet, reserved and absolute ly indifferent to those things which are es- sential to the happiness of his celebrated wife.
 He has a large medical practice, and his income enables him to live handsomely at Washington.
 The differences between Dr. and Mrs. Burnett have been quietly increasing for many years, and they have only awaited the coming of age of their youngest son, Vivian, to begin legal proceedings for a divorce. This young fellow is at present a student at Harvard, and, as is generally known he was the original Little Lord Fauntleroy," although he is said never to have resembled that popular little boy at all.
 His parents certainly selected distress ingly pitiful way of celebrating their sons coming of age, by making known to the curious, unsympathetic world their disa- greements and infelicities.
 Mrs. Burnett seems to have put into prac- tice very few of those beautiful lessons in seh-sacrificng love and devotion which she has given the world through the pages of some of her books. She has flooded the country with volumes of sentiment, but alasl her life is merely the selfish gratifi- cation of every impulse, regardless of what 1t means to husband and child.
 =
 Mrs. Burnett is of very humble origin. She was born. so it is said, in England, but when a very small child her parents went to Tennessee to live. They were poor plain people, without aspirations or ambi' tions.
 But the little daughter, Francis IIodgson early developed a brightness and thought fulness which attracted the attention ol neighbors and acqllaintances. She was es' pecially vivacious and sunshiny, and nat urally made friends among the Tennessee ans When about r years of age she acci- dentally met near her home Dr. Burnett, who was visiting in that section He was about 30 years old, delicate and quite lame. He became interested in the pretty, bare footed country girl, talkd with her ana bought blue berries from her. The first money he paid her for berries she invested in pencil and with that pencil Francis Hodgson wrote her first story. Dr. Bur nett recognized indications of talent in the young girl, crude and undeveloped as they were, and it was not very long before he found himself hopelessly enamored of the little maiden. A short while after thls pe- riod Dr. Burnett and Francis Hodgson were married. and went abroad. They lived in Paris for some time, where Dr. Burnett de- voted himself to the study of medicine, se- lecting diseases of the eye as his spec ia1ty Mrs. Hodgsonis novel, ''rhat Lass OLowries," was written during the hap piest period of her married life, and she and her husband were the chief characters in the famous book. Frances Hod8son stood for Joan, and Dr. Burnett for Der rick Mrs. Burnett is a handsome, we'll preserved blonde woman, with beautiful home at Washington, D. C., and a very large income from her popular books. Dr. and Mrs. Burnett have lived much apart of late years and he has quite an elegant residence also at Washington.