The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-08-15
THE LOVE OF GENIUsEs.

From California comes the word that
another rising young author whose
stories of the Klondike have caused his
enthusiastic admirers to thrust him into
that growing mob of ''geniuses" to
which the energy of the publishing
houses and the enterprise of the modern
press is constantly contributing, has
been made the respondent in a suit for
divorce. The case of Mrs. Jack London
VS.. Mr.. Jack London has had many re-
cent counterparts in the courts and
every time such suit is brought the
old question, whether unusual talent is
compatible with the domestic virtues
and the genius makes a good husband
is revived. To reply that most of the
moderns proclaimed as genufses during
their little day haven't enough talent to
exclude the common virtues is only to
beg the question, as after all If it be
shown that majority of men of genius
have been bad husbands it is probable
that the fact is owing not so much to
their genius as the circumstances re-
sulting therefrom and if the world per-
sists in hailing a man as a genius and
accord him the treatment of one it is
probably just the same as far as the
effect upon his home is concerned as
if he were one. If a man, because the
world thinks he is a genius, is invited to
a great many elaborate dinners and late
suppers and gets an ossified liver and
an uncertain temper as a result thereof
so that his wife finds life with him in
supportable it is evident that it doesn't
much matter as far as the records of the
divorce court are concerned whether
the world was right in its contention or
not. A later favorite may send his odds
down to 100 to 1 and three years from
the time his star rose on the artistic
horizon it may have set forever but
during his hour of triumph his wife
was, to all intents and purposes, the
wife, of a genius and obliged to suffer
the penalty of her position or seek re-
lief in the legal procedures to which so
many of her kind have been obliged to
resortg
Time was when people put much faith
in the theory that the artist is somehow
different from other men morally and
spiritually and is not to be Judged by
the standards of Philistia, and a great
deal was said about the artistic tenn
permanent which was supposed to excuse
if not cover multitude of sins. But
the later view is that a genius is diff
ferent from his fellows only in respect
sidered good form for him to beat his
wife or neglect to battle, although if he
were real genius these slight peccadil-
loes would probably not interfere with
his lasting artistic fame. What once
passed for an inevitable eccentricity of
disposition in Thomas Carlyle and was
vaguely connected, in the popular mind,
with his literary greatness is now
known to have been a chronic dyspep-
STA, which had it been cured would have
made him a more agreeable companion
for his wife but would not necessarily
have lost Sartor Resartus or the French
Revolution to the world. Besides If you
admit that the genius is more likely to
be personally disagreeable as an every
day companion and that his genius is
responsible for the fact you must also
account for the ordinary man and wo-
man who lose their te1npers over trifies
and the great army Of people who eat
something that tastes like a chopped-up
whisk broom for breakfast and to whom
it is not safe to speak before 10 o'clock
in the morning.
The fact of the matter probably is
that men of genius are not more diff
cult to live with than other husbands
and that they no more frequently figure
as principals in divorce suits but that
the interest which their affairs have for
the world at large merely gives greater
publicity to their domestic troubles. The
case of the woman of uncomsl
mon talent married to an in
ferior man is different. how
ever, as here we have the supremacy of
intellect and the supremely of tradi-
ton clashing and trouble might be ex-
pected to ensue. But if it is true that
men of genius are the cause of much
grief and unhappiness to their wives the
fault does not. it is likely. lie so much
with an eccentricity of disposition on
their part as on the inability of the wife
to take that large. bland. composed viewi