Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1905-01-07
GREAT LOVERS WHO LOST.
Poor irish Girl Too Naughty to Wed
Abraham l.tncolh, Farm Hand.

POOr Irish Gfrl 100 H0uxnVy 10 "eu
Abraham Lincoln, Farm Hand.
II may be some consolation to the
rejected lover to remember that many
of the greatest men In history have
suffered equal pangs and survived the
same ordeal to find married happiness
elsewhere.
When Abraham Lincoln. as a youth
of Is. was Giving in Il rude log cabin
I'm Spencer County. Indiana. and pick
ing III tie rudiments of education In
the intervals Of rail splitting and
blowing" he fell In love with the
daughter of poor Irish settler In a
neighboring log cabin. and after many
clumsy failures to declare his love to
her in person. penned with difficulty
one of his first letters asking her to
become his wife.
lie never received an answer to this
CLUMSY cfYuslon,' as lie nfterward
called it. but when next he met Bird
get "she tossed her head and looked
another way" "She was much too
good" she Is said to have declared,
ito marry a gawky farm hand" Then
It was that Lincoln left the paternal
cabin and voyaged, as hired hand on
tlatboat. into that greater world
which before long was destined to ring
with the name of the gawky farm boy.
When. thirty years or so later. Abra-
ham Lincoln became President. Bird.
get was still living, "the slatternly
wife of farm laborer in Il log cabin"
and still preserved the Ill penncd let
ter which might. If she had been wise,
have made her the first lady in the
land"
Even Byron. that most beautiful and
| gifted of men. had more than his share
of refusals. and one OF them at least
was accompanied by words which left
a sting to his last day. He was only
a Harrow schoolhoy of lG when he
fell badly In love with Miss Chaworth
of Annesley. young helress of some
beauty. who was two years older than
| himself
But Miss Chaworth treated all the
boys shy advances with laughter and
contempt. and. although he was "suf.
fering the torturcs of the lost for her
sake, refused TO take him seriously.
But the browning blow came when,
from an adjacent room. he overheard
Miss ChawoYh say to her maid: DO
you think l could care anything for
that lame boy;" "Thls cruel Speech"
he afterward said. was like shot
through my heart. Although it was
late and pitch dark, dartcd out OF
the house and never stopped running
until reached Newstead."
Even Byron's future unhappy wife
rejected him declsively when first he
asked her hand: and only after long
resistance consented to receive letters
from him.
Shelley, too. almost as handsome and
as gifted as Byron. knew. from more
than one experience. the 'pangs of re-
Jection.' After he had been expelled
from Oxford and went to London with
his fellow culprlt. Hogg. to live, he
fell violently In love with his land.
lady's daughter. who bore the unro-
mantle name Of Eliza Jenkins; but
Eliza. even though he threatened to
commit suicide In his despair. refused
to have anything to do with him; and
when a few months later, having
thought better of the suicidal threat,
he sought to console himself by pay.
Ing court to Miss Harriet Grove, q
pretty cousin, she was so alarmed at
his heterodoxles that she sent him de-
cisively about his business.
When Richard Bnnsi~y Sheridan,
following the example Of many other
amorous young men, fell over head
and ears In love with Miss Linley, tho
beautiful singer. "she only laughed at
his ardor, ana made faces ut him be-
hind his back" and yet he used that
subtle and eloquent tongue OF his to
such purpose that he actually ran
away with her to French nunnery,
and married her after fighting several
duels with his rivals and her perse-
rutors.-Chlcago Tribune.