The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-06-17

lady admirers. Is Il
II It IS a sweet thought. in cogltating
Eon this matrimonial prodigy and crime
tcrimsoned curmudgeont 10 entertain the
hope that King Halls Ike shall ne'er
appear again, tits a stilly 'sweeter one
to reflect on the fact that it was finally
"a wl1uw--a two-ply widUv--whu got
him under hack and ultimately placed
him boneath The turf. after which she
him beneath the turf, after which she
took unto herself fourth consort. One
also spitefully cherishes the hope that
she made him put his own buttons in
his shirt and forced him to lock MI the
cellar doors at night.
This writer is never so short OF wind
or beaten out that he cnnnUt rnusc Ill
his hard run for corn meal to stop and
toss bouquetsnt widows. In his study
Of history he finds this Irresistible species
of feminity bobbing up on all occasions.
+ ever after the main chance, and usually
winning hands down. l5
1t is hard for Instance. to keep tab on
all 1.-THE wives that pious old Mahomet
yhnd--he landed a new one almost every
time he got n good suit of clothes-but
we know that It was another two-ply
widow, Cadijah, aged forty and rich. who
snatched him from @celibncy when lie was
twenty-five and set him going on tho
road to8fame and benedictve servitude.
When this good woman died. Mahomet
who was then getting on in years and
consequently hankering after fry
STEERS became betrothcd to Ayesha, d
Washing debutante OF seven, but the
&nuptials -Wtfe postponed Cor two years e
that IS. until the maid had reached the
mature age of nine. In the Interim. the
prophet consoled himself by acquiring
another widow Sawda, and after that
he kept taking them on in one form or
Sanother--srass or. sod-untl he must we'll
nigh have bankrupted the friends who
undertook to send him wedding 5, esents,
washington Irving, whose biography OF
BNiahomet Is a regular Newport blue book
z OF tho prophets better halves, Informs
us that nlne-year-old Ayesha, already
alluded to, was the only maid Of an
EMahomets brides. .5
30 much by way of side-stepping out
Of reverence for widows. Now let us
pack to the aminble. uxorious Henry and
MS petticoated browbenten sextette, Out
OF the six, three, singular to say, were
named Katharine, the first and the two
last LAY! or the queenly coterie. Then came
tripping forward two Annes who were
separated, chronologically. however. by
wlnsome Jane Scymour--venture No. a.
she who first gets Interesting when Wife
3 no. catches her sitting snugly. and
naughty on King Halls barrel like
knee ~ !.
It was just one year before Columbus
sailed the ocean blue that a bouncing
"knnve child Henry Tudor, was born
TO King Henry VII. OF England. 1t is
not probable that this Infant, destined so
soon to become a sceptred monstrosity,
cut much figure when he first doomed
up IN his swnddlng clothes. for Hal then
mad an older brother Arthur Prince Of
wales and heir apparent to Nngand's
throne. We need not bother much with
Arthur, for on April q, 1902, he very con-
slderately died of the plague Mt Ludlow.
being then sixteen years old.
arthur would have cut but little figure
one way or the other had his passing
not Immediately brought q quasi widow
ON tho scene and thereby plunged Hal
INTO that connubial Niagara which after
wards made him so famous.
Some months prior to Brother Arthurs
death no had been bethrothed toa hand
some Spanish brunette. Donna Catalina,
better known as katharine OF Aragon.s
inc daughter of that agreeable couple
ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. who
iigared so pictlresquely along with CO.
lumphs IN elementary school histories.
II would not do here to explain the
rights, privileges, prerogatiycs and obll-
cations OF the ancient ceremony of be-
throthal. event. If anybody knew what
those reciprocal rights and obligations
actually We're Suffice 1t to say that this
column cautiously and respectfully calls
katharine of Aragon quasi widow.
Az this 1uncture tho preternatural piety
or King Hal. which developed in later
ilie should be explained by the fact
mat While his big brother Arthur was
iiHing he was educated with tho view
70 his ultimately becoming the Arch-l
hishop of Canterbury. But the death OF
ha,har'ne's bethrothed changed all that
ana , made young Henry "a prospective
King KING on June II, 1902 we see our hero
!,fst becoming bridegroom by wedding
me spanish lady originally designed as
.he @lte OF the nnlucky Arthur. She WAS
men about twenty-six and her husband
nni seventeen. The boy, ut that time
WIS ehlYalrons agd fair to look upon.
Alg Mes about AS tructn bia hi