Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-09-25
A MISMATED POET
The Tardy Marriage Of Fitz'
gerald and Lucy Barton.
A UNION PITIFUL, YET COMIC
Tho Couple Were Utterly Unsuited to
Ono Another. and He Fled From Her
During tho Honeymoon-A Reunion
That Failed to Reunite.

Ono Another and He Fled From Her
During tho Honeymoon-A Reunion
That Failed to Reunite.
The incidents leading up to and those
| following the marriage Of Edward
Fitzgerald. translator of the "Omar
| Khayyunl." were Of Il ludicrOllS and ut
the SAL time somewhat serious char
! acter. Mr. Francis Gribble gave the
facts In the l'ortnishtly Review:
THE Lucy Barton story is very pitt.
! full. but it is also rather comic. She
was Il Quaker's daughter. who had
Joined the Church Of England as Il
means, one inagines. Of climbing the
social ladder. and she was just the
sort Of person whom Fitzgerald would
esteem. but detest-prim. plous. me-
thodical. fussy. not quite lady and
yet in II weird provincial way world
ly. the sort of person to whom 1t seems
equally important to teach in the Sun
day school and to be leader Of SO
ciety.
"Fitzgernld and she had known each
other for the greater part Of their
lives aud were both nearly fifty years
Of aye when marriage overlook them.
He did not even know that he was en-
gagged to her But She told him thut he
was. and he was too polite to contra
, dict her
"Politcncss only broke down when.
after the ceremony. she assumed pro-
pictorial airs and insisted that her
husband should pay afternoon calls
with her aud dress for dinner. That
was the last straw. though very likely
it was also the first
"Fitzgerald supposed apparently that
in marrying Lucy Barton he had mere
ly acquired housekeeper who would
| know her place. who would conhne
her new dignity to her housekeeper's
, room. leaving him us free as Of old to
! slop about In slippered ease. unkempt.
unSlaven. enveloped In dressing
gown until the evening. with books
all over the floor. pipes all over the
mantelpicce and tobacco ash all over
his clothes.
1T would not have mattered. Of
course. If he had married for love and
If his bride had been q woman Of
grace and charm. Such one would
have changed all that like fairy wav-
ing magic wand. But Fitzgerald had
only married to oblige.' and Mrs. Fitz-
gerald was not in the least like fairy.
She was more like female drill SER
geant, conventional. stiff and starched.
yet with pretensions.
"Her flow of fussy small talk was a
nuisance. and her interruption OF Fitz-
gerald's meditations with the demand
that he should shave and wear clean
linen assumed the proportion Of a
tragedy In his eyes
HE stood 1t for fortnight and then
fed. leaving the honeymoon unfinished.
going off to stay with friends. boiling
like a rabbit for its burrow.
There were reunion and an at
tempt at reconciliation. but in vain.
Fitzgerald's letters to his friends at
| this period are like the letters home Of
| a boy who il being bullied at school.
III believe. he writes to Professor
| Cowell. there are new channels fretted
! In my cheeks with many unmanly
! tears, and there really is no evidence
that he had anything to cry about be-
| yond the fact that he was being hus-
| tied out of a comfortable dressing
gown into starched shirt with high
! collars
THAT fact was symbolical Of the
general discrepancy Of tastes and
points of view. So We find him writ
ing again. Till see better how we get
on ! dare fix on no place to live or die
In and then before long came definite
separation and the drafting OF deed
Of settlement.
"Fitzgerald. It Is said. used long att
erward to walk up aud down a certain
garden path for hours together calling
himself a fool. and when in later years
be met his wife again he first put out
bis hand and then changed his mind
and turned his back"
L. A>:.