The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-01-22
GREAT LOVE
STORIES
ofHISTORY
SAMUEL JOHNSON AND
MRS. PORTER
lCopyrlxhI. ay The AstsseJ

were flQlnk from birmingham 10
Derby. England. one day in 1888. 70
be married. The woman FIRST COM
planned that her escort rode too fast.
Then. when he checked hts hore's
speed. she rode ahead. calling back to
him that he vas riding too slowly.
Il am not TO be made the slave OF
your caPrices." roared the bride
groom wrathfully. He set spurs to
his horse and galloped out OF sight
around q turn in the highway. The
woman. weeping. caught up with him
At last. only to receive q sound scold
ing and a warning that her future hus-
band was not one Of those story book
SWANS whose love thrives on Ill treat
ment. After which the sobbing bride
and scowlins bridegroom rode on.
side by side. to the church in Derby.
where their wedding was to occur.
1t was an odd beginning TO married
life and promised scant happiness for
either Of the two. Yet their welded
years were more than ordinarily
vouno Husband bright The man
Was Samuel John
-" " son. the eccentric.
scrofulous son Of q bookseller. and
destined to become the most famous
parsonage of his day. The woman
was Mrs. Elizabeth Porter. . plain.
unprepossessing widow with children
as old as her young husband. Indeed.
Johnson is said to have been In love.
earlier. with one of her daughters.
In counting Mrs. Porter. Johnson
had told her frankly that he was pen
niless and that one OF his uncles had
been hanged. She replied quite a.
frankly that she was no richer than
he. and added that. while none Of her
uncles had been hanged. several OF
them ought to have been.
johnson was wretchedly poor. He
was dirty and slovenly In dress and
had boorish manners. His experience
with poverty and with the ingrati-
tude and ridicule Of his fellow men
embittered him and made him cynical
and cross. He failed in venture after
venture and began to look on mankind
as his enemies. But. throughout. he
worshipped his elderly wife He was
blind to her ugliness. her bad temper
and the fact tina: she was 20 years
older than he. To him she was al
ways beautiful. The paint that she
plastered half an inch thick on her
cheeks he regarded as the soft blush
of youth. When she was over SO he
wrote her q letter beginning MY dear
girl" and in the same epistle called
her MY charming love-"
The couple went to London. There,
for years. they nearly starved. John.
son bent his mighty intellect to meni-
al literary tasks to keep them alive.
Little by little he won fame a. q
writer. England rang with praises of
his essays and books. Yet the criti-
! cism he priced above all and the
praise that most delighted him was
his wife's. Two persons with such
tempers could not live without dis
putes. Some one once asked johnson
II he and his wife ever quarreled.
johnson sized up their marital situa-
ton by answering the query in one
word:
'Perpetually!"
He grew enormously fat. His face
was twisted and SCARED by scrof.
ula. His linen was dirty and his
clothes unkempt. Yet. to the last, his
wife was bitterly jealous lest his sup.
posed charm of looks and manner
might lure some designing woman to
fall in love with him and win his
heart The sight Of these two ugly.
ridiculous people. each believing the
other a miracle Of grace and beauty.
convulsed literary London with laugh
ter. Yet perhaps there was an in
hnitely pathetic. not uppoetic. side to
it all. Sincere. lasting love. on what.
ever object ii be lavished. must ever
command a certain respect.
When she was g. Mrs. Johnson fell
Ill. The physicians said she could
not recover. johnson was forced Ia
continue his writing day and night in
order to pay for doctors and sick-bed
A Ridiculous or iu.uries. he could
Pathetic Love. mom.n,. &c.,
his work to be with his dying wife
People were amazed to see SO great Z
man doing mental labor in order to
earn a few shillings for a foolish old
woman who was only q clog to his
brilliant career. Yet all the love OF
Johnson's long. strange life was cen
tered in her. They had no children
There was no one to share with her
the alteration of the eccentric genius
intense nature.
When Mrs johnson died her hus
band was inconsolable. Soon money
and honors began to crown his work
But they meant little to him whel
she could no longer share them. Hi
friends learned to hide their smiles
when. in speaking of the poor. homely
old woman who was dead. Johnosr
used to sigh and exclaim: The pref
ty, pretty creature"
The dictionary tfor which. OF all his
work. Johnson is best known val
to have been a source Of immense
profit and fame to them both. Mrs
johnson died before II was completed
The anniversary OF her death John
son always set apart az a day Of fast
ing and prayer. Though his renowI
as a writer led many women In afteI
years to make violent love to him h<
> remained ever true to the momeory
Of the wife for whom he had sacr.
Eced his best years