The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-02-07
GREAT LOVE
STORIES
of HISTORY
DEAN SWIFT AMI
"STELLA"
tCssyrixa. ., Ne AsIasr.l

They are Repentance. D.scord. Bad
Temper. Loaihing. etc"
So wrote . Grabbed. cynical clergy
man early in the seventeenth century.
he was not the sort of man whom the
average woman would be supposed TO
care about. For he was homely. and
Of awkward. slovenly aspect His
temper was savage: his satire hit like
vitriol. He Was not rich. nor OF high
birth. He was q bully and lacked all
that women most admire. Yet he 10
the hero OF at leas, three famous love
stories.
The man was Jonathan Swift. dean
OF St Patricks. Dublin. His youth
was passed in poverty and struggle.
His pen later won for him q deathless
reputation a. a satirist and enabled
him TO rule his fellows by fear and
r!dicule. He rose slowly from post to
post in church and politics until he
became dean Of ST Pa;rick's
II WAS while Swift a. a youth VAS
secretary to a statesman named Tenn
pie that he became tutor to little
Esther Johnson. the eight-year-old
49,. employers house
keeper The child
was not only clever and iovabie. but
beautiful as we'll. Swift wrote Of her:
Her hair was blacker than . raven
and every feature OF her face is per-
lection" The name Esther means
star" So does Stella Swift ad-
dressed the child as Stella and al
ways afterward called her by that A.
fectionate nickname.
When Stella was older she and an
elderly chaperon came to live near
Swift in ireland. For years she and
the clergyman had kept UP a constant
correspondence. As she grew to won.
anhood their early friendship deepen.
ed into love. The girl adored Swift
with her whole intense nature He.
on his part. received her worship a.
| deserved compliment. nattered or
neglected her. according to his within.
and bullied her numerically. All his
caprfces and domineering ways Stella
bore without complaint.
Meantime Swift had earlier fallen
| more or less In love with q Miss
| Waring. II was an age Of poetical.
| high-hown nicknames. For instance.
a man named Peter Jones would sign
his love letters ''Eusenio." while John
| Smith would call himself ''Roderieo"
or "Amyntas." Swift called Miss
| Waring 'Varina." and Ia said to have
| proposed. She rejected him. This
was in 1894. when he was %. Two
years later "Varina" became SO
enamoured Of him that she actually
begged him to be her husband. Swift.
who had had time to change his mind.
rudely avenged himself for her earlier
neglect by writing her SO brutal a let
ter Of refusal that the acquaintance
ship was ended then and there.
Then began his famous Irritation
with Hester Vanhomrigh, a London
girl Of good family. at whose mothers
house Swift had often been an hon.
ored guest. He called Miss vanhom-
RICH "Vanessa." and in his poeticsl ef-
fusions addressed to her signed him
self 'Cadanus." When he went back
to Ireland Vanessa followed him and
settled in his neighborhood. She was
Is. He was ~. He seems to have
cared little for her. She loved him
with all her heart: so absolutely. in
deed. that she was deaf to his hints
that he was tired of her devotion.
Swift was at his wits ends to keep
Stella and VanessA from meeting and
TO guard the secret of each from the
other.
In 1916 he privately married Stella
! The wedding ceremony took place at
midnight in a little summer house on
the deanery grounds. At Swift's pos
tive orders Stella kept the marriage
secret. for his sake bearing patiently
| all the snubs and coldness of her
neighbors sooner than to disobey her
husbands command. Meantime Swift
continued to correspond with vanes-
| sa. not having the courage to tell her
he was married. At last Vanessa, hear
ing rumors of the wedding. wrote to
Stella asking IL the latter was really
Swift's wife. Stella replied. telling
her everything. and forwarded vanes-
sa's letter to Swift. The dean was
wild with rage. He salloped to Va
nessa's home and furiously confront
ed the miserable woman. Describing
| A o.,..,. the scene after
he,ohre,k. ward Vanessa
said he was ''si.
| lent but awful In his looks. He
slammed her letter down on the table
! without a word and rode away. Va
nessa's heart was broken. A few
/ weeks later she died
| Five years afterward. Stella. worn
/ down by Swift's cspricious behavior
and ~ the need OF keeping secret her
/ marriage. fell i'll. As she lay on her
deathbed Swift at last consented that
/ their union should BE- made public.
! But she murmured: 1t IL too late
/ aow." and died.
| Stricken with remorse. Swift turned
! TO literary life for solace and won
/ great and greater renown. His saw
/ age temper and cynicism daily grew
| more unbearabie. Finally he went in.
sane and, after three years OF lunacy.
| died. Chief among his treasures aft
/ er death was found q strand Of Stel-
las black ringlets. Written in Swift's
| handwriting on tiR package that held
/ II was the brief. cynicaliy pathetic in