Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1910-03-09
GREAT LOVE
STORIES
OF HISTORY
THOMAS CARLYLE and
JANE WELSH
(Copyright. by the Author.A
By ALBERT PAySOn Terhune

/ This remark sums up, in few words
! the queer romance of boorish
cranky, brutal genius and nervous,
delicate, ill-tempered woman. Quar-
relsome and miserable as was the
couples married lie, their story is
we'll worth the telling.
Thomas Carlyle, one of Europes
] foremost historians, essayists and
men of genius, was the son of poor
Scotch stonemason. Thomas oddi-
ties led his schoolfellows to tease and
bully him. This and later troubles
soured nature that had never been
very sweet After struggling along for
some time as a school teacher, in ut
ter poverty, Carlyle began by degrees
to win fame and a living by liter
allure. His French Revolution"
"Sartor Resartus' and other works
! became models of their sort, and will
always live as such, rejecting at the
same time their authors crabbedness
and his distorted views of life. 1t was
in the early flush of his fame that he
began what was known as a literary
| correspondence" with Jane Baltic
| Welsh, an intellectual woman, who
for years would not allow the CORE
| spondence to take more intimate
| personal tone.
Miss Welsh was not Carlyle's first
love; nor was he hers. While he was
teaching school in Scotland he fell in
love with one Margaret Gordon
fair complexioned, softly elegant,
grave, witty and comely." The girls
aunt refused to let her listen to the
suit of the uncouth, penniless school
master, and the affair came to a sud
den end. Carlyle later portrayed
Margaret's alleged fickleness in "Sar-
tor Resartus." Jane Welsh had been
in love with her tutor, Edward Irv-
ing, a noted clergyman. He married
another woman, and Carlyle took his
N.i+bsr Married place as Miss
Ne'tner marr'eo Welsh's tutor
rrs' -oVe' When the Scotch
man proposed to her she wrote:
ct love you Were you my
brother should love you the same
But your wife? Never!"
Carlyle, in anger, wrote to a friend:
These women of genius are the very
devil!" Nevertheless, three years Ia
ter, in 1926, the two were married
Carlyle was 80, his Wife e5. AS the
time for the wedding drew near, each
confessed to the other deadly fear
of being married.; and each tried to
keep up the others courage. Miss
Welsh spoke of the preparations for
the ceremony as "horrid circum-
stances" Carlyle, in turn, asked her
to make their wedding trip less dis
agreeable for him by allowing him TO
smoke three cigars, as occasion
serves, without criticism" and begged
that his brother might go with them
on the honeymoon. Nor was their
dread of married life unfounded.
From the very start they were III
mated Mrs Carlyle wrote at one
time: LET no woman who values
peace of soul ever dream of marry
ing an author!"
She had wretchedIy bad nerves. So
had he. Her tempe" was doubtful.
Of his there cold. fortunately, be
no doubt. She was sensitive and high
strung He was coarse and inconsid-
crate. Neither seems to have taken
the pains to sacrifice personal whims
and unpleasant traits for the sake of
the other. Neither should ever have
married Yet, strange to say, both
were really in love. They quarreled
frequently and furiously. After the
first of these quarrels (the morning
after the wedding), Mrs. Carlyle had
a long fit of hystericaI weeping,
while Carlyle worked off his rage by
rushing in the garden and tearing up
the prettiest flower beds.
Once Mrs. Carlyle tried to sew in
the same room where her husband
was writing. He growled that her
needle made too much noise and dis
turbed his thoughts. She stopped
sewing and sat still. Soon he roared:
"Jane. can hear you breathing!" AS
breath was not easy to suppress she
had to give up staying in his study.
CARLYLE hated to shave. So he raised
a beard. His wife told an acquaint-
ance that the time he formerly spent
in shaving he Ia
ter occupied by
Endless ouarrels. complaining Of
the world in general. At one time
Mrs. Carlyle had headache. Car
lyle, being busy, forgot to ask how
she felt; so she reminded him of her
presence by throwing teacup at his
head. She was also absurdly jealous
of his innocent admiration for clever
Lady Ashburton; and this jealousy al
most caused total separation.
Yet there are letters that show how
tender and affectionate each could
sometimes be and how devoted they
| secretly were to one another.
Mrs. Carlyle died suddenly in 1856,
while driving in Hyde Park, London.
Carlyle's grief was crushing He
wrote wildly sorrowing letters to his
friends and filled the air with loud,
despairing lamentations. His anguish
was heightened by reading in his