New-York tribune., 1910-04-23

| ham," is largely record OF his daily
doings as n long locked. perfumed. gor
geously attired young writer and novice
in fashionable life. who went constantly
into society with his wealthy mamma,
and as a celebrity was bowed down TO in
the rather cheap literary circles OF that
period. re was never quite so fantastic
in the matter Of clothes, however. as HIS
friend Disraeli. who once appeared be-
side him on an election platform dressed
in a laced shirt. blue coat with pink
lining and cherry colored velvet trousers.
Behind all BulweTs early affectations
and follies was that foundation Of schol-
arship. Of overmastering interest in
things Of the mind. He was a philos-
opher OF sorts even as child. Pray,
mamma" said ne AT eight years old.
are you not sometimes overwhelmed by
the sense of your identity?" My dear
! Teddy" said his mother. 1T is high time
for YOU to go TO school" The heiress Of
the Lyttons Systematically spoiled this
youngest son Of hers all through his
childhood. He was almost entirely de-
/ pendent upon her as he grew older. and
the imperious woman kept him as much
as possible under her thumb. When he
! fell in love with the beautiful. saucy. un-
lowered. selfish Irish girl. Rosina
Wheeler, the scheming mother, who had
hoped for brilliant marriage for her
boy. lost her grip on tact and precipi-
tated by her opposition the very thing
she wished TO prevent. Edward married
his Rosina-and fixed upon his neck a
yoke Of misery whose burden was never
to be quite taken from Inn.
Mammals generous allowance ceased
or was relinquished. andthe small patri-
monies possessed by the pair had to be
eked out in their country home by the
toll of the young husband His pen be-
came the instrument of drudgery. and
his overstrained brain and nerves prob
ably brought about the persistent i'll
health Of all his later life. II was in
this country home that he finished pei
ham," which became instantly the most
successful book of fits year. But the
pot boilers were still written. The man
was overworked and constantly worried
about ways and means. The young wife
J -
housekeeper. vain and avid of attentions
from her lord. a less soothing and help
ful companion for a ma, of genius could
hardly he imagined:
Had her solicitude been accompanied by
more sagacity, his wife would have let the
fits of irritable detection wear themselves
ont. Instead, she expressed her sympathy
with Bulwer's manifold and manifest tTou-
hIes OF the lesser sort by condolences and
questions that had the effect. not of allay-
ing his irritation. but of straining beyond
endurance A temper already eXacerbated By
/ thpse trials which. from their very insig-
naughty spirit faded by excessive
work in which he could take no pride. the
master OF Wocdcot writhed under the ill
timed innuiries Of an anxiety which might
have been helpful If Il had been entirely
silent. Visitors at his country house spoke
OF his impressing them a man who had
been half fayed and was sore all over.
He was probably hard enough to live
with. and Rosina was not the woman TO
make the best of her trials. Even while
they lived beneath the same roof she
was engaged in the vulgar occupation of
setting down i'm a diary material to be
used in a sensational narrative Of the
sufferings inflicted by her domestic
"tyrsnt." The two novels which she
2
which she caricatured her husband. are
now very dead and would better remain
so. The more she wrote the less she
/ took care Of his house and of their chill
1 dren-for whom. indeed. she seemed TO
have little affection. With all the best
that can be said of her. it must still be
admitted that the lady had an out
rageous temper and q vigorously un-
pleasant Imagination. Mrs. Bulwer con-
WINGED herself" says Mr. Escott, "and
to a great measure persuaded others
that fer years she was contending
against and pursued by Mephistopheles
I himself on the other hand. reminis-
cents, not less trustworthy, perhaps
than Mrs. Bulves herself. recall her hus-
/ band as the good. sad, sentimental man
with a past daTkening his whole life,
misunderstood, and uni ppy. it may be.
/ but always noble and as good Of heart
as he might be sometimes gloomy in
manner" It is impossible 10 think Of a
woman as an undeservedly suffering vic
tin who could in her hatred exhibit her
| self in this base fashion on the day when
/ Bulwer- -Lytton. then Colonial Secretary,
was reelected by his Hertfordshire con-
I stituents:
4 He left Enebworth for the neigh bo~ing z
county town on a summer day OF excep-
tional beautv-every here the Conserva-
! tive colors blew conspicuous. not more in
the sky above than in the Jackets of the
] pOStbcys and In the faVors OF the crowd
lie was i'm the middle OF his address Of
thanks when, in complete suit of deep
yellow. the HertfOTdshire Liberal color
I there advanced q female bTandishing 2 vel
low umbrella. with rouged face ana yellow
I dyed hair Mounting the hustinEs, the
laoy saluted the newly made minister with:
/ "F1end, villain, monster, coWardly wretch,
+ cUtcsst I am told" she Kissed out YOU
have been sent 20 the colonies II they
I knew much about YOU as 7 do they
| would have sent you there long ago" The
! rest Is silence. For once IEttons presence
Of mind failed hm-or, rather. he tainted
and knew no more till he found himself
back al knebworth in bed.
The husband and wife had not seen
each other for twenty-five years. and
they never met again
Both those pertuTbed spirits are at
rest. For the man his friend has per-
formed a loyal service in dwelling here
upon his many fine gifts and qualities
Jowett. who was in 70 degree a senti-
mentalist said in Westminster Abbey
in his sermon over Lytton's grave: ITO
have served his own generation in
higher or lower sphere is a glorious
/ description Of any mans life Lord