The Washington herald., 1913-03-17
FOREIGN GOSSIP.
Copyright. 1918. by Court Gossip Syndicate,


lotte. the heiress presumptive. have
journeyed to Provence in strictest incos-
nito. to attend the wedding of their
former French governess. Mile. de
Caquerey, which lady has been raised
to the position of first Dame pour ac-
compagner." She married a French Of
ficer. and their home will be in Morocco.
where near relation of hers, NJ.
Caquerey, heads a promising mining en-
terprise.
The grand duchess is the only one of
the six daughters who resembles her
father, the late Grand Duke.
The will OF the grand duchess was
supreme after he fell into the long
lethargy that ended in general paralysis.
In fact, to having no will of his own.
there was little choice between him and
his sister. the Grand Duchess of Baden.
who is absolutely dominated mentally by
her husband, and when he cannot make
up his mind. the will of his mother. the
Dowager Grand Duchess, is referred to
and decisive. She is the aunt of Kaiser
Wilhelm and still active and of strong
mind. In her husbands lifetime, she
attend the Lutheran Church, though pre-
ferring the Anglican, and had under
her direction all state, charities.
! should say that in LuXemburE the
will OF the dowager Grand Duchess, who
for a few years governed as Regent, is
the will of Mary Adelaide, who at her
coming of age took the reins of the gov
ernment and will remain so until a
prince Consort takes upon himself to
think and decide for the young sovereign.
a storm appears to be rising in the
quaint little state on the subject of
secular education
Reader in Ohio asks for information
about the origin Of the everrecurring
phraze Mrs Grundy" and the real
meaning of it.
Mrs. Grundy is comparatively recent
creation. Like Mrs. Malaprop and a host
of other matrons of gossip fame, she
spranE from the brain of British literary
genius. Thomas Morton. a forgotten
London playwright. is her authentic spon-
sor. She made her debut on the boards
of a London theater in 1925. her maiden
appearance being in a comedy of some
theatrical effectiveness, entitled Speed
the Plough To say, however. that she
appeared on this occasion is to he guilty
of slight inaccuraCy, as it always has
she has never appeared" but that. in
voked in hushcd whispers. she has made
herself mysterious and awe-inspirinc by
keeping discrcctly in the background
No more in her initial play than at any
time since did she actually show herself.
referred to. Yet she remains
throughout the vcilcd Isis of our modern
DAYS and makes herself felt. not through
any overt act. hut through the secret
forces at her command.
In the play. Dame Grundy is the wife
of rich and successful farmer. Dame
Ashf' Id. another farmers wife. for whom
she is the object of idolatrous alteration.
can do nothing but talk of her and quote
her and invoke hCr approval on every
occasion and with reference to every sub
ject.
When sh" returns from the market
she tells her husband that Mrs Grundy's
eggs and cattle are the best she has seen
there: and when news comes that their
daughter has married a title, she cx-
claims:
Our Nellie married To real haronct?
| wonder. Thomas. what Mrs. Grundy
will saw" Her husband betrays great
irritation at every such reference and
finally breaks forth:
BE quiet, wool ye? Always ding
dinglinE Dame Grundy into my ears,
What will Mrs. Grundy say? What will
Mrs. Grundy think Can't thee he quiet L?
Let us alone and behave thyseIf. Matte"
But the good dame is not 10 be sIenced
Nor will her like ever he.
Is genius the cause Of ill-health? The
question naturally arises as one reads
of the remarkable work accomplished by
many of the worlds greatest men when
they were suffering from diseases which
would have incapacitated less COURAGEOUS
men.
Darwin suffered SO much from nerv-
Gus exhaustion that he was prostrated
by two hours daily work and was oblig-
ed to lie on his back the greater part
of the day and seek relief from INTEL
lectual tension by listening to the read
ing of novels
Carlyle, during his last years, suf-
fered from nervous affection of the right
hand, which precluded any writing other
than by dictation, which he founC insult
ed to his style of composition, while
Dickens. at hfty-five, was prematurely
aged through nervous exhaustion and
restlessness. Scott dictated the Bride
OF Lammermoor' during such intervals
of lucidty as were left to him after
taking doses of opium for spasms. He
was d chronic invalid toward the end
Of his life and had a paralytic stroke at
the age of fifty-ninc.
Thackcry suffered frequently from ILL
ness. while johnson was melancholic
Toward the end Of his life Wellington
suffered from epilcptic fits and not a
little of his morOsenesS arose from the
fact that he dreaded the return Of those
attacks from which he be-
gan to suffer after his fortieth year.
Napoleon was also epileptic. and. aC-
cOrdinG to the evidence of the medical
men who attended him during his cap
tiyity on ST. Helene during four and
half years before his death. he not only
suffered from conditions very similar to-
those which attended upon d chronic
form of Malta fever. hut he was also
a flliCted with cancer. 1t is an open
lues estion whether il was fever or cancer
which actually killed him, but there is
no doubt that. had nc not died from
fever. cancer eventually would have car
fied him off.
The famous poet and philosopher,
Taylor Coleridge, at one time
was a confirmed opium eater, a habit
which he developed through his sufferings
from sleeplessness and nervous exhaus-
ton. Some of his best work was done
Inder the influence of opium. The habit
developed from a small beginning to un-
Daralleled excess. Coleridge was only too
conscious of his degeneracy, and in the
End he overcame his weakness, but he
was an old man before his time.
life was marked by long Pc
-iods OF mental weakness and gloom. He
began, as he once expressed it, to die at
he top long before he was buried in
churchyard in 1876.