The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1915-10-15
QUEER AFF|NITIES.
Love Plays Some Curious Franks
With Human Hearts.
ROUSSEAU AND HIS THERESA.

Story of Genius Who Welded an Ia-
norant Kitchen Maid and Never Re-
gretted lt-BuIwer Lytton's Tragic
schaikowsky and Fate.
Some affinities really defy explana-
ton. Take Rousseau as an instance.
A distinguished writer has said:
"In the whole story of the human
race l question If there is anything so
wonderful as the prolonged affection of
Rousseau for Theresa.
Here was one of the outstanding lit
erary geniuses of his time, man who
could talk on equal terms at least with
the most brilliant women of his day,
marrying a kitchen maid, who never
could be taught to read with ease, who
could not follow the order of the twelve
months of the lear or count a sum of
money or reckon the price of a thing.
Even months instruction left her still
unable to read the hours on the clock
face.
Theresa lie Vasseur could never have
given Rousseau one hour Of true COM
panionship. She could neither have
read his books nor have understood
him when he explained them. She was
even without beauty aud grace. Yet
this mighty spirit chose her, loved her
and went on loving her The alliance
lasted happily, for by some mysterious
spell she held him, and after twenty
q II
II never had my dearest, other than
one single solace, but that the sweet
est. 1t was to pour out all my heart
in yours. My every resource, my whole
confidence is in you, and in you only.
Here was a mystery indeed.
Bulwer Lytton, the novelist, provid-
ed another of the matrimonial mystic
ries. Lytton was one of the sanest
men in ordinary matters. but he was
foolish enough 10 marry a vulgar girl,
Rosina Wheeler, who proved to be
wasteful, improvident and a wretched
housekeeper. The marriage ended mis-
erably and all through her life Lady
Lytton pursued her husband with the
fiercest rancor. She published book
after book in which she held him up
as monster and did everything in her
power to render his life unhappy
/ She made herself the heroine" OF
most extraordinary epi ode on the day
when Lytton, then colonial secretary,
was reelected by his Hertfordshire
constituents. He was in the middle
of his address when there advanced
female with rouged face and dyed
hair, brandishing a yellow umbrella
Mounting the hustings, Lady Lytton-
for it was Substituted the newly made
minister with:
"Fiend, villain, monster, cowardly
wretch, outcast! l am told you have
been sent to the colonies. If they
knew as much about you as l do they
would have sent you there long ago.!
For once Lyttons presence of mind
failed him, or, rather he tainted, and
knew no more till he found himself
back at Knebworth III bed Husband
and wife had not seen each other for
/ twenty-five years before this, and they
never met again.
Probably the most mysterious OF all
marriages was that of Tschaikovsky
the great Russian composer, whose
Pathetic" symphony is such favor
ite in the concert room today. Tschai-
/ kovsky was a moody, pessimistic, shy.
reserved man. As he said himself, he
| had lived for thirty seven years in
antipathy 70 marriage and then was
made a bridegroom by sheer force OF
circumstances without being in the
! least charmed by the bride 1t is one
| of the queerest stories imaginable, as
told by Tschaikoysky himself
He says that one day he received a
letter from poor girl whom he had
known for some time. She declared
! her love for him in the most passionate
terms He went the next evening to
see her and told her that he could give
her nothing but sympathy and graft
! tude. Later when he had thought 1t
over he feared that Antonina might
make way with herself, SO he went
to see her again, pleaded his irritabil-
! ity, his uncertain finances his antipa-
thy to matrimony, and then asked her
I llg dlLtI all Anlas sNtl1 'AAii W hASlNN ~ ~
his wife.
Her answer was Yes" Tschaikoy-
sky bowed before the inevitable, as he
regarded it.
my conscience is clear" he wrote.
IF | marry without loving it is be-
cause circumstances have forced this
upon me. / console myself with the
thought that no one can escape his
fate, and my meeting with that girl
! was fatality"
The marriage took place in 1877, and
the pair lived together barely three
weeks. Tschaikovsky got into state
of nervous collapse, and his mind was
more or less unhinged. The doctors de-
clared that complete change was his
only chance. and the poor wife never
saw him or heard his voice again after
he said hoarsely to her at the railway
station: 'Now go! God be with your
Need we wonder that the Pathetic
symphony is so pathetic?J. Cuthbert
Hadden in London Family Herald.