The Washington times., 1924-01-24
LENINE STICKS.
THROUGH LIFE
TO WIFE
''Krupskaya" Fared Better
Than Most Great Mems
Spouses, Says Writer.
By MARGERY REG,
rltten for Cosmopolitan News Service.

written for Cosmopolitan News Service.
NEW YORK, Jan. 24.-NicOlai
Lenine, premier of Russia is dead.
"Krupskaya," Lenine's wife, lives
on, amid the dead dictator's yester-
years.
What do we wives of great men
get out Of II? ~
"Krupskaya" got q few mouth
fuIs Of the black bread of Russia
and only a little taste OF her great
husbands glory.
Glory, however, never alienated
Lenfne from the sturdy, little gray
haired woman who exposed herself
to all the perils that beset the de-
liverer of the people. In "Krup-
skaya's'' heaven, Lenine was a
fixed planet.
Many Fare Worse.
Famine's black bread is more
than many great mems wives get
out of their husbands glory.
A mans glory is scourge to his
wife If 1t takes away his love-and
20 often 1t does.
'Krupskaya" sitting alone, drink
ing her sugarless tea, knows that
black bread eaten In partnership
tastes better than the crumbs from
banquet tables. And other great
mems wives have had to swallow
crumbs.
At life's banquets seats for two
are not always sent to a hero.
TrOtzky, too, lives a quiet, family
life with his wife and two children.
Simplicity rules that home as it
did Lenine's. Mrs. Trotzky works
for Russia hand in hand with her
huband. She has in charge the art
treasures and antiquities in old
palaces which are used now as
museums, and she takes care of a
monthly report upon their condition.
But what do the wives Of great
leaders get out of it? Is a peril
nent question when one considers
the career of Napoleon. Especially
since the Corsican conqueror had
two wives, both of whom he made
unhappy.
= Josephine Beauharnais, the beauti-
full widow who was Napoleon's first
empress, was cast aside when the
emperor, DESTROYS of greater power
and an heir, divorced her to marry
eighteen-year-old Marie Louise, cid
est daughter of the Emperor of
Austria.
Though Napoleon, ruler and ad.
vei1turer, always loved Josephine.
she did not fit in with his plans
and had to go out Of his life. She
got little out of the Imperial glory
while it lasted.
Marie Louise, from the first days
OF ner honeymoon, was not happy
with Napoleon. A recently discoy.
cred diary is dotted with Complaint
OF the conqueror seen at close range.
When Napoleon was exiled to the
Island Of Elba, Marie Louise and
ner son, The Eaglet," went to
Austria. There the child meant by
MS father to continue the Ma
poleonic glory as Napoleon H., en-
peror of France, was brought up
as an Austrian. So brought up by
a mother who had always feared
and hated her husband.
SO neither Josephine nor Marie
Louise got much out of Napoleon's
glory.
Lfncoln's Wife Unhappy.
In America. few years later,
another man OF the people rose to
giory-Lincoln. Homely in person
and in mode of life. Lincoln not
only became President but held
that high office at a time when his
strength and vision saved the Union
OF States upon which this country
was founded. Lincoln. in the White
House, at first cut sorry figure,
according to critics who were
among his friends and in his
cabinet. The simple grandeur of
his character was obscured for these
critics by his lack of drawing room
niceties.
But what did Mrs. Mary Todd
Lincoln get out Of her husbands
glory?
Lincoln's wife was not altogether
happy in the exigencies of life in
the White House, except insofar
as 1t satisfied her great desire to
see her husband exalted as she
was sure he deserved to be. Yet
during his life the emancipation
was villified. And his death by as
sassination ironically enough served
to emphasize how great he had been
in life. An irony that was no COM
fort to Mary Lincoln.
Great mems wives are sure to
share the hardships and stand a,
fairly good chance of missing much
Of the glory.
"Krupskaya" was fortunate. If
she shared poverty she also shared
his work.
She shared the stimulant Of
struggle. That is what Lenine's
wife got out of 1t.