GREAT MEN WHO MARKED SERVANT GIRLS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 17, 20 January 1905, Page 2

GREAT MEN WHO MARKED SERVANT GIRLS.

There was William Cobbett, the great writer, and the "Liberator of the Eaglttn Press," as he was frequently called." H« wns only 21 years of age when, walking out in the streets of Halifax, Nova Scotia, one morning, he chanced to see a buxom servant girl busily engaged in washing U* family linen. The girl, though only 18 years of age, was pretty, so Cobbett spok* to her, learning her name, and the saw evening called upon her parents and mm he would like to marry their daughter, This Is probably the origin *"ot the expret- t sion, "This is so sudden'" which blushing maidens have made use of ever eince. The parents of the girl Informed'the young nwn that they had no objection to him as » 'son-in-law but that he would have to wait -until their daughter was of a marriageable age. Accordingly Cobbett gave the girl all the money he had, which amounted to £140, and she went to England and ' became a servant in the family of a clergyman. Five years later Cobbett returned to England and married her. j The late Sir Henry Parkes, Premier of New South Wales, is another example. One night, when dining in a friend's . house, he was struck by the appearance of a servant girl who waited at the table, j and persuaded his host to allow her to enter hie employ. This she did, and for a short time held THE POSITION OP COOK : j in Sir Henry's household. Then his love for her overcame all conventionalities, uA', he made her Lady Parkes. Sir Gervaise Clifton, whose history of J. | Jamaica is one of the finest books of?its ';§ kind in existence, married no fewer thaD/|| seven times, and each' time selected his .3 lady from anions his domestic eervante. The seventh Lady Clifton outlived her lord, but the other six he burled in a famiV'. ly mausoleum which cost £50,000. Thomas ,Pay. the author of the famou» book, "Sandford and Merton," selected tWfl! ;;irls, one from n. pooi-house and one from a foundling asylum, and took them iuto Ills bouse as servants. He proposed i» ; ' both of them in turn. One rejected his suit. The other promised to marry aim, but withdrew her promise on account of his eccentricities. Day* however, admlr- ,- ed the eirl's courage, and settled a dowry of £500 upon her, at the samp time deciding to remaiii a bachelor. But more Illustrious than all these examples is that of Peter the Great. Ooc day the founder of the Russian Empirt, the great and terrible Peter, was dining at the house of Prince M«rna<?hlk«ff. He noticed one of the servant inaiiis particularly, and though she was uot liandsoini?, she caught Ine fancy .of Peter. Her nawe, the Prince told tue Czar, wan Martha. She had' Deen v servant iv ihe house of a Lutheran miulster of Marieubur?, aud when that city was captured by the tiroops of Russia she bad i>een taken prisoner by General'Bauer, who had passed Uer over y to the Prince, whose sert she wns. .Uhe Fviuc: j.olitely made a present of her to .-.; the C/.ur. »wUo eventually married her, re- ;■,-.. named her Catherine, aud she relgnifd after him. as'CafiUTUie 1., Empress of all the Uufcgiae. . ■.:'