THE WIVES OF GREAT MEN.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12765, 11 April 1910, Page 1

THE WIVES OF GREAT MEN.

It is a significant fact, says the "Young Woman" that almost all men who have risen to great eminence Jiave been happily married, and how much their work owes to their wives' influence few can guess. How much did England owe, for instance, to Mrs Gladstone, for her unswerving care and tender watchfulness, which was undoubtedly instrumental in prolonging the life of the great statesman. Lord Beaconsfield. Gladstone's great rival, also owed a tremendous debt of gratitude to his wife, whose thoughtfuluess for her husband comes out iv the following incident. One evening when she drovo with her husband to the House on the occasion of one of his groat speeches, her finger was' jammed by the carriage door just as Disraeli was leaving her. She concealed the fact, however, for fear of distracting his mind from his speech, though the pain was so severe that, when lie had gone she fainted. A man's wife is, in fact, the greatest factor in his success in life. She makes or mars her husband's career in a thousand unconscious ways. Perhaps her brilliant social gifts and accomplishments may bo the means of bringing the talents of a shy and retiring husband into prominence, as in the case of Lord and Lady Eldon. When Lord Eldon received the Great Seal from George 111. the King remarked "Give my remembrances to Lady Eldon." The Lord Chancellor naturally looked surprised, and the King added, impatiently: "Yes, yesj I know how mucli I owe to Lady Eldon. I know that you would yourself have been a country curate, and that it is she who has made you my Lord Chancellor."