GREAT MEN'S WIVES

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7217, 1 October 1901, Page 2

GREAT MEN'S WIVES

SOME PARTICULARS ABOUT THEM. ("■ Iliufiraieii London News.") Joshua I'mv.es, the Hclkm<t and professor at Cambridge, wa* ur.que. ; ti".n;:biy a great schclnr. in of Bentley'^ niter — " Bnrr.es knows (.-rreek like a cobbler of Aihcnp."" The pre-eminence, or even eminence, of a man is .no: determined by his minor a-ttairments and qualities, bin by his major ones. Well, when Bar-r.cs brought out 'his edition of Homer, he had to extort the consent of his wife to tile' investment of her fortune in \hv.i work by representing the " Iliad 7 ' a? ■the cornprsixion of King Solomon. "'My wife is an admirable wwoman,l" 1 si id Benjamin Disraeli of the erewhile widow of his parliamentary colleague Wyndham, aim w-nrm the world knew best as' the Countess of Beftconsiield ; "my wife is an admirable woman, but she does no-t know who c>.me first in history, iho Greeks or the Roman?.' 1 The fame of the English statesman and of the English scholar was no factor in the affection th&ir wives bore them, and if the lives of the m:\joritv of great men's helpmeets were carefully analysed a similar ignorance of, or, at any rate, indifference to, I'he greatness of their spouses would be found to prevail in at least;. 90 p?.r cent of all r.Kertainablo cases. The novelist who depicts the vicariously ambitious wemrm inciting her life's companion to great deeds does r.ct exactly paint the exception, bur- a meniber. of the very small minority. Zangwill iva< bEtter advised in "The Mantle of Elijah"; he- point rayed a type. "Marry him," said a." prosperous lawyer to his daughter, referring to a rising young barrister, who was a ruitor'for her hand; " mai-y him -he will be Lord Chancellor of England one day." '' I do not want a Lord Chancellor, father," was the answer. " I want a sweetheart who will remain a sweetheart after we are married, no matter how o-ld wo may grow together." Posterity will probably bestow ths adjective of' "great ' on Paul Kruger ; and tiiis is not the plac? to discuss the justness cf iios:et.ity's probable decision. It is very certain, though, thi'.t Mrs Kruger had a most limited conception of her husband's greater aim? — flint is, the absolute independence of the youth African Republic and the supremacy of the Afrikander throughout the whole of that still partly dark continent. The stipend and the consequent wealth accompanying the Presidential dignity were unquestionably most gratifying to her, but simply for the purposes of 'hoarding. Like Mrs Barnes, she- kept her pursos.triivis very tight : the allowance for coffee accorded by the State — namely, £500 per annum — almost entirely defrayed the expenses of the Presidential establishment; the rest was put by for her children and graivdchildi-sn. She' was old-fashioned to the core, and had neither social _ nor fashionable aims. She was net the ideal wife of a "great man," but fhe was infinitely superior, frnm a moral point of view. to. fit any rate, one of the spouses of William the Silent, with whom Kruger has been often and so erroneously compared. Her n -line wil] b? remembered with more profound respect, than that of either of the wives, of the greatest man- of the nineteenth century. Josephine <le _ Beauhsrnaia and Marie Louise were conscious of the gr.eatness of i'he First Napoleon, ye-t had he been the merest jackanapes they could not have loved him less.