Mundane Musings

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 229, 16 December 1927, Page 5

Mundane Musings

Statesmen —and Their Wives “Perhaps, my dear,” said Mrs. Disraeli once to a Royal Princess, “you don’t know what it is to have an affectionate husband.” As a matter of fact, the Royal Princess didn’t. She opened her eyes widely at the breach of etiquette. But everyone knew Mrs. Disraeli’s disregard for social decorum, and that when she was sli inking about her famous husband she was accustomed to talk wildly (as when she broke into conversation on the beauty of Greek statues with “Ah, but you should see my Dizzy in his bath!”). They were married lovers all through their life together, which seems to amuse M. Andre Maurois, French author of the latest study of Disraeli, which proves a most interesting chronicle indeed. Of course, there was an amusing side to it. A wife who treasures up all the scraps of paper that have on them any of her husband’s handwriting; who cuts his hair and keeps all the cuttings in little packets, each one carefully dated; who tells everybody what a wonderful man lie is—that must provoke a smile. The True Romance But there was “The True Romance” behind all these comicalities. When the Prime Minister got home late from the House of Commons and found his house all lighted up and a hot supper waiting for him, lie was not grateful merely for the comfort, for the companionship of an adoring wife, for the glow and glitter which to him represented the joys of home. He was more grateful still for the affection which met him on the threshold, for tliq tender sentiment which inspired these attentions. Politicians are commonly supposed to be self-centred, selfish, cold. Ambition is believed to be their only quality, and ambition is known to harden the sympathies. Yet there have been other politicians of the front rank besides Disraeli whose married lives were devoted and affectionate beyond the common. There were the Gladstones: what relation could have been more exquisite than theirs? It was utterly unlike that which bound the Disraelis together. Mrs. Gladstone could never have written on her wedding day in her account book: — Stores, 2s 6d. In hand, £3OO. Married 28-8-1839. Dear Dizzy became my hzisbaiid. She had too much humour, for one thing: she could w'rite in her diary, with delicious irony: Engaged a cook, after a long conversation on religious matters, chiefly ■ between her and William. ”

But she took care of the great Liberal leader as carefully as Mrs. Disraeli watched over the health of her Conservative statesman. They were lovers, too; always together; always happiest in each other’s company. Pee! and Aberdeen Another Victorian Prime Minister whose wife was his closest confidant, the “only companion of his inmost thoughts,” was Sir Robert Peel. His letters to his “dearest Julia” are delightful. He had the reputation of being formal, freezing, inhuman. Nothing could have been further from the truth, so far as his home ilfe was concerned. “My own dearest love,” he addresses her, “My darling love.” Whenever they are parted he longs for the moment of reunion. If he did not hear from her daily, a note of reproach slips into his writing: “God bless you, my darling. You did not send me a little line this morning, but 1 pray to God to bless and preserve you, and I am not, therefore, uneasy at not hearing from you to-day .” Of the Lord Aberdeen who was Prime Minister when the Crimean War broke out, his biographer says that he wore mourning all his da3's for the wife he lost in early life. This did not, it is true, prevent him from marrying again, but his second wife never felt that she occupied anything but the second place in his heart. He told her that “without love all the joys of life become flat, stale and unprofitable”; he was thinking then of the woman whose death had darkened the world for him; and she knew it! Pathetic Entries For a year after his bereavement he made in a diary almost every morning entries like this: I saw her. I saw her last night, but less clearly. All night I saw her, as she was in life. The truest, sweetest image of her appeared to me. To the end of his life, when sft years had passed, he would still murmur to himself poetry, - and those who knew him best knew what was in his thoughts. When Sir Henry Campbell-Banner-man became Prime Minister in 1905 it was suggested that he should take a peerage and lead the Liberal Party from the House of Lords. He put the suggestion before his wife. “I will do what you think best,” he said. That was typical of their comradeship. She was an invalid. He was a man who certainly did not suggest romance by his appearance or his talk. Yet there was the tenderest bond between them. Theirs, too, was an ideal mating. He told her everything. Pie was accustomed to ask her advice. He often left decisions to her judgment. In her last illness he sat up with her every night until his own doctor ordered him to get some rest himself. All these examples have been from Victorian times. Could any be found in the century before? Not so easily.

MODERATOR'S ADVICE ON BEING BEAUTIFUL NOT WITH LIP-STICK “You can’t be beautiful by the use of lip stick and powder,” said the Rt. Rev. J. Aitken, Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly, during his address to the girls of St.

Cuthbert’s College yesterday afternoon. He was advising the girls to be useful and beautiful in their lives. “I don’t want you to be like your big sisters, and do

what they do when mother is not looking. You don’t make yourself beautiful from the outside, but from the inside. It takes just about 50 years to be beautiful, and even some of you parents have yet a chance,” he. said amid hearty laughter. GARDEN PARTY AT NETHERTON PRESBYTERIAN GUILD A very pleasant garden party was held at the residence of Mr. J. A. Reid, at Netherton, on Wednesday by the ladies of the Netherton Presbyterian Church Guild. The object was to raise funds for the church which is now being erected and which will be opened next Sunday evening. There was a sweets and cake stall and numerous money-making competitions were held. Vocal or pianoforte items were contributed by Misses Halligan, Argali, Matthews. Mesdames Cocks, Brockett, Scudamore, Catton and Mr. and Mrs. Cocks. After afternoon tea had been handed round the Rev. J. Lowden expressed thanks to all those who had worked to make it possible to build a church in Netherton, particularly the members of the ladies’ guild under the leadership of Mrs. H. Dally. On behalf of the guild he presented Mrs. Dally with a vanity case and purse as a token of appreciation of her leadership. DENTAL NURSE FOR ONEHUNGA CLINIC The Minister of Health wired yesterday to Mr. W. J. Jordan, M.P., to the effect that a nurse had been appointed to the Onehunga dental clinic and that she would commence duty early in March next. This announcement was made by Mr. Jordan at the breaking up of the Onehunga Public School yesterday and was received with applause.