Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 290, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1910 — WIFE RULES BRAGA [ARTICLE]

WIFE RULES BRAGA

flew President of Portugal Governed by His Wife. Loves Old Country Place Where They Lived for Many Yeara, and Will Not Change Her Mode of Living. Lisbon.—When Senhor Theophllo Braga, the new president was called upon at his country residence, a long, one-story building on a cliff overlooking the Tagus at" Cruz Quebrada, seven miles west of Lisbon, it was found he had left for the capital, but his wife, a frail, sweet-faced old- lady, with white hair, advanced and insisted that the interviewer should enter. She led him by the hand in motherly fashion to a long, low room, more than modestly furnished, the windows of which overlooked the wide expanse of blue serene waters but lately seething and smoking under shot and shell. She expressed her regret at her husband's absence, and said that, he was Relighted to speak to the English people. She was congratulated on her husband’s new dignity, it being added she ought to feel proud. '“Proud,” she exclaimed, smiling doubtfully, “perhaps; but above all I regret the interruption of 43 years of peaceful domestic happiness." In the conversation that ensued she said many things of an adorable simplicity, of which the following are a few: “We married far love. We have always been poor, and always happy with one another, except for our great sorrow that we are now childless, for we are ever mourning the loss of our son and daughter 20 years ago. My girl would have been forty now and I should have had grown-up grandchildren around me," she added, with eyes full of tears. “But we found comfort. ®y husband in his books and I in my {household work near him." It was suggested that the change ■would involve a change of habits and probably of residence. “No, no!” exlalmed the old lady, almost terrified. “I have told Theo.philo that I will never leave my- little home and pretty garden, where I have lived for 20 years. If we are forced to have a larger house for meetings and Receptions, we will keep our little home to live in always. • We have had just enough to live ion. My husband has always been (persecuted because of his opinions, jj>ut although he cannot forget, he is

Incapable now of seeking to avenge himself on his enemies. “I, too, am a Republican, but I adored King Edward of England, so just, so good, so courteous to all!" She referred to his visit to Portugal and contrasted the enthusiasm of the people in the streets with their indifference towards their own King Carlos. Speaking of a visit of the commander of the English warships, Senhora Braga added, proudly: “And he knew my husband quite well by his books! Theophllo is so pleaded with the good words in the English newspapers,” she continued. “The monarchists always held up the bogey of English intervention, but only Ignorant people believed that . England would act thus towards another country.” With simplicity she added: . "One does not give orders in another person’s house." Again reverting to her favorite theme, home life, she exclaimed, laughing: “Oh, but I scold Theophllo sometimes. Our men folk at home have to be kept under a little.”