Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1886 — Disraeli’s Love Story. [ARTICLE]

Disraeli’s Love Story.

When Benjamin Disraeli married Mrs. Wyndham Lewis she was his senior by sixteen years. Yet five years after his marriage he gave her this character: “This most serene of critics, but—a perfect wife.” Great men, and small men, too, do not usually take kindly to the criticisms of a wife, even when they are assured of her Iflve, and have confidence in her judgment. A man on his return home from an assembly or club, where he has been listened to as an oracle, and referred to as a leader, is not usually in the mood to be criticised even by his affectionate wife. That Mr. Disraeli listened with meekness while Mrs. Disraeli told him, after a great debate in the House of Commons, what he ought to have said and what he should have left unsaid, indicates that she was a worn an of tact, and that he—loved her devotedly. She was a loved helpmeet, for their union of thirty-three years was one of unbroken harmony, confidence, and affection. She believed in her husband, lived for him, studied his views and wishes, and served him with the zeal of an intelligent companion. The average husbandcontented if his wife shows herself a good housekeeper, an attractive hostess, and a wise mother. But Benjamin Disraeli, not being an average man, made his wife his companion and treated her as his intellectual comrade. She liecame “the most severe of critics” because of her intense love and admiration. Rhe was made a “perfect wife” by her husband placing her on an equality with himself. When Disraeli delivered his great speech in the Free-Trade Hall at Manchester—a speech which helped the return of the Conservatives to power—she sat in a box immediately opposite the platform whence he spoke. The interest of those seated on the platform was often transferred from the speech to the sympathetic face of the orator’s wife, and then to the way which, from time to time, he lifted his head as if seeking her smile of approval. When the oration was finished she drove rapidly to the house of their host in the suburbs of the city to receive her husband. No sooner were the carriage wheels heard grinding upon the gravel than she hurried to the hall. As she entered she rushed into his arms and exclaimed: ■ “O. Dizzy! Dizzy! This is the greatest night of all I This pays for all!’* At that moment she knew she could not live out the year—for three months before her physician had pronounced her death warrant — and every step of her movement to the door produced the acutest pain. A well-know story also illustrates her strength of will and power of self-con-trol when her love made them necessary. When Disraeli, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, rode to the House to introduce his last budget she accompanied him. On getting into the carriage one -of her Cngers was crushed between the door and its frame. She maintained her composure, though the pain was excruciating, through the ride, and until she saw him pass through the “members” entrance, and then fainted. The man who makes his wife a companion may hear severe criticisms, but he will be “known in the gates.”