OREN : IB! mfru^ University of California Berkeley , */\**s FLORENCE BARDSLEY'S STORY Miss BARDSLEY, AGE 19. FLORENCE BARDSLEY'S STORY illff THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A REMARKABLE WOMAN BY EUGENE FIELD CHICAGO W. IRVING WAY 1897 Copyright, 1897, W. Irving Way. NOTE. "N the Summer of 1892 the late Mr. Eugene Field was asked by the Edi tor of a magazine of bookish charac ter to write an ar ticle for bis Christ mas number, something in the nature of a review. Mr. Field answered that he doubted if he could produce anything satisfactory, as he had never written a serious review of a real book, but if the editor would like a skit on a mythi cal book he could perhaps give him something that might serve. The editor replied that this was precisely what he wanted. Mr. Field therefore set to work with a confidence born of the success of a former effort in the same line, which was printed in his own paper at the expense of a local pub lishing house, and which, by the way, was productive of much amusement to himself and confusion to the publish ers alluded to. The review of the mythical book was duly submitted to the editor of the magazine, but after a proper lapse of time was returned to Mr. Field not, however, with the usualdeclined-witb-thanks letter, but with one of praise, and an expression of regret that the review was so good as, if used, to subject bis maga- (ttof e. 1 1 %ine and its publishers to ex pense and annoyance from would-be purchasers of the book reviewed. However, Mr. Field was at liberty to make use of the article wheresoever he chose, and an honorarium would be sent him the same as if the article bad been used in the periodical for which it was written. In due time it was printed, and lost, on one of the pages of the "Morning News " where readers were not accustomed to seek his "Sharps and Flats" and from which it is now re captured by the kind permis sion of those concerned. It seems unnecessary to in dicate the source of the por traits. ILLUSTRATIONS. Miss BARDSLEY, AGE 19 . . . Frontispiece Miss BARDSLEY, AGE 45 . >, . , page 35 FRAU WINKELMANN . . . ,... page 41 Miss BARDSLEY, AGE 80 . . ;. .. } page 47 FLORENCE BARDSLEY'S STORY Sforence THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A REMARKABLE WOMAN. LTHOUGH there is no positive by which we mean au thoritative- assurance to that effect, it seems probable that in the research and study involved by his exploiture of the Tal leyrand memoirs, Mr. White- law Reid became interested in the remarkable character i8 Sfotence Qgftrfcgfeij' 1 Un Apergu de la Vie de Mme. la Comtesse de la Tour. Par WHITELAW REID, Ministrepleni- potentiaire et Envoy6 extraordinaire des Etats- Unis. Bouchet et Fils, Paris. and quite as remarkable career of Mme. la Comtesse de la Tour. 1 The history of that singular genius was such as would naturally appeal for admiration and sympathy to one of so romantic and so gracious a disposition as the famous journalist-diplomate ; yet what causes soever may have led to the work, the work is here before us, com plete in its elaboration, exact ness, delicacy, humor, and tenderness as charming a monograph as ever has fallen to our lot for perusal and ex ploitation. This Un Aperou de la Vie de Mme. la Comtesse de la Tour is, we understand, the . first performance attempted Sforence $ar&0fee'0 JJfore. 1 9 by Mr. Reid in the French ; therefore is it notable not more as a critical essay upon a character of singular inge nuity than as the maiden ef fort of an enterprising and conscientious scholar in a for eign language. It shall never cease we make the humil iating confession at once it shall never cease to be the cause of deep and poignant regret to us that we are un able to detect and to analyze that subtle vein of sportive satire (cette veine subtile de satire enjouee) which, accord ing to La Revue des Beaux- Arts, winds its graceful way through this fascinating bro chure ; our acquaintance with the French is, alas ! not suffi- 2 o Sforence Qar&0f eu' ciently nice to admit of our appreciation of the delicacies of Gallic synonym, allusion, and conceit ; the subtleties in which, according to the Pari sian reviewers, this little book abounds are beyond our com prehension. In short, we find ourselves in a condition of which the old Canterbury bard has said : What playne tale ben tollen full faire yt is to knowe, But soothly speeche yn craftie wise menne reden not soe. It is our good old friend Dr. I. Watts who has remarked, albeit we do not find the verses in Mr. Bartlett's Sforence $5enrb0feE'0 ^forg. 2 1 new and enlarged edition of Familiar Quotations, Artless communications bring A fund of pure delight, Whilst every dark, ambiguous thing In speech is out of sight. But let us not repine. Our task is before us. C 0feg'0 "It is hard," remarks Mr. Reid parenthetically " it is hard to understand now the situation as it existed eighty years ago, times have so changed. This fair young creature, Florence Bardsley, said ' nay ' to every feminine tradition; she was an icono clast that went about rending the beliefs and creeds and dogmas of her sex: 'we are to be envied/ 'we alone en joy freedom and liberty/ 'we govern the world/ 'man is weak, woman is strong/ this was her new, her amaz ing gospel. But/' and here Mr. Reid significantly quotes the good old Danish proverb: '"Anden Tid giver andet Folk.'" And then does her 3 2 Sforence (jar&0feg'0 biographer, seemingly borne away by enthusiasm, inter rupt the thread of his narra tive to commend, in terms of exalted eloquence, the un paralleled valor of this unap proachable woman. Yet no encomium does he utter which we shall not sturdily defend in case the righteousness of his declaration be impeached; for we know full well that it must be a proper cause, else would he not espouse it; moreover do we continually thank God that at an early age this solemn truth was inculcated viz. , that men owed their fellow-men no sterner or sweeter duty than that of standing by one an other. Yet shall it always be Sforence Qgarbefeg' a cause of grief to us, and we make great moan, that it is wholly beyond our capability to provide you, gentle reader, with an Englished specimen of this eloquence whereof we speak, for these are potent words he has to say words not only extolling Florence Bardsley to the skies, but also incontinently exonerat ing our masculine sex from that Ossa-upon-Pelion of op probrium which femininity hath piled upon it. Miss Bardsley's first marri age was with Clarence Sidney Eastcourt, the son of a manu facturer at Manchester. The union, altogether felicitous, was short-lived, for Mr. East- court soon died of a quinsy 3 4 Sforence QjJarbsfeg's J$f org. contracted from exposure at tennis, a vice to which he was violently addicted (absolu- ment esclave), and at which he exhibited marvelous agil ity. Two years later we move rapidly with our narra tive, for we cannot with plea sure contemplate the anguish of the bereaved bride during this melancholy season two years later, while traveling in Italy, the young widow met with the Comte de la Tour, a Parisian of wealth and cul ture ; a few months later she entered into a matrimonial al liance with him, and there after her home was, of course, in France, the comte's estates lying in the environs of the capital city of that empire. Miss BARDSLEY, AGE 45. Sforence (J^attefeg's JJforg. Although her senior by many years, the Comte de la Tour was in complete sympathy (enpleine sympathie) with his wife's extraordinary views, and he encouraged her con tinually to the prosecution of her mission. The conse quence was that, during the twenty years subsequent to her second marriage, Florence wrote and published no fewer than sixty pamphlets in ad vocacy of her curious heresies. During this period she was regarded as the most famous literary woman in Europe ; her society was courted of the noblest intellects ; sages, war riors, philosophers, poets, authors, artists, the clergy all the shining lights in the 1 Odes et Potsies Diverses. Paris (Levy), 1876. 2 Lyrisches Intermezzo, Santthche Poetische Werke. 3 Aufl 4 Bande, Hamburg (Hoffman), 1873- ZAutobi- ogra.ph.ie Gesawmelte Werke, vierte Leipsig (Reissner), 1873, P- I 6. realms of thought and of en deavor were attracted to her salons. " She is the apothe osis of feminine beauty and valor," wrote Victor Hugo. 1 Heine spoke of her as "that wingless angel/' 2 and that bearish old bachelor, Schop enhauer, declared 3 that she was the only woman that had ever awakened a tender sen timent in his bosom. It was to Schopenhauer, by the way, that she dedicated her thoughtful and charming trea tise on the miseries of wear ing suspenders (Les Miseres qui Resultent de ce que les HommesTortent desBretettes), of which we should like to give the title, but for the cir cumstance that in English it Sforence Qarb0fee' does not sound half so digni fied as in the original. In the autumn of 1843, the comtesse was challenged to public debate by Frau Kath- rina Winkelmann, a Hano verian, who had previously published a book against the comtesse's "abominable creed and school of thought. " The debate was had at Brus sels in the famous Salle de la Concorde of the royal armory, and lasted two days, vast crowds assembling from all over Europe. The women applauded Frau Winkelmann to the echo, while the men as rapturously indorsed the comtesse's utterances. The debate would doubtless have extended over a longer period 40 Sforence (J&a but for the excitement occa sioned by an exceptionally bitter tilt between the cham pions near the close of the second day's engagement. Exasperated by some ingeni ous repartee, Frau Winkel- mann indignantly declared (we now quote from the offi cial records, id est dicer e, p. 583 et seq.} : " If I could be a man for twenty-four hours, the first thing I should do would be to go down town and make a night of it with the boys." (Si je pouvais etre bomme pendant vingt- quatre h cures, la premiere chose que je ferais ce serait de descendre en viUe pour faire la noce avec mes joyeux cam- arades.) PRAU WlNKELMANN. Sforence Qarb0fee'0 JJfoirg. "Nay," retorted the com- tesse, " I should rather spend that time upon my knees im ploring Heaven's benignant offices to restore me once again and forever to woman hood, an estate free from the weaknesses, the temptations, the appetites, and the evils that beset all men ! " Ensaboar a cabepa do asno, per da do sabao. This last au dacious declaration ended the controversy at once; the storm that had been gather ing for forty-eight awful hours now burst forth in all its fury. , J asserts that Mei berracbe bat leine Oren- %en! Waving their parasols and umbrellas in threatening wise, the multitude of wo- c ** men 1 made a rush for the ' 44 Sforence Q9arb0fe2'0 platform, determined to chas tise the comtesse for her te merity. "Do fuer^a viene, derecbo se pierde," as we Cas- tilians say. The unhappy lady sought refuge in flight; that night she made her way secretly to the frontier, and so duly effected her escape into France. This incident gave rise to the popular phrase, " Between Two Days," which the French have politely corrupted into en ^ re nous. 2 The Comte de la Tour died in 1848; he bequeathed his enormous wealth to his widow, who for many years maintained an academy for the dissemination of her philosophy. This institution 'e JJforg. failed of its purposes, how ever, for the reason that no woman would patronize it ; the attendance of boys and young men was enormous, but the attendance of girls was nil. " So hard is it," cries biographer Reid, and we echo his passionate cry " so hard is it to combat big otry and to assuage prejudice in womankind ! " At last, after a life of singu lar sweetness and piety, and after a career of earnest en deavor, the end came. In the ninety-second year of her age this marvelous woman passed away. The end was in per fect keeping with what had gone before. Perceiving that but no ! 't were folly for us 46 Sforence (}arb0feg'0 to undertake, in our confessed feebleness, to tell the story of the pathetic last scene of all. Mr. Reid's narrative of this climax is so strong in its sim plicity, tenderness, and fidelity that we choose to quote it in its concinnate Gallic en tirety: "Voyant que sa fin etait proche, la comtesse fit man- der son confesseur. Le saint homme se rendit sur le champ & son appel. II fut surpris et pein de trouver sa venerable pnitente aussi chang6e. La mort Tavait deja marquee de son doigt. " 'Je vous ai envoye cher- cher en toute hate, mon pere/ dit-elle, 'car mon ame est Miss BARDSLEY, AGE 80. Sforence (Jjja obsedee de choses que je voudrais vous avouer.' " Le Pere Michel sourit tristement. "'Ah, mon enfant/ dit-il tendrement, ' de quoi votre pauvre ame a-t-elle a se con- fesser? Votre vie n'a-t-elle pas ete un modele ? N 'a-t-elle pas abonde en ceuvres pieuses temoignant d'une fa9on re- marquable des vertus de chas- tete, zele religieux, charite, force d' ame chretienne, toler ance, patience, et humilite?' " ' Helas/ soupira la mour- ante, "le peu de bien que j'ai fait a ete obscurci et amoindri par un peche vraiment grave, un peche qui n'a pas ete acci- dentel, mais qui a dure pen dant nombre d'annees, ainsi 5 o $fbrence Qarb0feg'0 |Jf org, que vous allez 1'apprendre, car je ne puis dire adieu a ce monde sans m'en etre pleine- ment confesse a vous. Et je vous adjure par tout ce qu'il y a de plus sacre, mon pere, de faire connaitre au monde, une fois que je serai morte, ce que je suis sur le point de vous reveler en confession, car ainsi seulement sera-t-il possible de reparer en quelque sorte le mal que mes conseils et mes actions ont cause/ "Cest en ces termes que la comtesse prepara le P6re Michel a entendre sa declara tion de mourante, a savoir que sa vie enttere avait ete une tromperie calculee; qu'en tout temps elle n 'avait cesse de regretter d'etre femme et Sforence (J5a qu'elle avait toujours desire etre homme,retat de rhomme lui semblant etre sous tous les rapports preferable a celui de la femme. II paraitrait, d'apres ces dernieres pa roles, que des son enfance meme elle etait devenue la proie de ce mecontentement rongeur avec lequel les fem- mes ont Thabitude de con- templer leur propre condition, et de cette envie curieuse avec laquelle elles envisagent les avantages qu'elles s'imagi- nent etre Tattribut de Tautre sexe. Elle avait done ete poussee vers une carriere de deception par un certain faux et mauvais orgueil qui lui avait procure un etat de con- tentement dont elle n'avait 5 2 jamais reellement joui, et lui avait fait proclamer une apos- tasie qui de fait n' avait jamais existe. " ' Voyez en moi,' dit la mourante, 'la plus malheu- reuse des creatures humaines sous tous les rapports et en tout sens une femme une femme imbue de tous ces pre- juges intuitifs, jalousies, en vies, et mecontentements par- ticuliers a mon sexe, mais neanmoins rebelle a ces senti ments et cherchant a les mas quer. Je vous adjure, mon pere, de proclamer hautement ce fait au monde, que celle qui desire mourir en paix doit vivre dans la pratique ouverte et avouer des faiblesses de son sexe. 7 Sfotence $a "Apres la mort de cette femme extraordinaire, un pa pier, ecrit de sa main, revetu de sa signature et scelle de son sceau, fut decouvert. Ce document portait qu'une somme de 30,000 francs serait consacree a former un capital dont les interets annuels se- raient payes a la jeune fille, franfaise ou etrangere, qui, arborant courageusement le costume distinctivement mas- culin, montrerait dans un manege de Paris le plus d'ha- bilite a enfourcher un cheval a la fa9on des hommes." 5 4 Sforence (J5art0feg > jj^t org. TRANSLATION. PERCEIVING her end was near at band, the countess sent for her father confessor. That holy man, presenting himself forthwith, was amazed and grief-stricken to find bis venerable charge so sadly changed in appearance. The hand of death was already upon her. "I have sent for you in haste, holy father/' quoth she, (f for I have much upon my soul which I would fain un- burthen unto you." TZre Michel smiled sadly. "Ah, my child/' said be, tenderly, "what can your Sforence Q^arb0feg > ^fotg. 5 5 pure soul have to sbrive itself of? Has not your life been a shining example ; bos it not abounded in pious deeds wherein have been set forth and conspicuously illustrated the virtues of chastity, religi ous %eal, charity, fortitude, forbearance, patience, and hu mility ? y> "Alas," moaned the expir ing woman, "the little good that I have done is beclouded and outweighed by a most grievous sin, which has been the wrong-doing not of a sea son but of many years' contin uance, as you shall hear, for I cannot bid farewell to earthly scenes before I have freely ac knowledged my guilt to you. And by every sacred consider- ation do I enjoin upon you, holy father, to declare unto the world after I am gone hence such things as I shall now con fess, for thereby alone is it possible to undo somewhat of the evil that my counsels and my practices have done. " Witb this preliminary did the countess prepare Tere Mi chel for her dying declaration, which was in effect that her whole life had been a studied deception; that at no time thereof bad she ceased to re gret that she was a woman, nor ceased to wish that she was a man, the estate of the male seeming unto her to be incomparably preferable to tba t of the fema le. From these last words of hers it appeared Sfotence (}at that even in her childhood had she become possessed of that gnawing discontent with which womankind are wont to con template their own condition, and of that curious envy with which they contemplate the fancied advantages of the other sex; yet to a career of decep tion bad she been impeUed by a certain false and wicked pride that asserted a conten- tation she never actually ex perienced, and proclaimed an apostasy which in fact never existed. "Behold in me," quoth the dying countess, " the most wretched of human beings a woman in every particular and sense a woman one deeply imbued with att those 5 8 Sforence (j&arbefeg's jj^t org. instinctive prejudices, jealous ies, envies, and discontents pe culiar to my sex, yet a traitor thereunto and a dissembler thereof. I conjure you, holy father, to blazon this truth unto the world : that she who would die in peace must live in the confessed and open prac tice of the frailties of her sex/ 3 After the demise of this re markable woman, a paper written in her own hand, and signed and sealed, was found, expressing her last wish, which was that the sum of 30,000 francs should be appropriated out of her fortune to the es tablishment of a fund whereof the annual interest should be paid as a pri%e to the girl, native or foreign, who, clad Sforence (garbsfeg'* J^ org. 5 9 w bifurcated nether garments, should exhibit in the Paris school of horsemanship the greatest proficiency in the art of riding a horse man-fashion. f7 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY