The Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Representative Men of Chicago, Milwaukee and the World's Columbian Exposition

              BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
403
His wife was anxious to have him do so, stating that the difference in rent between the homestead and a house she desired to live in would support the family. Such noble devotion was appreciated by the husband, who would not listen to the proposition, though he had lost his entire business and was burdened with a thirty- thousand dollar debt, assumed for real estate a few days before the fire. The plucky firm had a store rented at No. 57 West Randolph street before eight o'clock Monday morning, and were doing business Wednesday of that week. Here they remained until the burnt district was rebuilt. Julia E. Gale, nee Hart, who for thirty-four years has been the happy wife of her devoted husband, was born in New York State, Septem¬ ber 5, 1833, but from early childhood until her marriage lived near Belvidere, Illinois. There was never a more perfect union ; an unkind word has never passed between them ; the same gentle courtesies and kind attentions are shown each other as are expected from young lovers ; in fact, it is a love match that keeps on burning, and some of Mr. Gale's finest poems have been sug¬ gested by little home incidents or anniversaries. The rebrushing of his coat suggested the follow¬ ing:
She was brushing my coat, that wife of mine,
A task I thought I had perfectly done; She said, as she saw the particles fine
Float in its beams: "Turn your face to the sun." I placed my hands on her soft, wavy hair,
I, smiling, gazed in her eyes of blue And replied, as I kissed her forehead fair,
"I do, dear wife, I am looking at you."
One Sunday morning as he was going to the store he stooped to kiss his wife as Is his invari¬ able custom in parting or meeting, when she remarked: '' Love must be blind, or you would not think so much of your old, faded wife." That little remark suggested the following poem :
IS LOVE BLIND ?
Think you my love for thee the kind
That poets spoke of long ago. When they declared that ^'Love is blind,"
Hence I must be, in loving you? Is my love blind, when I can see
So much to love in thy dear face, And know these years, thy love for me.
With mine for thee has kept apace ?
Is my love blind, when thy true life, A constant round of duty done.
I see in thee the dearest wife That ever blessed a mortal's home ?
Where precepts with examples wove. Our children learning both from thee.
Are comments on a mother's love. In making life what it should be ?
Then speak no more of beauty fled,
Nor charms once thine now passed away; Whatso I loved when we were wed.
In thee, dear wife, defies decay. The bud that blossoms on the tree.
Loading the air with perfume sweet. Must changed become, ere we can see,
On bending bough the ripened fruit.
But if perchance thy face is thin,
Thy cheeks outgrown their early bloom. And in thy tresses now and then
A silver thread runs through the loom, I prize no less these marks of time.
For I am older growing too; And well I know these locks of mine
Prove I am older still than you.
I've had of life its blessings true.
And for them all most grateful feel; The source of most I trace to you.
And in your love enjoy them still. If love be blind, we'll bless the boy
Who blindly led us in his fold. And fills our hearts with so much joy.
We quite forget we're growing old.
A home permeated by such mutual love cannot but be a happy one.
Mr. Gale's success as a business man has per¬ mitted him to gratify his promptings to kind acts and benevolent deeds, which are done in such a manner as to win the hearts of those who are the recipients of his favors. Of his firm it Is said that no one ever failed to get prescriptions filled be¬ cause they could not pay for them. He believes that to be happy one should be employed ; that it should be the aim of a business man to be the master of his business, not a slave to it, delega¬ ting to others such work as they have capacity to successfully carry on, never aiming to amass a for¬ tune and then retire from business to enjoy life— as the loss of health and comfort this course is usually attended with robs life of its charms and opportunities, while the penurious disposition it engenders takes from noble deeds of their true enjoyment and mars the pleasure that should go hand' in hand with a wise and noble use of money—that happiness is not secured by amass¬ ing wealth, but in using it for the good of others.
Mr. Gale, like his father before  him,  is  a  Uni-