St. Cloud visiter [sic]. [volume] (St. Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1857-1858, 1858-05-13

glimpse Of even boot top Of the gentle
men who had SO suddenly vanished
There was nobody on the stage that Mr..
Russell could see, except Injured Lady,
Indignant Husband and MaliciousoM Won
an. We cannot help wondering at the
pertinaoity with which Mr.. Shepley and
his friends publicly appropriate that pic
ture Of a ooquette contained in my review
of Mr.. SIS lecture; and insist upon its be-
ing portrait Of lady for whom they pro-
TESS so much admiration. In justice to
her, we will premise our comments by sta
ting that Mr.. Shepley has said, repeatedly,
to gentlemen here, both before and after
the destruction of the Press, that he did
not regard anything in that picture as appli-
cable to his family, and the lady herself has
distinctly denied any personal application
of it, but this is not the view which this
trio Of chivalrous knights have given to
the public; and it is with their published
statements, we have to do.
So, we are to be tried as the slanderer of
the "pure" and "modest' of our own sex.
Rather novel character for for us to ap-
pear in; but so we have been represented
all over the Union. Now, we ask any i'm
partial man or woman to read that picture,
on our Fourth page, and say what possible
reference it could have to "pure, mod
est" woman, what "certain facts' it con-
tains which should appeal to any body's
sympathies? To our obtuse intellect it
appears impossible that that picture can be
aptly applied to pure, modest woman
We do not think the features necessarily
indicate unchastity; butt cannot be made
to harmonic with our ideas Of purity and
modesty; and the "certain facts" which
should have shielded the original, of such
portrait, from daguerreotype represen-
tation Of her many graces are things which
also pass our comprehension. Is it the
fact Of a nursing baby which might posi-
bly, interfere with the heroine's zest for a
game of Eucre at three o'clock in the
morning in company with half a dozen gen.
tlemen and no ladies, to which the General
so touchingly refers? Is it the fact of the
memory of parent, recently dead, which
might have brought sadness to midnight
"Cut and Shufle;" or the fact of the peril
of being interrupted in "deal' by the ar
rival of a new baby, when the young gen.
tlemen who made very agreeable partners,
might have been very awkward assistants
in the matters Of putting on baby linen and
making penado? Is it one offt:hhese facts,
all Of them, or some others to which the
General refers as sufficient shield against
a disrespectful notice?
Now we say without fear of successful
contradiction, that if the facts are as these
men represent them, and "My Wife" such
a woman as is described in that picture,
we should have been under most solemn
obligations, as a guardian Of public morals,
to have used our utmost endeavors to guard
the community against SO baleful an indu.
ence; and that if MIR. Shepley undertook
in the character of public lecturer, to make
the arts Of coquettry and husband catch.
ing the fashionable and only proper en-
ployment Of woman, knowing that he had
a wife Of this description at home, it was he
who brought the private matters Of his
family into public notice; and that in such
case any editor commenting upon his lee
tur would have had right to point to the
practical workings of a system he so strong
ly recommended. Let any one reflect fo1
a moment on the social superiority assumed
by pettfoggers and their wives; and tn,
readiness with which the honest workins
masses are apt to permit them to set tn
fashion; consider the influence which
must have been exerted by such matrimo
NAL firm, as Mr.. Shepley and, his friend
represent this to have been; and say, i
the only editor in the place would not hav'
owed the community some effort to coun
teract that influence =. As to Gen. Low
rvs assertion that Mr.. shepley did not g
tout Of his way" to express his views o,
womans rights women, we say, that a da,
or two after the delivery Of that lecture G
IC. Andrews q Democratic lawyer Of St
Cloud, speaking Of it 70 VIM, Wood
Democratic lawyer Of Sank Rapids, sale
that NJ, shepley had exhibited bad tast'
in going very much out Of !: his = way to at
tack Mrs SEisshelln, Before the lecture t!
was delivered, it was read by Mr.. ShepleJ