Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1860-02-15
A SICkLES CASE AT CHICAGO.
The Great social Problem-The Growth of
immortality and Crime among the Intelli.
gent, the W ealthy and the Pious-Scandal
I'm Hugh Life.

The Great social Problem-The Growth OIL
immortality and Crime among the Intelli-
gent, the W eaIthy and the Pious-Scandal
In High Life.
From the Chicago Review, Jan. %
II will be readily conceded by those who
have read the Review through its previous
issues that it has not published an indecent
i..m. has uniformly avoided mentioning any
Of the glsring acts of immortality and indie
cency which have found place in the columns
If the daily journals. while it has ignored all
pf the numerous scandals which have been so
industriously circulated by those winged mes
-engers of wrong-the gOssips. We thoughS
nothing to be gained for the morals of the
Immunity by parading before the eye the
vices of our eighbors, and not wishing to cater
10 the appetites of the deprayed we have hith-
erto scrupulously avoided reference to such
matters.
We now arrive at a different conclusion and
believe that the good Of society demands an
s-rpOSs Of those wretches, who, for the gratif-
cation Of their lustful appetites, desecrate
homes, render miserable through life their
victims, with whole households of their friends
staln the fair eseutcheon of many innocent
families, and drag themselves into disgrace
mere and perdition hereafter.
Nothing but the newspaper lash seems tn us
to meet such cases. and since our Chicago daily
press lay bare Only the crimes, the follies and
vices of the poor and lowIy, excepting where a
political point is to be gained and pass over a
CaS" teh IHousdno times worse than the break
ing up OF a den of infamy by the police of John
kelly's getting drunk, or Mrs s. having a row
about the water supply, knocks Mrs. W's eve
INTO mourning; or the case of the poor girl
who. trIendless, homeless and cold. ensnared
by the worlds love of show in dress becomes
an outcaSt upon the street-all of which are
det9Iied with the names, places and uncompli-
mentary annOtatiOns. But when Michigan
avenue becomes the scene of low and de-
bssiGg crime, and when a mansion is proved to
re a fOuler don than the harlot's home. our
contemporaries are silent; they have not
word to say The amenities Of society directs
them to be silent.
Ii is this silence, perhaps, which has induced
us to spread the matter before our readers
We have no respect for adultery. because it is
committed by the elegant, the learned, the
seemingly piOus and the wealthiest of the
wealthy; therefore, we unhesitatingly take up
this matter, and shall continue to take up all
similar cases which reach us equally rs we'll
authenticated as this
Our object Is, by showing up these immorali-
ties, to arouse sufficient interest to induce dis
cussion, and to find, if possible a solution of
this great immoral question. Some one may
rise up who can tell us why it is that as we are
growing in intelligence, we seem to be falling
back Into the licentiousness Of the dark ages:
Why Is 1t that while the church is boastinS of
lis millions OF heathen converts, we are doing
worse than the unchristisnized cannibal; why
Is that in the very church itself many of the
shining lghtS-divineS deacOns, and sisters
are the ones whose hearts are given over to
lust and infamy. Is this the moral of our book
learning. Is this the result of the mission of
the hne arts! There Is something wrong in all
this. 1t needs solution: who shall give il?
Here, within the past year, two Chicago
elergymen have parted from the hocks because
Of immoralities practised by them among the
very ones whose souls were conided to their
pastoral charge; two men in high, responsible
positions In life, have been guilty Of the seduc-
tiOn OF their wives sisters; one equally respect-
able had been guilty of immoral conduct with
niece OF his wife-upOn all of which our daily
journals have not dropped word of reprOval
Two more OF our churches are now agitated
by scandals One, canting villain ruins a
respectable girl; and the other, case where a
married woman has consented to receive the
illicit embraces of a member of the same church
Almost within our ken, another disgracefu
scene Is tranSpirlng on this very lake shore
Up at Racine the whole community are ayita-
ted by the tlagrant immortality of n clergyman
OF the Presbyterian church, who, having been
taken INTO the home of a happy family has
turned and stung his entertainer by robbing
him OF his wife-a woman forty years old, and
the mother of noble grown up daughters We
have only to cast our eyes across the Atlantic
to ind Mrs Gurpey running away with her
foOtman; and thus we have the consolation
that We are no worse nor better than our neigh
bors The world seems to he fall of this spe
cieS of crime
But, for this case: The city was startled
early during the past week by the rumor that
leading banker had discovered his wife TO be
holding improper intimacy with distinguish
ed lawyer; and soon the story got afloat IA all
bad ones will, and the facts in various forms.
ana dressed to suit the teller, have been since
ventilated In every place where two or more
persons have been gathered together
mis- case has remarkable features in it, and
lever FalliatiDg circumstances than perhaps
even the famed Sickles affair. Neither Of the
guilty pair is hs hsndsome; on the contrary she
Is slight, s1llOw woman, very plain, only in
tereSslnS tor her fine black eyes and black hair
thirty years of age the mother of two
slrlS, and third al infant in arms. She was
meek lowiy woman, apparently absorbed in
her Christian and domestic duties; member
Of fashionable church on the avenue, and
seemingly much wrapped up in her self-im-
posed work In the Sabbath school She WAS
brought up under the roof of an ex-member of
Congress Of New York State, and a railroad
magnste, whose honor and fair name in pri-
yate life have never been sulIied She was
adopted by him; her generous dover furnished
Dy him; his sensible ideas of dress were i'm
Planted In her bosom. for she was remarkable
IN our streets for her neatness of apparel, while
ner unOstentatious manner was the theme of
comment Many times she might have been
seen drawing the baby carriage through the
surrounded with servants and lived in a villa
oalit palace of Milwauke ee brick. on Michigan
avenue; on the graperies and hothouses to
Snlen alone. 100000 had been expended by
f generous and too confiing husband. She
s plain. modest, courteous woman, of more
, aan ordinary intelligence; and her fall is GER
Inly more than if she had been young
ssrIy, pretty woman. badly brought up and
Idsniy arisen to fashionable life and all the
TIuisnments of a new and fattering position
or .ae seducer is lawyer of some eloquence,
Transferable H. ability and Of marked success
S,,,s member of Congress of a neighboring
cbIs, and Is husband and father of eight
ir"h, and resides in the North Division
ssrysia one who has attended our courts has OBJ
ligh, IA tall, thin man, with a turn up nose,
c1TeraS sPrinkled with gray a face almost
or - With hair, and shaved in the English
fe.t.J Dundreary style. with rather an af-
inc out nevertheless able manner, conduct.
y tn before the several tribunals. This
upon IN who has brought ruin and shame
ofon. ~ woman, who has crushed the heart
byb;. our best citizens, and who seems now
out .5,ren Oraren parade of our streets to be with