Delaware State journal and statesman., 1865-10-13

II pictures to us young women, moving in
'he best circles-"the cream Of the cream
-slouching in a state Of helpless drunken
ness into the arms of tobacco-smoking,
Dilliard-playing rakes, and swearing great
round oaths, like fishwomen of Billingsgate
II presents us the fact that this female viper,
though known by all who knew her at all, to
he a vile woman, was admitted into "the
best company"-that fathers and mothers
gladly welcomed her as the associate of their
daughters, because she belonged to the aris-
iocracy of money; because she wore rich
dresses and displayed expensive jewelry;
because she lived in palatial mansion, with
Its " blue room, and its "crimson room, ="
lis Wilton carpets and its Gobelin tapestry
In short, it proves what a very slight golden
barrier separates the debasing vices of the
rich from the degraded vices of the poor.
Possibly, this is a sample case The ten
dency of the age and country is to looseness
in thought and habit, promiscuousness of in
tercourse, vulgarity of conduct-to extraya-
CANT display and morbid, yellow-coyered
sentimentality. The austere virtues are 60
ing out of fashion. A man is rather voted
an old fogy who treats his wife as if he loved
her supremely, above all others; and a wo-
man is pronounced prude who will not
consent TO familiarities on the part of ac-
quaintance that should be permitted to none
but husbands. Conduct hardly excites pass
ing remark now, which in the times of grand
Inr !, all
for social exclusion. Women travel with
" gentlemen escorts" attend balls and con-
certs with "gentlemen cicerones, " take long
carriage drives with gentlemen attend
ants" throw their boudoirs open to gentle
men friends, and write letters full of gushing
sympathy to gentlemen correspondents. "
The result is, that every now and then n
husband awakes to the consciousness that
his wife has forgotten her duties to him-if,
indeed, she does not disremember his exist
ence-and then some Mrs. Harris is ground
to powder between the upper and neither
mill-stones of righteous indignation.
If there be any truth in evidence, this
Connecticut woman deserves the fate which
is probably in reserve forher. She will lose
a kind and oyer-indulgent husband. She
will be driven out from the beautiful home
which she made the theatre of her illicit
loves. She will be separated from the So
ciety in which for years she has been accus-
toned to move, enjoying the best luxuries of
wealth and position. With brand upon
her forehead, with the curse of public opinion
her, she has one alternative-the
exclusion Of retired life and the penance of
or descent step by step to deeper
infamy and more utter degradation, until she
reaches the end, where so many like her
have preceded. Society every once in a
while arOuses from its moral slumber, de-
mands and crucifes a victim, and then goes
to sleep again. In this case, Mrs. Harris is
the predestined sacrifice.
But is the woman now so much worse than |
she was while pursuing her career of crime
holding levees at her mansion, fitting |
through the salons of Newport, luxuriating
in the smiles of nabobocracy which knew
Ill about her weakness and her sin? Is it
not the great and crowning reason which de-
nands her punishment, that she has been
ound out; that she has been exposed in
Court and to the public; that she was not
lkilful enough to disguise her intrigues? II
ier infdelity had been nothing more than
current chamber gossip would she have
been otherwise than popular and favored ?
Tho roal fault 10 in IA ayston. ei sneie,. D
which makes it possible for such women to
,xist in respectable circles; which is blind
md Indifferent to the consequences of acts
hat tend logically and inevitably to precise
y such results This social world will roll
IN after this New Haven trial is finished,
md every little while its revolutions will
bring it to the point of conjunction with some
other Mrs Harris. The evil is general, not
ocal; and it will be cured, not by Connec-
icut verdict of divorce, but by a national
Would that some American Dupin might
,ome forth, and. with eloquent voice, arouse
he people to conception of the imperious
leed of this reform.