Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-11-18
TIE PURPLE WOMAN.

The Round Idoe has o half historical or
biographical and half moralizing article
on this class Of feminine, from which we
parody and to which we add some facts
leaving the moralizing to the original
journal named. '
The Purple Woman is almost wholly a
creature Of French and English and
American habitation and patronage. She
is not known or tolerated in Turkey; in
the German States she is only a visitor Of
the special festival seasons ; and in China
and in Japan the scarlet women are as
serted to have the respectable place in
society. In very truth of origin the
Purple Woman is a French institution,
which has been grated in England and
America, there and here having gained
peculiar characteristics from the different
laws and licenses Of the lands. Paris is
her seat there she is in her glory. She it
is who forms the Fashions" Of this
world. A few Helens, Of the order
Purple, have stirred up Revolutions or
paciHed the most tempestuous leaders OF
tumult with their Establishments. In
England and America, the order is said
to be far more mercenary than in France.
The Camille, over whose dramatic woes
so many thousands of our best citizens
las we'll as some thousands of our board
ing-school misses), weep and wall in the
dress circle Of American and English
theatres, in Saxon Land, would cease to
talk of sentiment unless it was a part OF
cold, cunning scheming for money. Louis
Napoleon is courted by them for the glory
of reputed favor with him; but it lately
cost an Earldom's income in England to
obtain one of the most beautiful Of the
species as q wife; and the American
Camilles-usually actresses-are proven
bal for their treachery under the tempta-
ton of a weather. friend. 1t is said that
the heartlessness Of the transplanted char
acter is reacting on the Partisan model;
and all this, Of course, has a tendency to
make the pattern Purple become in fact
more Scarlet. New York City is said to
abound in Purple to a, great an extent as
Paris, proportionate to its population (;
and immigrations are daily adding to the
American ratio. Central Park drives are
thronged with Purple Women-of course,
the richest and most tasteful in dress and
gallanted by the handsomest Of men.
The pioneer communities Of our coun-
try are infested with the creature, here
the lowest, in all respects, of the class
many of them Of the Scarlet order in the
East, but here permitted to affect less
prossness of crime-color. Here, too, ow-
ing to the comparative scarceness of re-
spectacle females, they have advantages
for place in the marriage market and
very often they CONF upoh our streets
dressed in White to tell us Of their
legal alliance with men who have
taken price for performing a
magic bleaching with a wedding ring
I, were at the peril Of ones good name as
a courteous gentleman to speak lightly OF
this reputation redemption BY marriage
sacrament, in a promiscuous gathering;
lest the last whitener Of a Purple Scarlet
be among the audience. And how Is the
peace of households destroyed by the art
Of the Purple! How is the purity of the
maiden assaulted through the example
constantly set by the people! This is not
the prescribed "moralizing." 1t is only
suggestive of the painful, the horrible fact.
The dens Of the Scarlet can be kept apart
from localities where chastity has a home;
but the Purple woman is in the front seat
of the theater and the front pew Of the
church. She looks innocence with a ven-
geance, and she defes public ~opinion-nos
merely, passively braves it-she defe'
public opinion. She is a favorite in a
large circle of acquaintances, many OF
whom may not suspect her shame. And
her friends protect her good name with a
masonic reticence as to the bad they know,
and a garrulous ex,oling Of her goodness
on every available occasion.
The Scarlet and the Purple are not on
good terms. The former is shrewd to
detect the latter, though she wore an ashen
garb. Scarlet considers Purple a hypo-
critic, and actually believes that her GRIM
son offences are less heinous in the sight
Of God than the paler-hued life Of iniquity
which her sister proudly leads. If the
door of her house is the gate of hell, then
everybody may read it to be so from the
Proverbs: there is very small chance for
deception in the premises. But while the
preacher is pronouncing Solomon's admo-
milton, and pointing significantly TO a GER
tain dwelling on the street corner, Lo!
the fur clad, the silk-dressed lady Of Pur-
pie smiles applaudingly, before his desk,
and whispers a sinister Amen" to his
prayer for those who will be her victims
and not the lovers Of the more honest and
notorious sinners in Red.
NEVADA COUNTY IrEMs.-A party left
Nevada last Wednesday morning to make
a survey for a railroad from that place to
CoIfax. The Grand Jury last week