The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-05-16

The following is stirring account,
from Partisan letter-writer, of the
progress of luxury and corruption in
that capital. 1t shows to what excess
wealth will run, when crime is looked
on as folly and folly often as crime:
.'The irritation which exists in all
classes here ut the spread of female cor
ruptiOn, and the splendOr and luxury
of these women, has attracted the at
tention of the government. The ruin
they have wrought and daily produce
in families is likewise giving alarm to
all thinking men. The suicides, the In
solvency, the blasted lives due to them
exceed all belief. AT this season of the
year when there are races at the Bois de
BouIogne, at Vincenues, or at Vile
d'Avray, every Sunday, all of the To-
rettes appear in the street, and the
return from the race-course is real
ly a strikingly wonderful sight. The
display of silks, VelvetS, furs, pret-
ty women, carriages and horses
is dazzling. Parents who see the
murderess OF their child, the despoiler
of their estate and the worm who has
tarnished their escutcheon in these
beautiful, satiated, extravagant women,
find this spectacle the most hateful sight
in Paris-it is dazzling only to mere
spectators. The government asks in
vain for somebody to point out a reme-
dy. 1t has tried nrresting some of the
more conspicuous of these women. Can
you imagine the result2 Thediplomat-
ic corps, foreign princes who look on
emperors and kings as equals, senators,
and all the influential people of Paris,
besieged the Prefect of Police to iber-
ate them. The end attained was not
the degradation of the women, but the
degradation of the best men of Paris
Surely that was no desirable consum-
mationl
Gambling is another plague which is
blighting good society. The Empress
has begged the new Prefeet of Police TO
abate this evil. He is doing what he
can-bnt all he can do is little. He has
Insisted that the clubs shall play only
for ready money, and shall admit TO
their gambling tables none but regu-
larry elected members. The measures
will not prevent baccarat from being
played rightly in the clubs and in the
ioretEeR' druwing-rOoms, and as many
people from being hereafter ruined as
have heretofore been ruined. The Pre-
feet may be more successful with the
private gambling houses-thobs dens
of fswindling where under preteXt OF
dining-rooms, gambling is carried ON
by Grecs and their accomplices, loose
women. He has begun by sending Sc
cret agents out, who go to the women
who keep these places and say to them:
"The police know perfectly Wel the
trade you carry on. have come to
cards follows your dinners hereafter,
fT you do not dismiss from your house
such a one and such a one, you will be
arrested aud sent to Jail, and they will
be arrested with yon. You and they
will be tried before the Police Court
and be punished with the laws utmost
rigor. The police give you this quiet
warning: do not imagine we are TO be
trihed within The effect of this warn
ing has as yet been TO close these clan
destine ablishments. These keepers
say that new broom sweeps clean, and
they are waiting until the new Pretect
of Police loses Something OF his new
ness. =.
The tsconscience fund" OF the United
States Treasury amounts to $3o,5O0.-
Exchange.
considerinp the amount of money