The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-12-10
''The P0ngs of DesDissd Love The
Laws Delay -

Laws Delay.V
WILL not our civilization or our laws ever
afford adequate protection to too trusting
maidensp Where is the courtesy which
once attended the ceremony of be-
trothal-tLe! honor which in old chiva.ric
days led mobiles to risk their lives
for the fair name Of their lady.love? Alas
we fear that the times when gallant knight
who would ride down any one who would
cast slur upon his affianced bride, who
would transfix al opponents. and gracefully
execute pirOuette on horseback while lay
ing bis gauntlet at the lady's feet, are gone
forever. OF late our courts of law have wit
messed numerous cases OF suits instituted
for breach Of promise, in which the plaintiff
sought to plaster together the fragments of a
broken heart by an application of greenbacks.
The latest case is found in New York, where
Miss Cornelia Wiggins, spinster, sued Mr..
Russell, general small politician, for breach of
promise.
The circumstances, as detailed by the coun-
sci for the plaintiff, are peculiarly aggravatng.
Miss Wiggins, filed with the trusting conf
dence Of girlhood, having, by means OF her
nomy, secured little sum of money deter
mined to leave the busy turmoil of New York
city and seek rest in some sequestered and
cheap country place. Alone she moves TO a
delightful island near the metropolis, by some
called Sing-Sing, and takes a room at the
hotel Here she meets, for the first time, the
treacherous destroyer OF her happiness. Mr..
of tha Ia
pretends to love her, offers his hand, is &C.
cepted, and preparations for the wedding are
made. Miss Virgins invests her little hoard
in bridal trouSSeau, and happily looks for
ward to the day when she shall possess the
widower's love and his six small children,
the eldest having attained the age Of twelve.
But the Elysian dream is rudely broken;
the spell is dissolved; the daily receipt of
love-letters ceases; and the fearful news
comes that the heartlesS Russell has led
anotber-n0t a Wiggins-to the altar. But
Nemesis must be satisfied, if Cupid is dis
heartened.
"Childless! friendIess! broken J. all forsake
-al-all-but the indomitable heart Of Corne-
liza Wigg'ns !"
She sues the faithless Lothario, and drags
his letters into open court, and lays them
before the world. Such is the tale of the
lovely Virgins, as depicted by her lawyer.
Now from her lovers fate let all venerable
would-be Benedicts take warning. For the
sake Of common sense and the Anglo-Saxon
tongue, cease to write letters in the third per-
son. Rlchelieu demands of Baradas:-
''What page, man, IN the last court grammar
made y0u plural ~
So we would ask of Russell, and all his
love-smitten contemporaries of the past-forty
period, "What rule Of syntax made you any
thing but II or 'my?'" The New York
World investigates the curious penchant of
patriarchs for adopting tne impersonal. 1t
says:-
why 1t is that mlddle-aged gentlemen, when
they fall In love, and, beng in that deplorabIe
condition, write billie s.doux, ways adopt the
historical style in those compostious and
speak OF themselves ana their emotions in the
third person, like Cesar in his 'Commentaries'
and General Scott in his 'Autobooranhv p
The conqueTor OF Veicngetorix never affirms
Il did this or that, but always informs ma that
Caesar marched here or there; tie victor of
CerrO GotdO and Chaputepec irhpeIturbabIy