New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-10-27
/" THE So 1SON."

1.-THE SE'1SON"
| Certain slight, signIscah + hints tell us that
"the season" is beginning the time when so
cial life all over the cO'Dtt closes in on itself,
shuts the doors, gives itself mp for the cooler
months to the incubation of whatever new
folly or wholesome good it means to bring
into tho world. What pew greed or idea may
be Matched by society in thu coming Winter
is, perhaps, quite IS we'll w0ft tn attention as
the result of the elections. Life is Janus
faced. and only half made mp sDf politics, after
all. Man does at livs by votes alone.
Browns neighbor and friend and wife. and
the intangible relations Gull of comedy and
tragedy that bind him to them, tmatter more
to him at bottom than anytbingi Hoffman or
Tweed can do to him. It 3 this foolish,
subtle, strong social life that commands his
real sslf every day while be lives, and. keeps
its hold on him to the Last breath when he
comes to die.
There are peculiar reasons, too, woy he
present season should be nOted and its symp-
toms reported. Certain diseases and abnormal
phases of social life were never more suggest
lively thrust rto view than during tie last
few months, both in this country and England.
The criminal records are ordinarily supplied
by what is called the dangerous classes, or, II
otherwise, are, accounted for by some indi-
vidaal phenomenon OF vice. But such eases
az that of Margaret Waters, or the MQrdaunt
divorce suit indicate radical defects IN the
structure Of the society to which educated,
respectable people belong. These cases, 1t rs
true, are English; but it is high time mat we
looked to soc If we had no Augean stables OF
orr own to, clean Everybody knows dlat the
baby farmers in London have their parallel in
Eew-YoIk. Everybody knows, too, the trade
of the owners of palaces, every brick OF
(which is cemented by murder They openly |
advertise their calling In journals which are
professedly the organs Of the Weather classes |
We do not intend to-day to disturb this
foul subject more than to say that Society" !
as nodded and ruled by the leaders of the |
ton, is largely responsible for the state OF
morals which result in baby farmers in En- |
gland and female Thug doctors III New York.
Society is, after all, under the control OF
woman it ia her public expression of certain
ideas-the garb she chooses for hospitality, |
love, Friendship, marriage. The view, mean
or pure in which these things are held by the
fashionable women in cities is initiated by the
next in order, and go down to the very dregs.
In country life it is different. We believe
that even the most fashionable woman has in
herself the purifying element. 1t is right that
the social sacraments meant for The cure Of
vice should be left to her keeping. But what
has she done with them How does
she rule her own household Is it
a sphere of order, and love, and law,
where the woman whose chance has been small
in life understands God better through the
- Of fba Nvhosp
chances have been many7 Or is Biddy too
much for her mistress7 Is she frantcally
calling on the heather Ah-Chin to take charge
of her household, protesting that she cannot
control one raw Irishwoman, and therefore can
legislate for raw Irishmenf What has woman
in our cities made of hospitalityi In certain
salons in France, in old times, the first work.
crs of the age came to women to receive
strength, refreshment. elevation for their ideas.
1t was their thought that was entertained.
The American leader of the ton gives to the
stomach of her guest unlimited terrapin and
champagne-and to his eyes her husbands
plate and gaudy furniture, and her own bare
shoulders and arms. That ends her idea of
hospitality and its uses. What does she make
of marriage7 Is it The most solemn of
all contrasts between two human souls,
of which God is the perpetual witness
ard Judge? or is it a sham show for
the benefit of the public, that we may parade
as millionaires one day in silver and brOcade
TO church aud in the morning papers, though
we sink back to debt and obscurity the nextf
What has she done with deaths The heather
beats tom-toms before his dead because he
fears and hopes to propitiate the grisly, I'M
seen horror hidden behind it but we make a
tantarara over corpse, only to bring the
public to look at more silver and more bro
cade. Our very dead become pegs on which to
hang our Dragging and sham show of wealth.
Now it is from thoughtlcssness more than
viciousness that women have thus belitted
and dressed in gew-gaws the solemn yerities
left in their keeping and because, too, women
Of real refinement and culture have left the
foremost places in society to those whose
wealth was their only qualification to hold it.
How will il be this season.
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Tammanv n,ust understand tbof tha silanca