The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-04-20
SPIRIT OF TEE RRuss.
Editorial Opinions ofthe Leading Journals
upon Current Topics Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
MIR. GREELEY AND THE TRIBUNE
FREE.LOVERS

ERlIl1-LO AhA'AS
From the NJ Y. Sun
Mr.. Greeley is making serious mistake in
putting himself before the world as the cham
pion of the gang of free-lovers who have for
the last few years made the Tribune Office
their headquarters. We know that, personally,
he is entirely sound on the marriage Question;
but his benevolence and kindly sympathy for
plausible rascality, which have SO often in
valued him in scrapes before, are now leading
him into an apparent advocacy of immortality,
which cannot fail to do great damage to his
reputation. Just as he suffered himself to be
coaxed into lending his sanction to the infa-
nous mock-marriage at the Astor House, be-
tween Mr.. Richardson and the wife of Daniel
Mcfarland, he now has undertaken to defend
the women who played prominent part in
bringing about the whole of the awful catas-
trophe of which that outrageous ceremony
was the elimination. ....
We have already published in the Sun the
letters from these women, Mrs. Samuel Sin
clair and Mrs. Lucia G, Calhoun to Mrs.
Mcfarland, which have been put in evidence
by the counsel for Mr.. Mcfarland in his trial
for the murder of Mr.. Richardson. The pur-
pose of laying those letters before the Jury
was to show that Mrs. Sinclair and Mrs Cal
houn were conspirators with Mr. Richardson
in his effort to seduce Mrs. Mcfarland. Mr..
McFarlands suspicious as to what was going
on having been aroused, he opened his wifes
travelling trunk in search of evidence, and
there found the letters. This act Mr.. Greeley
stigmatizes as "burglary and larceny" and
the letters themselves he excuses as follows
"Judge them simply by what they contain, and
not by false CLOSES and perversiOns, and there Is
not a line in them that the writer should wish to
blot. woman Just above want, struggling bravey
and working arduousy for her bread, reaches out
hand to help friend whose needs are more urgent
and who is more heavily overweighted for the race
OF life than herself That is the whole truth. What
ever evil may be made out of those letters will have
Its origin in the heart of the commentator not in
the letter nor the spirit Of the text"
Does Mr.. Greeley seriously mean to con-
tend that a husband, who has good reason to
believe his wife unfaithful to him, commits
crime in opening a receptacle in which she
keeps her letters ? Such may be the code in
those corrupt circles where adultery is sane
toned by fashion, and faithfulness to the
marriage covenant is exceptional; but it has
never yet been established in this country
Ordinarily, a polite husband will treat his
wife's correspondence, like her dressing
room, as sacred; but to insist that he may
not inspect either the one or the other when
his honor demands it, is carrying the i'm
munities of libertinism to limit which has
heretofore been unknown in American So
ciety.
Then, as to the letters themselves, is it
true that "whatever evil is in them will be
made out Of the heart of the commentator ?"
Is it no evil for one woman to urge another
woman to leave her husband and take her
children with her, or to commend to her
esteem man whom she must know to be q
lover with criminal intentions ? Hear Mrs.
Samuel Sinclair
'Do not for one moment longer entertain that
morbid idea that you are responsible for the life OF
ruin perhaps your children, If you continue to live
with him. 1t will kill you to live this way, and you
'T must suggest one thing, and that is to get
Percy away from his father soon as possible You
know Percy now believes in him, and the longer he
remains with him the more intensified will this feel
ing become, and OF course the longer will take to
erase it,"
Mrs. Lu G. Calhoun, more fertile letter
writer than Mrs. Sinclair, also says:-
'Tt is proclamation for you to stay with that man
az think you could live, yourself and Percy, fol
what you earn now; and If you can only be free sc
81 am so glad that you have left M. Do not
beseech you, return"
"My darling, for whom would die, do not SC
wrong your womanhood as to go back. You mus
not, shall not"
.;tet Mr. R help you; he is good and strong
woes ? Mr.. Richardson. Nobody is half 80 kind
and unseldsh as he, and when am stuck, as TIN
mon sense and kind heart always find way int,
smooth paths again."
And much more of the same sort. Th
whole burden of the letters is abuse of tn,
husband, praise of the adulterous lover, soil
citations to break the marriage tie, and en-.
couragement to get the children away from
their father, with rosy pictures of wealth
fame, and happiness as the result. Yet Mr.
Greeley sees nothing in these letters whicl
the writers should wish to blot! Verify,
such be their effect on such a mind as his
there must be corrupting influence in tn
atmosphere of the Tribune Office which les
intellectual people will do well to shun.