New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-09-05
IDKR ON THE EEN2


fortunes of an elderly gentleman of Watlow
in Lincolnshire, who loved not wisely nor well
enough to marry. The tragedy and comedy
of life both proceed from the same source.
To-day the world weeps with Werther who
blows out his brains for love, and tomorrow
it falls into inextinguishable laughter over q
bald-headed man who under the Grazing intiu-
ence of the same passion writes ungrammatlcal
letters and spells the name of his Redeemer
with O. The woes of our Lincolnshire gallant
seem excessively amusing to the court and the
public, and yet there never was more COM
monplace affair. None of the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
have yet informed US why things which are
simply dull in private become infinitely humor-
GUS in public. The jury, judge, and audience
are convulsed by the short and stupid annals
of Mr.. COppings love, which would be too tire
some for good nature if Coping should read
them to you.
Mrs. Coping died, and the fair Hubert, who
now brings a suit of breach of promise, a
young thing of thirty, came to the funeral
and stayed few days. When she went home
the bereaved widower said to her, Goodbye,
"Charlotte: don't be in hurry to throw your
"self away" Her conscious heart interpreted
these words to mean "wait for your Coping"
She did not have to wait long. The next month
he wrote hen q letter which ended, with
"fOndest love and lots of kisses dear Char
"lotte from your ever-loving Wright Coping"
which, the learned counsel judciously OBJ
serves "was not bad for first letter.
daughter in the court.I' He got on beauti-
fully; in his next letter he cOnsults her in re-
lation to some feather beds be is purchasing,
not caring toplease any one but her own dear
"self." OF course there was renewed laughter"
! which was not cured when the copscientious
swain, as If realizing that there was something
slightly suggestive in that phrase of the feath-
ers, adds, II mean right" And 80 proceeding
through wilderness of billets-doux his pas
sion makes him a poet, and he talks of the
stains and the stings of his kisses like a
cockney Anacreon. At a later period, when
the learned counsel tells us "his love was
cooling" he perfdiOusly reenforces his letters
with parfait amour. ~ hope nothing will ever
"change the love we have for one another.
eff l was agen you / would give you
"some good hisses. lLaughter1. Beloved
charlotte, you are a buck of a
"girl. Laughter. I would leave mark
con your dear cheek. tLaughterl." He
certainly doth protest too much. Only a
few weeks later he writes, al am not cross
with you, but, as told you before, can't
I" get on with 80 much letter writing; neither
"will ], it fdgets me. - Only think of poor
dear Mary been gone just five months.
"[Loud laughter.l" There is nothing so
comical as the perAdy and hypocrisy of a
middle-aged man who can afford to pay for
it. That final reference to the dear departed,
which should have gained him the sympathy
of all gentle spirits, sealed his doom with the
hard.hearted jury. Nothing now remained
but to ascertain how much mulcting he could
endure How much are you worth n asked
I the counsel. His Lordship on the Bench could
| not refrain from his little joke, and asked,
"DO you mean HIM or his property" O
sally which met with great success. When
the unfortunate Coping had confessed
| that he, WIS not pauper. the counsel
| insipuRtinRly suggested that he had iust