New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-11-09
4 REMARKARLK SCANP.

---
........ 4 RENARKABLE SCAMP.
Now and then we hear of IA man so perfectly
aud exquisitely contemplate, that he becomes
at once an object Of curious interest, if not
thing Of beauty, reminding us of bicephalous
babies, or the most mysterious of Mr.. Barnum's
What Is Its. In that romantic land where the
inhabitants subsist upon oats, and in the an
cient city of Aberdeen, resides MIR. Alexander
Cray, who has lately entered the guild of
authors by printing a book entitled Remin-
" iscences of the Courtship and Marriage be-
tween Mr.. Alexander Gray, late of the Pen
"insular Steam Navigation Co. at Suez, and
"Miss Elizabeth CrOmbie Duthie, residing at
"Broadford- place. Aberdeen" Now, one who
could prepare and print book of this kind must
be either knaye or an ass, unless, indeed, he Is
a hybrid combining the peculiar qualities Of
both. There il no surer indication either OF
lunacy or idiOcy thar the advertising of
strictly private griefs; there is no more con-
elusive evidence of small and cOneeited
nature than this blazoning to the world what
Shakespeare calls fee griefsF Scores OF
personal" communications come to us an
nualy, and they are generally of kind to
views of human nature, both intellectually
and morally considered. Let the investigator
who would know into what depth of de-
graduation so-caed man can sink, hearken
to the story of Alexander Gray!
He wooed Miss Duthie; he took it for
granted that he had won her; and whPn, h"
found out his mistake, and the lady refused to
marry him, he published this pamphlet, avOw-
IL Il. 4. L..
him, only she would MT acknowledge it. But
before this, with true Caledonian thriftiness,
he had made proposal through an agent to
the young woman, that a money payment
should be made to him TO cover his pretended
disappointment and loss, to be taken IN full
satisfaction of all claims held by him against
her. The lady very absurdly paid Sawney the
sum of $500 and his agents expenses, and
thought herself happily rid of the fellow.
She was mistaken, as people always are who
pay hush-mOney to swindlers. 1t seems easy
20 buy the silence of a threatening extortiOneIi
it is simply the one thing which money will
not buy. 1t is curious that the bitter expe-
rience of thousands should not have put all
men and women upon their guard against
the delusiOn of trusting In the payment of
blackmai. Whoever weakly yields TO the
threats of slanderer will speedily find that
all the money in the world will not make an
honorable of a radically dishOnorable man.
IL he gives up papers, he will keep attested
copies Of them. If he promises silence, he
will break both silence and his promise at the
first opportunity. The aggravation in the
Scotch case is that Gray had nothing to re-
veal 1t was simply u game of bluff. He re-
ceived the f500 waited little while then
wrote and printed one copy of his pamphlet
sent it to Miss Duthie, and probably expected
with greedy joy another sum of $500. This
time, we are glad to say, he reckOned without
his host. Miss Duthie went to her lawyer, az
she should have done in the first instance ;
the lawyer went to the Judge for an injunc-
ton; and an interdict averted the publication
of Gray's dirty little piece of malice. He was
not allowed to tell the world that he was
married TO Miss Duthie when he was not. In
short, he found himself in the grasp of hard
handed Scotch Judge who, we hope, will
squeeze Alexander Gray before all is over
until he hOwls for mercy.
When an innocent man receives a threat
ening letter, we might suppose that he would
put it into the fire and 80 an end of it, Not
at all in nine cases out of ten, the receiver
will become nervous will brood over the
probable consequences of refusing the bride
demanded will either be afraid to ask for
advice or afraid to follow it after it is given /;
will become wretched and nervous, and will
end by paying the price demanded only to
pay it again and again, until he has become
so completely depleted that further venesec-
ton is impossible. Perhaps, in a small way
there is no such test of maniness or of wo-
maniness as the manner in which a threat
ening letter is received. To yield is ruin, pc
cuniary or social. The extOrtioner has neither
heart nor bowels at least of compassion. He
has a head, however, and thoroughly sharp
one. He knows just how weak, and wavering,
and tmid the majority of mankind is; and he goes
TO work according to his knowledge. lie COM
prehends that, in regard to social reputation
almost everybody is n coward. He knows
that if he demands money as the price of
silence, the odds are that he will get it. Now
and then, though not so often as he should
he finds himself in Quod, with a long indict-
ment hanging over his head, and with long
Imprisonment in prospective. But this dismal
blank is SO seldom drawn in the lottery of
extortiou that the swindling breed goes on