New-York tribune., 1873-04-10
TROUBLE WITH A WOMAN."

IL is difficult to fix the exact point mt which
modesty becomes vice. or that at which
vanity becomes source OF weakness rather
than of strength Without certain degree OF
consciousness of merit, physical, mental and
moral, it is impossible for any ono to succeed
in life. lack of this quality condemns a
man to O life of shyness and vacillation, and
o slight Overpus of it renders him the easy
prey of parasites and 1atterers, or worse than
that, of his own inordinate passions. II we
analyze most of our recent murder cases we
will almost invariably find vanity the original
fault by which tho crime became possible In
the murder of Mr.. Putnam, his slayer was ex-
cited to q fury by the fact that his advances to
a woman were repulsed by her protector. The
savage self-love, the wounded dignity OF the
quarrelsome man, gave that fatal energy to
his arm which resulted in two deaths. In
the case of the woman Fair there was no
other motive prominent on either SIDE
Her victim became involved in her tolls
through his own vanity; she retained him
for long time by making him believe
| in her disintorested affection and his own
| powers of pleasing and when he went back
TO his family, her vanity and vexation goaded
her to murder. She cared nothing especially
for him. but having made him believe the
contrary, she could not afford, i'll her quality
of syren, to have him escape her. In the long
burlesque tragedy of which one act was the
death of Fisk, and the end is yet awaited
with interest by thousands, the one passion
which spun tho thread that entangled all
three of the actors in its inexerable meshes,
was vanity. Neither of those men would have
/ r IL NJ tha
cypran who betrayed them in turn yet each
of them was ready to risk everything rather
than allow the other to carry away from him
tho worthless prize. BY that bond she held
them both, no matter how grossly she played
her game, until in the selfish vanity of each
the death of the other became less impOr-
tant thing than his own defeat. When they
met at last on the stairs of the hotel, the end
of one had come They were so constituted
that they could not turn and walk away from
each other.
In the late frightful crime in Brooklyn the
same moving spring is seen. There is a
| strange touch of unconscious pathOs In the
story told by young Green, the pseudo-watch-
| man. The fright and nervousness of poor
| Goodrich pursued by woman who was grow
| ing too expensive; his flattered and pleased
air, in the midst of his trouble that he was a
man about whom such row could be made !;
his evident appreciation of the fact that he
was not to be given up without struggle
all these points have the grotesque pathOs of
the old comedy. The scene in Degrawst. is
full of the same element. A virago comes
| upon the scene whose artifce is of the rudest
quality. She curses and swears at her poor
| n Al of a..
twists the leaden pipe OF the sink writes
q letter full of coherent vulgar sharpness
says if he was a gentleman he would give her
three or four hundred dollars and she would
call it even; inquiries about an imaginary
"other woman - and at last throws her
| self upon a rug saying she is distracted, and
at once goes off into a comfortable nap. One
cannot conceive any emotion but disgust ex-
cited by such performance. Yet the unfOr-
| tunate man for whom the farce was rehearsed
seemed to find a certain pleasure in it, saying
to his relative that "it was evident the woman
"was very much in love with him-though he
"cared nothing for her." She made common
place effort to retain money making situa-
ton, and found no difficulty in persuading her
dupe that his charms had driven her wild.
| No sadder or more serious sermon can be
preached against those fruitful parents of all
| SIM vanity and selfshness. The subject is one
not untitled for Lenten meditation, and es-
pecially for this week of sacrifice and renun-
citation. The relations of men to women form
the most delicate and weighty problem of our
modern life. Little progress will be made in
its solution as long as a brutal selfshness re-
mains tho controlling principle of what is
called love. The world has not outgrown that
savage tradition, in which "man is the hunter,
woman is the game.o That the game should
| turn and rend the incautious sportsman Occa-
sionally is only natural. There is too little
consideration Of the fact that there are
always two parties to every such rela-
ton, with equal rights and duties, and
that the best and highest form of
attachment is that which regards the happi-
ness of another equally with our own, if not
preferring it. The story of Enoch Arden has
received more ridicule than adherence. The
sublime sacrifice of Sidney Carton is often
| called an impossible extravaganza. But the
| world will be better one to live in when
| these stories become more reasonable and
probable than those sickening recitals we now
read daily, of boys killing girls who refuse to
some one else, and other men running them
selves for creatures they despse because they
| imagine that fellows of this kind regard them
with envy.