The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1874-02-19
6ecIal Strugglos.

,---aAS selal Struggles. -'
!, The struggle for an existence In a
sphere of society In which the de-
mands upon the purse exceed the
limits of ones income Is producing
abundant fruit In defalcations, for
geries, adulteries, and suicides, In
what are called the upper or educated
classes. Prison statistics used to show
that by far the greater number of
crimes were committed by illiterate
people; and In respect Of Offenses
against the person, In which brutality
and unrestrained passion are the pre-
dominating elements, the rule holds
good yet. Not so, however, in that
large and increasing class of crimes
of mercenary mott We In which fraud
and cunning play the principal parts.
Philistinism, the apOtheOsis of wealth,
the spread of materiraliStic ideas, the
lowering of the practical moral stand
ard In the church, in official life, in
sOciety-these Influences are working
out their logical results in the null
tiplying villainies Of daily life. ear
An editor of a New York paper
says he has ga list of clergymen,
lawyers, professors, officers of banks,
and other financial agents, who with
In a year have committed penal Of
lenses, and the list Is an appalling
one." Traced to their sources, these
crimes have sprung directly from the
fact that the offenders desired to keep
themselves and their families in the
particular social set which they were
In the habit of associating with, and
not having the requisite means, they
eked out their incomes by levying
contributions upon the funds or prop
erty of their friends and employers.
Browning makes long story short
in his description of the decline and
fall of a young couples hopes and
prosperity:
,o,r,.,,n ,vo. nr Tlsey met; c,ms ou,cs
But uickier-impecuniosity y"
II impecuniOsity was the worst, ii
would be littleD matter; but quick
upon its heels too often follow the
husbands crimes or the wife's infidel-
ity. Browning's impecunious hero
/" trafficked in his wife," Others of
our day rob their employers. Jones,
partaking of his frugal hash, is in
formed by Mrs. Jones, as she dispen-
ses the matutinal chickOry to their
over-pOpulated household, that her
Malthusian neighbor, Smith, has at
tired herself in purple and fine
linen. Jones performs q lightning
calculation in arithmetic, involving
yearly salary, house rent, grocery and
butchers bill and is unable to see an
honest way to the qualification of his
darling wife's ambition to throw Mrs.
Smiths toggery into the shade
He argues to himself that he is
undergrad for his work, that he
owes It to his family to hold his
social position, and that 1t would be
an unspeakable disgrace to allow his
wife to be OutshOne by her neigh
bors. When the opportunity comes
he steals, FORCES, embezzles or cheats,
and has the satisfaction of seeing his
noble wife arrayed in his royal style.
Some day Jones does not come to
dinner. His overtrading has been
discovered by the bank directors, or
tho man who employs him, and he
pines in a bastile; or, perhaps Mrs.
Jones awakens some morning from
the heavy slumber of fashionable
woman, to find Mr.. Jones stark stiff,
with All empty vial In his hand.
That was the way Mr.. John Henry
Skyrme, an English gentleman, of
the town of Ross, In HerefOrdshire,
recently closed his accounts with
this world. The narrator says:
"Married to a young wife whom
he tenderly loved, his expenses were
largely increased by the costly ele-
gance with which he insisted on sur
rounding her. He was one of the
most respected people of the place
"open-handed, Open-hearted, gener-
Gus to fault, accessible and pleasant,
open and simple"
Such was the opinion of the people
of Ross, and when, on the Goth of last
month, Mr.. Skyrme was found dead
in his bed, the whole community
mOurned, the newspapers praised his
virtues, and the local dignitaries
joined in the funeral procession. 1t
now turns out that the deceased was
one Ofthe most consumate scOundrels,
and that he had been carrying on his
villainies undecided and unsupported
for years. On the day of his death
his banking account was Overdrawn
800, 900; nearly every tradesman in
Ross has a heavy bill against his
estate; those who entrusted him with
money to invest got mortgages, but
the instruments were forged many
who purchased property, and believ-
ed themselves the owners of man.
sions and estates find their deeds are
shams, and, to confirm the worst, 1t
Is now stated that Skyrme died by
his own hand. And all because he
would net allow the 4" young wife
whom he tenderly loved to be out
shone by her ,neighbOrs.-S. Louis
Democrat.