The Portland daily press., 1876-02-08
Our New York Letter.
The Literature of scandaI-The Burstinx
of Bowen's Dam-The Course Of Ply-
mouth Church-The Modern Muuchau-
sens.
NEW York. Feb. &. 1876

PAoe Wech, UUlu dS IeSptCtS duu pro-
posterousness. One enterprising journalist
conceived the mastery idea of spicing the col
umns of his dashing sheet with an ''elopement
in high life," in which titled visitor from
abroad-a married man at that-was made to
figure as the hero, ard an estimable ard ire
proachable young lady from the provinces as
the heroine. 1t is barely possible that the par
ties introduced into this sparkling romance
may not have relished the parts assigned them
in it. They are strangers here, and perhaps
not very well acquainted with the methods
with which it is the wont of the luminaries
of the palladium" to titillate the ears of their
Wonder-loving readers But "what are they
| going to do about it?" Bring libel suit? With
our present judicial machinery that would take
| an average lifetime and cost a moderate for
tune. Avenge the outrage with borsewhip or
pistols? That would subject them to the Ca
| prices and vexations of the law. Lands es-
| sayed that remedy over in Jersey many months
ago, ana has been kept fretting in jail till now,
having but just been released by verdict
which must be extremely unsatisfactory to
him because beclouded by the evasive assump-
| tion of his insanity.
One of the most painful reflections to which
the scandalous style of literature now SO wide
| ~ prevalent gives rise is, that it seems to be
| regarded as a matter of course, and occasions
no very earnest or pronounced indignation or
| protest. The peacel of families is ruthlessly
invaded, the hearts of sensitive and blameless
men and women are wrung with anguish, the
sanctity of the domestic hearth is brutally
| violated and the social atmosphere is poisoned
/ IL.
tie. And yet if anybody condemns it at all.
it is with bated breath and whispering hum
bleness." 1t is the crowning sin of our day
and generation, but moralists and preachers
pass it by unrebuked.
The sluiceways of vulgar defamation have
been choked up within day or two by the
bursting of Bowen's dam. This wretched
creature has at last abandoned the sphnx-like
attitude of a private shoulder-shrugging SLAM
derer, and has made public exhibition of his
| long suppressed spleen. 1t is a notable Ak
ample of the faulty of the Brooklyn con-
| spirators that each in turn has appeared upon
the scene so inopportunely as to deprive his
malice of effective damage. If Bowen had
had the courage to display his animosity earli-
er, he might have wrought serious mischief.
| As it is, the permanent hurt he will do must
of necessity be inappreciable. He would to
be sure, injure himself fearfully if it were not
that his reputation long since got beyond the
| possibility of further fall. Now he has &C.
.complished nothing except to demonstrate the
correctness of the theory held from the be-
| ginning by thei nearest and best informed of
the friends of the Plymouth pastor, that he
| was the original author and insidious dissem-
| inator of all the calumnies that crazed the
brain of Tilton and produced such shocking
consequences. He does not pretend to ladd
anything to the history of the case. He
makes no allegation based upon knowledge
which he processes to have of facts. The
latest exhibition he makes of himself re-
calls the story told by Mr.. Clafin of the time
when he pressed Bowen to unburden himself of
| all he knew about the scandal. Being closely
cornered it turned out he didn't know any
thing, but he finally took refuge in the state
ment that Mrs. Woodruff if she chose "could q
| tale unfold" Then Mr.. Claflin, who is prac-
tcal common sense man, with an instructive
| loathing of eoncealments and innuendoes, in
sisted that Bowen aud he should go at once to
| Mrs. WoodhulPs house, aud hear whatever she
| had got to say Bowen was obliged to comply
| with this perfectly reasonable and Iuanly de-
mand When they got there Mrs. Woodruff
was as barren of everything but hearsay infor-
nation as Bowen had been. That was the
first, last and only time that Bowen was
brought to bay and compelled for a moment to
recede from his "policy OF silence" until the
recent Illumination appeared.
The explanation of Bowen's change of base is
simple enough. His situation is pitiable in the
extreme. Though it is of his own making one
cannot regard it without commiseration. Re-
vealed at last as the fountain and source of the
torrents of vituperation which have been
| poured upon the devoted head of the minister
under whose preaching he had sat from 1S47
till the time when Gen. Tracy pilloried him in
his opening speech for the defence in the great
| trial-in the celebration of whose silver we'd
| ding he bore prominent part-for whom he
| has expressed the strongest sentiments of es-
| teem repeatedly, years after the slanders of
which he is the putative author were current
and of whom he wrote and published in April
1872, II know nothing which should prevent
me from extending to him the most cordial
| friendship, confidence and Christian fellow
ship'-he is finally driven by inexorable fate
into taking his place among the acknowledged
and convicted plotters against the peace and
fame of his spiritual adviser. The Bowen of
1872 is a sufficient witness against the Bowen
of 1876, and there iss no occasion for offending
public decency by giving further attention to
his contradictory statements To quote the
| pungent remark of one of the leaders of Ply
mouth society, 1--WE have put Bowen on
| creased plank and he has slid to the bottom"
| The parishioners of Plymouth Church must
| by this time have MADE up their minds that
| their pastor will be to cell tain extent the OBJ
ject as long as he lives of ribald villication Of
incoherent babble. We live in an exception
ally scandal-loving epoch, and be is shining
mark for loose tongues and malevolent pens.
Mrs. Grundy will turn up the whites of her
| eyes when his name is mentioned, and the
| timid and time serving votares Of convention
alty will watch and wait to see whether it is
the fashion to greet or shun him before they
decide which of the two they shall do. Mean
while his own people will stand by him with
answering constarcy, their devotion ncreas-
ing in the presence of the sublime courage with
| which lie bares his breast to the shafts of cal
umny. Thoughtless people will begin to re-
| fleet upon the absurdity of the idea that any
man, much less one of such rare cor spicuous-
ness, could have been roue for twenty-five
| years, and yet that not one solid, substantial
item of evidence could be adduced to prove it,
and finally when he is gathered to his fathers
the acclaim of eulogy over his worth will be
universal, and the meanest of his traducers
will be among the loudest in commemorating
his virtues, and deplor:ng the prosecutions
which embittered his declining years.
| Quite Of another description, less reprehen. .
sible indeed, but still entirely indefeusible
and impudent are the political fabrications
which are so rife among us. 1t is by 10 means
an unusual thing to read manufactured tele-
7 gram from the capital setting forth that the
President is in towering passion"-than
which nothing could be more ridiculous, as his
imperturbabiity is proverbial-that there are
dissensions in the cabinet, or that this and that
public officer have had quarrel. Only re-
Gently one of the morning papers had a story
told with elaborate minuteness of detail--of a
| vinIant diSnnta nd a.