Smyrna times., 1876-03-29
Notoriety.

sharp-eyed, sharp-chinned boy III village
store; sold sugar, calico, and crockery over
the dirty counter; pried into the half
dozen letters which made up the mail, or
joined shrilly in the discussion of politics,
which went on all day about the stove.
The soul which moved this wiry, loquacious
youth was fired with an ambition for which
the muddy bounds of Jonesville offered no
| satisfaction. One day Peter was missing.
1t was reported that Squire Jones himself
had lent him thirty dollars to try his luck
in New York. TheSquire had an odd conf |
dence in the business capacity of the boy |
| For two or three years Jonesville knew him |
no more. Rumor whispered that he had
gone as partner into prize-candy lotteries,
mock auction shops, gift concerts, and other
money-making operations, for which q
sufficient number of postage stamps and
aliases were all that was necessary. The
thirty dollars were repaid with interest,
and a message to everybody in the village.
Whatever befell Pete, he never forgot his
old friends Somebody from Jonesville,
going to New York, strolled into gorgeous
shop where quack medicines filled shelves
decorated with medivial wealth of coloring;
potions, pills, and shop the property of NJ.
Pierre de Saint Martin, for whom waited at
the door coupe, blooden bays, and coach
man in livery. The Jonesville man ran
against the little red-headed Monsieur, and
greeted him as Pete. The next mornings
| oopfoipa1 n, oooOt,nt Of fbo 111aafino
wherein Saint Martin figured as a million
aire and the guest as a benevolent country
man who had helped him in the days of his
poverty to a meal, and was now rewarded
by princely gift.
Nobody cared to look into the truth of
the story. The papers were soon full of
Peter; his advertisements filled columns !;
a his operations on Wall Street, his eccen-
o tricities, his donations to the poor, his
k brutal vices, made him perpetual feast to
q the reporters. Nothing is so cheap as
. notoriety. Pete was Indifferent how the
q world talked of him, provided thatit talked
q One day he emptied halfa-dozen bakeries
# for the beggars at the Five Points; the
10 next, drove down Broadway on an English
,r stage-coach with gold-mounted harness, anC
Il the leader of Tammany beside him on the
70 box; in the morning he scared all Wal
Street by desperate game in which h
% won as usual; at night he shot the lover o
40 a woman not his wife. We all remembe
n the man or some of his class it is not
r.; small class in the cities. Nobody doubtet
of his ability; in fact people credited his sue
in cess to ability instead of to pufery, cheek
al and his incessant posing and somersault
,lv before the public. Boys gaped with env
from the street corners at the Prince
ed Good Luck as he drove past in his glitte
TX ing coach; young lads, earning their pincl
av ed salaries by hard work, began to stud
or his plans of legal gambling, whose succe
of had brought the town to his feet; good an
,;x honest men, drudging until middle age
nd poverty and selfrespect, brushed the mu
-, from his wheels off their sleeves and wo
dered whether after all they had not mac
an a mistake in life.
tas 1t is hardly worth while to follow Il
tba story to its end. OF course the end W
b, ruin, sudden and complete. dozen h
18th tories OF such careers, the public goss
alt during the past few years, have preach
of the hloral OF the lheXoraole result oil frau
tho false glitter, and defiant vice as no sermo
,as have done. 1t matters little whether Il
:, especial swindler was murdered or q mi
lint derer; whether his crimes, exposed but I
,;cb whipped of justice, sent him out Of
,on country 10 drag out his days in drunk
Cor obscurity in Paris, or drove him to 81
,ro, Sing, in shaven head and striped cloth
80 The meaning of our story lies in the Fl
that Peter Martin had ability, and was !
by nature or education a swindler.
disease was an itching for notoriety tn
is no leprosy which sooner taints the nat
hon of q man than that. The wife of a man
calv notorious as he, when applying for his
o1od mission to an insane asylum the other d
ord stated that he "was mad on the subjec
they seeing ms name IN the newspapers In
the was nothing he would not do to accomp
that end"
NTH 1t is madness that besets the Ameri
,,,oo+ public. If we owed to it only the shoal
" or impotent verse and poisonous literat
maid which damage the minds of our young
Che pie, the case would be bad enough. Br
him is this feverish anxiety to be known, t.
vben published, that drives men and women
bod half the deeds of folly or crime that fill
,dol; daily journals. Americans seek mo
6 tho with more desperate heat in the pun
nro. perhaps than any other people; but
|, f~ not the dollar they covet but the fan
al a. the public notice, the prestige which it
III !. give. From his cradle to old age
Ill American has hungry desire to be obser
n;nao to exploit himself on the highway. Ed
-. of ton is much to blame for this; the
Iii, ambition is stirred not to be sc
scholar, a genuine man, but to gain
1owlv prize, to complete at the intercollel
: 90 contest in oars or oratory some day
-. knows?-to run for President, and
7 ond canonized or damned by the public. !
. ~. Martins fate is an extreme case, b
= tv,ioal ona of a national disease of IA