The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-02-20
GREED IN NEW YORK.
It's vulgnriiy aud It's Crimes.
Utica 0bserver.1

Utica ObSerVer.l
The city of New York has recently exhib-
tied some striking illustrations of the vulgar
ity of greed. Many poor and honest people,
who are too busy TO cultivate the finer
amenities of life, harbor the delusion that
The rich are refined by virtue of their wealth.
This is great mistake. Money can not
often convert a gentleman into a boor, and
10 can never convert a bOor into q gentleman.
Least of all can it work the miracle of
making lady out of the raw material of
feminine yulgarity.
The first case In which the public has
lately been called upon 70 pass an opinion
is that of the Lord Hicks families. man of
so married a wild wv who was his junior by
nearly 40 years The man was worth million
or more, and the woman was fascinating
and extravagant. 1t goes without saying
that if Mr. Lord had been poor the widow
Hicks would have jected him. But the
essential coarseness of the transaction by
which she sold herself for gold has already
been sutficedtly criticised and condemned.
Ii was reserved, however, for the sons OF Mr..
Lord to make the most revolving exhibition
of their greed. These sons were not boys,
but grown men, who paraded themselves as
gentlemen" in those circles to which their
fathers money gained them admission. In
the fear that they were to lose part of the
wealth which somebody else had earned,
they rushed into court and demanded that
their father should be declared a lunatic,
that his marriage should be set aside, that
he should be locked up in an asylum, and
that his estate should be Immediately
transferred to them. They invited the
attention of the newspapers to their griev
ances, and sought to give to the scandal all
the publicity possible. After their father
had kept himself in hiding for several weeks
be suddenly put in an appearance, and com
ple'ely turned the tables on his ungrateful
offspring He not only demonstrated that
be was sane, but he painted such picture
of his home life, under the persecution of
his children, who were constantly assailing
him tor spending his own money, that the
newsps per readers began TO see some sub.
stantial reason for his second marriage. The
case against him was virtually abandoned,
and Mr.. and Mrs. Lord signalizrd their tri
umph by decorating her house with tiags-a
small piece of vulgarity of piece of all that
went before.
The second case-that of Miss Susan
Dicke involves crime of such magnitude
thatir perpetrators ought to be lodged in
the state prison before the proceedings end.
Here was young woman, the possessor of
| $3.50 0OO, who was seized by her brothers and
sisters and thrustinto the BlJomingdae asy
lum, on the lying certificate of bribed
| ply sician, who declared that she was luna
tic. Sne remained in this living tomb seven
years, while the ghouls in her family were
| uSlDS ner property. II Is somewhat ulIncult
| to suppress the feelings which such high
handed outrage provOkes, and to consider
the case simply as an illustration of the vul-
| gritty of greed, but even in that aspect, il
| points moral. The brothers and sisters of
Miss Dickie are supposed to have belonged
| originally to the human species. Greed,
| avarice. the love Vt money, which has wisely
been called the root of all evil, converted
them into vultures. They parted company
with all those attributes which distinguish
| humanity and ennOble the higher orders
of four-footed beasts. Gratitude, the ap
probation of kindness love of their own
breed-trats which are shared by men,
horses, dogs and other decent ami
| mals-were driven out of the breasts
of these creatures by mad desire tn possess
themselves of wealth. They were more
unclean and vulgar than hogs wallowing in
filth. In their costly houses. surrounded by
| luxuEies. and moving in what is called good
society,"" they had not risen to the moral
altitude of the average hyena. Surely every
| clean person, ev. n those who are so poor
that hunger sometimes pinches them, should
| pray to be delivered from that spirit of
greed which in its worst estate degrades, de-
bases and vulgarizes men and women below
| the level of the lowest hrutes.