The Portland daily press., 1878-01-08
NEW YORK, Jan. s. Is

NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 1873.
And now society" is shaken by an epilepgy
which will keep its whole system in violent
commissions for the prescribed niue DAYS. The
Podsnaps, Veneerlngs aud Tippinses have
something to talk aboat which really inter-
ests them. a dashing middle aged widow,
well known in fashionable life on both sides
of the Atlantic has got married to a man so
advanced in years that ne is entitled to rank
among the Oldest Inhabitants. he is decidedly
good looking and carries his eighty years bur
den OF age remarkably we'll He may be little
Childish at times-garrulous he certainly is.
But he has a keen eye to the main chance and
kAoWs how to take care of his money. Gallant
hs has always been in the highest degres-a
perfect Sir Harcourt Courtley in style and de.
pertinent. 1t must be the triumph of his life
that he has succeeded in winning the hand Of
bride, who according to all accounts, has bean
the object of much adulation ard the recipient
OF many "ofsrs" during her brilliant career OF
widowheod.
That she should have overlooked the disparity
of years is the astonishing part of the matter;
of course Lady Tippins and all her set insist
upon it that she married him for his money. 1t
IS the most natural thing in the world that
they should think SO. They are not in the
least degree sentimental, and they fully under
stand the value Of money. But somehow or
other they don't seem to be apprecative of her
cleverDess in capturing so rich DR. zs as il
might be supposed they would. But dare say
they have been SO completely taken by sur
prise that they are bewildered and cannot al
once make up their minds whether it is "the
thing" to pay homage to her genus or to de-
nounce her as an adventures. Their final
conclusion as to the course they will pursue
will depend perhaps not little upon the
chances of success of the efforts that are said to
have been undertaken with view to anuulling
the marriage. Society people can always be
depended upon to drift with the current when
ever they can find it.
1t is not because l have any disposition to
meddle with the personal affairs of man aud
his wife that refer to the subject which has
been the towns TALK but solely for the reason
that the story points several morals one or two
OF which can be cited with profit. The first Of
them ia that the ptivacies of life are now in
vaded with a reckessness and effrontsry that
can never By any possibility have been psral-
lelled in any preceding epoch of civilization.
Corps of newspaper reporters are hanging about
the doors and windows, front aud rear, of the
house in which the lady who is the object of
this sensation resided before her marriage. The
servants are summoned at all hours of day and
night to answer unimportant questions re-
speciing their mistress Brutal attacks are
made upon her in editorial BREWER The gos-
sipings of tale bearers of every hue and grade
are eagerly picked up, garnished with tnsel
and psraded at great length for the delectation
OF that class of readers whose tastes are suffi-
ciently prurent to give them a relish for that
sort of rejection. 1t does not seem to have oc-
Cured to any journalist that there was an i'm
proprety, much less indecency iu despatchiug
messengers on key-holing and ear-wigging err
rands to homes within which taeir intrusion is
an impertinsnce that deserves the discipline
OF q cowhids either in boot or whip form.
These offenses have been tolerated so long that
the public sense of their Nervousness has be-
come hlunted. The theory that "a mans
house is his castle' is obsolete and has given
place to the creed that no private citizen has
any rights which representative Of the press
is bound to respect. The nuisance will DO
abated some day when it has grown so iusuffer-
able as to exhaust all patience, but it would
not be at all surprising if some blood letting
preceded the disinfection.
Another maxim that this social tumuIt en-
forces is the fluctuations to which great wealth
is likely to subject its possessor. Ordinarily We
do not witness wolfsh scramble after property
until the owner of it is in his grave Then there
are often displays enough of the passions Of ava
rice and greed to make us ashamed of human
nature. But in this case there is likely to be
established precedent that will hereafter make
it very unsafe for any body to accumulate or 40
qure a large fortune, lest the heirs Dresumptive
should become impatient at the longevity which
stands in the way OF the realization of their
hopes and devise means through the machinery
of iudcat ire to compass the legal death of one
who is so slow in reaching the end of lifs's
journey in the natural way. The law is a
wrstchedly poor dependence fo5 anybody who
iuvokes it in the name and for the purposes of
justice, but for wrecking estates whether of the
dead or the living it is the most potential con.
trivsnce ever devised by human ingenuity. L.
seems too monstrous for belief that any statute
can exist that viii bring this aged man within
the nosome atmosphere of the courts, to an.
swer for the crime of being rich, and of taking
to himself wife-that will compel him to EN-.
ploy counsel and spend no end of money in re.
sistiug the demand that lie shall disgorge the