Litchfield enquirer., 1879-07-17
A Curious Social Phenomenon.

Anyone who has paiQ much attention to tht
 London correspondence of the past few week. must have been surprised, not so much at tho professional success of the French actress Sarah Bernhardt on the London stage, al at the social position conceded to her in the English metropolis. If, as we suppose is the fact, the woman is gen lus, people are justifedin crowding to see her. No acting equals French acting. and the stal of the French stage-the greatest actress since Rachel-justly deserves the success she attains even under the disadvantage of acting French plays in an English city. The distinction she has acquired as sculptor indicates the genu- 1 ineness of her theatrical reputation: for all that the great actress needs to be great ar tist in marble, is the technical skill which can give permanency to the majesty, beauty and grace of the conceptions embodied in her act ing on the stage
 That London should wonder and admire, and rush in crowds to see great French ar- 1 tist like .Bernhardt, no one will wonder, but that the most prudish of European capitals should also make social lioness of this con- summate Frenchwoman is the queer fact of her English visit. Her character is not of the kind that usually admits of her association with reputable persons of her own sex, still less with the highest society of such highly respectable place as London. Reputable French women decline to recognize Miss Bern | hardt, yet in London she takes precedence of | duchesses at the houses of the highest rank and responsibility, if we are to believe Mir. Smalley. It has been somewhat the way of the world | to overlook the vices of male genius in view of it's eounterbalancing virtues. Even in America, which we believe to be by far the most moral country of the world, the grandly developed talents of 8 Hamilton Webster, a Morton, have been allowed to throw veil over very great vices of private character. No such allowance has been madein general for woman. English society has never forgiven ''George..El- tots" sin against the letter of the law; yet she is an immeasurably greater. nobler, purer wo- man than Sarah Bernhardt How then are we to account for the wonderful social estimation of the latter?
 The answer is to be found we fear in the degradation which is apparent in fashionable London. It is of piece with the social friv- elity evidenced by the rage for pretty women which has prevailed there of late It is of a piece with tie political frivolty which prefers the constituencies administration of Disraeli to conscientiousness of Gladstone. No doubt there is much that is solid and sound in the masses of Old England; but the contrast of the contemptible follics of her social leaders, raging after pretty women and lewd actresses, with the present pinchlng poverty, the brutal ity and the hopeless degradation of her lower classes, irresstably suggests the consuming fires of such revolution as cleared France of the deal anl .lecayins civilization of the An- cient Regime, and laid the foundations of an improved society. Trying financial times like those-of the few past years put a strain upon the best forms of government that they are scarcely able to bear. What must be their danger to institutions which are grossly defec- tive in themselves. and which are administered in the interest of reaction by the most unscru- pulous of political adventures?
 The meeting of town and city officers held in Middletown, last week, resulted ln no ac- ton being taken or recommended. The prop osition to issue state bonds in lieu of the town and city bonds of the various municipalities in the state met with little favor. The aggregate of these debts is not less than $17, ,O00, 900. Nobody was insane enough to suppose that any legislature would authorize the issue of state obligations for such an amount, even if secured by town obligations in return. Ii was urged with good deal of force, also, that a | town bond is really safer investment than state bond. In the former case all the indi- vidual property of the town can be taken in 1 exeeutis,n for tho dobt. M~roorOr non-resi- dent holders of municipal bonds can sue in the national courts. A defaulting st ate on the other hand, cannot be sued either in the state or national courts. The real difficulty lies in most cases in the fact that the municipal bonds now outstanding are not yet due. Where they are due, towns in good credit can raise money at Al per cent. on new bonds, and thus pay off their old per cents, and materially reduce their burden of interest