New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-12-10
he considered storytelling mistake. He
merely added that Thackeray had come to be
mistake
SOME TTMELY QUESTIONS.

One OF TWO news lUeiiS WHICH, ud'o "pPO"io"
in the daily papers during the week offer texts
to New-YOik clergymen tor their sermons
quite as pregnant with truth about the times
We live in as any which they will find In the
Hebrew prophets. Human nature has the
same diseases in all ages and can be reached
by the same unfailiDg remedy; but the ply
stefan can only tell by such symptoms as these
what shape the disease has taken. What dag
nOsis would any such physician make of the
moral condition of society in this and the
other largo American cities from the events of
last week Z
First, it cannot lie denied that the most pop
ular subject of interest has been a whispered
bit Of gossip concerning two women who are IN
this country on a legitimate business. Nor can
it be denied that the gossip is only attractive
by its nastiness. What shall we think, then,
of the men and women who are attracted by
this nastiness We have nothing to say con-
corning the truth or falsity OF this especial bit
of gossip. Whether the subjects of it are
Cressdas or Cordelias has nothing to do with
the point we make. Since the world began
there have been, in every community, scandal
mongers who would assault virtue, and llcen-
tiOus wee which would ape it, But since the
world began, that community which held up
such vice for gOating comment or turned the
filthy scandal as sweet mOrsel under its
tongue, has itself been corrupt and decaying.
Such of the readers of THE TRIBUNE as have
reached middle age and remember the social
condition of the small towns and villages OF
this country forty years ago know that at that
time decency in life and conversation was the
rule. The habits of the better classes then
were clean; divorced woman was rare and
looked on with horror; if sensuality or I'M
chastity existed, it was at least forced to keep
under cover, and the young were carefully
guarded from knowledge of it. We have
changed all this Why Surely it is time for
our cergymen, our church going, virtuOus
fathers and mothers, to ask the question, and
to find whether they in any degree are guilty.
Another item of news. A young man in
ncighboring city, we'll born, with fair amount
of practical ability, education and skill in
earning livelihood, with an income on which
two people could live plainly and comfortably,
blew out his brains because he could not marry
the woman he loved and who, it is stated, loved
him. The only reason he could not marry her
was because they had not the means to live III
the luxury TO which both had been accustomed.
This is perhaps an extreme case. But in which
of these towns and villages where forty years
ago the habits of life were simple and unpre
tentiOus are not "style" and display made
now the object of all effort Young men do
not perhaps give up their lives because they
cannot give to their wives decorated houses,
livericd servants and all the other fashionable
luxuries of the day, but they degrade their lives
by trickery in business by a thousand dishon-
orable practices. The passion for luxury, for
a Stylish" e1travagant way Of living, has in
fected every town ana farm neighbOrhOOd in
the Northern States. The faint is not so wide
spread in the South, simply because there is
less intercourse and social rivalry, and because
it is yet considered honorable there to be poor,
and to have been made poor by sacrifices to
cause which they consider a great one.
Now what is the significance OF all these symp-
toms 2 They are precisely the same as those
which marked the social condition Of Rome in
its decadence, of London in the time Of the
first Charles Of Paris under the last Napoleon.
The diseases they Indicate are the results here
as there, Of too much prosperity; the
verX prosperity for which We thanked
God week or two ago. No doubt the Amer
lean people are all right at heart; they
have already begun to throw Oft the gi-
gantic burden of political corruption; if
cause were now to arise which they thought
great and worthy, they would again, as they
have done twice before, sacrifice all the factl-
tious ease and luxury of life, put the devil OF
scusualty behind them, and give themselves
up to it. even to death. Yet even this COM
forting reflection does not cause the frequent
S,o;lo,ts lilo tho tyVo cited abOVa 80 leave
a sweet taste i the mouth"