The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1883-03-17

EDITOR CHIEF:
We opened the week with the defalca-
tion of Gilbert L. Croweli, and it is safe
to say that there has been no such finan-
cial convulsion in the city since Gilman
went to the demnition bow-w vows some
years ago. Mr.. Crowell belonged to the
same set that Gilman belonged to; he
wore white crayat, went to church
regularly, contributed handsomely to the
Bible societies, andassistedin in supporting
home and foreign missions; he prayed
loud and long-in short, was u high toned
exemplary member OF society, who, for
twenty or thirty years has occupied posi-
tions of the greatesthonor and trust, but
who, as the matter turns out, only needed
the opportunity to become the meanest
and most contemplate kind of n thief.
The bighwayman who stops yon on the
road, demanding your money or your
life, is a gentleman alongside of the sneak
who worms himselfinto your confidence,
and when your back is turned runs away
with your coat and purse. Mr.. Crowell
was employed AZ confidential agent by a
fow unprotected women; they never
questioned his honesty or his accounts,
and he robbed tben Of half million.
Men and women ard sent to the peniten-
tiary daily for stedHing the value of a
few cents, which would keep them from
starvation, but now that this gigantic
robbery has been discovered, the papers
TEEN with expressions Of sympathy and
coincidence for man who robbed his
bosom friends, and who violated every
sacred trust which makes life worth hav-
ing and enduring. Mr.. Crowell will not
60 to- States prison; the ladies he robbed
have fortunately some shekels lcft--a
paltry half million does not seem to wor-
ry the heirs of the Tallman estate, for it
now appears that the money Crowell
stole was only part Of the interest money
of the Misses Tallman, whose income was
so large that they found it impossible to
spend it. We begin to realize that New
York is paradise IF rich spinsters. 1t
looks Us though there was a reasonable
chance for lot of Ell Eerprisug bachelors
in New York. Onlya few months ago
Miss Burr died leavIpg d fortune worth
three millions to chlfches and mission
airy societies. Jesse Hoyts daughter is
tho heircss of tcu millions, and there are
plenty of maidens worth from one to i've
hundred Thousand dollars. The two
Misses Tallman havea round million, not
to mention their personal charms, which
would make them desirable catch Will,
nothing but a fg leaf New England
has shown much enterprise in the past,
and here is an avenue open to some keen
Yankee, which is much moro promising
and infinitely NOR, agreeable than min
ing speculations ii Colorado or cattle
ranches in Texas.
Salni Morse cones to the surface again
with his Passion Play, and much more
prominently than before. This Passion
Play business has set plain people to
thinking. AS far as Mr.. Salmi Morse is
concerned, lie is a very insignificant fac
tor. The simple question to-day is, has
Mr. salmi Morse any rights, as an Amer
lean citizen, which an ordinary New
York policeman is bound to respect 7
Mr. Morse is well-behaved gentleman,
who, as far as know, has never placed
himself outside the pale Of the law; he
is a scholar, too, who has made Oriental
history the study of his life. He thought
he could write a sacred play, and he did
write one, IL play in every sense superior
to that which has been performed in
Europe without condemnation for many
years past; q play infinitely superior to
the sacred mysteries which for hundreds
of years held possession of the principal
cathedrals of fChristsndom, but New York
has grown savagey virtuons, and the
city that licenses ter thousand rum mills,
ana allows within it's limits fifteen hum
dred public dens Of prostitution; the city
that tolerates four hundred gambling
hells; the city where Billy McGlory
dwells, and Owen Geoghegan fourishes
the city where Sullivan the slugger and
Coburn the convict can make five thou
sand dollars a night by knocking each
other out; the city that can stand all
this is shocked at the idea of Mr.. Morse's
Passion Play l have heard the play
read, and though may differ with Mr..
Morse in regard to its being a good sub
ject for drama, there is not a line from
first to last that might not be read from
the altar of any church in the world. As
far as the representation of Christ is COLI
cerned, or Pontius PLATE, or any of the
Apostles, all these characters were re-
Gently represented at a Catholic church
in this very city, night under the nose o1
the Cardinal and the police authorities,
and not a word was said against it. On
Saturday night Mr.. Morse attempted te
give representation of the Passion Play
to his friends at his own house; there
was no charge for admission and nothing
to indicate it as performance in the eye
of the law. Mr.. Morse was in his owr
home. If there is spot which the Amer
ican and an Englishman prizes, it il
home. 1t is an oldsaying that an En-
glshmen's house is his castle. 1 shoult
like to know by what right Capt. Will