Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-01-04


if not hysterical when he apOstrophizes, in
"a series of awkward attitudes, his sad
fate, and so mOurntul are the fist three
acts that, inasmuch as all the male char
acters are in evening dress, the plav, if it
ended with them, might be termed a
tragedy in swallow tails, and a swallow
tail is so much the accompaniment of
music and dancing, festivity ard feasting
that there is something incongruOCs in
making it cover sOrrowing heart.
Although the play, as whole, is
so well acted that it's defects are
rendered as little obvious as possible,
there is an incongruity even here. While
several of the characters are French, the
scene being laid in Paris, but one uses
French expressions or speaks with an
accent. The hysterical hero Oswald
Tearle), whether speaking to his Ameri-
can vile or to the French detective, his
felloW-countryman, who has come to ar
rest him, speaks the English of London.
albeit he does not drop his his. One
thing, however, can be said in favor of
'VictOr Durand," which unfortunately
cannot be said OF many better play-it
is perfectly pure in motif, and it does not
contain single suggestion which, as
somebody says in Patience" need bring
the blush of shame to the cheek of mod
esty. And it is certainly refreshing in
these degenerate days Of the drama to find
a single play, however pure, in which low
ing ones neighbours wife, with all the
circumstances of guilty passions, are not
the chief ingredients.
APROPOS, AS Mr.. GILBERT, WHEN PLAY
''ING sIR HARCOURT COURTLEY,"
says in "LondOn Assurance"
one often hears the words,
epidemic of crime. A cursOry
perusal Of the newspapers for any length
Of time discovers that either crime begets
crime or that there is a
tendency in certain crimes to
repeat themselves. A certain form
Of suicide, for instance, is fashiona-
BILE, so to speak, for a greater or less peri
oil. That is, Paris green is solely used as
the poison with which to shuttle off this
mortal coil for a number Of weeks, and
then laudanum takes its place. Hanging,
drowning OF shooting will in the course of
time have their turn. A suicide in Cen
trail park viii have a successor inside of
a few days, aud a particular mode
OF killing oneself is sure to be repeated in
the course of a short time 20 the eXclu-
| sion of more familiar ana convenient
modes Of putting an end to ones life. So,
| too, with crimes against others. One MUIR
/ der is almost invariably followed by an
/ other, and as unusual mode of diYOrcing
| oneself as of throwing ones wife out of
/ the window some years ago became
| prevalent hereabOuts, repeated instances
happening at no long intervals. In one
case, if my memory serves me rightly,
! the wife who was thrown out Of the win
! dow fell on an unfortunate man who hap
| pened to be passing the house. iDiuring
| him so badly that he diod, while she
| escaped comparatively uninjured Since
| then, when going through doubtful neigh
| bOThOOds, l always keep a sharp look
out for the upper stories, lest
L should come to SimiiaC grief by some
| Infatuated husband throwing his wife at
| my head. The criminal epidemic that is
now particularly prevalent is infanticide,
| which in real life is apt to be the prac-
teal outcome of the proc 5edings popular
in the play of the period One case after
| another of deceived women killing the
living evidences of their shame has come
to light within the past fortnight. 1t
would seem as If one crime directly
caused another, and that the poor unfor-
Inmates, in place of being deferred bV the
detection of the practices OF their prede-
cessOrs, only learned the lesson of following
an evil example. dare wager that the
last case Of two days ago will be followed
by another before less than another week.
IT HAS COME TO LIGHT RATHER LATE IN
THE DAY
that much of the candy DESTROYED re-
Gently by the Health Department met its
fate, not because OF the pOisOns used in
colOTing,it, but on account of it's equally
poisonous, and more than poisonous, con-
tents. Unscrupulous candy dealers, both
in this city and Brooklyn, have been in
the habit of selling to children sweets
filled with an intoxicating fluid under the
name of crock and rye drops" and ''choco-
late bombs." FuseI Oil, and not rye
whisky, are in the first, and the contents
of three ''b0mbs," consisting of the same
Ill i
wine glass. Mothers wondered why
their little girls as we'll as boys
came home from school with flushed
faces, smelling of drink, and not unseldom
tottering in their gait, as well as unduly
excited. Investigation discovered that
children hardly out of babyhOod were be-
ing made drunk by what they purchased
at candy stores. Much of this demOraliZ-
ing candy may doubtless be found on sale
in other cities, and it behooves all parents
to see, where the sale is not suppressed by
the authorities, that their children are
not injured morally and physically by its
use.
A repetition of the fate which overlook
Charles Delmonico is now expected in the
case of DR.. Brandeis, promising young
physician, who disappeared most unac-
countably ten days ago. 1t is feared that
his application to his professional duties,
which were Onerous, as his practice was
extensive. has affected his mind, and that
he has wandered away to meet death by
starvation and exposure, as did poor
Delmonico. A reward OF $500 Is offered
for his recovery alive or dead. The re-
ward may be offered in vain, for some of
the most unaccountable disappearance
of New Workers have never even been ex-
planned by the finding of the missing per-
sons body, 1t is three years since Mr.. Rich
left friends house, within a few blocks
of his own, to go home one night. and not
a trace of him has been found. He was
in good health in mind and body, and his
disappearance in so short a distance cam
net readily be accounted for on the score
that he met with foul play. Had he been
robbed and murdered, his body could not
have been hidden away without discovery
in a respectable neighborhood which was
so much frequented.
THOSE WITH WHOM THE WISH Is FATHER
TO THE THOUGHT
are claiming that Beecher has lost much
of his influence and popularity by his sup
port of Cleveland. 1t did not look that
way to me when / gaZed at the thousand
or more people who went to Chickering
Hall on Tuesday night to hear him deliver
his old lecture on stEVOlution0 Not halfas
many would have paid Is cents head to
hear a new discourse by another clergy
man. He was received, too, with the en-
thusiasm with which he has always been
greeted, and his mixture of orthodoxy
and heterodoxy met with its accustomed
acceptance. His friends intend to see to
it that the sale of Plymouth Church pews
on Tuesday shows no falling off, so that
the allegations of his diminished popu-
larity will have no foundation to support
them. Even those who do not think well
Of Mr.. Beecher viii be glad to have him
get the better Of the political persecution
to which he has subjected himself by his
patriotic course.
The new year witnesses the culmina-
ton of the most outrageous transactions
on the part of the Mayor and Aldermen
which have disgraced the city since the