Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-03-15
SCANDAL IN THE CLUBS.
MANHATTAN DIGFSTING A RACY
BOUDOIR EPISODE.


gives particular Zest to the scandal is
that the persons implicated are more
than ordinarily well-known in New York
society. With this preface let me tell
you the story as l heard it.
The characters in this drama in real
life comprise, of course-it being of the
French Frenchy-man and wife and wife's
lover. The latter is a man ABOUT town,
leader Of the german, member OF all the
clubs, and swell OF the first water. Not
to know him Is to acknowledge oneself
unknown. With respect to the others,
suffice it to say that they are perhaps as
equally well-knOwn in their way as the
swell is in his. If it does not anticipate
too much the denOument, let US call them
Mr.. and Mrs. LOVehuSband. Now for
the story, for the truth as we'll as the de-
tails of which l cannot, of course, vOuch.
l merely give the version which is current
in the clubs and other places where it is
a PERSONS business to mind anOther's
business.
A many years ago, when Mrs. Lovehus-
band was not only young and charming,
which she is still, as otherwise she
would not have been the heroine of such
a scandal; but when she walked in maiden
meditation, fancy free, the swell in Ques-
ton was in love with her. She did not
reciprOcate his attachment, and she
ultimately married her present matri-
mOnial partner who is the hero of the
tale, as the swell is the villain. But l am
again anticipating.
The average American, when the woman
he loves has rejected him and married
somebody else, thinks no more OF her.
If she be not fair to me,
What care how fair she be?
is his motto At any rate, ne gives over
her pursuit. Not so Mr.. Swell, accord
ing to the story. He evidently was edu-
Gated in France, or has been a diligent
student of French literature. Although
a rejected lover, he had not quarreled
with the object OF his alteration and he
continued her friend after her marriage,
which proved to be apparently an unusu-
ally happy one, fact he did not take into
his calculations. As friend Of the family
he was invited TO the house of the newly
married pair, and thus had ample OppOr-
tunity of becoming the serpent in the do
nestle Eden. la his role Of serpent, so
the story goes, he tried to poison the
mind of the Eve of the Eden against her
liege lord by representing that Adam was
not faithful to her.
HE ACTUALLY HAD THE HARDIHOOD
to tell in detail Of Adams devotion to
l
one of the metropolitan theatres. OF
course, his purpose was, after alternating
Mrs. L0yehusband rom her spouse, to
prosecute the suit which heretofore had
been so unsuccessful. Ills imagination,
fed by French fiction, pictured that, think
ing her husband false. she would avenge
herself in the style of the wife OF themercer
of Paris in the Heptameron, aud that she
would seek consolation in the arms of a
lover.
He reckoned without bis host, or rather
his hostess. Mrs, LOvehusband was not
made OF the stuff he supposed, and she
was the last woman in New York to PLAY
the part of the French wife Of the period.
| Instead Of becoming his cTedulOus dupe,
she so little believed his suppostitious
! revelations that she told her husband all
That he sad. 90 strong was her confidence
in him that Mr.. L0yehusband did not tiud
it necessary TO disprOVe Mr.. SWelPs ale
cations, and he had merely the pleasing
duty to perform of making the sIanderer
eat his words.
Accordingly, when he met Mr.. Swell at
the Union Club the other day, ne told him
that his little game had home 10 grief and
demanded, under the seyerest penalties,
that he should at once write letter of re-
traction and apollo y to Mrs. LoVehusband.
| The detected LOvelace, if gossip be true,
at once showed the white feather, and,
under Mr.. LOYehusband's dictatiOn, he
proceeded TO write himself down an ass
and q liar. He acknowledged that all ne
had told Mrs. LOvehusband about her
liege lords inhdelity was false, and in
abjeCt terms ne begged her pardon.
So ends, if the story is to he believed,
one attempt to import Paris morals INTO an
American household. Some think that
Mr.. L0vehUsband ought to have horse
whipped Mr.. Swell, as well as have made
him eat his own words, but personal cas-
| tlgation would have inyOlvCd publicity
which Mr.. LOyehusband, for the sake OF
his wife, was as desirCus of stunning
as Mr.. Swell. The Iatter's con
duct is generally condemned, rot so
much, perhaps, because be had designs
upon married woman as tor the reputed
mean ana treacherOus manner he endeav-
ored to carry them out, that is, if the cur
rent version Of the affair be true. If it be
not true, Mr.. Swell is certainly much
maligned man.
IT TAKES ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE
to make up the social world. The foregoing
disclOses what is, in one respect, certainly
healthy view Of New York society. In
a society absolutely corrupt, such as was
the English court III the days Of Charles
H., anything is fair in love, when the love
is tor our neighbours wife. English society
is supposed to have changed tor the better
in the century succeeding taat of the
Merry Monarch, and yet Richardson in
his famous novel represents LOvelace
running Clarissa HarloWe by means Of
mingled violence and Drugs. And yet he
was an honorable man." Tie ffiln OF
whom L0FelaCc vas the type considered
themselves, ard were considered by their
contemporaries, gentlemen and men OF
honor. Such were the ancestors of
some of us not much more than 100 years
ago. Other times, other manners! How
fortunate it is that times change and we
with them. But this is a depression. One
need but name one example to show the
sort OF people il takes TO make up the New
York social world, and the seamY side of
society here is revealed. A Southerner
now living here is my authority for the
statement that a man who is invited to
some Of the best houses in New York,
whose name appears as one of the "dis-
tinguished guests" in the newspaper
reports of social gatherings, and who is
corresp0ndingly considered swell Of the
sWells, has three wives This was told
me as a fact about which there is not the
slightest doubt. Now something must be
rotten in the social Denmark IN which a
blgamJst can occupy prominent position
unchallenged and unq1estiOned. If one
bigamist goes into New York society. why
not two? And if a bigamist, why not a
criminal oil some other sOrtf IL the social
gates are so far ajar that bigamists find
no difficulty in entering them, there may
be strangers within the gates who are
even worse than bigamists! New York
leaders of fashion certainly had better re-
wise their visiting lists and strike out the
names Of all whose character is not per-
sOnally known to some one among them,
if not to all.
NEWSPAPERS SEEM 10 THINK THEN-
SELVES PRIVILEGED
to lie, or permit themselves to be de-
ceived in regard to theatres. Nearly all
the local journals represent ''lmpulse" at
WallacHs Theatre as playing 10 crowded
houses. / managed to get an opportunity
to sec the thing on Monday night, and eX-
pected to have some trouble in obtaining
seats. might have spared myself ali
solicitude. The theatre was hardly half
full, and the money taken in could by no
means have paid the 500 which is said to
be the nightly cost Of running the con-
Germ. The audience, however, was quite
as large as the merits Of the play de-
served.
The papers are more correct IN what
they have said concerning the popularity
of the new adaptation from the German at
Days Theatre. The house was crowded
when | was there on Friday night, and
the play deserves the success il has