St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-07-20
BRITISH MORALITY.
French, English and America
Morals Contrasted.

French, English and American
Morals Contrasted.
Lucy Hoopers Letter to the St. Louis Post
Dispatch.
There has always been prevalent a
conviction that higher standard Of
morality is common in the higher
classes of British society than is to be
found in corresponding circles in con-
tinental Europe. This is altogether a
mistake. In the early days of Queen
Victoria'S reign, when the court was
presided over by young woman OF the
severest virtue, matters were very diff
ferent. The soiled doves existed then
as now, and as they always will exist,
but not in large numbers, and they were
not permitted to futter their sullied
wings in the guarded precincts where
royalty sat in state. We or they or some
body have changed all this. Rank and
fashion can do as they like. can mem
ton, for instance. one of the recognized
leaders of London society, who is the
mother of child that can not be ac-
counted for by any complication OF her
conjugal arrangements. Yet her social
position remains unquestiOned and I'M
assailable. There is another we'll
known woman of high rank whose in
trigues have been numberless and fla
grant and who is socially none the
worse for her countless eScapades. But
it is of no use multiplying instances, for
the list might be extended indefinitely.
Only, if any one who knew the inside
history of the English nobility were to
go carefully through that ponderous
volume, the British Peerage. annOtat-
i,,or hn no road tho raCnlf
would furnish some spicy reading.
The comparative and praiSeWorthy
purity of English morals, as contrasted
with those of the French, lies i'll the
outward cleanliness of their literature
and art. The novels and plays, the
prints and the photographs, and the
columns of the daily papers are wholly
free from indecOrousness, unless. III
deed. the details of some peculiarly sem
sational divorce case disfigures the lat
ter. For your British morallst does not
disdain to write very nasty things, If
only they be true, on such occasions.
The publication, for instance, of the
Colin Campbell divorce suit would have
been as impossible for the French
papers as would that of Zola's novel,
"La Terre," In an unmOdified form, for
the English ones.
But what is the use OF keeping the
British young person strictly secluded
from all sight and knowledge of vice.
if, on her Introduction to society, she
finds herself face to face with vice itself,
arrayed in velvet and diamonds, and
smiled upon by all that is most ex--
elusive and severe. A dozen immoral
novels aud score of improper pictures
would hardly do that typical personage's
principles half as much harm as does
the spectacle of a female sinner cOurted
and caressed in fashionable society by
just the very individuals whose notice
is considered best worth having.
American society is far more par
ticular in this respect, and long may 1t
remain so; but the power OF the reign
ing Anglomania is very great. and
under its influence some strange things
have already happened. That hand
some eX-mistress of the Prince of Wales
did not meet with rapturouS reception
In New York society few years ago
was largely due to chance. Still, she
was not received--tO the credit of our
American hostesses be it said; but
British peers, travelling with the wives
of other men and leaving their own at
home, or else the heroes of the most
hideous of European scandals, have
found great social acceptation and
lOrdly entertainment in our principal
American cities. May these instances
prove isolated ones, and may the eX-
periences of the past teach our people a
lesson for the future.