St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-06-08
Lucy Hooper's

altogether 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. but they were
not permitted to flutter 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. l can
mention, for instance, beautiful
and titled Englishwoman, one of
the recognized leaders of London soci-
ETY., who is the mother of child that
cannot we'll be accounted for by any
mentS. Yet her social position remains
unquestioned and unassailable. There
is another WeIl-knoWn woman of high
rank whose intrigues have been num-
berless and fragrant and who is socially
none the worse for her countless
escapades. But it is of no use multi
plying instances, for the list might be
extended indefinitely. Only, if any one
VINO knew the inside history of the
English nobility we're to 20 carefully
through that ponderous volume, the
British peerage, annoting the pages as
he read, the result would furnish some
remarkably spicy reading.
The comparative and praisworthy
purity of English morals, as contraSted
with those of the French, lies in 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 righteousness, unless in
deed the details of some pc
culiarly sensational divorce case
disfgures the latter. For your
to write very nasty things, if only they
be true, on such OCCASIONS. The publ
cation, for instance of the Colin Camp
bell divorce suit would have been as i'm
possible 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 So
ciety, she finds herself face to face with
vice itself, arraYed in velvet and dia-
monds and smiled upon by all that is
most exclusive and severe. A dozen
immoral novels and score of improper
pictures would hardly do that typical
personage's principles half as much
harm as does the spectacle of a fair fe-
male sinner, courted and caressed in
fashionable society by just the very in
dividuals whose notice is considered
best worth having.
American society is far more particu-
lar in this respect, and long may it re-
main so. But the power of the reigning
Anglomania is very great, and under its
influence some strange things have
already happened. That handsome
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 entertain
menU in our principal American cities.
May these instances Prove isolated
ones, and may the experiences of the
past teach our people lesson for the
future.