The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-10-02
A CELEBRATED CASE.

The Searles-Hopkins will contest, by
reason of the amount at issue, the status
of the parties concerned, and certain
concurrent incidents promises to be an
affair of general interest, In the first
place it seems almost ludicrous that an
aged widow and one endowed with enor-
nous wealth should with the rashness
of an inexperienced girl of sixteen throw
herself into the arms of a mere paper
hanger young enough to be her grand
son. 1t would be quite ludicrous were
it not for the suspicion that some power
other than the human passion called
love had been invoked. This must have
been eXtinguished in her breast for forty
years. One cal readily understand why
the honest but poor Mr.. Searles should
be satisfied to sacrifice his youth and
beauty upon the altar of his prosperity.
All he had to do was to figure out few
facts interesting to insurance companies
and wait for the inevitable to happen.
But Mrs Hopkins had passed the age
when even the widest condition of self
complacency and the most indulgent
flattery fail to make the object believe
that she was longer young and attractive
enough to arouse dreamy emotions in
any breast, much less that of one whose
aesthetic sense had been cultivated as
highly as that of a professional house
decorator. Mrs. Hopkins had always
been credited with too much hard sense
to make it seem probable that she could
so far illustrate the vision of Ezekiel in
the valley of dry bones as to become in
fatuated enough to propose to the shy
Mr.. Searles, as he asserts. The king
cophetud act may be repeated even in
these modern days and with woman in
the leading part, but it is extremely I'M
likely to happen when she is gifted with
some forty years the advantage in ex-
perience over the swain. This is the
reason why the charge by Timothy Hop
kins that undue influence in the shape of
bottled and disembod'ed spirits looks
very plausible. And the public looks to
see developed the successive steps by
which Mr.. Searles, whose mind was for
tunately so impervious to anything but
the most solid considerations as to have
kept him from proposing to any woman
before, as he claims, reached the fruition
of his plans.
Then too the figure of young Timothy
Hopkins is one that borders on the pic
turesque in the eyes of the public. Here
is an individual who, as boy, lived in
cabin, the son of a common day-laborer.
From that humble lot like many other
American boys, he emerged into a social
station we'll toward the top notch. I'm
like most of his fellow fortunates, how
ever, his elevation was not due to his
personal efforts, but to the chance
charity that caused Mark Hopkins to
open his heart and home to the son of
his old friend, Hogan. 1t seems natural
enough that this gentleman should feel
sighted at being cut off without a penny,
but his refusal to accept the 100000
Mr.. Searles offered in settlement robes
him in serio-comic trappings. Most Of
the toiling masses would close their
hands on that 100000 with sigh of
satisfaction, but Mr.. Hopkins seems to
have cherished a larger ambition,
originating probably, in the brief time
after his benefactor's death, when he
was the widows business manager and
no paper-hanger had as yet crept into
his prospect He typifes the traditional
beggar on horseback, and has not the
sympathy from the public to which
genuine son of the family would have
been entitled.
AS to the question of Mr.. Searles'
methods, whether he won his golden
lowered but ancient bride by plying her
with liquor, by hypnotism, spiritualism
or ordinary fnesse, time will settle it.
In the meantime those young men with
small resources but great ambitions, who
have their eyes on venerable widows
possessed of ample means, whose &C
cumulators killed themselves in acquir-
ing them, may take heart and watch
published accounts of the case. 1t will
abound in valuable pointers for them.
Telegram.