The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-18
NOT A MAGDALEN.
The Albany. N. Y, Evening Journal re-

Inc Albany, N. l., Evening J0urndt re-
Gently said of Parnell:
Unfortunate, Mr.. Parnell, you were prosecuted
for fault and condemned by ungenerous
public, which, though pretending to love the
doctrines of Jesus Christ, failed to extend to
you the treatment their Savior, when on earth,
accorded the guilty woman whom the populace
would have stoned.
This plea that the mercy and compass
sion extended by Christ to the Magdalen
covers the fault of Parnell is too fiimsy to
endure any candid analysis. The Magda-
len was a woman, and victim; while Par
nell was man and the kind of victimizer
whose imperious lusts and INSCRIPTIONS
aggressive search for their satisfaction are
responsible largely for the multiplication
of Magdalens in all chimes and times. The
founder of Christianity did not con-
done the fault of the Magdalen;
he did not excuse or extenuate it.;
he forgave it and spared those
guilty of it all vulgar and bitter reproach,
but while Christ did this he never uttered
word that can be possibly twisted into
any charity, compassion or leniency for
such an offence as that of Parnell.
In 1881 Mr.. Parnell, then 80 years of age
cold, calm, strong-minded, self-contained
man of fine education and superior intel
lect, became intimate with the wife of his
then personal friend and political disciple,
Captain O'Shea. In December, 1889. the
injured husband sued for divorce, with
Mr.. Parnell as correspondent. Parnell
made no defense, could make none, as
Captain O'Shea was familiar with all the
facts, and was able to prove the guilt of
his wife beyond doubt. Captain O'Shea
had been cognizant of the intimacy in 1881,
but had forgiven Mrs. O'Shea, had ac-
cepted a seat in Parliament from Mr.. Par
nell, and had restored him to his intimate
friendship and to free access to his house,
trusting, as he said, In a promise Mrs.
O'Shea had made to return to her wifely
allegiance.
These are the facts. and they call for
no charity or compassion for Mr.. Parnell,
who abused his friends hospitality by
using it as an opportunity to dishonor his
home. He is detected and the guilty pair
are forgiven by the husband, but Parnell
renews the intimacy and follows it to his
political destruction and premature death.
There is no Magdalen in this lamenta-
bic business; there is no actor in it that
can claim the benefit of the clemency and
charity displayed by Christ for the erring
woman whom he comforted by his tender
and benignant farewell and forgiveness,
which brought peace to the troubled soul
If 10 nh
much, much shall be forgiven. We repeat,
Christ forgave a woman who was a victim !;
he never pretended to forgive those who
were the deliberate victimizers of their fell
low-men and women.
Parnell had great intellectual parts; he
performed great and lasting services; he
had, like Lord Nelson, high, heroic, pa
triotic side, and, like Nelson, he had also
an utterly low and base side; he was inca
pable of allowing any obligations of moral
honor or friendship to swerve him from
the qualification of his passions. If this
social philosophy of Parnell was the gem
eral practice this world would be howl
ing wilderness, totally barren of friend
ships and neighborly condolences between
man and man. There is an unwritten
social law which even men of the world
| respect. viz: that a man who opens his
| door to you. whose salt you have eaten,
has a right to count you among his friends
| in whose hands the honor of his home is
sacred from attack. If you find weakness
or absolute wickedness among the women
of your friends family and you use it to
the dishonor of your friends home you
are worse than an ordinary adulterer, be-
cause you entered the home under the flag
of peace, friendship and hospitality, and
your base treason to this blessed flag
makes you rascal that ought to be
whipped by every honest man who has ad-
mitted you to his home on your tacit
pledge that he had introduced gentleman
to his family. OF course O'Shea did not
| invite ParneA TO his home ex-
| pecting him to seduce his wife, and
whether Parnell found Mrs. O'Shea a
weak woman or a wanton makes no diff
ference; in either case he abused his
| friends hospitality in gross violation of
the rough code of social honor current not
only in refined society bat among the rud-
est of men. For such an offense he de-
served the seyerest punishment, and his
retribution was to a man of his type worse
than death. His incapacity to appreciate
the upright motives which impelled the
English Non-Conformist Home Rulers.
through Gladstone, to demand his head.
and the Irish Roman Catholic priesthood
to execrate him, was so astonishing an ex-
hibition of moral insensibility as to justify
the theory of his friends that his mind had
become impaired.
AT all events there is only one way to
treat ParnelI-treat him as we do Bacon,
Marlborough. Napoleon, Arnold, Aaron
Burr. as belonging to class of men whose
great and benehcent parts have been SO
mingled with base alloy that they were by
turns very bright and then unalterably
base; very wise and then foolish; very