St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-10-08
THE GRACELEss EYEGLAss.

manly CHARGES nave Deen brought
against Mr.. Van Alien. the American
citizen with English tendencies whom
Mr.. Cleveland has nominated to the ex-
allied position of ambassador to Italy. He
has been accused of being very rich. This
fault should not be allowed to create too
great a prejudice against the unfortu-
nate gentleman, and probably will not
when it is once fairly understood by mis-
countrymen that the crime of wealth is
an inherited sin, for which the gentle
man is in no wise personally respousi-
bic. 1t is asserted that he delights to
spend his money in Europe, and has no
particularly patriotic affection for Amer
lean society, save for that class only
which has enough to spend its leisure in
Paris, London, Berlin and Naples. This
culpability is venal, and may be over
looked when we recall how common it
is for our countrymen to prefer the asso-
Citations of men and women born and
bred under the effete monarchies of the
old world.
Vice seen too oft, familiar with its face,
We first enddre, then pity. then embrace.
The European fever with MIR. Van
Allen has apparently become chronic;
his taste is badly perverted, and his
tendencies biased by the criminal fact
of having money enough to spend his
life abroad. All this is too bad, but the
sin is not mortal.
He is further accused of having will.
fully and maliciously donated $50, 900 to
the national Democratic campaign fund
last year. The old rule of law, that in
tent IS necessary to establish the rime,
if called in for the defense of Mr.. Van
Allen would come very near to putting
heavy gold plating of virtue on this
dereliction. If the gentleman really
did give this money, and gave it with
the honest purpose of electing the
Democratic ticket, he is a self-evident
type of good taste. good Judgment, and
manifeStly of patriotic devotion to cor
rect political principles. If the charge
is true, then here we have one good
round sum, at any rate, that he has not
squandered in dissipation surrounded
by the fetid and corrupt atmosphere of
despotic European courts. At least
$4,000 have been wisely, virtuously,
periodically, not to say piously, blown
in'' to aid, encourage and abet the angel
of Righteousness and reform. However
much of an aristocrat Mr.. Van Allen
may be, and however strongly welded
to the fortunes of the exclusive four
hundred, here, at least. he has gener-
ouSly contributed of his substance to
the comfort of the multitude, to the
enlightenment of the profanum vulgus,
to the advancement of the proletaire,
to the education of the common, every
day American citizen who tolls and
spins and eats his bread III the sweat of
his brow.
But we regret to say that Mr.. Van
Allen has been charged with one mis-
demeanor which seems to be altogether
too we'll founded. Its gravely assert
ed, and has been nowhere denied, that
the gentleman from Rhode Island wears
a monocle; that he has the audacity to
look out upon the sins, follies and friv-
olities of this transitory world through
one eyeglass, which he dares to hold in
its place by drawing together the mus
cles of his cheek. This enormity is
chiefly enormous because 1t is said to be
a practice followed by an English gen.
tleman known and designated as the
Prince of Wales-a man who. if life is
spared him, may some day wear a
crown instead Of a plain hat The
GLOBE has no apology to offer in ex-
tenuation of an atrocity of this magni-
tude. To habituaiiy stand behind a
monocle and gaze out upon the world
as it passes is unpatriotic in the ex-
IRENE. The sacred memories of Bunker
Hill and Trenton and Yorktown are in
suited by it. The spirits of our i'm
mortal dead, from George Washington
and Ethan Allen to Commodore Perry
and Anthony Wayne. would enter