The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-09-11

manhood, are Full of tender and father
~ words of advice as to how she should
study Horace and Terence. how she
should enjoy reading Gibbon, then
fresh from the press, as he had done,
and how she should take care to be plain
and abstemious in her habits of eat
ing and drinking. Here, too, II was
that he helped TO make another little
statesman-"the great little Madison"
as wc.nen called the grave and unim-
passioned Virginian.-happy in wedlock
by Introducing him to Mistress Dolly
Todd and opening the way to their
courtship in the candle-lighted parlor
Of her mothers lodging house on Fourth
street. Later on. when he had become
widower. and was vice-president of
the United States, 1t was a Philadel-
phia woman who tried to make him
promise to become her husband.
THE PARENT OF TAMMANY.
1t is not necessary to go into Burr's
public career. which was founded on
the lowest conception of the relations
of a statesman to his fellows, to justify
surprise over the women who are apol-
ogizing for him. He was the virtual
originator of the Tammany system; he
was the first of the great machine tao
ticfans in American politics. he mar
rowly escaped the penalties of treason,
and he was forced into European exile.
Nothing would have amused him more
than women discussing these ques-
tions. He liked clever women; he liked
every buxom creature that responded
to his smiles, and when he was in Eu-
rope he was gallant with them all,
from German duchesses to London bar
maids; but he had no use for women
who dabbled in politics. 1t was one of
the cardinal articles of his faith that
all women are vain: that the sucest
way of gaining them is to flatter them,
and in this, as in all his int-igues, there
was the delicacy of gentleman alb
herring mere grossness. But this was
doubtless a matter of well-bred disci-
plne. He seems to have had a sort
of philosophy that self-control is real
ly the means Of self-indulgence, and
he was as rigid as any modern health
reformer in his habits, his simplicity in
food and his care in drinking. 1t was
thus that Madame Jumel doubted his
fidelity, and made it a reason for their
separation when he was on the verge
of eighty and it caused him even then
to express his admiration for Fanny
Kemble as "a fine animal" In
his will he gave directions that
all his letters from his female corre-
spondents should be burned. He neve:
had compunctions in these matters any
more than he had for the duel with
Hamilton, which, in his old age, he
would call up laughingly in remem-
brance with this piece of doggered as
a satire on the horror of the multitude
at wax figure show:
40. Burr! o, Burr! what hast thou done?
Thou hast shooted dead great Hamilton.
You hid behind a bunch of thistle,
And shooted him dead with a great hoss
pistol"
A POLISHED VILLAIN.
With all his Unconditional cynicism
ne professed to hold in contempt any
man who would ply deliberately the
arts of seduction. He always insisted
that no one could impute to him that
crime. There was, he said, no amour
in which he ever engaged when he had
not been met half way, and he hai
nothing but execration for a man who
would make an advance which was
| not welcome. When he was in such
poverty that he had to borrow n $40
bill to keep him from want, he hcsi-
tated to ask it of woman. These and
other such considera lions of the Ches-
terfieldan code can be pleaded in Burr's
behalf; but, after all that can be said,
| may be gathered together and only
the absolute verities of his lie ac-
| cepted, it is a sorry, wretched, sell
| fish and unwholesome character that
remains. Burr is, in fact, the polished
villain of the opening drama Of Amer
lean public life. A careless female in
| stinct may go out to him as when
the matinee girl contemplates his
! agreeable compeer in dress Goa:
pleading before the foot lights that he
is "a man with a past" but now
many mothers and sweethearts would
really have their lads and the!r lovers
laboring also to defend the infamies Of
| Burr?