Year: 1879

London TRUTH


A social Russian question has been
agitating society for the last week.
The Russian ambassador presented a
lady to Lady Salisbury a. her recep
ton, The lady was married and had
come to England accompanied by her
husband, who is gentleman well
known and respected in st. Peters
burg. But the lady in days gone by
had been divorced. The story of the
divorce grew and grew until it was
asserted that she had at least six hus-
bands. "What," said Lady Salisbury,
introduce this female Bluebeard to
me Monstrousl am insulted, my
husband is insulted, my country is
insulted, my queen is insulted p And
so the lady has lett England, which is
to be regretted, for she is singularly
beautiful. As for this particular
Russian soapegoat, no one seems to
know exactly what her social crime
was, but admitting that she had a little
exaggerated the privilege of divorce,
how is society 10 be carried on ii
every one is to level a stone against
his neighbor? English society is not
one whit more moral than Russian
society, but it has the additional vice
Of being somewhat more hypocritical.
The lady in question had been received
at the official parties of NJ. Wadding-
ton, in France, and, with very slight
effort of christian charity, she might
surely have been allowed to figure once
at the official receptions of Lord Sails
bury without all this fuss. For my
part, am always on the side of any
one who is made a scapegoat, and more
especially when the victim is pretty
scapegoatess. Provided that Russian
comes to England, under the wing of
her husband, dresses we'll, has good
manners, and is presented by her en-
bassadOr, it seems to me somewhat
hard that the question should be
raised of the number of hus
bands she may previously have
had when residing on her native
steppes | have no patience with the
hard female code which allows no
statute of limitation. According to
this code the question is not so much
what woman is, but what she was
When that ill-used woman, Lady
Twiss, was bounded out of society /.
remember, saying to bishops wife,
who was observing with shudder
that she had known her 8" If your
husband were really to practice the
doctrines that he breaches he would
request you to drive in the park every
day with her. Mary Magdalene was
thought good enough company for the
founder Of our religion, and Lady
Twiss, who is an excellent wife, ought
to be good enough company for you


Half the women who are open-
mouthed against herr are the
Magdalenes who have never re-
pented, and who have simply not
been found out because their little
weaknesses are so notorious that the
world is benevolently blind to them.
Not being OaS Of the softer sex myself
| sympathize with the efforts Of ladies
who may have had rather a doubtful
past to re-enter the ranks of the re-
spectable, nor do | impute this to
tpem as q crime. What trouble do
they give themselves to attain social
recogBitionl Then when they have
YEARLY built themselves up some lit
tie nest, and only ask to be allowed to
sit quietly in II, some excellent per-
son sternly shakes the tree, and all
their labor has been in vain; down
comes the nest topping about their
ears, and they are sent forth to wander
after some new perch amid the Grun-
dyan jeers Of those whom they have
never harmed.