Part 9 (2/2)
The first heading would be unintelligible did I not state that ”dukes” mean fists. Sensational enough in all conscience!
”NOW, PUT UP YOUR DUKES.”
STORMY AND DISGRACEFUL SCENES IN THE DEMOCRATIC STATE CONVENTION.
BOSS MCGILVRAY AND B. F. MONTGOMERY HAVE IT OUT ON THE FLOOR--JUDGE W. F. STONE NOMINATED.
The proceedings of the State Democratic Convention, held at Turner Hall, yesterday, were disgraceful enough to bring a blush even to the cheek of a Democrat. ”Liar,” ”snide,” ”put up your dukes, if you want to fight,” cat-calls, hooting, and yelling filled up a greater part of the deliberations of the august body. Boss McGilvray, of the Seventh Ward, and B. F.
Montgomery, statesman-at-large, vented their personal animosities towards each other. McGilvray said that Montgomery had prost.i.tuted every trust, both public and private, ever given into his hands, and Montgomery retaliated by saying that it could not be charged against him, that he was an apostate in the ranks of the party, a Republican who had been brought up in the slums of Chicago.
This was a dig at McGilvray, and he responded by calling Montgomery a liar, and offering to fight him on the floor of the Convention.
The breeze grew out of McGilvray's opposition to Montgomery for Chairman of the Convention. The Committee on Permanent Organization reported in favor of Montgomery for Chairman, and McGilvray moved to strike out his name, and subst.i.tute that of G. Q. Richmond, of Pueblo. It was a bitter fight, and the result was a McGilvray victory.
Montgomery was thrown overboard by an overwhelming majority.
Martin Currigan, the irrepressible, was on hand, and was made Sergeant-at-Arms; but he failed to be of any avail in keeping the peace.
Judge Wilbur F. Stone was nominated for the Supreme Bench without opposition.
The resolutions endorse the administration of President Cleveland, favor the free and unlimited coinage of silver on the present basis, denounce the fencing of large bodies of public land, and insist upon the strict enforcement of the Chinese restriction act.
Interviewing is a science in America. Who has read ”Martin Chuzzlewit” and not laughed over d.i.c.kens' description of it? Woe to the man or woman who goes to the States with anything in the way of a reputation. He or she will have no more peace than a t.i.tled individual has, for remember a lord with no reputation, or a bad one (the latter for choice), is as much an object of curiosity and adulation as the most renowned intellectual genius. It is amusing when any woman, famous for beauty, wealth, intellect, or anything else, visits the States. No sooner does she land than everybody would do anything for her. ”She must at once be interviewed” is the dictum at each and every newspaper office, and interviewed she is, by one or more of that artist cla.s.s, on some pretence or other, whether she likes it or not. I say ”artist cla.s.s” for, considering their wonderful ingenuity in pursuit of their object, they richly deserve the name. If the lady, and thank G.o.d many are, is modest and retiring, and cares not to see her name and antecedents blazoned forth in the public prints, and resolutely refuses to see _any_ strangers on _any_ plea,--what happens? Do they desist and leave her alone? Not a bit of it. They _will_ see her, _coute que coute_, and what's more they do! Cases are recorded, when in the guise of a waiter the opportunity by interviewers to see her at least has been found. Or, should she send out for any article, the individual bringing it is an interviewer, and in this capacity, in some ingenious way, the pretended tradesman is sure to get hold of something. If all other means fail, the chambermaid of her room is pressed into the service, and as regards the poor lady's clothing, if not more, she can and does tell much. _Anyhow_ the victim does not escape. Information is highly paid for and obtained somehow. If she be a celebrity, something has appeared in the English or Continental press about her long ago, and with due foresight has been cut out, and labelled with her name, on the chance of her visiting America later. There it is ready in the office, and is duly made use of. But, if the information get-at-able is in any way insufficient and scanty, the editor or manager of the paper quietly remarks that ”_Some_ antecedents there must necessarily have been, that it's a tarnation shame of the said lioness not to a.s.sist them to do her honour, but that as she is so blind to her own advantage, and it's a positive necessity that an article about her should appear next morning, the deficiency must be made up.” Well he, or some one he deputes, sits down at the last moment (for there are many on watch, and information may drop in during the night) to write the article, which in any case is highly coloured, and as antecedents are scanty and the public _must_ not be disappointed, plausible ones are invented.
Anyhow, next morning articles appear, possibly to the effect that the lovely and talented Mrs., or Miss, A. B. landed yesterday from the Cunard steamer, and took up her abode at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, where s.p.a.cious rooms had been previously secured. That the editor, from exceptional sources of information, is able to lay before his readers the following short sketch of the talented artiste's previous life, and that it will be his endeavour to supplement this by more facts on the morrow. Then follows a biographical history from the cradle upwards, closing with the _menu_ of yesterday's dinner. Too much is not said in this first notice, the subject must not be exhausted, and materials for further articles are reserved. Poor Mrs., or Miss, A. B., at breakfast that morning, reads much about herself of which she had been previously ignorant!
But this is only the beginning of the campaign. The next day, thanks to the chambermaid, the waiter and others, a more or less accurate list of the wardrobe appears, the jewels she wore the previous day, and those still in the jewel-case, what time she got up, what she ate at breakfast, where she went in the day, how well the hat she wore suited the dress, what a lovely colour her hair is, how her fringe (if she had one) gave her a childish grace, how (if she had none) wisely she acted in discarding that woful fas.h.i.+on, and what a patrician look the absence of it gave to her lovely face, &c., &c.
From early morn till she goes to bed (the description kindly halts there) her movements are recorded, and on morning No. 3 the public are informed that Mrs., or Miss, A. B. slept well, and awoke with a fresh colour to add to her other charms!
I need not dilate more. The excitement is kept alive by daily notices. Paper vies against paper in describing and commenting on her European antecedents and her life since she landed, until some new star appears, or until, often the case, the poor lady, in spite of the press a.s.sertions that all this homage delights her, is fairly driven out of New York. Some, alas! cannot seek safety in flight, their avocations oblige them to remain; such, it can only be hoped, grow callous, until, the subject being well threshed out and grown threadbare, they are left at peace.
I give here, complete, an article on one of such poor victims, cut out of a Denver paper, which, in its callous indifference to the pain it must have caused the lady under discussion, is a good example.
But, as I would not drag this lady into further publicity, I have subst.i.tuted an initial for her name, which was plainly given in the newspaper. ”Madeline's Mash” does duty for Madeline's Lover. The sensational headings, and interpositions in large type, are worthy of notice.
MADELINE'S MASH.
THE APPEARANCE IN DENVER OF A DISTINGUISHED SOCIETY LADY.
RECALLING A TRAGEDY WHEREIN AN ENGLISH ACTOR WAS THE LEADING ARTIST.
The train hence to Kansas City via the Burlington road on yesterday afternoon departed, as usual, on time and, as usual, heavily laden. There was indeed more than the ordinary complement of pilgrims, remarked the Depot Superintendent, and made up of the cla.s.s who travel luxuriously--of the cla.s.s to whom luxuries are every-day experiences and whose journeyings, whether from lands of snow to lands of sun or to lands of snow from lands of sun, are accompanied by holiday pleasures. Among those whom the train bore Eastwardly was a fair daughter of Eve, about whose life has been woven a romance, a tragedy as dire in its effects upon two families, at least, as was the tragedy woven out of the warp and woof of the romance born of Paris and Helen. She is related to one of the wealthiest and most prominent families of the country, both socially and financially, and though upwards of forty years of age is yet youthful in appearance and hoydenish as a Va.s.sar miss proud in the possession of her first beau.
Twenty years ago she was a Gotham belle, and related to the L.'s, occupied a position of social distinction, which wealth, beauty and graces of character perfectly combined inevitably procure.
In the heydey of her youth and beauty she was married, but scarcely mated, to a representative of the Knickerbocker regime and, as is represented, barely consented
TO ENDURE THE BURDEN
officiously ambitious relatives had buckled on her back. It ended as all other matches wherein affection is made to pay tribute to other considerations end, in separation, infatuation with another, death, disgrace, exile. Her home is said to have been unhappy, a cheerless place, unwarmed by an atmosphere of love, whence an impulsive woman unconsciously went out to one who appreciated and was a friend to her. Of course she was obliged to encounter opposition, ostracism, social annihilation with the cla.s.ses whereof she was at once the peer and superior. But little she cared, and in the _salons_ of Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and St. Petersburgh, she found the salad of variety that was denied her at home up to 1867.
She was a regnant queen at Was.h.i.+ngton, Cape May, Saratoga--in short, at every point she honored with her presence. She was the objective point of attraction to the grave and gay, to the solemn and severe. But while she outwardly accepted, and with pleasure, the homage men deemed themselves privileged to bestow, those familiar with the skeleton in the closet of Madeline R.'s heart, speak of her as one who suffered in silence, until it was a change or a mad-house, and she sought the change.
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