NO: 2R yt 
SH O HF 
BREEZE 
13 
OUR CHAMBER OF HORRORS 
There is usually a chamber of 
horrors connected with the various 
collections of the effigies of people 
more or less distinguished and in- 
teresting to the public; but the 
visitor is not compelled to see it. 
He may, if he chooses, look at the 
hideous group of criminals and de- 
generates who have achieved origin- 
ality in crime and are invested with 
morbid interest; but he may also 
pass the door and go his way and 
keep his memory clean. 
During the past summer, how- 
ever, a great number of daily news- 
papers have fairly driven their 
readers into the chamber of horrors 
by their ingenuity in the phrasing 
of headlines and the prominence and 
space they have given to the report- 
ing of bloody details of murders and 
lynechings, shocking incidents, and 
hideous violations of the habits of 
civilized society. Foreigners may 
be pardoned for thinking the whole 
country a chamber of horrors and 
Americans a race of moral degener- 
ates who have yet to learn the rudi- 
ments of civilization. It is idle to 
protest against the injustice of some 
foreign opinion while the sensa- 
tional newspapers and many re- 
spectable journals as well devote 
more space to crime than to virtue 
and courage and honor, report at 
length the views of criminals and 
harlots, and invest law-breakers 
with the interest and importance of 
great public figures. 
During the early part of the sea- 
son several of the leading New York 
dailies spread before their readers 
day after day column reports of the 
doings and talk of a man and two 
women complicated with a bundle 
of letters. Neither the persons in 
the cheap drama nor the _ letters 
were of the slightest public interest, 
but if any one will take the trouble 
to measure the space given to these 
people and their silly letters, he will 
find that it was greater than the 
space devoted to the portrayal of 
the powerful and significant figure 
of Stolypin. 
In the early summer there was a 
hideous murder of a young wife and 
mother on a road in Virginia. Her 
husband, who was driving with her 
in the motor, was arrested, tried 
with a promptness and dignity that 
invested the old-fashioned Virginia 
court-house with all the majesty of 
law when law and justice are one 
and the:same, and condemned to die 
on a certain day the next month. 
In the bloody details of the crime 
there was a feast of horrors, but to 
its brutality was added a cheap in- 
trigue with a young girl. The story 
was so oifensive that it ought to 
have been reported in bare outline ; 
it was treated as an event of inter- 
national importance, on a level with 
Reciprocity and Arbitration. The 
girl was not only exploited by many 
newspapers, but it was _ seriously 
proposed to put her and her para- 
mour, in case of his acquittal, on the 
vaudeville stage, and to present her 
to the public in a series of films in 
the picture shows. These proposals, 
however, shocked even the patrons 
of the chamber of horrors. 
Newport, one of the most beauti- 
ful places in the country, and since 
the beginning of its history the home 
of many people of the highest dig- 
nity of life and breeding, has come 
in for the usual advertising of those 
lawless members of the community 
who have made its name a popular 
synonym for vulgarity and contrib- 
uted generously to the fund for the 
campaign to overthrow the existing 
social order. The elopement of a 
young woman of wealth with a 
chauffeur was a matter of no conse- 
quence to the public, but the space 
given to the movements of the elop- 
ing pair was ridiculous; and the re- 
porting of the opinions of the young 
woman was journalism of an infan- 
tile quality. 
But there is no class of journalis- 
tie heroes and heroines to whom the 
center of the stage is surrendered 
with such enthusiasm as the ‘‘affini- 
ties.’’ One can imagine the disgust 
with which Goethe would regard the 
deluded mortals who have fallen 
into this ancient trap of the devil. 
From time to time these unhappy 
‘Coffinities,’’ the ending of whose 
brief drama is monotonously miser- 
able, take the center of the journal- 
istic stage and present their views 
of the marriage relation to the pub- 
lic as seriously as if they were lead- 
ers in the war for the emancipation 
of humanity, and not blind guides 
who had fallen into a pit. Readers 
of many newspapers during the past 
summer have had occasion to ask 
more than once the question, “‘Does 
the breaking of the seventh com- 
mandment qualify a woman to be- 
come a teacher of manners and 
morals ?’’ 
Colonel Astor’s marriage to a very 
young woman has been so widely re- 
ported that it would be an affecta- 
tion to suppress his name in referr- 
ing to it. He is a man of middle age, 
great wealth, and a member of 
a well-known New York family. 
When a man in his position marries 
a very young. woman, there is al- 
ways more or less comment. ‘These 
facts would not justify publicity, 
but the fact that, after a. divorce 
granted to his wife, and forbidding 
his remarriage, Colonel Astor has 
made a second marriage, is a matter 
of public concern. The integrity of 
the family, as a foundation of. so- 
ciety, depends upon the moral sense 
of the community; and those who 
endanger the integrity of the family 
should be made to feel that their de- 
fiance of the moral sense of the com- 
munity is costly. Society is ready 
enough to make those who have de- 
fied its conventions feel its displeas- 
ure. Society also should be equally 
ready to penalize those who disre- 
gard its moral sense. The young 
woman who, following her own in- 
clination, marries one who is con- 
sidered beneath her in station is 
made to suffer; for society is sensi- 
tive with regard to what it. considers 
as appropriate. If society were 
equally sensitive as to what is right 
and decent, it would repudiate the 
young woman who allows herself to 
be captured by a man whom the 
court has divorced from his wife 
and declared to be unfit to marry 
again. And if the young woman de- 
serves blame, still more do those 
who are responsible for her, and still 
more does the man, who through 
her doubles his own offense, deserve 
to bear the stigma of society. It is 
a-consolation to know that in this 
case a clergyman was secured to 
perform the ceremony only after a 
humiliating search; and that clergy- 
man of many churches have publicly 
recorded their protest against the 
marriage, and have condemned the 
minister who at the end consented 
to perform a ceremony which, while 
not itself illegal, involved a defiance 
of the traditions of the sanctity of 
the family and the purity of mar- 
riage which have been the founda- 
tion of society among modern peo- 
ples. Such remarriages are far more 
anarchistic than meetings to protest 
against all forms of government and 
bombs thrown by half-crazy fanatics. 
—The Outlook. 
