Show MORALS OF TilE THE FOUR HUNDRED DRED Defending the called so-called Four Hundred against what it terms the intemperate observations of the Journal Courier the San Francisco Bulletin charges a that t-that that the people who revile the Four Hundred for its extravagances and scandals are the ones who call it the best society and never miss an opportunity opportunity opportunity to bask in its light As applied to Mr Watterson Wat Vat terson the distinguished editor of the Courie Jour Courier nal this remark remark-of the Bulletin is singularly itous Mr Watterson atterson does docs not nol term the Four Hundred Hun liun Hundred dred the best society nor does he lie bask in its light He strikes vigorously at the vices of that social set ct which is certainly no honor to America He charges it with distinctive and undisguised moral abandon making it a a. business of defying and overleaping overleaping over oyer- leaping conventional restraints upon it its pleasures and amusements He lle accuses its women of depravity ity equal to that of its men knowin knowing all the dirt the men know His impeachment of the women of the Four Hundred red is one of the most terrible arraignments arraignments arraignments ar ar- ever made With pen pon aflame Mr Watterson writes The women of this Smart Set no longer pretend to recognize virtue even as a feminine feminine fem fern accomplishment Innocence is a badge of f d de delinquency a sj sign n of the time crude and raw a deformity which if tolerated at all must carr carry some promise of amendment for among these titled Cyprians the only thin thing nee needful ful is to know it all In Lon London on and in Paris Paris Paris-at at Monte Carlo in inthe inthe inthe the winter at ut Trouville and Aix Ab in the summer they summer they make of life one unending debauch their only literary provender pro when wilen they read at all the screeds of D DAnnunzio Annunzio and mul Bourget their Mecca Mec ca cn the roulette table and the race course their heaven the modern yacht with its luxury and isola isola- tion fion The ocean tells no tales an and a as s the Smart Set knows ws no no slaw law aw when in extremis it can go o to sin A social condition resulting from excessive wealth arid and resting on pride coming from money mone can effect no good Hence the rottenness of th the Four Hundred All their ends are arc achieved ed by bv mone money all aU their purposes obtained b by its misuse If a woman of the I hour Four our Hundred wants to marry a Lord Tord she buys him him usually at the figure demand demand- demanded ed b by the soulless rascal who has hns inherited the title he be 8 sells and aud a added ded t to o the ancestral vices ices he brings n s sinto into matrimony Such practices are in the last degree de gree corruptive Thc They mark an awful departure from the pristine vigor an and the womanly virtue virtle e and b ii I of our early history T The le l Hundred un They The Theare are Four are arc utterly as Col Watterson points out a living li reproach to riches They have forfeited all right to toleration Our duty is to make e their haunts of luxury and und alimony alimony ali ali- mony not only infamous but untenable to drive their murderous white ghosts and red rovers and purple assassins from the speed ways to brand such in individual i life of infamy with disapprobation so signal and so enduring as to make America a veritable verita verita- veritable ble fortress against evils that should not be so much as named among men |