OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2160, 18 July 1895, Page 61

OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

(Fbom Ova Own Correspondent.) , San Francisco, May 2. THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.

The arrival of Dr Herron, Professor of Theology in the lowa College, has created quite a tempest among the divines of the Pacific Toast. Herron has a more than local fame. He is the author of many works upon /society, Socialism, labour, and their relation andbearing upon present day Christianity, and all of which have had a very large number of readers and admirers both in the United States and Europe. He is an ardent opponent of the I>refeut condition of affairs in our commercial, political, and moral life, and a. believer in the coming cataatrcphe so many predict unless the ch»Dge the time 3 imperatively demand be promptly and fearlessly applied. Naturally he has antagonists, some of whom are so bitter that they desired co invitation should be extended him to address the usual gatherings and clubs of the different denominations in this city. Dr Brown, of the First Congregational Church, was exceedingly warm in Lis denunciations of Herron and all his works, and dubbed him an Anarchist, an enemy to his country, an inciter of riots, and a person worse than Dabs. Some little surprise was expressed at these somewhat unusual epithets, and a spirited controversy ensued, the which was only intensified when Brown attended the first public reception given Herron and repeated the "Anarchist" business to the visitor's face. Nor did he stop hfre, for having one of the largest and handsomest churches in the city he nnbiu-iUned his soul therein of all its fearful weight, and poured forth soorn upon scorn against Dr Herron, who simply and wisely ignored the whole tirade ; he has heard much the same thing before, although from a rather different quarter, whilst the public, very naturally, flocked in thousands to hear the man who otherwise they might have never troubled to read about. There is nothing formidable in Herron's teachings or utterances. He merely reiterates the cry of warniDg, predicts the social and political revolution be3ide which the civil and internecine strifes of the pa^t will be *« infants' gambols, and claims that the Go- pel of Jesus Chribt, applied somewhat different 1> to its generally accepted application, contains within it the sure panacea for humanity's ills. Henry Varley, the London evangelist, is our other noted visitor. This gentleman has been preaching to vast audiences across the bay, and is now in San Francisco. His views are hardly up to date. In truth he seems to glory in the fact thsit they are not, but it is fairly open to question whether a man who holds to the literal and verbal inspiration of Scripture can be accepted ami *n infallible guide by the intelligent amoDg us. Equally as wild is the assertion, made on Sunday last, that were it not for the troops of harlots who swarm in our theatres, the latter would have to close in six weeks, or months — I do not remember which. Such reckless charges are contemptible. I know all the theatres in town and have sat in all puts, and it is purely waste time to consider such nonsense. I may say, however, it is quite an ordinary .thing for decent people to go to church in the mortiing and the thea< re in the evening ; and I feel convinced, alt hr ugh. Ido not practise the habit, as little harm is gained at one as the other. Mr Varley has, further upset s n me of the brethren with Lis pronounced views upon the second, coming of Christ, but the evangelist means to proclaim his ideas in spite of all. 16 seems a pity the practical becefits possible in a city like San Francisco from the visits of men like Mr Varley should be frittered away in vain nie&nderings and wild excursions into the 'regions of the intangible and imaginary. But orthodox Christianity is dead so far as the vast majority of men and women are concerned. When it is remembered that of 7,000,000 young men' between the ages of 15 and 35 in the United States only 5 per cent, are church members and 75 per cent, never attend church at all, we get hold of a fact that requires something more than the f mug smile of contented orthodoxy to put asider The tone of our modern literature, the more superficial but attractive utterances of the platform, the cheap pamphlet, have produced the result, consciously or unconsciously, striven for. We may deride the Freethought lecturer, count the number of white neckties and' church steeples and appear Batnfied, but the feet remains that orthodox Christianity is dead. Israel Zangwill, an English Jew, a writer coming, the critics say, well fo the front, deals with this question in the April "North American Review." Zangwill claims all modern literature is thoroughly anti-Christian, and names every writer of note with the exception of Tolstoi, in support of his position. Even Gladstone, he says, is making heretical approaches to the Jewish view of atonement. If, then, these things are go, and few donbt their accuracy, what and where is the rock of refuge for the normal man who makes np in the aggregate the mass of mankind P " Under which king, Benzonian ! " Ido not think the alternative is between the Seylla of anarchy and the Charybdis of blank atheism, but believe the s»fe and secure haven will be found along the lines laid down by men like Dr Herron. SOCIETY GOSSIP. We have been rather dull this month, our principle items being a death, a marriage or two, and just the least little bitfbf scandal. We will take the death first, not as the most important, but as one of those preposterous affairs that must be attended to, and, therefore, better out of the way. Of course we are in hopes that some day this interfering busybody may, with the aid of an Edison or Teskla, be properly regulated or, at least, transferred wholly to the ranks of the common people. Until Ih^n, however, I am afraid we must put up with it, and, therefore, I record the' death of our dear, lively old friend, Mrs Paran Stevens, without more than a passing pang. > She was such a jolly, dear, charming person, not more than 63, and as gay a butterfly. Her papa was a grocer, her husband was 30 years older than she was when he became her provider ; but, dear pan, he was very wealthy. True he gained his money in trade— a hotelkeepsr, I believe—and Mrs Paran

Steven3 detested anyone in trade. Fortunately the good man died and loft his wife his money, thus enabling her to occupy that sphere to which her talents unmistakably called her. She became one of the mo3t fashionab'e and exclusive personages of the most fashionable and exclusive set in New York. Her receptions were attended by the smattest of the smart, her dinners eaten by the highest of the high, and her drawing rooms filled with the most inaccessible of the inaccsst-ibles. Her great efforb was the entertainment she gave the Prince of Wales when, as a young man, he visited this country. This made her, socially crowned her, everlastingly placed her in the highest niche, closed her in impeccable robes, and stamped upon her marble brow the hall mark of — to borrow the shockingly irreverent expression of a comic paper — "his nibs." Then when Mrs Paran Stevens went to London the Prince nodded and the crowd bowed, and she swept into drawing rooms with the highest of them, married her daughter to a minor title, and came back to New York purified, dignified, and exactiDgly grand. Her house became the Mecca for every fortune hunting title from. the old world. She was the "go between" tho introducer of old blood to aspiring youth and fresh coin. All the b~y3 and girls loved mamma, and all mamma exicted hi return was "no announcements until I give the word." And so her house became the most noted matchmaking e3tablbhnieut on the cont nent. How many yearning hearts have ben made h^ppy through her engaging services we know nob, but of some we do know. It was she who introduced, and arranged the after details, the widow of rich old Hammatsley to that bafhful scion of tha British aristocracy, the late Duke of Maryborough. And it was she whs introduced Count Jean de Castellane to Miss Anna Gould, or at all events it was at her house the happy betrothal was announced. I need hardly refer to the comments of those people who are impertinent enojgh to speak harshly of the Priuce of Wales for rushing American women to (he front when hundreds of refined, wellbred English women might grow grr y in waiting for the like opportunity of an introduction to the " upper ten." Such remarks mny, very properly, be left unnoticed. And talking of our friend Castellane reminds me he has hit upon a system whereby he can beyond question, " for he himself has said it," break the bank at Monte Carlo ! So that some of Jay Gould's hard grasped dollars will be chinking merrily amid the rattle oF the dice, the throw of the card, and the turn of the wheel in many a " hell " in old Europe. How the shade of our departed friend will enjoy the news ! Nor must I omit to mention a little item — just the veriest morsel— that is going the ro.unds. Vulgar people asserted at the time that Anna Gould piid 2,000,000101 for her title, bub brother George angrily declared it was a pure love match. Now comes the whisper thab Jem's mamma on receipt of the announcement of the engagement cabled across only two words— viz : "What settlement?" Bick went the words, that made the proud mother's heart swell within her aristocratic corset, and without useless adornment, " Fifteen million francs." Then we had the wedding of which I forewarned you in my last, the happy couple being the Hon. Nathaniel Cu^zon, M.P.,. future Premier of Greit Britain — videthe newspapers — and Miss Leiter, of Chicago. It seems an admirable match in every way — beauty, youth, wealth, birth, and talent all being happily blended in the unio^, and those of us who pcs3efs neither may at least in all sincerity say lon voyage. Aud now for the scandal. Es-erjbody, of course, knows that Mrs William K. Vanderbilt obtained a divorce from her husband a few weeks since. A matter of so much moment to tho world at large, and society in particular, could not well be unknown. . It may not, however, be so widely published that within a forfcDight of obtaining h6r decreo Mrs Wiiliom X. — that is how we always refer to her heie 'as being amply sufficient to indicate who is meant and to distinguish hjr from Mrs Cornelius or Mrs Fred— leftrfor England, and the week following a certain Mr Percy Belmoiit left for the game little island, bat so quietly that we — that is, eociety;— hardly had time to miss him before the news, fraught with so much import to two continents, was flashed acroas the wires, or rather along the wires and across the sea, that Mrs William K. Vanderbilt and Mr Percy Belmont were married ! Imagine the awful nature of this disclosure. Oar very highest people withia a month so far forgetting everything that wes due to the decencies of the case and the conventions of the beau monde as to demean themselves, like a common seamstress and lir "young man," and to cutdo the King and Queen in " Hamlet " in the rapidity of their shamelessness ! We— that is, society — were aghast ; we staggered under the blow ; our nerves were unstrung, and the whole fabric of our modern civilisation reeled under the shock and tottered to its base. Nor is this the worst. For a time it looked aB though we — that is, society — would be split in two, and when society is split in two the horrors of the French Revolution or the Turks in Armenia are as dust in the balances. There were murmurs of a pro-Vanderbilt-Belmont party and of an anti-Vanderbilt-Belmont party coupled with the equally momentous question, Can we receive them P I am sure your readers will appreciate the gravity of the situation and sympathise- with vs — that is, society — in our dilemma. We can't altogether ignore the Vanderbilt-Belmont faction, nor can we cordially recognise them. Terrible position, isn't it P Meanwhile there is a slight gleam of hope thrown athwart the lowering clouds, and that is that the cablegram announcing the news of the marriage is not true. Lord Bholto Douglas, third son of the Marquis of QueeLsberry, has been making an ass of himself down at Bakersfield, in this State. From all accounts he has lived up to the name he bears. Nice family the Queensberrys! LITEEAUT NOTES. The downfall of Oscar Wilde is received with feelings of more than ordinary satisfaction by every healthy-minded man who delights in clean literature. Wilde represented a school which has divorced morality, chastity, and purity from every form of art. The whole influence of the men and women .wbo for the past few years

have gained wealth and notoriety by their ostentatiously paraded nastiness has been emphatically upon the side of evil. Chivalry, sentiment, honour in men, delicacy in women, have bspn sneered at in a thousand and one different ways until the • author or playwright who presented a work based upon the old- time lines was not only laughed at as being hopelessly behind the agf», but mado to suffer financially as well. Scott, Dickens, and Thackeray were seemingly buried beneath the diseased carrion mechmically turned out bya^ola, Maupassant, Wilde, Mendez, Saltus, and Amelie Rives ; and in the drama the healthy, vigorous tonics served up by H J. Byron, BoucicauU, and Grundy could make little or no head before the rising tide of psychological studies (so-called) of Ibsen, Finero, and Jones. A book was no longer an encouragement and help in the battles of life, but an epigrammatic dialogue upon morals, no morals, and sex; whilst plays were bacoming the vehicle for the playwrights' wishy-washy discussion of some better-left-alone subject of absolutely no interest to the vast majority of men and women. To all this and m >re we have been compelled to sabmib. We seamed afraid to protest, or, if wo did, were termed straight-laced aud deplorably behind the age. It was the same in art. Men might toil a lifetime in the old ruts and barely make a living ; but a boy of 21, by twisting and perverting his drawing abilities into such lines as reach their perfection in the "Yellow Book," and com eying the impression 'that every woman is an abandoned creature, such an one can earn £4000 a year ! And so it is when men remember these things that there is a hearty " thank God " that one who has been regarded as the head and front of the whole business is exposed before the whole world as an object lesson, and as the miserable interpreter of what the philosophy of the new cult really is when reduced to practice. Wilde is as well known here as elsewhere. When vbiting San Francisco, and obtaining by advertisement through putting up a green umbrella to shade himself from the rays of the moon, his vices were noted and commented upon. Few, however, thought he was so utterly loafc, and the cry of despair over so much talent turned to such wanton uses is only compensated by the hope that his ruin may be our salvation. At all events, we may believe this tendency that maketh for wickedness will be checked. The placing of Amelie Rive's name with that of Wilde and Mendez is, perhaps, the most terrible criticism upon this lady's work I have met. It is pitiable to see a young, beautiful, rich, well-born, accomplished married lady in such oomgany. But the critics have it so, and I can hardly see how she can be left out. Dr Nordan's work " Degeneration," recently issued, places these writers among tho morally and mentally degenerate. They are the criminals of literature. KOTE3 AND COMMENTS. Governor Altfeld charges Chauncey M. Depew with being the author of that system of buying Legislatures, which has corrupted every State and rotted the very foundations of our governmental fabric. Personally I believe the charge. Depcw is the Chadband of American politic 3. His views, solicited by the London Times upon the great railroad strike of 1894 were the most falsely ludicrous that can be imagined. He dared to repeat them in Chicago, and Governor Altfeld took the trouble to expose the fellow. In America he toadies to millionaires, does the spread-eaglo business to popular audiences, and in Europe mixes with the aristocracy. lhe Morning Call, of San Francisco, had a blistering article on the Wilde case, the burden of which was that Manchester paupor labour and aristocratic scandals were tho sole cu r sos of this great country. There is no doubt, cried our editor, that England's majesty i 3 almost gone — what there is of it is on the surface ; her decadence cannot be stayed ; her millions swarm in filth in hovels and her nobles rot in their own worse infamies. This country is eick of them both. Americans are moral, manly, healtby, and cannot conceive of such horrors, and so on.