The Christiancy Scandal And The National Crime

The Christian statesmen of thecredit mobiliettype and time are nol forgotten. lul their " embarrassnients"of stealinK ucrc noL so exeiting as the Christiancy sint', smaiiV matrimonial troubleswhicn are being telegraphed over the and. Senator ChriBtiancy was el icfédin 1873 to a six years' term in the senate ■ Zach Chandler by i coalition oi Demócrata and ■" good Republiean ï'lwho said Chandler wa- "baaman" andChristiancy who had been a supreme court Judge, was all that his name mplied. lic accepted with the prooiise that he would yoteindependently. Hebrokethe promise by voting as a "stólwart" alwaya and by eonspicuoaely 8upportiig the most proscriptive measure3. "dis habits, mannets, and leaminj, !".ovve er, wpypiiiut'h in adviinceof tlie wretched creature he Bucceedefi. A wldower and Bixty-ftve, he married a girl aged oineteen name 1 Lugenbeel, who had been a clerk in the Treasnvy. She was a plump andtonguey brunette, with eyes of Creedmoore range and accnracy'. The match had thai ín it which made it maudlin on his part andmercelarv on here and dangeroua to botb. II( was rich, learned, limp and ageing. She was young, poor, livt'iy, cnippy, shallow, and pretty. They had had no common social experience. llis world was entirely apart from hors. Nevèrtheless journalism and society predicfeed much happiness from the vïblation of evcry law of nature. Three years ago Christiáncy resigned lis seat'in the senate. ('han lier was ches n to Bucceed liiin. and Christiancy became Minister to Peru. J!e is en route home from' there now. She lias been in Washington two months. having come from there alone. Tíie oíd ïiian's lawyers at Washington have Bied a snit 'for dlvorce, charging iniidelity against the young wifa. She is giving liim a trial by newspaper of the liveliest kind. Denying indignantly all his charges, she acenses him of having beaten. kicked, and knocked her down. and with having tried to choke her, not once but repeatedly, the business beginning witnin two months after the marriage, and the frivolous pretexta being liia objection to her mother and lier ob.jection to his grown-up sons. She also declares she overliearrl a statement between her husband and the late Zach Chandler, in wliicii Chandler said t'nat Ilayes had authorized him to off er Christiancy a foreign miss'on if he would resign the Senacorship toelect Chandler to serve out the caney. ïlrs. Christiancy says the oirer was refused by her husband unless Chandler should pav li'm severa! thonsands of dollars intq the bargain, and that. then Chandler oid pay tuo mouey. That llayes and Christiancy earrledout their rbniises and that Chandler carne back to the Senate are well known. There is nothing unlikely about the story so far as llayes and Chandler are concerned. Chandler stole the Presideney for Hayes and advanced the money to pay the thieves he employed. Hayes has boon at thn merv ' pverv Présidency thief and lias let Kenner, Packanl, Wells, Anderson, autl me whole crowd frota Casenave downto John Sherman blackmail him out oí' oflice. 1t would be very un-ike Chandlernot tohave made that useof Ilavef. It was stated BevPral weeks betore Christiancy did resign that he would resign, aiul that he would be offered a :. A.mericán mission. Then ti) is was denied and it '.vas stated that Christiancy had goi - i "to loóle up his interests" and " lo ■- ■" if he c ni i. i aflord to accept the place."' Tt is at ilis point that Mrs. Christiancy 's statement of the bride comes in. The charges each makes againstthe other E-re absolutely as bad as can De. They do not conflict with oae another atail. The wifewill neverbe able to prove hers, but if she is exonorated of the charges against her, tl :n iier own charges will be believedi Each is ben1 on killing the other's character, and the c urts and the newspapers are made into a battlefleld for them, by the eircumstancea which govern newsgiving and tli" Ínter st of readers in the event. The social mor:!! the case teaches has already been ii! i thestatei of the disparities between the two. The political moral depends on the collateral evidence that maysüstain the wife's charges. Thatthrough scandals, eonfessions, or crimes, the details of all the coiu'se and consequences of the stolen. Presidency, as they affect all related to the crime, will come out may be expected as surely as anything that can be named. Christiancy's complicity in that crime was attested by bis voting for theawardsof the CommisBion. Chandler's primaoy in the crime is as clear as Hayes'sprontby it. There is no chance in the universeoi ajnst God for the crime to escape f uil disclosure, and this Bcandal will be watched closely, to see if it casts any new light on the oflence.