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MODERN BREACH OF PROMISE

Miss Mack's Case Against Millionaire Law Taken as an Example.

Will the Wounded Heart Bleed the Less for Money Compensation?

Law, Love, Business- The Thing Considered Psychologically- What is Miss Mack's Motive?

New York has been somewhat entertained recently by the details of a breach of promise suit, in which the complainant is Miss Josephine Mack, who asks $150,000 damages of Mr. George Law. Mr. Law is a millionaire- not one of those men whom the excitable think may be a millionaire, but one who is in fact the possessor of more than $1,000,000 worth of property. Miss Mack is also very rich and she is beautiful. Mr. Law is 50 years of age, a man who has risen from poverty to affluence, who knows how to spend thousands in a night in the gambling rooms of Long Branch or Saratoga, who enjoys the society of pugilists, and who is fond of high and fashionable living. Miss Mack is barely 20. She expected to marry Mr. Law, but was prevented from doing so by his unexpected marriage to another young woman, to whom Miss Mack had introduced Mr. Law. The attorneys are Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll and Mr. Francis L. Wellman.

Litigation involving persons so fashionable, an amount of money so large, and attorneys so distinguished cannot but arrest attention.

The case as set forth for Miss Mack contains some elements which are, or are meant to be, pathetic. It is alleged that Miss Mack's affections have suffered severely, that she has been chagrined before society, which was aware of the fact that she took excursions on Mr. Law's yacht, was entertained as the guest of honor at certain splendid dinners given by him, and, with her mother's assistance, was the hostess at box parties at he opera to which Mr. Law sent the invitations.

When Miss Mack heard that Mr. Law was married she was prostrated, and confined to her bed for several days. These facts Mr. Ingersoll and his assistant will set forth in their effort to procure $150,000 from Mr. Law for Miss Mack.

This is one of the best illustrations which could be wished of the modern breach of promise case.

It may be interesting to examine the case from a psychological point of view. Indeed, even the law, which is cold, and often coarse, regards breach of promise cases from this point of view. The laws regulating such cases are purely sentimental, are framed to deal with sentiment, and are created to avenge the sorrows of the heart.

First, then, will Miss Mack's wounded heart bleed any less when she has procured her money- if she does procure it?

If so, did the heart ever bleed at all? Was any sorrow of the soul ever assuaged by material possessions?

Will Miss Mack's mortification be allayed by a victory over the man who did not want her- a victory which the court has to assist her to win?

Will anyone respect her more, sympathize with her more, or will her position in society be improved?

What, in short, can be the motive of Miss Mack?

One is compelled to answer that it can be only a mercenary one.

From first to last the breach of promise case must be vulgar, vengal, opposed to all the instincts of the refined feminine heart, and purely the outgrowth of a commercial society, in which standards of honor have sunk to the standards of the tradesman.

Barter and sale have entered into questions which involved life and death. Money, that variable exchange medium, has got mixed up with the sacred sentiments of the soul, the heart and the head have become confused, and it is impossible for the commercial daughter of a commercial age to cram in her pocket that which is a balm to her injured heart.

Could anything be more foreign to the spirit of love than all this? Why, love conceals its wounds as well as its raptures, love hides from public gaze, love laughs under happiness, weeps under neglect, knows no vengeance, is exquisite in its suffering, delicate in its timidity. What has it to do with the courts of law, with payments of money, with distressing publicity, with common revenges?

One may affirm without hesitation that the woman who will prosecute a breach of promise case is one who has not suffered in her affections, but who merely has been chagrined, injured in her vanity, and filled with a desire for cheap revenge.

To be sure, one has heard cases related of women who have been for years under the expectation of marriage, and whose opportunities for marriage have been practically ruined, and who therefore have been left unprovided for, perhaps in a condition of poverty, while the men they trusted have married others, prospered, and gone unrebuked. When these women have sued for breach of promise the public has vouchsafed some sympathy to them. This public has been made of industrious persons, who think much of material success. They confound it with respectability. They feel that the business chances, so to speak, of such women have been injured, perhaps ruined, and that the injured person is entitled to some reimbursement. That such standards are quite common shows that the code in America is largely the tradesman's code, instead of the code of the gentleman.

(The word gentleman is used in its superficial sense, as meaning a man with pride, higher cultivation of manners and with the feudal code of honor. It is not to be supposed that the idea is conveyed that tradesmen are not gentlemen, in the sense of being kind, true, polite, unselfish and noble. Please accept the words in their superficial sense. In the sense meant a tradesman is one who looks at life largely from a business point of view. A gentleman is one who disre

MODERN BREACH OF PROMISE

Miss Mack's Case Against Millionaire Law Taken as an Example.

Will the Wounded Heart Bleed the Less for Money Compensation?

Law, Love, Business- The Thing Considered Psychologically- What is Miss Mack's Motive?

New York has been somewhat entertained recently by the details of a breach of promise suit, in which the complainant is Miss Josephine Mack, who asks $150,000 damages of Mr. George Law. Mr. Law is a millionaire- not one of those men whom the excitable think may be a millionaire, but one who is in fact the possessor of more than $1,000,000 worth of property. Miss Mack is also very rich and she is beautiful. Mr. Law is 50 years of age, a man who has risen from poverty to affluence, who knows how to spend thousands in a night in the gambling rooms of Long Branch or Saratoga, who enjoys the society of pugilists, and who is fond of high and fashionable living. Miss Mack is barely 20. She expected to marry Mr. Law, but was prevented from doing so by his unexpected marriage to another young woman, to whom Miss Mack had introduced Mr. Law. The attorneys are Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll and Mr. Francis L. Wellman.

Litigation involving persons so fashionable, an amount of money so large, and attorneys so distinguished cannot but arrest attention.

The case as set forth for Miss Mack contains some elements which are, or are meant to be, pathetic. It is alleged that Miss Mack's affections have suffered severely, that she has been chagrined before society, which was aware of the fact that she took excursions on Mr. Law's yacht, was entertained as the guest of honor at certain splendid dinners given by him, and, with her mother's assistance, was the hostess at box parties at he opera to which Mr. Law sent the invitations.

When Miss Mack heard that Mr. Law was married she was prostrated, and confined to her bed for several days. These facts Mr. Ingersoll and his assistant will set forth in their effort to procure $150,000 from Mr. Law for Miss Mack.

This is one of the best illustrations which could be wished of the modern breach of promise case.

It may be interesting to examine the case from a psychological point of view. Indeed, even the law, which is cold, and often coarse, regards breach of promise cases from this point of view. The laws regulating such cases are purely sentimental, are framed to deal with sentiment, and are created to avenge the sorrows of the heart.

First, then, will Miss Mack's wounded heart bleed any less when she has procured her money- if she does procure it?

If so, did the heart ever bleed at all? Was any sorrow of the soul ever assuaged by material possessions?

Will Miss Mack's mortification be allayed by a victory over the man who did not want her- a victory which the court has to assist her to win?

Will anyone respect her more, sympathize with her more, or will her position in society be improved?

What, in short, can be the motive of Miss Mack?

One is compelled to answer that it can be only a mercenary one.

From first to last the breach of promise case must be vulgar, vengal, opposed to all the instincts of the refined feminine heart, and purely the outgrowth of a commercial society, in which standards of honor have sunk to the standards of the tradesman.

Barter and sale have entered into questions which involved life and death. Money, that variable exchange medium, has got mixed up with the sacred sentiments of the soul, the heart and the head have become confused, and it is impossible for the commercial daughter of a commercial age to cram in her pocket that which is a balm to her injured heart.

Could anything be more foreign to the spirit of love than all this? Why, love conceals its wounds as well as its raptures, love hides from public gaze, love laughs under happiness, weeps under neglect, knows no vengeance, is exquisite in its suffering, delicate in its timidity. What has it to do with the courts of law, with payments of money, with distressing publicity, with common revenges?

One may affirm without hesitation that the woman who will prosecute a breach of promise case is one who has not suffered in her affections, but who merely has been chagrined, injured in her vanity, and filled with a desire for cheap revenge.

To be sure, one has heard cases related of women who have been for years under the expectation of marriage, and whose opportunities for marriage have been practically ruined, and who therefore have been left unprovided for, perhaps in a condition of poverty, while the men they trusted have married others, prospered, and gone unrebuked. When these women have sued for breach of promise the public has vouchsafed some sympathy to them. This public has been made of industrious persons, who think much of material success. They confound it with respectability. They feel that the business chances, so to speak, of such women have been injured, perhaps ruined, and that the injured person is entitled to some reimbursement. That such standards are quite common shows that the code in America is largely the tradesman's code, instead of the code of the gentleman.

(The word gentleman is used in its superficial sense, as meaning a man with pride, higher cultivation of manners and with the feudal code of honor. It is not to be supposed that the idea is conveyed that tradesmen are not gentlemen, in the sense of being kind, true, polite, unselfish and noble. Please accept the words in their superficial sense. In the sense meant a tradesman is one who looks at life largely from a business point of view. A gentleman is one who disre