vocabulary. It was one of the first attempts made, in my knowledge, to
soften the aspect of crime by baptising it in that way. Crime in this
country will always be excused in proportion to how great it is. But
even in the face of Wall Street tricksters there were signs that the
days were gone when the Jay Goulds and the Jim Fisks could hold the
nation at their mercy.

The comedy of life is sometimes quite as instructive as a tragedy. There
was a flagrant disposition in America, in the late 'seventies, to
display family affairs in the newspapers. It became an epidemic of
notoriety. What a delicious literature it was! The private affairs of
the household printed by the million copies. Chief among these
novelettes of family life was the Hicks-Lord case. The world was
informed one morning in February, 1878, that a Mr. Lord, a millionaire,
had united his fortune with a Mrs. Hicks. The children of the former
were offended at the second marriage of the latter, more especially so
as the new reunion might change the direction of the property. The
father was accused of being insane by his children, and incapable of
managing his own affairs. The Courts were invoked. One thing was made
plain to all the world, though, that Mr. Lord at eighty knew more than
his children did at thirty or forty. The happy pair were compelled to
remain in long seclusion because of murderous threats against them, the
children having proposed a corpse instead of a bride. The absorbing
question of weeks, "Where is Mr. Lord?" was answered. He was in the
newspapers--and the children? they were across the old man's knee, where
they belonged. Mr. Lord was right. Mrs. Hicks was right. It was nobody's
business but their own. Brooklyn and New York were exceeding busy-bodies
in the late 'seventies. It was a relief to turn one's back upon them
occasionally, in the pulpit, and search the furthest horizon of Europe.