VOI 10. NO. 47.
hSABLlSHBD IN 1830
PRICE FIVE CBNTS
-i k
ENTERED IX THE POST OFFICE AT LINCOLN
A3 SECOND-CLASS MATTER
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
BT
THE GO0RIER PRIMTIR6 AND PUBLISHING GO.
Office 217 North Eleventh St.
Telephone 384
VY. MORTON SMITH
SARAH B. HARRIS
WILLA CATHER
Editor and Manager
Associate Editor
Associato Editor
Subscription Rates In Advance.
Per annum 82.00
Six months 1.00
Three months 50
One month 20
Single copies 5
I OBSERVATIONS 1
The Duke of Marlborough said when
on the eve of his departure for England:
"If I speak a little unkindly at times I
do not think you can blame me, because
there has been a lack of chivalry which
has wounded me deeply Simply
because I have chosen for my wife an
American it does not necessarily follow
that I am a fortune hunter. God forbid
that I should be such." A reader of The
Courier has sent to the Notes and Quer
ies department an inquiry touching
the Marlborough family. That inquiry
and the duke's parting speech suggest
a few thoughts and facts.
The Marlborough-Vanderbiit wedding
served to emphasize, as no other event
In this country has emphasized, the
coarseness of mere wealth. The vulgar
display, the apparently wanton prod
igality, the publicity, the continual
flaunting of dollars throughout the
whole affair, all contributed to a spec
tacle disgusting In its grossness. re
volting in its cold blooded and merce
nary indecency. When Consuelo Van
deibllt married the Duke of Marlbor
ough the chink of the $5,000,000 was
heard all over the world. There was a
grand musical service; but the clanking
of the coin drowned all other sounds.
The fag end of a decayed line of old
world debauchees, cast upon the dry
sands of Impotency, appealed in des
peration to the flesh pots of the Eldoro
do and a Mephistophellan compact was
entered into. From among the flesh
pots came a young woman who bar
tered herself away for an empty title,
a name that has Infamy stamped all
over it, The end of the Marlborough
LINCOLN. NEB., SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2:1 1895.
tribe, in despair, made It possible to
restore the family glitter by an act
almost as infamous as the proceeding
by which the flrst Duke of Marlborough
founded the fortune of his house. The
whole thing is a disgrace, a disgrace to
England, a greater disgrace to the
United States.
Most of the old paintings that used to
mistresses of the king. It Is related
that on one occasion this John Church
Ill (lfi.0-1722) jumped from the duchess'
window to escape the king. The jump
was successful and the king's mistress
gave him .",000 as the wages of pros
titution. This was the basis or the
Marlborough fortune. McCauiey says
it was this money that enabled him to
woo and win Sarah Jennings, whose
elder sister Frances was a prodigious
money for its own snke.'
The Duchess of Marlborough may
find a portrait of that woman of easy
virtue. the Duchess of Cleveland, and
as she reflects on the 5,000 which this
titled courtesan gave to her lover, and
which gave him his start in life, and
on the millions which Mrs. Hammers
ly, her immediate predecessor In Blen-
lWk$l5lHHEtpillBfi8Blll
hang in Blenheim castle went under
the hammer, as result of the extrava
gance of the present duke's father. But
there are some portraits left. I won
der if the new duchess will And in the
gallery a canvas of John Churchill,
the first duke, who was a paramour of
the Duchess of Cleveland, one of the
Robert gowning
beauty of frail morals. Churchill's sis
ter was a favorite mistress of the Duke
of York, and between the king's mis
tress and the duke's mistress his ad
vancement was rapid. The flrst duke
w as a brave general. He was also avar
icious. "His avarice was Inordinate,
and was founded on a sordid love of
helm castle, spent in restoring the faded
grandeur of the family, and the $5,000,
000 which will now go Into the yawn
ing Blenheim chasm, she may con
clude that that Jump of John Chur
chill's from the Cleveland woman's
window was a pretty expens
ive feat, even If It was followed by a
i