Page:Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct.djvu/243

 has a Gambling Hell. The delights of Monte Carlo and "Home," are as far apart as the poles; and those who seek the one cannot be expected to appreciate the other. But such English women as are met at the foreign gambling-tables, season after season, may be looked upon as the deliberate destroyers of all that is best and strongest in our national life, in the sanctity of Home, and the beauty of home affections. The English Home used to be a model to the world;—with a few more scandalous divorce cases in high life, it will become a by-word for the mockery of nations. The following from the current Press is sufficiently instructive:

"The crowd of well-dressed women who daily throng the court during the hearing of the case and follow with such intense eagerness every incident in the dissection of a woman's honour afford a remarkable object-lesson in contemporary social progress.

"Ladies, richly garbed, who drive up in smart broughams, emblazoned carriages, and motor-*cars, and are representative of the best known families in the land, fight and scramble for a seat, criticize the proceedings in a low monotone, and, without the smallest indication of a blush, balance every point made by counsel, and follow with keen apprehension the most suggestive evidence.

"Others, no less intensely interested in the sordid details of divorce, come on foot—women of the great well-to-do middle-class, who have all their lives had the advantage of refined and educated surroundings. Some are old, with silvery