Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1869-12-21

you! How consoling?
But still find both an agreeable and disa-
greeable study in the hundred thousand faces
that pass ln review before me, no two of them
alike, and every one of them with life history
written on his or her sad, lively, cold or indif-
ferent face
ss'Let me walk slowly through the street,
Filled with an ever-shif.ing train
Amid the sound of steps that beat,
The murmuring walks, like autumn rain.
How fast the fitting figures come
The mild, the fierce, the stony face,
Some bright with early smiles, and some
Where secret tears have left their trace
View the men and women separately with a
critical and impartial eye, and you have study
that will deyelope itself-not into fancies but
-discreditable to both. Is it lady-like, Or
does it eyince good breeding, moral culture, re-
hnement or a high sense of honor for a lady &
to practice deception upon that noble animal
man-otherwise known as the lord of crea-
tion when she not only paints her face, glar
ingy so, (which is not now as In the good old
times Of Moses and those ancient persons,
the patriarchs, when her face was fair to look
upon to hide nature there, and take SO much
pains to unboson 1t elsewhere, in outrageously
low-neck dresses WHICH yisiby affect ones Wis
ion at the balls and public places of amuse-
ments in this great city. If my fair (ll sisters
were only to hear the remarks and comments
upon their persons by the aforesaid lords Of
creation" in New York. they would lose no
time IN covering up their ''nakedness. But
then, that would, probably, be contrary to their
interests, and q reversion Of the Latin aphor-
ism, agnoti nulla cupido which you can trans
late into plain, hard English, if you have
mind to. And. in this particular, do the
women Of the North cater to the licentious
taste and lustfulness Of Northern gentlemen,
so-called or is it a mere fashionable whim
immodesty? leave it to their own hearts,
consciences and virtuous minds to answer
Moral depravity here is looked upon with COM
placency, in truth relished by both sexes OF
good society, ('sso-called,,') as is patent to
every visitor to the 'Forty Thieves at Nblo
Garden, $ GeneUe,ve de Brabant'' at the Thea
tre Francais in their one hundred and odd
nights representations of the Leg Opera, with
crowded aud fashionable audiences But
why should | be astonished9 isn't this the lat
ltude of great moral ideas,' as blue beliied
Sumner asserts it is, and this is progress !"
Heaven save the mark Ten years ago it was
an indictable offence, punishable by fine and i'm
prisonment, for a model artist to exhibit his
harem Of wanton beauties, and the vigilant
police were always on the alert for the afore-
said beauties" that none of the youths of
New York laid their eyes upon the ''uncean
things Presto Now it's all the rage for
the best society here Of both sexes, young
and old, to paronize with their refined persons,
the worshiped and adored Leg Opera, of Lydia
Thompson's and Mr.. Grau one hundred spec
linens of thieves -
| see by the papers that the Leg Opera,
progress, great moral ideas, Or whatever
the classical Sumner chooses to designate it,
was summarily ''nipped in the bud" in Rich
mond, by the chief Of the police. 1t blossoms
the genial eyes of Kennedy the bright eyes
and gushing mouths of sweet sixteen and
the approving looks of stately mamas. The
growth and cutting down Of this social ulcer is
in the hands Of the community; by their fiat
it lives or dies, and outside barbarians hold
them responsible for its life. or the cutting off
its already too long lived existence.
In my next I'll endeavor to give you pen
and ink portrait Of a specimen of the genus
homo-the New York Gentleman, ''so-called
SIDNEY.