The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-04-15

quoted, "Thou didst not lead thy Holy One
to see corruption the penny-a-lipers Are
quite at home in their pictorial and personal
estimate of New York church-going The
column which, in the New York Herald,
Immediately follows the Religious Sum-
mary is filed with an account of the
receptions and balls last week"
The one column reads exactly
like the other, and evidently proceeds from
the same pen At the White House we are
told that the Presidents wife "wore robe of
ruby velvet, with her portly shoulders sub
dued under fichu Of point d'Alencon,
and that Mrs Hamilton Fish "wore delicate
mauve satin" At the churches the reporters
are equally and in every sense at home At
Grace Church the costumes of velvet and
plush Jackets in brown and black we're nume-
rous." ''Rich and heavy velvets and flashing
diamonds" are noticed at one church, while
at another we are favored with personal in
PRODUCTION to "a young lady of nineteen,
small but elegant in figure, with a COM
plexion Of the purest pink, etc. etc., and
attired in silk dress draped with graceful
founces en- pGnte,, pink tie, and
pretty beau-catcher." In New York
the Quakeresses seem to comprise
the wealth, beauty, and fashion Of the city,
and it might make Fox and Mrs. Fry turn in
their graves when told of the velvet and Silks
satins and iris plumes of the doves. But they
Colored Church we find that "the congrega-
ton is decidedly well-dressed, and that sub
dued quietness prevails, which gave a very
elegant tout enSen6Lej while deep puppies and
| black velvets show to advantage dark skin
and peary teeth, and that the costumes are
heightened by diamond pins and ear-drops."
To do them justice, the various pastors seem
feel what the Bishop of Orleans calls the Un-
bridled Luxury of Women as a sort of chal-
/ Il, rNfk kl,a,, l,o1
against the feminine extravaganza of the
age One pulpit orator quoted some verses
| new to u.s.
What is the reason can you guess,
That men are poor and women thinner?
| SO much do they for dinner dress,
| That nothings left to dress the dinner
But, Judging from our own experience, the
women rather like these pastoral objurgations.
They treat homily against fine clothes as a
sort of "beau-catcher" and advertisement of
their own and their milliners' taste. We are
not sure that there is not some understanding
between the shepherds and the lambs of the
flock, and that the ladies do not consider the
pulpit reproof rather than in the light of a
testimonial of their good taste and skill in
fashion. The writer of the Religious
Summary of New York says that there
were only two aristocratic churches in
which the subject of female dress
was not touched in the pulpit. We can
only say in conclusion that we almost, when
it is too late, begin to repent of giving this
picture of Sunday in New York. What if the
satire should prove an inducement and the
beacon be taken for an attraction? We may yet
live to see a new Pietds Loradin6enSis edited
by the compiler of the Court Circular and
the reporters of the Morning Post. And as
at New York care informed that ''ex-Health
Commissioner Crane, and Mr.. Chauncey,
President of the Mechanics Bank, " said their
prayers, or listened to somebody elses
prayers at Trinity, Brooklyn, while ''Mrs.
Commodore Vanderbilt and her mother,
Mrs. Crawford, with others of
equal prominence honored Almighty
God and DR.. Deems with their
company at ''the Church of the Strangers
we should have been glad of some informa-
tion about the fashionable congregation who
assembled at the parti-colored striped brick
''church edifce" in New York commonly
known as the Church of the Holy Zebra--we
are not without serious apprehensions that
the day is not distant when the dresses and
devotions of the Sunday visitors to the Bel
gravian churches will be as fully reported in
the London newspapers as the victims Of
those much duller entertainments, Belgraviar
|