The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1880-03-06

now IENr rs OBSERVED IN WASHING
ToH.-RELIGIoN AS "A FINE ART
s.RpuM GRAVE TO GAY"
lf1ernm ,our Rerilar tCorresponiient.)

I
WASHINGTON, ID. c., Feb. rs, 1880.
Although we are in the midst OF
Lent there seems toll only pretended
suspension of gayety. There rs ot
course stricter observance of the
forms of religion. The orthodox young
Ilaay will leave her bed at Z O'Clock IN
the morning, after having crept into It
three hours previously dead tired with
"a ball, and, after a hurried toilet, will
20 out in the chill damp air, that she
may be present at morning service. In
the fashionable West End, the milk
man going his early rounds is sure to.
encounter succession of these fash
Iiionable nymphs, performing the PHI
grimage to the altar'o foot, and car
irving two or three devotional books IN
her hands. Husbands and lovers are
snoring between the sheets while she
is OH her knees in the dim religious
light of "a church. The act lis one of
penance, and she is profoundly con-
yinced,of its efficacy. Wheperseverancet
with which this custom is observed
suggests considerations on which the
moralist might have a good deal to say.
sSlle4atheists, who have years and ugll-
ness son their side, may scoff TO their
hearts content, but if SAPRHo would
keep herself unspotted fromthe world,
she must be content with proclalming
her skepticism in her rhymes, and OBJ
serve her Lent most scrupulously.
This truth has been consistently
acted upon atHlll ages of the 'Ohurchs;
and the six penitontial weeks that we
are now in the midst of are celebrated
in many polite circles with a show of
devotion which proves conciusively
ROW well religion as fine aftisnndor-
stood at the present day.
Entertainments and supper parties, ]
at which LucunLus or AnIcIus might
have assisted, Luxurious entertainments
of all kinds are of nightly occurrence.
Another M. DuPIN might arise to write
a fresh essay upon the 'luae ,effr6ne
des femmcs," and lit would no longer
be in Paris, but in Washington, that
his singing sermon would have to be
preached to unheeding ears. Many of
the fashionable and dazzling beauties
Of Washington represent in each case
an expenditure upon their toilets of
of dollars, ''as they stand up
in a ball-room," while, simultaneously, 4
the shops of Mr.. Calf and Of MIR. Sem
ken, the chief jewellers of the Capital,
are crowded by eager purchasers of
,emeralds, and sapphires.
Fortunes, lightly accumulated, are mo-
whore spent more lightly than in the
United States; and the hum of pros
pefitv, which began to make itself dis
sinctly heard once more I'M etoberlast,
has led, naturally, to that '''entertain-
nent BOOM which at this moment !
occupies Washington TO the exclusion
Of unwelcometthoughts aboutithe many
toilars, both white and black, who,
the length and breadth of
the Great Republic, ibntiin a far more
literal sense, are in the sad ,condition3
Of Miss Flora McFlimsy, who chad /
nothing to wear" TO sad and sober
minds the Thought might occasionally l
occur that, as ARISTOTLE jpRophesied
more than twenty centuries ago, demo
cracies have an irresistible tendency toH
merge lin ,plutoefacies, and tlmt the sex-1
lstence of opulent families in Repub-I
Iican States leads naturally, An a few1
generations, to a craving for Monarch
lal institutions with their ennobling
titles, their afistocratic distinctions, /
and, as Thomas Jefferson phrased it,.
with the tinsel and glitter Of the effete
Old World. H
T'Eae HSusOn.srlapnApson SuEsf.