Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1880-03-03
From Our Regular Correspondent ]
Washington Letter.

WASHINGTON, d. C., Feb. %. 1880.
2 Although we are in the midst Of Lent
there seems to be only pretended sus-
pension of gayety. There is, of course, a
stricter observance of the forms of sre-
ligion. The orthodox young lady will
leave her bed at o'clock in the morning.
after having crept into it three hours pre-
viously. dead tired with ball. and, after
Il hurried toilet, will go out in the chill
morning air, that she may be present at
morning service. In the fashionable West
End, the milkman going his early rounds
is sure to encounter q succession of these
fashionable nymphs, performing the pill
grimage to the altar on foot, and carrying
two or three devotional books in her hands.
Husbands and lovers are snoring between
the sheets while she is on her knees in the
dim, religious light of church. The act
is one of penancc, and she is profoundly
convinced of its efficacy. The persever-
ance with which this custom is observed
suggests considerations on which the mer-
alist might have good deal to say. She
atheists, who have years and uglinesss on
their side, may scott to their hearts con-
tent, but if Sappho would keep herself I'M
spotted from the world, she must be con-
tent with proclaiming her skepticism in
her rhymes, and observe her Lent most
scrupulously.
This truth has been consistently acted
upon at all ages of the church, and the
six penitential weeks that we are now in
the midst of are celebrated in many polite
circles with show OF devotion which
proves conclusively how well religion rs II
fine art is understood at the present day.
Entertainments and supper parties. ut
which Lucullu5 Or Apicius might have
assisted, luxurious entertainments Of all
kinds are of nightly occurrence. Another
NJ. Dupin might arise to write a fresh es-
say upon the " Iure efrene des fensn,ss,' -
and it would no longer be in Paris, but in
Washington that his singing sermon
would have to be preached to unhceding
ears. Many of the ftshionablean dazzling
beauties Of Washington represent in each
case an expenditure upon their toilets of
thousands Of dollars, as they stand up in
bail room" while, simultaneously, the
shops of Mr.. Gait and of Mr.. Somken, the
chief jewellers of the capital, are GRO wded
by eager purchasers Of diamonds, emeralds
and sapphires. Fortunes lightly accumu-
lated arc nowhere spent more lightly than
in the United States; and the hum Of
prosperity, which began to make itself
distinctly heard once more in October last,
! has led naturally, to that entertainment
boom " which at this moment occupies
Washington to the exclusion of unwelcome
thoughts about the many toilers, both
white and black, who, throughout the
length and breadth Of the great republic,
sad condition Of Miss Flora McFlimsy,
who had nothing to wear" To sad and
sober minds the thought might occasional
ly occur that Us Aristotle prophesied more
than twenty centuries ago, democracies
have an irresistible tendency to merge in
plutocraces, and that the existence Of op-
ulent families in republican states leads
naturally, in Il few generations, to cray
ing for monarchical institutions with their
ennobling titles, their aristocratc disinc-
tons and as Thomas Jefferson phrased it,
with the tnsel and glitter of the eflete old
world.