The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1886-01-09
THE SWEARING HABIT.
How Lords and Ladies' Of Quality Used "a
Indulge in Profanity.

How Lords and Ladies' Of Quality Used to
Indulge in Profanity.
The glorious revolution Of $685."
whatever it did for constitutional lib
erty, did not do much to make profan-
lty questionable. Lawrence HYDE.
Earl OF Rochester, did not swear in his
cups more Justify than Sir Robert Wal,
pole, the astute Wing Premier, in his
orgies at his country seat. Pelham
and his brother, the Duke of Newcastle,
afterward the heads of the great Wing
connection, We're not famous for pro-
family, neither was Chatham; bat the
play OF the period, and the novels of
Field ng and Smollett. prove that pro-
family was q'ite an ordinary exercise of
the English lungs. To swear like
lord" became with the rustic, as with
the city populace, as much an object of
admrlng wonder as "to get as drunk
as lord" Even women of rank did
not hesitate to imitate-of course at a
respectful distance, betting their in
terlor seX-the more masculine pro-
family of the ackn owledged lords of
creation. 1t is difficult to say how long
they avalled themselves of their pre-
cous privilege. Sarah Duchess OF
Marlboro gh, who did not die-much to
the regret of her re!atives-until l7i4,
once called a. the house Of an eminent
Judge on business. Learn ng from the
footman that he was not at home, the
old harridan departed, in one of her
furious its Of irritation, without con-
descendi!g g to mention her august title.
20 Al
Judge on his return to the house as to
the name of his visitor, co Id only an
swer that she had not mentioned her
name, but that "she swore like lady
of quality"
There is, urhappilv, a class of men
who, in different degrees of depravity,
seem possessed 10y the devil. They ex-
perlence a strange delight in exaItlng
their own will above all moral law.
They are sufficient to themselves. They
despise what they call the poor weak
lings of superstition, who are ruled by
such ablect sentiments as wonder, rev.
erence, and awe. They disbelieve in
them because they have never felt
them. They are under the delusion of
a moral and mental color blindness,
and have no vision of spiritual facts
that are plain to humber mortals. 1t
is diifcult to assert that they have
souls, either to be saved or to be ex-
posed to the her alternatives; but if
beneath the thick scum of evil expert
ence that has settled on their minds
and characters there remains faint,
unextinguished spark of immortal fire,
their souls are Of kind that "rot half
a grain day." and promise to go on
rotting until they reach the appointed
term of their earthly lives. These
creatures find strange pleasure in
showing their superiority to common
folk by disgusting all people whose
ears unfortunately come within reach
of their tongues, by their ribaldry. and
shocking by their blasphemy all devout
people that are placed in the same pre-
dicament The world has been suffi-
GENTLY sermoniZed on the sin of self
righteousness; but neither preacher
nor satlrist seems to have emphasized
the opposite vice, namely, self-unright-
eousness, though it is but too common.
The selfrighteous man is ever self
complacenr. when he views the multi
tude of trembling sinners that have
not, as.he has, Il through ticket to pass
from the tomb to the celestial kingdom,
signed 10y the proper authorities; the
self-unrighteous man, scorning all con-
sideration of the possible lie beyond
the grave, laughs at the fears of those
whose cry is, What shall l do to be
saved? and by his conduct and CONVEX
satiop seems to he eager to mock the
supplication of penitent hearts by do
family substituting for it that other
question, What shall I do to be damned !?
NORTH american ReuieW.