Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-03-05

prayers day as she can get in, there
are still leisure hours. And. having
had her programme of teas and lunch
cons and dinners and dances, to say
nothing OF the theatre, filing every min
ute of the social season, in this leisure
time she is dreadfully bored and is glad
OF anything to divert her mind.
There are Lenten lectures and talks
of an improving, or alleged improving.
character, and she bores herself to
death trying not TO doze during tho
erudite ones disquiSition on this or that
or the other subject. The fair devotee
probably doesn't care anything about
the lecture. but it is the fashion to
be seen there gowned in becomingly
somber garments, grays or blacks,
touched perhaps with little mauve.
lilac or purple.
In the large cities these Lenten lee
lures are features of the Lenten social
season, The leaders of society take
them up, and every one else is COM
PEELED to follow suit. The lecturer Is,
as rule, some protege of society's,
reduced gentlewoman, a foreign i'm
portation improved in London drawing
rooms or some clever young man who
has speciality and is not averse to ad-
ding to his income the very liberal sum-
which the daughters of wealth are will
ing to pay for his services.
This year the New York Four Hun
bred are reveling in the study of
phrenology. BY Easter every society
woman expects to be able to tell ex-
actly what is in every one olse's head,
and it may be a good thing If for self
projections sake she is compelled to
put a little more inside her own.
An antibird club is(a novelty. Should
the members be bound to henceforth
dispense with the varying about
with them of their millinery any speci-
mems of feathered carrion the society
will be a good thing. With fencing
and singing classes, a sewing class for
the matrons who are more sedate and
given to good works for thespoor, the
New York society woman Is not likely
to be so very idle during At.
During Lent many thri lpai2U
bend all their energies
ton of the spring wart O66c wing
women are employed at the house.
while the swell dressmaker on the ave-
nue. is given the handsomer gowns.
During Lent the usually busy society
woman has plenty of time, and she de-
votes it to preparing for the latter
frivolities.
Those people who go abroad every
year and are not religiously inclined
usually pack their trunks and start for
London or Paris with the opening OF
Lent. There they can be as flagrantly
irreligious as they please. Many of the
smartest people thus flee their native
land when the most brilliant social
events are over. Others go down or
out to their country places, where they
ride or hunt or otherwise put In tho
time in pastoral amusements until Lent
is over. At any rate. il Is at present
very bad foen not to appear strictly
in sympathy with the orthodox church.
Then there Is the ultra religious set.
There are a couple OF fashionable con-
vents about New York where the most
devout Of the butterflies spend part
or all of Lent Gin retreat" There are
the Episcopalian sisterhoods as well,
and these houses are crowded with the
fair ones who divide their time be-
tween prayers and meditations and as
sisting the sisters in their noble work
or caring for the poor. This is prob
ably one of the best ways OF spending
Lent, for a sight OF the miserIes Of
the unfortunate win often open well
filled purse. The rich are not deliber-
aSaly unmindful of the suffering OF the
poor. They do not know, they do not
realize how deep and widespread Is hui
man misery. So in one way the fash
ionable way of spending Lent may do
some good. ETHEL KNOX.