The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-02-28

sponsible for the inevitable quiet of these
weeks than is the fact that these are the
forty days of the year set apart for lenten
observance.
All this. of course, generally speaking.
There are undoubtedly a considerable num-
Der of women here who do keep Lent with
all their hearts and souls. who not only go
TO all the services they can cOiScientfouSly
attend, but who take up a course of lenten
study, who carry out lenten duties and who
cheerfully give up social gatherings large
and small, and keep Lent both in spirit and
in letter. But in spite of their number they
are far in minority and the greater number
of Indianapolis women neglect the keeping
for various reasons.
HOW THE GIRLS TALK.
"Do 1 keep Lent?' answered one woman
TO the question the other day. Mercy, no;
L wouldn't dare. You see, my people were
strict believers in one of the old%-fashioned
faiths which set it's face squarely against
anything that even touched Catholicism.
And | was what l once heard a small boy
call drug up in that faith. 1 received the
impression in early youth that to pay any
attention to the keeping of Lent or to other
like ceremonies was to doom ones self TO
the bad place. OF course, we are all far
more liberal nowadays, and we admit forms
and ceremonies that we shrank from in that
time. Still. you know, a feeling of that
kind acquired in early youth can never be
entirely eradicated, and I'm afraid that II
l refused to go to parties or the theaters
merely because it is Lent that should
ever after have a haunting fear for my
future" That is one reason.
"Oh, L meant to keep Lent" replies one
popular girl. Il was going to give up going
to the theater and TO dances and to card
parties, and / had resolved 10 abstain from
bonbons for the good of my soul, not my
body. That was before Lent began. But,
then. you know there are always so many
good things come to the theater during
Lent. and each time L say I'll go just this
once. Then there lave been two or three
such nice little parties that L wanted TO go
to. and the girls would have been mad if
l hadn't come. And, as for the bOnbons-
well, you just try going without chocolates
yourself for forty days-if You can. But.
next week; that is, if there aren't too many
good things happen" That is another rea-
son.
One girl really is keeping Lent in a new
fashion, and ii is delightful to hear her
II did want to keep Lent" she said, "for
/ am an EpiscOpalian, you know, and | felt
as though 1 ought to give up something.
But it's so hard to give up parties and the
theater and that kind of thing-I have done
it in other Lents. but | never could see |
regret all the rest of the year the nice
things | missed So | thought it all over
and made up my mind that as a lenten
You know | do love to say little mean
things about people I don't like, and l
thought that that would do me more good
than anything else L spoke 10 our rector
about il, and he said 1t was a splendid idea.
And so / have been saying only the incest
things about everybody, even those girls
that | can't bear. | really think it will do
me a whole lot of good. don't you? And.
beside, I go TO service every day, and L
think that | am keeping Lent pretty well.
Do many of the girls come to service?
Wen. L should say not; just a lot of old
frumps and me. usually. 1t seems TO me
an awfully queer thing that the other girls
can't sacrifice their own pleasure Il little
bit and come TO service two or three times
a week, anyhow. Are any of the other
girls giving up anything? Well, l don't
know anybody who has really given up
anything except Bessie Smith. She says
she has entirely given up dancing during
Lent. but that no wonder. because nobody
ever asks her TO dance AWAY / don't
think that it's a bit of benefit for anybody
TO give up a thing in that way, do you!