Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-26

worth OF personal character was appre-
Ciated. Men of intelligence and integrity
were respected, and women of refinement
were valued whatever their outward cir
cumstanCes might be; the criterion of ex-
cellenCe lay in what men were, not in what
they possessed.
In the passing from the nineteenth to
the twentieth century our country sud
denly assumed an international position,
and the tone of Washington life is insensi-
bly, becoming less natural and more arti-
ficial The beautiful simplicity of social
aim and social life, which characterized
the Washington of the nineteenth century,
is now becoming stigmatiZed as 'hOmespun
prOvincialism, and social conditions are
rapidly changing from what they were.
New cosmopolitan influences are crowding
out the principles and lowering the stan
daTd Of the past
New Type of Residents.
"A new type Of residents are gathering
in Washington, who, while they bring
wealth magnifcence and luxury to the
capital of the country, are, az a rule, actu-
ated by no sense of civic, moral or religious
obligation regarding the welfare of the
community. and it is a very serious ques-
ton whether the material advantages that
they bring are any compensation for the
atmosphere of careless responsibility
which they create. In Christian ethics such
responsibility is not factor for good.
ne absence OF a GOOD motive means I'M
healthfuness. The days are evil unless
they are redeemed. Our Lord said, He that
is not with me- IS against me- Ground
which lies fallow, uncultivated, implanted
with good seed. brings forth weeds and
thOrns. A community which is destitute
of moral aims may not be positively i'm
moral I'm thought and deed, but ii is the
soil in which the microbes of evil most
quickly terminate.
For various reasons, which we have now
no time to dwell upon. Washington Is des-
tined to become more and more attractive
20 persons OF wealth and leisure. Whatever
local obligations bind them through home
ties and associations to the places from
which they come. here they are as free as
every American feels when visiting city
in Europe.
irresponsible wealth with its false ideals,
its dilettantsm its glorification of pleasure
and beauty, its luxurious style of living,
its tendency to make amusement and social
engagements the chief business of life, is
always, as past experience shows. an in
fiuence which brings about moral degener-
alton; for such social conditions sap the
foundations of real Christian manhood and
womanhood, and honeycomb the robustness
of character.
1 was brought up in a community In which
beauty and pleasure were the last things
TO be considered what are We TO think of
a generation of Americans which puts
beauty and pleasure first?
Said another, living statesman, Art
and esthetic pleasure are the beautiful
superstructures of life of which the SER
mon on the mount is the foundation. To
reverse this order is wild disorder
How wonderfully the history of the
Christian Church, and, we might add the
Christian world, illustrates this truth.
life devoted to mere beauty and pleasure
weakens the consciousness OF moral obli-
cation. religion itself soon evaporates into