The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-08
LENTEN SEASON IS NOT WHAT TT USED
 TO BE WHEN GRANDMOTHER WAS A GIRL

, emerged at Easter, brighter and better persons"
 q shall never forget" Miss Petunia continued, that my family moved to
 Birmingham in the spring of the year; in fact, in February and coming from
 that devout little country town to this gay, big place., one of the first things happened to me was an invitation to a very swell Lenten tea Of course had no more idea than rabbit what Lenten tea was, and ds for my mother and my grandmother, why, they nearly dropped dead. l concluded, of course,
 as did they, that it was tea which had for it's purpose the gathering to- gether of ladies to make clothes for the poor, so l put on humble little I 'sackcloth and ashes frock and went Imagine my amazement when I found that 300 guests were present, arrayed in their very best bibs and fuckers
 The only thing about the tea that was at all Lenten was the name; it would
 have appropriately graced any feast day"
 You'll be awfully shocked, Miss Pe- tunia," said Sally Bugg, when I tell you that l asked one of my friends the other day what she was going to give up during Lent, and she said auction not because she thought it wrong, but because her brain was erred and she'd been losing so heavily, and it was a l SOOu cndnce to qu1l. SdlO Sne q run down to Palm Beach for couple of weeks and recuperate" No" Miss Petunia said gently, 'Ive | gotten used to all of it by now; you 1, ,see, m an old woman, and I've lived land learned. 1 have a friend myself, a woman who told me she hated to sew but she was going to do so dur | ing Lent as a pennance."
 Clothes for some charitable insti- 1 tuition, l suppose" suggested Sally
 Bugg.
 1 "Oh, dear, no; for myself" Miss Petu- mia announced. There are 20 women who have organized sewing class for 1 the Lenten season, and they have inn posed fine of 10 cents for any word that is spoken while they sewing Con clothes for themselves, understand; hand- made blouses, lingerie, and the like). Do you get the idea?' "Of course' said Sally Bugg jubi- 1 lantly. Then the money goes to the poor?'
 Not at all," corrected Miss Petu- mia. Tt goes for silk stockings to be given to the woman who has"broken the rule less than any of the others" 'Shocking,' murmured Sally Bugg facetiously.
 Isn't it?" questioned Miss Petuna Why I've known the time back in my grandmothers day when a girl wouldn't even have thought of getting married during Lent any more than she would have thought about attempting to catch a wireless message with her forefin- ger. Now, I suppose girl is so glad to get married that she doesn't care what the season is for the ceremony Don't abuse your own sex, Miss Pe- tunia." chided Sally Bugg teasingly. And as for attending concert or going to the opera" Miss Petunia said, 20 years ago. it would have been con- sidered outrageously irreligious. Music is uplifting,"" Sally Bugg sug- gested.
 Better hear it in church. then,'' Miss Petunia observed returning to her early training and ideas. '.I do really think, my child, that we have retrograded ter rib1y since my grandmothers day; in deed l do; we wear no sackcloth and ashes nowadays; we deny ourselves 1 nothing; the things give up during Lent are the things we are tired of, and that bore us to distractions; we
 make no sacrifice in Betting them go; | we fast-not at al1-unless from things that upset our digestion make us | fat It is a miserable, sinful, wicked
 old world. By the way, Sally Bugg,
 what are you going to abstain from during Lent?
 l "Oh, you mean little me, Miss Pe- ltunia," stammered Sally Bugg per plexed. "Oh, I'm off to Atlantic City l tomorrow and it's awfully hard, as you
 know, to fast in hotel-don't you thing so?"