Life — March 18, 1897 — page 8: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Se THER [THE ERIMROSE PATH thing partly isd amusing, partly p: thetic, about the pro- vision made by our spiritual directors for the great duty of repentance. The continuousness of is some- it suggests that a - provision for daily ~ and weekly ~~ pentance implies an expectation of daily and weekly If we are miserable sinners, and own up to it to-day, it would seem as re- sin. though we ought to be ashamed enough to better our habits next Sunday; but next Sunday we will before be invited to humble ourselves again and declare our contrition for our manifold sins and transgressions of the week just ended. Lent, being a prescribed annual season of repentance, inevitably im- plies an annual period of unedifying indulgences; but in spite of this draw- back it is an excellent institution, and very popular with sensible people. Folks who keep Lent at all seem to find profit and relief in it, For the six weeks of its continuance they need not go to any balls, and if they have been to a good many they are usually very happy to stop for a while and make uptheir sleep. If they have dined out a good deal, they are glad of any encouragement to rest their stomachs. If the freshness is off their gowns, they are glad to catch their breaths and consider the needs of their wardrobes; and if they are of the fortunate number who realize that the spiritual side of us repay: attention now and then, and t it 1s bad economy for people who value happiness not to throw their souls an oc onal bone, they can greatly promote the contentment of their spirits by taking sober thought about ight living and the amelioration of their standards of behavior. It is a sad thought — rot really dismal, but just sober—that the peo- ple who most need to get some- thing out of Lent will profit least by it. The people whose stomachs are the most overtaxed will practice the least abstention, the people whose souls are the most starved will nour- ish them least liberally, while persons who are already inclined to spiritual dissipation will treat themselves to orgies of discipline, and_perhi themselves lean and sour. Lire hesitates to give specific direc- tions for the observance of Lent, but on any penitent who cares for lay counsel it may safely urge considera- tion of some defects and vices which are so general that even those of us who may personally be innocent of them share as Americans in the cen- sure and retributions they involve. There is that obnoxious American habit of inopportune expectoration. We ought all to be ashamed of the way we spit about everywhere, on the sidewalks, in the street cars, alone and in company, in season (the ca- ps fast tarrhal season) and out, defiling the footstool, making ourselves an of- fence to people of nicer habits, and especially to ladies who have the misfortune to pick up our trail. If by grace of training or decent inten- tions we do not ourselves spit about we should be duly ashamed of our fellows who do, and repent of their unconscious boorishness, and try to bring them to the knowledge and practice of better manners. Let us repent, too, of our prone- ness to gossip about our neighbors, to pry into their concerns, to tell malicious, untruthful and sensational stories about them, to lie like all po! don all subjects, to invent wrongs for poor men and crimes for rich, and by dwelling on such wrongs which do not exist, and such crimes which have not been committed, to continually stir up the poor to hate the rich and the rich to distrust the And if by the favor of Provi- dence such light has been vouchsafed to us that we are able as individuals to keep clear of these abominable offenc poor, let us still mortify our flesh and pile dust on our heads because that we are members of a community in which these misdeeds are conspicu- ously rife, and in which newspapers which commit them by wholesale daily and hourly, flourish with ex- ceeding noise, and apparently find them gainful and expedient. Let us take thought, too, of the great corporations organized for im- portant public service, and incident-