picture of decadent human nature are furnished by the very city in
which he lives.





II.

OUR NEW LIVERY, AND OTHER THINGS.


A LETTER FROM MRS. POTIPHAR TO MISS CAROLINE
PETTITOES.

NEW YORK, _April._

MY DEAR CAROLINE,--Lent came so frightfully early this year, that I
was very much afraid my new bonnet _a l'Imperatrice_ would not be
out from Paris soon enough. But fortunately it arrived just in time,
and I had the satisfaction of taking down the pride of Mrs. Croesus,
who fancied hers would be the only stylish hat in church the first
Sunday. She could not keep her eyes away from me, and I sat so
unmoved, and so calmly looking at the Doctor, that she was quite
vexed. But, whenever she turned away, I ran my eyes over the whole
congregation, and would you believe that, almost without an exception,
people had their old things? However, I suppose they forgot how soon
Lent was coming. As I was passing out of church, Mrs. Croesus brushed
by me: