Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

[lowry.charles AT gmail.com]

Evelyn Waugh did not particularly like the United States, but he discovered 
that when he was short of funds, a North American lecture tour was an 
excellent tonic.  As part of the tour, he arranged to be in New Orleans on 
Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday.  After the merriment of the former, he spent 
the latter in front of his hotel, the Roosevelt, or maybe the Fairmont—I’m 
not sure when the name changed.  The hotel sits across Baronne Street from 
Immaculate Conception, known as Jesuit Church.  This was his reflection:

“The Jesuit church was teeming with life all day long, a continuous dense 
crowd of all colors and conditions moving up to the altar rails and returning 
with their foreheads signed with ash….  All that day, all over that 
light-hearted city, one encountered the little black smudge on the forehead 
which sealed us members of a great brotherhood who can both rejoice and 
recognize the limits of rejoicing.”

Happy Birthday, Binx!