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As for political chat at home, it runs now in the channel of
President-making; and the dinner-tables of Washington are lighted up with
comparison of chances. Under this, the gayeties proper are at a
comparative stand-still. The Assembly balls, as we learn, are less
brilliant, and more promiscuous than ever; and even the select parties of
the National Hotel are singularly devoid of attractions. Lent too is
approaching, to whip off, with its scourge of custom, the cue of papal
diplomats; and then, the earnestness of the campaign for the Presidency
will embrue the talk of the whole Metropolis.

While we are thus turning our pen-point Washington-ward, we shall take the
liberty of felicitating ourselves, upon the contrast which has belonged to
the reception of LOLA MONTES, in New York, and in the metropolis of the
nation. Here, she was scarce the mention of a respectable journal; there,
she has been honored by distinguished "callers."

We see in this a better tone of taste in our own city, than in the city of
the nation; and it will justify the opinion, which is not without other
support, that the range of honorable delicacy is far lower in the city of
our representatives, than in any city of their clients. Representatives
leave their proprieties at home; and many a member would blush at a
license within the purlieus of his own constituency, which he courts as an
honor in the city of our Caesars! We wish them joy of their devotion to the
Danseuse, whom--though we count as humble as themselves in point of
morals--we believe to be superior, mentally, to the bulk of her admirers.

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As a token of French life and morals, we make out this sad little bit of
romance from a recent paper:

A few days since, some boatmen upon the Seine saw what appeared to be a
pair of human feet floating down the stream; manning their barge, they
hastened to the spot, and succeeded in drawing from the water the body of
a young woman, apparently about twenty-five years of age, and elegantly
dressed; a heavy stone was attached to her neck by a cord. Within a small
tin box, in the pocket of her dress, carefully sealed, was found the
following note:

"My parents I have never known; up to the age of seven years, I was
brought up by a good woman of a little village of the Department of the
Seine and Marne; and from that time, to the age of eighteen I was placed
in a boarding-hous