New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1862-01-18
SOCIETY IN WASHINGTON.
LETTER FROM BELL SMITH.
,rdeuce Of The N. Y. Tribune.

Correspondence Of The N. Y. Tribune
wA,HlSGroS, Wednesday jar. Is, 1904
DEAR MR. EDITOR: You Insisted, some time
since-I won't write how many years-upon my
penuiug few letters on Washington society did
not enter, a. YOU will remember, very readily upon
the task for the theme had heen worn so threadbare
that it was amost impossible to be original or enter
tanning Washington City, Ike our Government,
had been from time immemorial SO III the hands OF
one class that society, worn into grooves, always
presented the same phase, and had been written into
a drcary sau,nness.
Now. however, we have q change. Fresh ee-
meuts have come il, revolution alters the face Of
the social world ard propose giving You lew notes
on the same.
canno. write this half 20 well as II was told rue
the other evening At WiIlards, where the new tide
OF fresh humanity poun ceaselessly along. An old
friend, indolentT reclining in an armchair well
corpsred, gave me his views. wish could put on
paper his graphic ut,ersnces. Here they are, how
over feebly reduced by my pen and ink;
1.-THE great mass of our good countryfolk, East
and West, is not aware Of the influence and effect
society, however crude, has upon politics. Wssh-
ington las been from its birth until now Southern
city. And as we have bred our aristocrsts in the
same region with our cotton, We had right TO eS-
pect that society here would be hostile to the Demo
cratic element Of the North. You know, my dear,
that truth loxes half s force when il ceares 10 be
respectable. How many al earnest, Thoughtful rep
resentatiys, returned by couiidng constituency
has shr,,nk dismayed before the social influence OF
this city and left unsad oil that he WAS sent to utter
The Hon. Andrew G. Stump, with bis ambitious
wife from New.Eug gland or the Grea, West, came
unprepared for society where their most hallowed
associations were sneered at, their political opinions
considered low, and the faint Of honest toll as some
thing dsgraceful and not 10 DO endured aud while
the wifes dress fell lower in the neck and shorter IN
the sleeves, the Hon. Andrew G.. sotlenod from AL
ultra to mild Conservative and grew eloquent aud
persuasive upon the guarantees OF the Constitution
and the rights of the South"
AFTER all, with lie insolence and arrogant as'
sumption, i, was society without goodness reh0s'
ment, or much intelligence. IL is laughable 10 ~
member tho old Washington. Poor old Washing
ton. with its boundess conguity Of dusty or muaoy
.trses TIA ceaseess rattle of dismal backs and uh
bapDv association of second-class hotels cohio'.ieSs
boarding houses, and ill-contriyed manSonS, ""'''
we had dinners without cooks, ara entertainments
!, which mr., was unknown, literature ignored ana
sc;.nco os foudiy supposed to be labeled IN cases al
-. p.,sn,.Oftice. or be taught to hungry few at
A.. Sn,;,h.on;an Institution. How often have re-
,mrn.d from entertainments supposed to be very
Grand in their way, and tired 70 remember one
original remarka solitary reference to the world OF
,bon0ht. or the encouragement to one brave impulse
Tho heavy dead hand Of Slavery rested Oh every