The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1862-02-15
washington society.

time since-I wont say how many years
upon my penning a few letters on Wash
ington society. ! did not enter, as yot
will remember, very readily upon the task
for the theme had been worn SO thread
bare that it was almost impossible to BE-
original or entertaining. WashingtonCitv
like our Government, has been from time
immemorial SO in the hands of one class
that society, worn into grooves, always
presented the same phase, and had been
written into dreary sameness.
| Now, however, VIC have change
Fresh elements have come in, revolu-
tion alters the face of the social world
and | propose giving you a few notes on
| the same.
| cannot write this half so well as it was
| told me the other evening at Willard 8,
where the new tide of fresh humanity
pours ceaselcssly along. An old friend,
indolenty reclining In an arm chair we'll
corncred, gave me his views. | wish !
could put on paper his graphic utterances.
Here they are, however, feebly reduced by
my pen and ink.
The great mass of our country folk,
East and West, is not aware of the infiu-
ence and effect society, however crude,
has upon politics. Washington has been
from it's birth until now Southern City
and as we have bred our aristocrais in the
same region with our cotton, we had a
right to expect that society here would be
hostile to the democratic element of the
North. You know, my dear. that u truth
loses half its force when il ceases to be re-
spectacle. How many an earnest, thought
full representative, returned by confding
constituency, has shrunk dismayed before
the social influence Of this city, and left
unsaid all he was sent to utter. The Hon.
Andrew G. Stump, with his~ambitious
wife, from New England, or the Great
West, came uaprepared for society whore
their most hallowed associations were
sneered at their political opinions consid.
cred low, and the faint OF honest toll us
somathing disgraceful and not to be en-
durcd and so, while the wfc's dress fell
lower in the neck, and shorter in the
sleeves, the Hon. Andrew G. softened
from an ultra to mild conservative, and
grew eloquent and persuasive upon the
guarantees of the Constitution and the
rights of the South.
AFTER all, with its insolcnce and AFRO
giant assumption, it was society without
goodness, or much intelligence. 1t is
laughablc to remember the old Washing.
ton, with its boundless contiguity Of dusty
or muddy streets, its ceaseless rattle Of
dismal hacks, and unhappy associations of
secondclass hotels, comtortless boarding
houses, and ill-contrived mansions, where
we had dinners without cooks, and enter
| tainments IN which art was unknown, lit
eralnre ignored, and science was fondly
supposed to be labelled Ia cases at the
Patent Office, or to be taught to hungry
| few at The Smithsonian Institute. How
| often have returned from entertainment
supposed to be very grand in their way,
and tried to remember one original re-
mark-a solitary reference to the world of
thought, or the encouragement OF one
brave impulse. The heavy hand of sla.
very rested ou everything, and our enter
tainment ran to kid gloves, crinoline and
cream, and Northern man or woman
was barely tolerated, and no more. The
last named was queerly situated--vcry
like, indeed the funny Snowman strange
animal that could not live on land and
died in water. Ii he admitted the propo.
sition then SO popular, that the chief end
of Northern man was to catch Niger,
he was despised, and If he disputed it he
was hated.
"-Aous 0ross rhangee tout celia. Since
our Southern masters have returned home
to drill poor whites into poorer soldiers,
our social magnates have either subsidized
or emisrated to Richmond, where they
are not only, as of old, without cooks, but
without anything upon which to employ
that last and best creation OF modern civil.
ization A new and better element occu-
pies this place. You shall feel the fresh
Northern air breathing along the avenues.
The people move on brskly as if pressed
with business. the shops brighten up. and
sprinkle of private equipages begins to
illumine the dreary world of hacks. At
ter time we may hope that the blessed
memories Of home lifo may be revived in
Washington, and all we hold sacred may
be brought to replace the variety and wick
edness so proverbial of old
hepe to see this revolution sisnaliz-
cd by some change in the entertainments
at the White House. These heretofore
have been made up of receptions and din
ners The FIRST consisted of throwing open
the house once fortnight to the public,
that pours through in miscellaneous coats
and Understandable gowns, and receives a
grim satisfaction in working the right arm
OF the Chief magistrate like pump ham
die. When was a young man-dear me,
what traditionary sound that has--will
you believe it, in the days OF Monroe, we
| w IN ylta nv, al -