The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-02-04
Fashionable Life in Washington
Letter From "Mack.o

ESPECIAL Correspondence of the Enquirer
WASHINGTON, January 30, 1869.
There seems to be determination
among the fashionable folk to make the
season brilliant, if brief. Lent comes
very soon to interpose religion and thin
diet against dancing and late suppers,
and to prepare for the great hereafter
through contrition and codfish-but
meantime couple of weeks (perhaps
more, for l haven't consulted my relig-
ious almanac lately,) of worldly mind
edness remains, and it is being enjoyed to
the utmOst--if fashionable life in Wash
ington can, with any semblance or
show of truth, be called enjoyment.
They have receptions, hops, balls, and
the like every night-no END to them.
Passing along one of the fashionable
thoroughfares a few evenings since, l
counted no less than half a dozen
houses, within a distance Of three
squares, that had the outward ana visi.
BILE signs of festivities within. | confess
to doubt as to the genuineness of some
of them, and more than suspect that in
at least two instances stand of hacks
had been hired at low figure to occu-
py the street and keep up small rack.
ct with the opening and the shutting OF
the coach doors-while not soul
passed in or out of the houses. l do
not positively assert this to be the case,
but it would be just like Washington
and the mimicry of high life which is
affected by many whom fortune has not
we'll favored.
The strangest part of Washington
etiquette is that which is done on paste
board, and in amount it is much the
greatest. You send your card through
the mail to man you never saw, and
he sends his in reply. The ladies send
cards to each other and spend the whole
day riding to see people they don't care
about, and who don't care about them.
If history and biography didn't con-
vince us to the contrary, the conclusion
would be inevitable that Tom Hood had
spent a winter in Washington previous
to writing his charmingly satirical poem
on fashionable life, in which he makes
poor Mrs. Skinner the victim of mis-
placed affection. The parenthetic com
ments with which each verse concludes
are true to lite. | wish | could repeat
the whole, but the concluding stanzas
will do:
What! must you go Next time hope
You'll give me longer measure,
Nay-I shall see YOU down the stairs
with most uncommon pleasure.)
Good. bye! goodbye! Remember all
Next time you'll take your dinners,
(NOw David mind, I'm not at home
In future to the Skinners.D
There is no accounting for tastes.
Otherwise it would be difficult to rec
oncile to any known standard the im-
petuous rush of extensively -attired la
dies to the public receptions-such, for
instance, as the Spcaker's-which is a
satin. enameled mob, often rude and al
ways a gigantic squeeze. BY the way,
| have known gentlemen to swear like
troopers at this squeezing process,
though | have never heard of but one
lady who complained of it, and the OBJ
iects of her wrath were of her own sex.
| wouldn't, for the world, intimate that
the ladies rather like it, but | can not
help admiring the Christian fortitude
with which they bear it. | was inveig-
led into one of the Speakers receptions
q week ago. 1t took me haitian hour to
get to the dressing room, and another
half to reach the parlors where the re
cepting" was going on. My first i'm
pulse was to inquire for an accident in
surance agent, for l never expected to
get out alive, but | did, and with the
loss only of few coat buttons. shall
never go again, that's certain. Those
who are fond of such martyrdom may
indulge themselves to their hearts CON
tent.