The New York herald., 1871-02-05
Washinston Sociosy.

just as France exults in the pres ervation OF
the Boulevards as the symbol Of worldwide
power, so the South may exclaim, ''Washing-
ton, at all events, is still ours" The Blairs,
the Corcorans the Carlisles, the Kennedys,
the Army and Navy and department bureau
Gratis, all the same coteries which basked in
the sunshine Of the cotton aristocracy. are as
fsurishing as ever. Mrs. Fish's house. in
days of yore the favorite resort of the Slidells
and Masons and all the grandees of the South,
is again the great focus Of society, with this
difference, that while in the days of the
supremacy of Mrs. Sldell, Mrs. Clay and Mrs.
Fitzpatrick Mrs. Fish was only characterized
as being highly respectable, she is at the pre-
sent day extolled as being supremely queenly.
Bevies of young girls, recruited from the
remnants of the ex-slavery gentry, with here
and there an interloper from radical ranks,
revelve, as in the days of Jefferson Davis,
around Mrs. Fish's throne, while small attaches,
supposed to represent royal and gentle blood,
confirm the pretensions of aristecratic associa-
tions, dazzling the imagination with distant
glimpses Of court life and permeating even
unsophisticated Westerns with rapturous
ecstasies about the foreign legations. The
plantation lords and ladies of the South con-
sdered themselves jast as good, if not better
than foreign legations, and were consequently
less subservient to them than is the fashion
nowadays. Rank and power somehow are
more intensely worshipped in the late Southern
and present federal capital in these days of
negro liberty than was the case in the days of
slavery, the black man himself being as obse-
quious to those dressed in little brief autho-
rity as he is impertinent to those who are not.
Anybody with handle to his or her name is
toadied in q manner which surpasses in the
heaviness of its incense that lavished on
officials in the capitals of the Grand Duchesse
de Gerolstein, or the Prince of Monaco and
the Duke of Modena. But this tendency is
not without artistic compensation. 1t intro
duces the opera 6oute element into Washing
ton society, and nothing can afford more
exhilaraton than the accounts published, and
even telegraphed, of the social entertainments
Of the District Of Columbia
The negro contributes not little to impart
pleasant zest to these comical ingredients.
In city where that party which rose to
power through him is enthroned he is more
than an Irish or a German citizen.
He looms up in the epical pro-
portions of party pet and a nations
darling. He stalks through Pennsylvania
avenue with proud consciousness that had it
not been for him and the African sun, which
oly; ;p oY,d GaJ hc;c
would have been no war, no public debt, no
Boutwell,, no Grant, no Revels, no Downing,
no Wormley, no Forney, no Sumner, no loaves
or fishes for his patrons. But socially he is
still under the ban. Only a year ago the mar
riage Of the Portuguese Minister'S brother-in-
law with lady of that anointed race set the
District of Columbia's old Southern gentry
wild with furious emotions, and although
several gentlemen of Nubiau descent are
members of the House of Congress their
ladies have not yet had the entrfe to the Fish
entertainments. Still the dense African
population crowded in from the country
in the past few years to certain
districts give pleasant pastoral aspect
to the city, which is enhanced by
the cattle which browse with idyl-like sim
plicity through the streets. The cows and
pigs in Washington do not seem disturbed by
contact with what are termed superior animals
They deport themselves like peers and peer
esses in their own right, and don't 60 out of
their way to make room for Congressman, a
foreign minister, or even Mrs. Fish.
Still it would carry romance too far to pre-
sumo that Washington was entirely opera
boute or idyllic. There is a demon of cor
ruption lurking beneath both. And the South
erners never loved cotton more than their sue
cessors in Washington society love dollars.
Hence, in a population noted for its
dependence on public support, the
smallest amount of wealth goes a great
way socially. The consequence is
number of emigrants to Washington who
have accumulated some means by dabbling
In real estate, or in governmental contracts
and miscellaneous jobbery, rise to a social
eminence in Washington which they could
never acquire here. So that amusingly obscure
and insignificant people become in Washington,
by skiful manipulation OF local society what
Mrs. Grundy SO pleasantly pronounces the
''crsme de Ia crsme." Thus small shoddy
element is added to the opera 6ou.te of social
Southern legacy and its Northern reinforce
msnts. Then there are the mllionnares Of the
Senate Chandler, of Michigan Pomeroy, Of
Kansas Sprague, Of Rhode Island. In fact,
most Of the Senators have managed to gobbls
up land aud dollars except Wilson, Sumner,
Schurz, Edmunds, Patterson and few
others who constitute pauper minor
ity. In the House there are Fernando
Wood and John Morrissey, both renowned for
their fabulous wealth. and the former for his
gorgeous entertainments, which are attended