The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1878-01-04
WASHINGTON.

YORK. SocioJlc. 49, Lodies and Dresses.
brutal Condor.-- state Erotics III
lie Copitm-LnNcd by the &r0y
Rhythm QfrcguiWPny.- .Siroiifed ond
.jossHterouS Society," The Bureau-
crdt, the adrm ONcer, anil me old
WdShingtOaioa.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20.
Old things are passing away, but ali
things are not made new. The old aud
the new are so blended that ii is impos-
sible To tell where the one ends, or the
other begins. There are many courses
from "the egg TO the APPLE" and there
is hazy frontier where vice fades into
virtue. Revelations no longer burst
upon our unprepared senses, but rather
dawn upon our eXpectant understand
ings. ! hope You will not think youi
correspondent has been drinking egg.
nogg, for all this platitudc is not that
ordinary Christmas inspiration, but
merely II prelude TO u letter upon the
decline and fall of the political machine
and the lesser wheels that will be bur-
led beneath its ruins; for, YOU know
the orator said: "Thc day that her GAL.
liant ship goes down, our little boat sinks
i'll the vortex" The 'little boat" is the
social machine. Political and social life
intertwine, hui this is simply n truism,
and n narrow one at that. for all life in
tertwincs.
Last night ! went to the first New
York state sociable of the season, and
was disappointed in not seeing as many
beautiful ladies as had expected to.
OF course it is ungallaut and brutal to
blurt this truth out, but paid for my
ticket, do not write for the Washington
papers. and i, is not necessary for YOU,
Mr.. Editor. To flaticr the ladies' Of this
city: You doubtless have enough of that
to do in your own district, and no man
should torture his conscience without
an object. From the accounts publish.
ed il the morning papers here of the
"brilliant affair."" the "supcrb dresses
and the styles of particular ladies, dis.
guised i'll such exquisite rhetoric, that
could the sentences be materialized into
fair womanhood, their own mothers
would not know them, it is evident
that the local press knows its business
and is not making any new departure
in this sweet branch of journalism. re
mollify the envy ofany woman who may
read the account in Washington pa
per, will say on the authority of an ex
pert, that there was but one costume
worth as much as $500, and that wa,
worn by n lady of odious complexion
J scraggy arms, and beny features. Ant
this was the New York sociable that, il
former time was, if not all that the To-
} cal journals said, at least something
more than sparse attendance of the
} department clerks of both sexes, fol-
the immense hall used to be crowded
} with senators and members of the low
er House, and not unfrequentlv the
president and cabinet were present
There is nothing much in the dccadcnct
of this social institution, except rs it il
, symptomatic of the decline of something
: more important. For wears the resi-
dents from different states have main
} tanned their respective state sociables n
= the Capital, and they have been minia
lure courts of the respective states, ant
intimately connected with their politi
cal campaign organizations. The New
\ ork organization while ii was formal
} ~ dissolved AT the order of the prcsi
dent, as Il political machine, encour
, aged by the defiance of Senator Conk
ling, has made desperate effort to lv,
in social guise, with half closed ev,
, on politics, waiting for what may turn
; up. Its effort to live, is, | believe.
failure, and its death is an episode il
the progress of reform. Reform in il
chronological sense means only change
Let us hope that the change. or reform
: will not be for the worse.
y remark heard very often in Wash
lhgtoh is, society here is very peculiar
il is not rs it is in other Places" Thos
who take a superficial view of the sub
Jcct, attribute certain social phcnomcu
TO what they vaguely term the dcpravi
~ OF Washington society. But socict,
} here, as elsewhere, is the result of nat,i
: raj, artificial, and psychological forces
and is not essentially different from TIN
; society of any capital, or from the socic
~ of the various localities which com
pose it. We have here the government
clerk from Maine, Tennessee, Soutl
Carolina, and every other state. As
) rule, do not think they are as well in
, formed, as easy and simple in their man
. ncrs, or as tasteful in their dress, os TN
1 average salesman or clerk in other cit
= les; but they are, in the worst sense
excellent politicians. They have live,
! long in fear of an official axe that ncyc
4 ceases to menance the thread of thei
, tenure. a long state of dependence
: and vassalagc has undermined thci
= manlincss, and stimulated the arts O
4 scrvility and cunning. Ii is the con
b. slant study of the clerk TO please In
e chief of his bureau, not so much by at
5 tcntion to his clerical work, rs by som
= personal favor or mark of homage: h
2 knows, by instinct, the observation q
Chesterfield, ''that princes are NOR
hattercd by personal attachment tha
by political SERVICE" and the chief q
the bureau is his prince. The bureau
: crat is in turn scrvile and cunning. TO
I his prince is cabinet officer, or som
n powerful political patron. And Thus
0 is through all the depths and shoals q
q political and official life. Titled men
I generals and judges, of soft muscle am
: mediocre ability, have their ambition
. soothed with sinecnres and the silver
i rythm of regular pay. With such me
4 and such motives il will be inferred tina
n society at the Capital, so far as il il at
p fected by departmental official life, ha
Il not III its organism the promise of pow
! or and perfection. But departmental
V official, and clerical society is what tw
= other classes in Washington would ca
e a lower strata. True, some of its ind
c viduals are cultured, as they say in Bos
= ton, and many others have progressed 5
d far as TO say "either" and .'neitber
l. with the long G) sound on the first sy
II liable. or if, through force of habit an
II II better education, they inadvertentl
/ give those words the (c) sound, the
e repeat and correct themselves as Judg
v Davis did on the same words in his fir,
5 speech in the senate. Big men. mca
a big in the way of beef and adiposc, Il
N pucrilc things sometimes. But TO +,
i turn 10 the subject, the higher strata {
II society is composed of naval aud mil
: tary officers. and their families. Th
n way they elevate their aristocraiic nose
II ape foreign manners and fashions, rem,
l. nm ordinary member of Congress unle,
l. he Is rich, or court and whccdle him
81 lac is ON tie naval or military COMM
tees. is. as the DrODriptor of n side shn,