The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-01-03
AFFAIRS IN WASHINGTON.
From Our Regular Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 1877.
Old things are passing away, but all
things are not made new. The old and
the new are 80 blended that it Is impossi-
BILE ~ tell where the one ends or where
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 Understandings.
! hope you will not think your cor.
respondent has been drinking egg nogg,
for all this platitude is not that ordinary
Christmas inspiration, but merely pre-
lude tn letter upon the decline and fall
of the political machine, end tho lesser
wheels that will be buried beneath it's
ruins; for, you know, the orator said {:
"the day that her gallant ship goes down,
our little boat sinks in the vortex" The
"lit.le boat" is the social machine. Po-
litical and social life intertwine, but this
Is simply truism, and & narrow ono Mt
that, for oil life intertwines.
Last night went TO the first New York
State sociable OF the season, and was dis
appointed in not seeing as many beauti-
fai ladies as had expected to see. OF
course It Is ungnllant and brutal to blurt
this truth out, but / paid for my ticket,
do not write for tho Washington papers.
and 1t is not necessary for you, Mr.. Edi-
tor, to flatter the ladies of thiu city yon
doubtless have enough of that to dc in
your own district, and no man should tor
ture his conscience without an object.
From ..e accounts published in the
morning papers here of the brilliant
affair."" "the superb dresses" and the
styles of particular ladies, disguised in
such exquisite rhetoric, that, could the
sentences be materialized into fair wo-
manhood. their own mothers would not
know them-it Is evident that the local
press knows its business, and is not max
ing any new departure il. this sweet
branch of journalism. To molify the
envy of any woman who may read the
account in d Washington paper, will
say, on the authority ofa expert, that
there was but emo costume worth rs much
as 5000, and that was worn by lady of
odicus complexion, scraggy arms and
heavy features. And this was the New
York sociable that, in former times was,
If not all that the local journals said, at
least something moro than q spase at
tendance of Department clerks of both
sexes, for the immense hall used to be
crowded with Senators and Members of
the lower House, and not unfrequently
the President and Cabinet were pr ent.
There Is nothing much in the decauence
&c this social institution, except az it is
symptomatic Of the decline Of something
more important. For years the residents
from different States have maintained
their respective State sociabies at the
Capitol, and they have been miniature
courts of the respective States, and init
niateiy connected with their poiiaica,
campaign organizations. The New York
organization, while 1t was formally dis.
solved at the order Of the President, as q
political machine, encouraged by the de.
fiance OF Senator Conkling, has made q
desperate effort to live in 81 :. guise,
with half closed eyeon politics, waiting
for what may turn up. It's effort to live
Is, believe, 6 failure, and It's death is an
episode in the progress Of reform. Re.
form, in its genealogical sense, means
only change. Let us hope that the
change, or reform, viii not be for the
worse.
a I5uiaFa mvaT9 vvIy oss5ii iii Wlsi,-
ington is: Society here is very peculiar,
it is not as it is in other places" Those
vino take superficial view, of the sub-
ject, attribute certain social phenomena
10 what they vaguely term the deprayity
of Washington society but society here,
al elsewhere, IL the result of natural, arti-
ficial, and psychological, forces, and Ia nos
asea,.Giallr difEagant from The anniasss'nc nc
any Capital, or from the society Of the
various localities which compose it. We
have hero The. government clerk from
Maine, Tennessee, South Carolina and
every other State; as q rule, I do not
think they are as well informed, az easy.
5l,i sit1Eiie In their manners, or a4 ta5tc-
saaiil Ia their dress, as the average salesman
al clark IN other citisa, but they are, in