Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-04-16

ihS bOu ulO lCOSlfAuR az TIC Hduub vi
the administration. 1t seems that,
Mrs. Hayes having put her little
foot down on the wine at the White
House, the diplomatic corps cannot
be invited to dine, because, as Mr..
Evarts has impressed it upon the
family, that a dinner without wine
would be regarded as an insult.
We learn that it is an actual fact
that at state dinners milk and wa
ter are actually substituted for wine,
and that intoxicating liquors are
abolished from the board. Absurd
stories are told among the amazed
diplomats how a servant goes
around behind the guests with a
pitcher in each hand, and says,
"Water, sir?' "Milk, sir?" eva
ter, sir?" But, of course, this is
an exaggeration.
If milk is really substituted for
wine fish ought to be banisbed, for
milk on fish is provocative of more
collie than any other indigestible
combination known to suffering
humanity; unless indeed lime water
be added; and the servant entrust-
ed with the distribution of the milk
ought to follow with a jar of lime
water to neutralize the yitiated acid
sure to come.
The fact is, the dinner itself
should be abolished. It's heavy
affair at best, when enliyened by
sherry and champagne. 1t is a
nuisance when given over to heavy
eating and heavier talk. Of course
Mrs. Hayes has a right to reduce
her principles to practice, and we
honor the courage that carries it
out in the teeth of custom or fash
ion. But the reform is only posi-
BILE in banishing the dinner itself.
A state dinner at the Executive
Mansion is quasi official cere-
mony, and when the wine is elimin-
ated it not only loses its official sig
ni6cance, but degenerates into a
heavy, indigestible bore.
If their high principles will not
allow the use of wine common sense
dictates an absence of dinner. Let
the stupid affair be ruled ont, as we
learn the diplomatic corps is yirtu-
ally set aside.
TACT.
! We have heard lions roar in our
time, and experience has taught lis
something, and after a years obser-
vation we think we have discovered
the cause of the administration
trouble. There is too much ice in
it. ...a
We assert, strange as it may
sound, that the trouble is not in the
Cancellation at the South, nor alto
gether in attempted civil service
reform, but in the strange way the
administration removes itself from
social contact with the world about
| it. No man calls on the President
that does not leave with the i'm
preston that, although the smiles
we're smiles, and the voice soft and
low, yet the smiles were sunlight on
snow, and the voice, be it ever 50
soft, was wind coming through the
key-hole of an ioe-cheSt.
MeSsrs. Evarts, Sherman and
Schurz are worse yet. Talk of send
ing ships in search Of the north
pole when we have the poles all
about us; and if the north pole,
"lost in the gathered winters OF
a thousand years." is no better than
these Official poles of ours, it is not
worth the trouble Of finding.
i The entire absence of the fasei-
mating influence OF social life, the
absence of all tact, rpnder every ono
| uncomfortable and discontelted,
Flowers anu buttermilk, hymns Of
praise and prayerfui regard for the
high morahties are al! very well IN
their way; but they are also in the
way-whcn made to do duty for all