Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-12-18
WASHINGTON GOSSIP.
SOME PEN PICTURES AND SOME CAB
MET sPEcULArIoNs.
Speculation Over the Next speakership-
The orening of Congress
sonal Mention-Etc.
WASHINGTON, December 5, 1880.

| WASHINGTON, December 5, 1880.
The week preceding the opening of each
session is scene of busy interest among
Congressman seeking for winter quarters.
| Some who are domiciled at the leading ho-
tells return to the same quarters each year
a few of the more stable ones at private
houses do the same thing, while quite a
percentage of the richer members rent
large residences and keep house at great
expense. Congressman Horace Davis hit
the golden mean in taking cosy brick
house, not large enough to he called a
mansion" but commodious and we'll
situated, and so establishing himself
and family there as to become iden-
titled with the habitation, and
to make his home cheerful, social center.
| For few months last season Mr.. and Mrs.
Page, who usually board, rented fur
nisned house on Thirteenth street, near E,
and lived to themselves very delightfully."-.
| There was no pleasanter place to call in all
the city than there and if particularly in
in favor you were shown the winsome baby
| daughter, who seemed to know how gladly
| she was welcomed into the world. Many
regrets are expressed that Mrs. Page has
not returned with her husband this win
ter. Senator Booth keeps the same par
lors from year to year at the corner of
Thirteenth and streets, and boards
sometimes at the Ebbitt, sometimes at the
Riggs. Senator and Mrs. Farley last win
ter boarded at the Arlington Hotel, where
Mrs. Farley was much admired and be-
| loved. Congressman Levi 2. Morton, the
wealthy New York banker, bought during
his first year here
| THE HISTORIC HOOPER MANSION
Opposite Wormley's Hotel, large, square,
] gray brick, with wide baronial hall
through the center, and double parlors at
the right; at the left the library, which is
also his office, and the conservatory
| Widowed off from the hall. But the latter
| is SO roomy, so accessible, and withal so
costly elegant that it seems the heart of
the house. A fine half length portrait of
! General Grant in full uniform hangs there.
The late Hon. Samuel Hooper, from whose
estate Mr.. Morton purchased the house,
was the father-in-law of Charles Sumner,
and chung to his old friendship for him
after Mr. Summers separation from his
daughter. He was member of Congress
from Massachusetts, and gave the house a
reputation for hospitality, especially for
fine dinners, which Mr.. Morton well sus-
tains. He is said by some to be the most
accomplished dinner host in the United
hot Tho
English fashion. He resided in London
some years at the head of his branch bank
ing house. Mr.. Morton put upon the
Hooper house SIS, 900 of repairs after its
purchase, and refurnished it in keeping.
Last winter it was the scene of
BRILLIANT HOSPITALITY
And as the family returned early to Wash
ington this fall, General and Mrs. Garfield
| while here week before last received at the
Mortons one of the most pleasant enter
tainments given them during their stay-a
breakfast on Saturday, at which there were
| invited to meet them, General and Mrs.
Sherman, Secretary and Mrs. Evarts, Ad-
miral Porter, Chief Justice Cartier of the
Supreme Court of the District, Commodore
and Mrs. Temple, General and Mrs. Beale.
(the entertainers of General Grant when
last here), Representative Amos Town
send, of Cleveland, and Major Swain,
United States Army. The latter is now
General Garfeld's Private Secretary, and,
it is said, will fill that position after March
4th.
Mr.. and Mrs Morton are very popu-
! lar with the chief members of the foreign
legations here, and their home is already
| much such a center of interest among
them as was that of the Hon. Hamilton
and Mrs. Fish when Mr.. Fish was Secre-
! tary of State. Sundry indications point
to Mr.. Morton as the possible
SECRETARY OF STATE
Under General Garfield. Those who have
booked him for Secretary of the Treasury
overlook the fact that he is prominent
member of the syndicate which negotiates
| Government bonds. He may retire from
| it, possibly, to assume the financial port
| folio of the Government, however, as he is
| looked to as peculiarly well adapted
| to fill Secretary Sherman's place. Mr..
| Morton is perhaps 30 in years, ele-
CANT and affable in manner, man sprung
from the people, yet with the polish of one
born to the purple. His wife, the COM
panion of a second marriage, is young and
beautiful fulI-faced, dimpled blonde,
with four little girls in her nursery, the
Oldest under seven. She was Miss Street,
of Poughkeepsie, N Y, niece of Alfred
B. Street, the poet, SO long State Librarian
at Albany. As Mr. Morton is also promi-
nently talked of for the New York SEN
atorship, to succeed Mr.. Herman, he may
emphatically be regarded as a coming
man" General Tyner, Assistant Post
MASTER General, speaks pleasantly of hav-
ing met him abroad in 1878, and of finding
him, in the circles of European courts, the
same frank, approschable, unembarrassed
gentleman as here, representative Ameri-
can citizen of the best type. With regard
to
THE PREMIERSHIP
In the Cabinet, while it is still nominally
vested in the Secretary of State, it lies
really in the Secretary of the Treasury, SO
vastly do our financial concerns now over
shadow those of mere diplomacy. Even in
our relations with foreign Powers these
overtop all other considerations, and the
| great question to them Is, What will be the
policy of the American department of
finance? The concerns of the State De-
partnent now are scarcely more than mat
tiers of etiquette, especially since the estab-
lishment of transatlantic telegraph COM
munication, through which differences are
so much more quickly arranged and adj
justed. Secretary Evarts has made some
commendable efforts at eniarging our com
merce; but we can never compete with
the larger foreign Powers in this while
our vessels are almost literally taxed off
the seas. The Department is trying
to put stop to this, by forbidding the
captains of our merchant vessels to pay
the extortionate demands for entering GER
tain foreign ports, and, instead, to report
the matter to the Consul at such port, who
pays in the name of the Government and
reports the extortion directly to the De-
partment. Otherwise, we have had under
this administration an unadyenturous for.
eign policy-not brilliant, like that of Sec
/