The Portland daily press., 1881-02-17
PRICE 8 CENTS.
Washington Etiquette.

Questions of etiquette are sometimes very
troublesome in Washington, and all the more
because very many of the denizens of that
| city, who come from distant and rural homes,
know and care nothing about etiquette. How
little the honorable gentlemen from Symme's
Hole suspects, as he is asked to to take Mrs.
Senator Red Velvet to dinner, that the chair
in which he shall sit and the lady whom he
shall hand out have been subjects OF long and
anxious deliberation. 1t is easy to call ON
Wormley, or Welcker, or Pinard, or some
other Chef, and order a dinner for twenty.
But who shall sit where, and who shall hand
whom?-these are the questions which cause
vexation and anguish. A distinguished Off
cial gentleman in Washington gave a noble re-
past in honor of a noted guest. 1t was ordered
OF the proper pnrveyor. 'Now," said the host
when he had bade no expense to be spared, 81
don't know anything about the business of
seating people correctly. You must attend to
that too" The purveyor went straight to an
other distinguished man, who had not been
invited to the dinner because it would not be
agreeable to some other distinguished man
who was invited, and distinguished man num-
Der one was immensely amused that he was
called upon to seat the guests at the dinner
1t Is all the more perplexing, because. al
though Washington is always full of official
persons who are really Indifferent to etiquette
and who greet it with hearty democratic
laugh, yet because Of its official population
there has been from the first especial attention
paid by experts to the subject. Washington
took grave counsel upon it, and Hamilton
gave him some canons Of behavior in writing,
and there is alleged to be more rigid system
OF social etiquette among official persons in
washington than iS he fOund in circia
elsewhere in the country. There are asserted
to be due rules for the first calling" of Sena-
tors wives, and the wives of the members of
the Cabinet and of Justices of the Supreme
point. inuaip araat fran6la al ans
years ago Senator gave dinner to which the
Secretary of State was invited. When dinner
was announced, the host turned to the senior
Senator, the dean of the Senatorial Chamber,
and asked him to take the lady Of the house
to the table. The senior Senator hesitated say
ing to his colleague that the Secretary OF
State was in the room. "Pshawl we Senators
make Secretaries of State" was the answer;
and the host insisted that in his house nobody
should precede the dean Of his own body.
Mr.. LOSING, in recent pleasant article
upon this subject, recalls the famous merry"
affair in Jefferson's time, which was fortu-
nately less serious in results than the Mrs.
Eaton difficulty which broke up General
Jacksons Cabinet. Mr.. Merry was the En-
glsh Minister at Washington in 1909, and he
President Jefferson. Whether the dinner was
designed especially to honor them we do not
know, but when i, was announced, Mr.. JEFF
fersoD, who was talking at the moment with
Mrs Madison, wife of the Secretary of State,
offered his arm to her, and handed her to the
to the table. The wrath of the English Min
lister and of Mrs. Merry, that any other lady
should have been selected for this distinction,
was great. Tom Moore was guest at their
house. and he wrote home that the President
had traafad than with fpointad iuaiyiIitv -
and he added with the excellent gravity Of a
man who "felt at home the moment his foot
touched carpet" that "it is only the pre-.
carious situation of England which could in
duce it to overlook such indecent, thougt at
the same time petty, hostility"
The matter took air. Mr.. Merry doubtless
appealed to his diplomatic colleagues to re-
member that, like Majesty itself, they were
but ceremonies, and if the Democratic poten-
tate proposed to treat ceremonies with con-
tempt what would become of their Excellen-
cies? The Federalists took it up. The Pres
ident, they said, had needlessly insulted Great
Britain and disgraced his own country. Sec
retary Madison wrote to Mr.. Monroe, then
Minister to England Mr.. Monroe had heard
of the matter from friendly Under Secretary,
who darkly limited that ne might hear of it
officially. But Mr.. Monroe silenced him by
humorously saying that his government would
put in reloinder because his informant's
wife had been accorded similar precedence
to the wife OF the American Minister. The
ridiculous teapot tempest bubbled and boiled
and hissed. The English Minister coldly went
to the White House only on official business
The indignant Mrs. Merry declined to darken
its insulting doors. jefferson at last intimated
that they should be invited to dinner. Mr..
Merry graciously acquiesced, and the invita-
tions SENT But Madame sternly held out like
Joan of Arc, or a Maid of Saragossa,o or Molly
Pitcher. The honor of her country and its
crown were at stake. The rock should fly
from its firm base as soon as she. She carried
the day The British Minister asked if he
was invited in a private or public capacity; If
officially, he must have the consent of his SOW
ereign, ii privately, he must be assured that
he should be treated with dignity. Secretary
Madison replied that the President directed
him 10 say that Mr.. and Mrs. Merry should do
just as they pleased. And the tempest ended
in laugh.-Easy Chair in Harper's Maga-
zine