Daily globe., 1881-02-21
ST. PAUL SOCIETY.
The Great sRd PosceTGI aud the Brilliant
snd Beautiful Of 81. Paul ta attendance
at a Gererner's Reception.


at a Gererner's Reception.
Especial Correspondence Chicago Times.]
ST.. PAUL, Mimi, Feb. l6.-Gov. Pills
bury's reception at the Metropolitan
hotel on Friday evening was decidedly
the most successful one of the kind ever
given in st. Paul. In point of numbers
such an entertainment is pretty apt to
become unwieldy. 1t requires the genius
of field marshal to maneuver the soc cial
troops into the first positions and requi-
sitions of the presentations. After that,
in the matter Of supper, amusement, and
dancing, it may be sort of sause Qui
peut-or 60 as-you- please with the guests.
There never was so uncOnstrained and
genial multitude. 1t seemed as If the
presence of our sturdy, honest, guberna-
torial magistrate gave the dura which
made the vast throng kin.
There isn't in Minnesota to-day hap
pier embodiment Of the best type OF
western manhood than John s. Pillsbury.
He is one whose excellence must rather be
detected. 1t is never displayed. No one
who greeted him that pleasant evening
had any misgiving that he would ever
tarnish his reputation politically,
financially, or socially. While the
title of governor clings to him
land it is a mighty tenacious pre-
fix) it will be everywhere the passport of
trustv manhood He is loyal to the best
expectation of his constituency, and his
dictum on the disgraceful bond question,
in the finale Of his message, has sterling
ring which commends him to the indOrse
ment of the whole country. So much for
Honest John, governor of Minnesota, who
will be as memorable in the gubernatorial
annals as t'oher John of Massachusetts,
so dubbed for the same quality.
AS the passing hundreds halted an in
slant before the governor and his wife
before passing into the great hall it was
a fine exposition of Vanity Fair. Your
correspondent is seldom in the Jenkins
mood, which notes every imaginable
variety of toilet with an incomprehensi-
BILE enthusiasm whose rebound is to be
found in the sarcasm and savagery of
Sartor Resartus. But there are times when
the erewhile, distracted or Indifferent eye
regards a multitudinous and scientific
display like the governors reception in
much the same philosophic mood De
in brilliant festal scenes. 1t is not so
much what meets the eye, as what bio
graphic touches are suggested by the ap-
pcarance of each person. Some people
are always en- spectacle, and nothing suits
them better than big opportunity like
this reception. Conkling's turkey-gob-
bier strutting is fine, and effective at
at times-but when You get down to Mr..
Turveydrop as model of department it
isn't exciting especially when you know
that the posturing isn't original, but is
copied from the ''first gentleman in
Europe" or the last snob in America.
After saluting his excellency and wife,
the guests filed past Gen. Sibley and Mrs.
H. N. Knox, the governors assistants in
receiving. Mrs. Knox has very graceful
manners and q refined bearing, which
puts every guest at his ease, while that
surprising gentleman, Henry II. Sibley,
confers distinction upon any occasion
when he honors it with his presence. AS
he stood there greeting the passing
throngs one could not help specializing
over the varied scenes those kindly dark
eyes had taken upon their cognizant reti
mas from the hour when they first saw
the wilderness where St. Paul now shows
the cumulative metropolitan advance
ment and enterprise of the age.
After while the onlooker at the pro-
cessional stream became conscious that
one or two persons monopolized the space
in front Of the governor, and were either
holding a levee of their own, or cOnfus-
ing the established order of things by
clumsy attempts at introductions. One
person at times actually placed his liberal
palm on the nigh shoulder blade Of some
of the advancing women, and gave
Herewith gentle and reassuring propul-
sion beyond the receiving group. 1t would
seem that those deputed were equal to
the task of presentation, but with all the
skirmishing many individuals had to in
troduce hemselves-curiously, the wife
of prominent lawyer. But it may be
said apologetically that the public hardly
gets accustomed to one wife before she is
supplanted by another-a case Of plant
and supplant, with death the removing
cause. DR.. johnson calls second mar
rlages the triumph of hope over expert
ence, but really three or four experiences
of this kind are too One-sided triuMphs,
and hazardous TO the successor.
The glittering uniforms of army Off
GERS gave the gilt edge to the reception.
In the military set the wife OF Col. Ruck-
er was picture of gra ce and refinement;
so unconscious, too, Of her exquisite
spell for the heholder that it constituted
fresh thrall.
Whenever Mrs. Aaron Goodrich is Wis
ible in any public assemblage there are
very few women comparable to her in
stately loveliness. One may call hers the
marble imperator face, as the Hungari-
ans saluted Maria Theresa as king Its
every outline has intellectual beauty,
which makes it doubly dear and attract
i've to the artistic eye. She is well-nigh
as accomplished in every direction as
Story, the sculptor, and yet she is as
simple and unaffected as if no unusual
gifts crowned her life.
The most harmoniously dressed lady
was Mrs. d. M. Sabin, of Saltwater, who
made striking tableau with her blonde
hair and fair face cOntraSted with the
dark locks, beard and eyes of her very
successful and influential husband, Rep
resentative IN the present legislature
from Washington county. The Sabin
homestead in Saltwater is like the ideal
English home in spaciOusness and pos
tive comfort rather than the usual
gorgeousness of the American moneyed,
success. 1t is built on one of the pic
turesque heights of the fine old town,
and each window frames some suggestive
landscape of bold bluffs, glancing streams.
deep ravine, and rushing trains. Every
thing that can minister to the ease of life
has answered the staying hand of d.. NJ.
Sabin in this admirably appointed house
of his. Wealth, political power, and
stanch adherence of all sorts of people-a
fealty begotten measurably, perhaps, of
the controlling grip of these prominent
factors---have made D. NJ. Sabin, still in
his early manhood, force not to be light
ly estimated in any opposing combina-
ton, whether it be the States prison con-