News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-06-29
MRS. DOUGLAS,s TEACUPS.
The Clever Manner in which She
Set an Awkward, but Influential,
Guest at Ease.

A story has been going the rounds of
the press lately, attributed to Mrs. Sen
ator Bingham-if any historian can re-
member such Selator-that infringes
too closely upon an incident in the life
of Mrs. Stephen a. Douglas to be let
pass unmolested. The tradition tellers
and the legend lovers of Washington,
have always remembered the pretty and
graceful ways of Mrs. Douglas, and
never ceased to hold her up as the
model of a statesman's wife. Her tact
and her amiability were boundless, and
although when she married the Little
Giant she was very young and much
his junior, she adapted herself to the
position from the start so thoroughly
that no wife of twenty years experience
in public life could equal her. For
every friend, for every constituent, and
for every enemy OF Senator Douglas she
had just the right thing ready to say,
and, with her wonderful memory for
names, faces and places, she was never
without sou1e- ll55ss'UIIssi inquiries 70
make of each stranger. Her social in
stinct was as marvellous rs the gift of
second sight, and when she accompa-
MED Mr.. Douglas on his famous jour
ney through the South to visit his
mother, there was not person encoun-
tered in all that tour that she could not
have recognized at sight and called by
name, had they entered her parlor un
announced year later. Mrs. Doug
lass popularity wes wonderful at tnat
time, and her face and winning ways
made friends right and left for the Sen
ator, at that time a candidate for the
Presidency.
At one of her receptions in Washing
ton great, shy, awkward constituent
from the most rustic region of Illinois,
presented himself in Mrs. Douglass
doorway, sent up there from the Capt.
tol by the Senator, who assured him
that his wife would be delighted to see
him. The visitor was anything but
parlor ornament, rude, unpublished
son Of the prairie, unused to any of the
ways of society, but a power in the
politics OF his home, and g. mau whose
influence could be of vast assistance to
Mr.. Douglas. Entering the room gave
him a nervous chill, Mrs Douglass
pretty greeting threw him into fever,
and her inviting him out to the re-
freshmeDt room completed q case of
palsy. Ignoring his trepidation she
chatted away to him herself, paid no
attention to his stammering refusals,
and poured out the tea into some mirac-
ulous little cups Of eggshell Sevres.
Grasping the fairy calyx in his fingers
fer first sip, the delicate bit of Sevres
was crushed to pieces and the hot tea
poured in q stream over Mrs Douglass
silker train. With a gay laugh the
lady said, Z" How brittle they are just
look at NINE" and with a mighty effort
she broke another cup between her
fingers. Reassured, the constituent
drew his breath aud found himself at
edSSy WnlIo bLdb fuCOlu pdldOlS AObGcoo
talked to him, asked about his mother,
his wife and bis ch7dren, all of whom
she remembered 81 well and called
by name. That nun went home to
work for, vote for and swear by Stephen
A. Douglas, and way back of his polit-
ical convictions lay the pieces of those
two broken teacups.
Some ladies were discussing the Incl
dent at lunch party the other day,
establishing Mrs. Douglass right to
fame and routing the mythical Mrs.
Senator Bingham, of whom the per-
verted story has lately been told. Said
one pretty woman: 81 wouldn't break
my best teacdps for any constituent III
my husbands district" Out OF the
group there was only one who coura-
geously said, I'D break my whole
dinner set, if it would send my husband
to the Senate and buy new ones when
got to Washington, she shrewdly
added.