The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-12-15
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent.

WASHINGTON, D. c., Dec 12, 1888.
Though "the season" in the official
social circles of the capital does not open
until the first of January. there have been
few informal receptions, ETC., and on
some days the door steps of certain resi-
dences have been pretty wUh htteAcu Win
the tissue slips dropped from packages of.
visiting cards 1t must he an awful bore
to be the wife of an official and receive
this stream of callers on certain days,
yet the ladies seem to like it and are even
more ambitious than their husbands to
occupy the positions placing them high
in the social scale. There being no Mrs.
Arthur in the White House, and Senator
Anthony who is to be president of the
senate, and really vice president, being a
bachelor. Mrs Carlisle, the wife of the
new speaker, will occupy the position of
society leader this winter, At all official
dinners Mrs Carlisle, like Mrs Keifer
last year, will rank her husband and if
the president is present will take the po-
sition corresponding to his. This official
etiquette seems very strange outside of
Washington, but here where so many
guests at entertainments are official it is
absolutely necessary that there should be
some rule of precedence, or else there
would be bitter jealousies At a dinner
the oldest senator in point OF service
takes precedence of all other senators
present, even though he may be the dullest
and most uninteresting one present. In
the same way the members who have
served the longest take precedence of the
younger ones.
Mrs Carlisle is woman who will
grace her position. She is Kentuckian,
her father having at one time been Mayor
of Covington, and she inherits the splen-
did physique for which Kentucky bellies
are famous. She is blonde in complex
ion, with bluegray eyes. and figure as
little as a young girls. 1t is difficult to
realize that she is the mother of two
grown sons. She is dignifed, but unas-
suming in manner, loyal to her friends
and kind to every one. Her great faith
in her husbands success was well illus
trated in her cool confidence during the
Speakership contest. No one showed less
excitement. and whenever the subject was
broached to her she said calmly; 81 am
just as certain of his being Speaker as |
am that I'm alive OF course no one can
beat John. He has never been beaten yet
when he was candidate for anything y
Even had Senator Edmunds rename d
President of the Senate Mrs. Edmunds
would not have taken her place as society
leader, as she is in mourning for daugh-
ter. The Presidents house will be unu-
sually gay this winter, it is said. Mrs,
McElroy, of Albany, the. Presidents sister,
will be here with her beautiful daughter
to do the honors there. They say MIR.
Arthur is remarkably fond of music,
though the stories about his banjo playing
and jig dancing are not quite true. One
of his friends says that even well tuned
hand organ has charms for the President
and relates the following incident: "0ne
day few weeks ago he was driving in
| from Soldier home accompanied by Miss
Nellie and myself. We had just turned
into Fourteenth street when hand organ
was heard playing lively air near by.
In an instant the Presidents face bright
ened up, and when we reached the spot
where the organ grinder was standing he
ordered the driver to stop. For fifteen
minutes we remained there until the Ital-
ian had exhausted his repertoire and his
monkey had climbed into the carriage
twice. Each visit of the latter was re
warded with quarter of dollar, which
seemed to astonish his master when he
received it, and then drove on and the
organ grinder and the children grouped
around never knew that the distinguished