Smyrna times., 1883-01-31
Social Life in Washington.

Mary Clemmer, the brilliant Wash
IngtOn correspondent of the New York
Independent thus describes life in Wash
ington city:
Walking slowly along Pennsylvania
Avenue one perfect day, could but
think how much of the really pictur-
esque was missed by artists who never
came here. Only Southern city. en-
circled by large rural country, pre-
sents such sights. The Maryland
carts; the Virginia wagons, with their
dusky drivers of every age and degree.
one sees them in no city north of Balti-
more. The patched, picturesque gar
ments of the men, the bright tartans of
the women, often the beautiful faces of
the children-On they go in the slowest,
most helter-skelter fashion, grazing
their outleaning wooden wheels against
the gilded coaches of "the great"
never moved from their imperturbabii-
ty, though you wonder their legs or
their necks are not broken every hour.
Here comes pair of country folk, on
horseback, slowly jogging home in the
late afternoon, followed by little girl,
on pony, her hair hanging below her
waist in a fleece of gold. Swiftly by
this sylvan group glides bicycle, then
another and another, the last victorious
vehicle of this latter day. The past
century and the present meet on the
broad, great thoroughfare and, strange
to tell, despite their often startling
proximity, there is full room for all.
The European palace, the medieval
hut are equally represented; and on
the wide boulevard of the promenade
equal extremes meet. The girl from
the country, in every ray of the rain
bow, jOstles the West End belle, in her
imported costume. The senator, the
supreme judge, the jolly, eager-eyed
congressman, bent on constitution
al" walk from the Capitol, is stared at
by the country clerk, and ignored by
the country gentleman, and closely
scanned by the great army of the
strange, the queer, the wicked, with
pockets full of claims" and heads full
of schemes, who always crowd the
avenue during the sessions of congress.
Gazing upon it all-the vivid, varying
picture, which no words can fully por-
tray-I recalled the the Pennsylvania
Avenue of less than twenty years ago.
No streetcars! No ladies! No bicyc-
les. But there were Virginia carts,
and one little stage, that used to tug as
many senators and members as could
pack into it to Georgetown. The
Avenue, then more than sixty years
old, was not touched by the suggestion
of a Capitol and such, a few years
before, where the then just budding
: Congressional Garden was, stretched
the Washington Slave Market. Where
, BerthOldi's fountain now plays and
handsomely dressed colored men and
women promenade beside it, then
7 women were shamed and sold as they
! are to-day in Circassian markets, and,
alas that l should say it, as they are
t to-day in the Chinese markets of
r California.
A fact concerning New Years day,
3 that forgot to mention last week,
: mention now, as it is of value to many
= people. Liquor, as rule, was banish-
1 ed from all receiving" tables, even
$ the most elegant in Washington, on
a New Years Day. Instead, the cup
n that cheers and does not inebriate was
. everywhere proffered. You remember
e Thackeray said that Mature meant
: kindly by woman when he made her
the tea plant"; and at present she
D finds it pleasant to ply her stimulant-
o loving mate with the same gentle de-
n coction. Tea-kettles, on shining hobs
a appear in elegant drawing-rooms, and
q fair daughters of the household distill
n and pour it out in the daintiest of cups,
for coming and parting guests. Sherry
W and champagne still inger at loaded
IS dinner tables; but it is the tea-cup
r that pours out comfort at receptions
aRd afternoon "teas." The tea-party
8 is no longer monopolized by the neigh
o. borly, stocking-knitting, patchwork
IN stitching sisters of rural regions; il
= flourishes like home plant in the
of bright shades of the Capital. And
I'd how few are the years since the laugh
~ went round in fashionable circles Al
Is. Mrs Hayes because it was tea she
I'd poured, instead of wine. Despite the
I'd laugh, she set the fashion, and on New
Years Day not reeling man was seer
W making zigzags on the streets of Wash
I'd ington.