The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1884-07-10
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.
who Shall preside over it for the New
Term

TERM
New York World.
WASHINGTON, D. @. June 2l.-Who |
is to be the mistress Of the White house
is question now agitating the palpitat
ing heart of society in Washington. |
Whether it will be Mrs. Blaine, with her |
tall, commanding figure, stern New En-
gland face, reserved, almost exclusive
manner, or whether the wife OF some |
democrat, say Hrs. Justice Field, whose |
home now is in the old Capital prison,
overlooking the capital; Mrs. Melon
aid, OF whom many unkind and unjust
things have been written; Mrs. Bayard,
whose long residence in Washington IS
q senator's wife fits her for that position,
or whether We shall have again
bachelor president, as WAS the case in
the last democratic admInistration-I
these are the questions discussed among |
society people. who look upon the oc-
cupant of the White house az controlling |
to great extent society affairs during |
the presidential term. Should Mrs.
Blaine be the mistress of the White |
house fewer people would see its walls |
and enjoy its social privileges than was
l00 CdeE tuC ld6b I1l6lECDo p1OpCL VI 1
the White house.
Mrs. Blaine is lady honored in So
CietY, beloved by those who know her
well, but has not the happy faculty of
making friends and acquaintance and |
retaining them which her husband pos |
| sesses. A society writer, discoursIng up |
on this subject recently, said: at Is be- !
| ing discussed in society by those who re-
member the plans for the great eXclu- |
siVeness at the White house begun land
| suggested, as all believe, by Nrs. Blaine)
with the early weeks of the Garfield ad-
ministration how thoroughly Mrs.
Blame, if her husband was elected presI-
dent, will carry on: the projects, for, as
then expressed 1t. Working people es-
TEEN II q privilege to go to the White
| house. II Is q Well-knoWn fact that
many who went to call on Mrs. Garfield
on Tuesday and Friday evenings at the
| White house before her Illness began
were refused admission, while others at
| the same time were admitted. Some
were refused even after they sent in their
| cards"
| Mrs. Blame is of New England stock
tall, we'll formed. with strongly fea-
lures, set In u frame of gray, almost
| white, hair; stern, earnest character and
manner, and long experience IN pub
lie life such as few women have had.
The mother of half dozen children
she has not allowed her social duties to
interfere with those of her home, and
yet on the other hand has never neglect
ed her duties to society or her husbands
position. The entertainments at the
Blaine mansion have always been ele
CANT and attended by only the best ele-
ments of society. Personally she does
not enjoy public life or its hoDoTs, and
it is more that the GROWING ambition OF
her husbands life might be realize d that
she welcomed the result of Chicago
than for her own sake or that of her
family.
The duties of mistress" of the White
house are not of a character to make
them agreeable TO q retiring woman
such as Mrs. Blaine. Indeed, the duties
of society in Washington are OF most
exacting and painful nature. The wife
| of the president and those of the cabinet
officers are exempt from some of the
duties, in that they are not required to
return the calls of all whose faces are
seen in their parlors or whose cards fall
, like snowf1akes at their doors. Indeed,
it would be a physical impossibilIty
that they should do this, for their call
ars are numbered by thousands. To
make the cabinet rounds" on Wednes-
, day, TO call on the mistress of the White
house on Saturday afternoon is coDsid-
cred the privilege of anybody In this
free and republican country, and the re-
suit is that these ladies see thousands of
people whom they do not know, and of
/ course don't care to know. Yet there
} are many duties which the mistress of
/ the White house must assume which are
very laborious. The long Saturday af-
ternOon receptions at which she must
stand hour after hour and shake weaIi-
| lxyt ho h0ndG of hnnnFad0 and fhnn aF,1s
who drift by, few really caTlog for
her, the majority curiosity seekers in a
somewhat higher sense than the word is
3 used when applied to the T9bble which
surges through the White house when
1t is thrown open to the public on new
? years, and at various times OF this sort.
The president usually holds little re-
E ception each day at noon, receiving
those who have called during the fore
noon and have cared to wait. In this,
: happily, the mistress Ofthe White house
3 is not expected to join. There are. how
ever, many other duties quite as diff
J ficult. The many state dinners, at
width she must sit for hours the return
8 diners given by cabinet officers, the GER
, emonial visits of representatives OF for
!, eigD governments, all add greatly to the
: duliesOt the hostess. Mrs. Blaine is by
! experience and physique well fitted for
century here, during nearly all OF
9 which time her husband has been q
3 social center. No other woman in
J Washington, except, perhaps, Mrs. Lo.
: gan, has had a broader experience in
I this regard, or Is better able to fill the
e arduous duties of the place.
D General Logan is the first married
t man nominated by the republican party
for vice. president in twenty years. His
wife, Mrs. Logan, is one of the most pop
e ular and brilliant women in socsety In
e figure she is much like her associates, Mrs
. Blaine, and IN face they ale somewhat
t similar. In gentleness of manners and
i tact as q politician and social leader she
o is surpassed by few. She attends per
e sonallY to the senator's political affairs
2 | supervising the work relative to his
: large correspondence. examining into
9 the subjects referred to IN the thousands
e of letters he receives, and making her.
/ self quite as familiar with his affairs a
e he IS himself. Personally she is per,
haps the better politician of the
! two. She has taken a fighting
I hand in all his campaigns, and in abIli
8 ty to entertain and make friends, politi
s cal and personal, she is surpassed by few
t women in public life. One other sena
= tors wife is somewhat like her in thii
r respect-Mrs. General Williams of Ken
T lucky. In person Mrs. Logan Is quite
8 as attractive as Mrs. Blame, In manne1
9 even more so. She is tall with wei
/ rounded figure, handsome intelligent
u face, hair almost as white as the driver
d snow, in marked contrast with the rsver
i locks of "Black Jack, " her husband.
: A couple of Canadian Indian womcr
4 are selling bead work in the town