Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-04-04
MRS. BLAINE.
j Statesman's Wife Who is Not at all
Popular with Women.

y Statesman's Wife Who is Not at all
Popular with Women.
A new Congressman's wife-and they
hear more gossip in their first year than
in all the rest of the time they stay here
was telling me, says a Washington letter
to the st. Louis GlO6C- Democrat. of the
discussion she had heard during a week
of afternoon calls. At every other place
Mrs. Blaine was the topic of talk, and ex-
cept for the sectional and lukewarm de-
fenses by the New EnglandeDeople. there
were no champions for the cause Of Mrs
Blaine. The majority decided that they
never wanted TO see her i'm the White
House and would prevent it if they could.
The most of these women are really afraid
Of Mrs. Blaine, and she has frigiditv OF
demeanor that impresses some men with
nervous desire to get away from her.
While her husband occupied public posi-
tions here and her house was omen TO
callers on the customary afternoon OF each
week, many who went there to pay their
respects owned up to a regular stage
fright as they entered the parlOr. They
all stood in awe Of Miss Dodge (Gail
HamiltOn), who is a cousin of Mrs.
Blaine's and spends the winters with her.
and when they learned that Miss Dodge
had small opinion of the average woman's
mind, reasoning and conversational pOw-
ers, they felt more uncomfortable still
Mrs. Blaine is a magnificent looking wo-
man; tall and of majestic carriage. with
prominent aquiline nose, strong features
and crown of gray hair. She is an ideal
duchess Of the old regime when arraved
in evening dress. with her diamonds
sparkling about her; and once this win
ter, when she wore black lace dress. re-
lieved with knots Of orange velvet rib
bOns, and she low ball cOrsage revealing
her plump shoulders and arms. she was a
picture to be remembered. Her sons are
fine looking men, but neither OF her
daughters equal their mother in appear
ance. All six of her children have the
strOngly-marked features Of both father
and mother, and their eyes and noses
would decide their pSrentage anywhere
without other knowledge. Going through
the city market one morning with a sight
seeing friend, we spied Mrs. Blaine at a
butchers stall buying mutton chops. All
the swell housekeepers here 20 TO market
in person, and from the time Daniel Web
ster used to stroll off to market at G
O'Clock in the morning, with his servants
and baskets, there has never been a ques-
ton as to its being the most natural thing
in the world. People who come here from
some other cities think it wonderfully
strange to meet in the market the same
women who astonished them with the
AA9bAN Va lhtAt uAEu ID1AAtDu anu Tie ElCu-
ness Of their dressing at a reception the
night before. When my Western friend,
therefore, became convinced thatthe mat
ron standing so near US i'm the market was
really Mrs. Blaine and the wife Of a DOS
sible President, she watched her intently
for few minutes. Everything about
Mrs. Blaine is strongly individual and
characteristic, and she has the same ma
jestic, austere manner in the market
house as in the parlor: She stood with
stately and unconscious pose before the
man of cuts and chops, and her calm, di-
rect gaze, and the way in which she
dropped the change into her purse and
snapped il shut, was as characteristic as
any studied move in a drawing-room.
When she had walked away my friend
drew long breath and said: "Well, I'd
like to see the butcher, the politician, the
man, woman or child who would try to
cheat or deceive her! She could freeze me
solid with one such lOOkv