The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-07-19
THE FAMILY or BLAINEs.
From a Washington Le,ser.l


 From a Washington Letter.l
 Mir. Blaine, with his wife and six chil- dren, will fill the White House comforta- big when they get there, and the junior members of the family have lived at Washington so long that it is more of a son, Emmons Blaine did not return home after finishing college, and has lived in the west at St. Paul and Chicago, where he studied and has practiced law. The second son, Walker Blaine, has also studied law, and until week ago was an assistant counsel on the part of the United States before the Court of Alabama Claims. He was an assistant to his father while the latter was secretary of state, and accompanied Mir. Prescott on the special mission to Peru in the fall of 1881. The third son, young Jimmy Blaine, is dapper. mischieyous youth of sixteen, who rejoices in dudish coats, collars and trousers ot the latest cut, and always kept up a constant excitement in the boys preparatory schools which he attended in Washington. Of the three daughters of the house of Blaine the eldest, Alice Stanwood Blaine, married Colonel John Coppinger, of the army, over year ago, and the monday ceremony in the great mansion on Dupont circle was one of the chief social events in that season of great weddings. Mrs. Coppinger was always quiet maiden of retiring disposition and cared nothing for the gay society of the capital, and felt all of the burden and none of the compensations during the months that her fathers position as sec retary of state obliged her to take busy part in routine duties of official society. She had sweet, grave face, with black eyes and hair, and by careless arrange ment of the locks on her forehead con- cealed the mark of the accidental bullet by which she SO nearly lost her life while carelessly handling a revolver. It was while visiting friends at Fort Leaven- worth that she became acquainted with Colonel Coppinger, and they were mar ried within year, after first undergoing the most strenuous opposition from her parents. Colonel Coppinger is an Irish man by birth, Catholic, and once a member of the yope's guards. He came to this country at the beginning of the last war, and after four years of volunteer service was given commission in the regular army. Colonel and Mrs. Cop- pinger went i'm mediately to Fort Leaven- worth after their marriage, and returning to Washington last December brought with them their infant son, James Giles pie Blaine Coppinger. Mrs. Coppinger remained all winter with her parents, and only month ago joined her husband at his new post, Fort Assiniboine, in the northeastern corner of Montana. Mir and Mrs. Blaine were so much attached 10 this first grandson that they urged Mrs. Coppinger not to expose the little fellow to the inconvenience of the long railroad and stage journey to the frontier garrison, and the baby was accordingly left with Mrs. Blaine for the summer The second of the Blaine daughters is Miss Margaret, tall, rather dashing girl, who is f,nd of her stunning Paris dresses and devoted to dancing and gay society. She has such dark hair and eyes, such a prominent nose and strongly marked features as to be often taken for Jewess. Miss Margaret Blaine went abroad with Mir. and Mrs. Whitelaw Reid three years ago, and remained at a school in Paris until last fall, when she came home and made her debut in society. Under her leadership many germans and gather ings of young people enlivened the hsi- torian's home last winter, and Miss Blaine led in youthful society. With sixteen stunning new gowns she was ready for a first season at Mount Deseret this summer, and was envied her charmed existence by all her SCI before this last triumph came to her father. Little Hattie Blaine, a school girl of thirteen years, gives promise of being the beauty of the Blaine family, for, although she has the strong nose that distinguishes them, it is not so prominent as in the other members.
 One member of the Blaine household for all the winters that they have lived in Washington has been Miss Dodge Gail Hamilton), who is the cousin of Mrs. Blaine. It was some years after her cousin, Elizabeth Stanwood, returned from teaching school in Kentucky, when Miss Dodge went to Washington as governess in the family of Dr. Bailey, ed i,or of the NatisnaI Era. After this ex- perience Miss Dodge became known to the literary world, and when Mir. Blaine had served few years in congress and settled himself in a house here Miss Dodge began her regular winter visits that have continued without interruption for so many years. In brilliancy and re- partee she is good match for Mir. Blaine, and the conversational tilts between them, heightened by keen side-thrusts from Mrs. Blaine, have made their family table talk worthy of recording. While Mrs. Blaine's majesty of demeanor awes some timid spirits, the ordinary society woman is silenced before Miss Dodge, knowing 90 we'll her preference for a male antag- onist in that social warfare known as real conversation.