Morning journal and courier., 1885-07-09
Washington Boys and Girls.


 Emma James in the Albany Journal.l
 Among the twenty or thirty girls whom
 the Washington CD. O. amateur minstrel
 troupe invited to listen to their valedictory
 performance several were interesting from the family names they bore. Mamie Lincoln, the oldest grandchild of Abraham Lincoln, wore her fair brown hair in two long fiat braids behind Hattie Blaine, the ex-secre- tary's youngest daughter and her mothers namesake child, had gay pink bow of broad ribbon on one side of her graceful head. She is the only handsome young Blaine in the flock. Miss Margaret, her next elder sister, is very capable girl, but with fine figure | and commanding height she has large and prominent features which it will take middle aoe to soften. But Hattie's face is delicate ly molded and with her bright eyes and quick movements gives the impression of cert ain bird-like beauty that is fresh and charming The daughters do not seem em- bittered by their fathers narrow miss of the presidential chair, but on the contrary quite content to figure as equals in a social circle where they might fairly have expected to dominate. Walker, the eldest son, seems more subdued by fate than any of the others. Gail Hamilton, the cousin of their mother, is SO wrapped up in these children that she Il nieces In her ''letter of marque" in Sun day's Tribune week ago one or two affec- tionate allusions to them are pleasantly in
 termingled with her her pen-lashlng % of that glad that Calls pen is released from political thraldom in the service of her relative, MT. Blaine. and has strayed back into its old sparkling, if somewhat acid and discursive ways. Lulu Bayerd, another of the group l of gi1l listeners on that evening, bears her mothers name, Louisa. The daughters of this prominent family get much mixed up by name in print. Katharine, the one most written about is the eldest and is twenty seven in years. Mabel, the second, is Mrs. Warren of Boston. Next come Mamie and Florence, who are quite newly cut in society; and lastly Louise and another sister, school girls. There are two sons, one (Thomas F. jr ) just ready to enter Yale, and an elder
 brother who is teaching in Virginia. Seve-
 ral children of the family have died. Morrl-
 son R. Waite. jr., the namesake grandson of
 the chief justice, and two little de Struves,
 who came with their gouv ernante, were
 among the absorbed spectators of the lamp
 blaeked and vermilioned youths The young
 folks who formed this pleasant circle of per
 formers and listeners were set next older
 than Nellie Arthur, who used to say de-
 murely, 1T don't like big boys; I'm afraid of
 en- and always preferred the society of her
 girl friends or of boys younger than herself
 President Arthur was fond and devoted
 father. It is remembered that when Allan
 was headstrong sometimes, as boys will be,
 he would say of him leniently. "He would
 have been different if his mother had lived"
 With all the untamed exuberance of his i'm
 maturity, not least of which was his pen chant for love affair with some new girl,
 to whom his devotion, while it lasted, was supreme and overpowering, he was much
 better liked than were the Hayes boys when
 in the White House. Webb Hayes was not only without acquired graces of manner, but
 by nature was selfish and petty and supercil-
 ious to degree that will never be forgotten
 here while his fathers name is mentioned
 among Presidents. The Garfield boys were
 not long enough in the White House to show
 themselves spoiled spelling. I notice, by
 the way, that their initials are often wrongly
 given in print. Harry A. CHenry Abram) is
 the eldest and is twenty-two. James Ru-
 dolph, whose second name is that of his
 mothers family, is nineteen, and was the
 ''Jim" of his fathers hearty pride. He is
 the only one of the trio of boys who went
 together from here to Williams college, viz:
 himself his brother and ''Don" Rockwell,
 who stands high enough in his class to be
 ment day, he ranking in the first third, liar
 " in the second third and Don below either.
 Harry, however, is well balanced and gentle
 manly and no less likely to make his mark
 in life than if he were a commencement spouter. At one time the Treasury depart ment is said to have pigeon-holed among it's rank and file of clerks no less than twenty one valedictorians of college classes.