Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1886-05-22
Society in Washington.
Bill Nye, in Boston Herald.

l have just returned from polite
and recherche party here. Washing
ton is the hot-bed of gayety, and gen
eral headquarters for recherche bust
ness. 1t would be hard to find
bontonger aggregation than the one l
was just at, to use the words of gen.
tleman who was there, and asked
me if / wrote "The Heather Chi
nee."
He was a very talented man, with
broad sweep of skull and a vague
yearning for something more tangi-
ble-to drink. He was in Washing
ton, he said, in the interest of Mingo
county. l forgot to ask him where
Mingo county was. He took a great
interest in me, and talked to me long
after he had anything to say. He
was one Of those fluent conversation
alists frequently met with in society.
He used one of these perfecting talk
ers-the kind that can be fed with
raw Roman punch, and that will
turn out punctuated talks like var
nished sausages. Being a poor talker
myself, and more fluent as listener,
l did not interrupt him. He said that
he was sorry to notice that young
girls and their parents came to Wash
ington as they would a matrimonial
market.
/ am sorry also to hear it. Itpained
me to know that young ladies should
allow themselves to be bamboozled
into matrimony. Why was it, l
asked, that matrimony should ever
single out the young and fair?
"Ah," saidhe, sit is indeed roughw
He then breathed sigh that shook
the foliage of a speckled geranium
near by, and killed an artificial cata-
pillar that hung on its branches.
"Matrimony is all right" said he,
elf properly brought about. 1t breaks
my heart though to see how WASH
ington is used as a matrimonial mar
ket. 1t seems to me almost as if
these here young ladies were brought
here like slaves andexposed forsale."
1 had noticed that they were some
what exposed, but l did not know
they were for sale. l asked him if
the waist of party-dresses had always
been so sadly in the minority, and
he said they had.
/ danced with a beautiful young
lady whose trail had evidently caught
on the doorway. She hadn't noticed
it till she had walked out partially
through her costume.
/ do not think a lady ought to give
too much thought to her apparel,
neither should she feel too much
above her clothes. l say this in the
kindest spirit, because 1 believe that
man should be a friend to woman.
No family circle is complete without
woman. She is like glad land.
scape to the weary eye. Individually
and collectively, woman is a great
adjunct of civilization and progress
The electric light is a good thing, but
how pale and feeble it looks by the
light of a good woman's eyes. The
telephone is great invention. 1t is
a good thing to talk at and murmul
into and deposit profanity in; but tc
take up conversation and keep il
up and follow man out through the
front door with it, the telephone has
still much to learn from woman.
1t is said our government officials
are not sufficiently paid, and l pre-
sumo that is the case. So it will bt
necessary to economize in everyway
but why should wives concentrate al
their economy on thewaist of dress
When chest protectors are so cheaI
as they now are, 1 hate to see people
suffer, and there is more real suffer
ing, more privation and more desti
tuition, pervading the Washington
scapular clavicle this winter than
ever saw before.
But do not hope to change thi
custom, though I spoke to severa
ladies about it and asked them t.
think over it, / do not think they
will. 1t seems almost wicked to Gu
off the best part of a dress and put i
on the other end of the skirt, to b,
trodden under feet of men, as 1 may
say. They smiled good humoredly
at me as / tried to impress my view
upon them, butshould go there mex
season and mingle in the mad whir
of Washington, those fair women ar,
mingling in said mad whirl, l pre-
sumo that / will find them clothed il
Il -