The Washington critic., 1886-01-27

Quicted down as regards TIE Presiden'
tial chair, we should have q tremendous
social row at the Capital?
a~#
You call $40 to $i00 cheap prices
for dresses, do your" was asked of
New York modiste in Washington the
other day by Southern correspondent
"Oh, yes You can't get up anything
in the dress line that is really flt to
wear in society here for less than 5000
to $500. These cheap evening affairs
are really II disgrace TO the people who
make and those who wear them. A
little cheap satin covered with some
semi-transparCnt stuff that hides its
chcapncss, few dollars worth of
cheap trimming the whole thrown
together hastily and cheaply, and you
have the average evening dress in So
ciety. You would be surprised to see
the sort of things that appear at some
of these social events, and
are described with so much
ardor and liberality in the papers next
day" Then you put the cost of q
really good dress ut from 5000 up
ward?" "Well, If you say really
good dress, you must say about $500
for IT, BY that mean thoroughly
good one, made of the best imported
material, of the latest style in goods
and fashion and carrying all the trim
ming 1t will do to put on 1t. You can
get up pretty good dress for $500 TO
S40O, but not frst-class one in every
respect"
Says the Washington correspondent
of the Chicago Inter. Ocedh. Mrs.
O'IIara, wife of the colored Congress
man, is one of the loveliest ladies in
Washington, and were il not for the
slight trace of negro blood in her veins
she would be leader in white society.
Like Mrs. Bruce, who is also beautiful,
she is highly educated and accom-
plished woman, speaks French, plays
Beethoven, paints plaques and is up in
art and literature to degree that
would make some of her white sisters
blush for envy. Both Mrs. Bruce and
Mrs. O'Hara are very nearly white, and
it would be difficult for stranger to
detect their relation to the African race.
Mrs. O'Hara has white governess for
her children, and intends that they
shall be as accomplished as herself.
These people have their own society,
and other entertainments, and pay
formal visits on regular reception days,
just like the ladies of official life. At
a high tea or a ball given by this
circle of the colored aristocracy one can
find quite Ns much intelligence, quite as
much beauty, and quite as much grace
Of manner as will be gathered at any of
the swell receptions of white folks.
There are Cleopatras and Hebes who
come in carriages, and when they
throw off their opera cloaks disclose
attractions that would make many a
white belle cnvious.
w.
William Hunter, Second Assistant
Secretary of State, and the man who
has been longer in the service of the
Government than any other, has been
very i'll of late, but is recovering, and
says that he now expects to complete
his sixty years of service, when he will
resign. Mr.. Hunter is cighty-fivc
years of age, and when he went down
under an attack of pneumonia a few
weeks ago, says Curtis of the Inter
Ocean, nobody but himself expected he
would pull through, but he seems as
bright and active as ever, and the other
day wrote note to Mr.. Bayard apollo
| gizing for having been away from his
desk so long. Mr.. Bayard smiled when
he read it, and returned reply to Mr..
Hunter, saying that every one would
welcome him back to the Department,
but that after fifty-seven years of faith
full service he might feel at liberty 10
take as long vacation as he liked.