The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-02-09
WASHINGTON ETIQUETTE.
Who Shall Visit Whom9 the Supreme
Question at the Capital.
From the Nei0 York Herald.

VINO snail WISH w DOllf Ihe oupEetnS
Question, at the Capital.
IRON, the Nc,o York Herald.
Who is to visit whom is becoming moro
and more compleated question in Washing
ton The President and Mrs Cleveland up
TO the present time have accepted no invi-
tations except from members of the Cabinet
and their families ami Nh George Ban
croft, whose age and the exceptional place
he holds in public estimation gives him a
claim to special consideration even from the
Chief Magistrate and his wife Of which
no one will explain. Or course Mr.. and
Mrs. Cleveland visit no one, that rule has
long been established for President and his
spouse.
But whom shall the Cabinet visitl Whom
shall the Senate and the Supreme Court visit
in persona are the most difficult questions to
decide. 1t is the number of those who
have, or think they have, a claim to have
the calls they make on the families of Off
Gals returned in person that causes the
trouble, not the assumption on the part OF
any lady that her station is too lofty for
her to go to see those who call upon her.
10 is plain to he seen that when hundreds
of people call every Wednesday to see the
wives of members of the Cabinet and on
each Thursday to see the Senators famil-
les, that ladies who receive these multi
tudinous visits cannot possibly return them
all in person.
There are but five DAYS in each week for
calling, counting out Sunday and ones own
reception day, and only three hours i'll each
day, from to 6 O'clock p. m, when formal
calls are permissible, making only fifteen
hours per week in which hundreds of calls
are to be returned, scattered oyer the great
area covered by this much spread out city.
For several years, lustas a matter of ueces-
eff mol hvr hppntna
more and more general on the part of the
families of officials.
WHAT ONE LADY DOES
A popular lady, whose husband is prom
inent Senator, said this week: II return
calls of the families of officials, including,
of course, tho wives of the Senators who
call upon me and the wives of those mem
bers of the House of Representatives who
serve on committees with my husband and
of course | call on all those who have sent
me invitations. There are hundreds of
others l would Ike to 20 20 see who
have called on me. but it is is simply mpQs-
Siblen .,t ,nj,t,, Il 80. ,'t
of high official receives is a physical inn
possibility for her, and for twenty years
the Cabinet families in successive admins
trations have been trying to solve the pro
blem of how to visit at all Yet not get
ting through the list gives offense TO those
who are perforce ovel looked, and, worse
than all, breaks down the ladys health
who makes the effort to return all her calls
in person.
The Cabinet families i'll every administra-
ton always receive the most calls, as every
stranger feels privileged to call upon them,
while all do not feel the same about the
families of Senators and Supreme Court
Justices. While Mr.. Fish was Secretary Of
't,;,.
year in person ON every one who called on
her reception" day, and she literally went in
to the highways and byways to find her Wis
itors 1t has always been thought here that
her health suffered from this tax on her
strength, and no lady has attempted to do
so much since then.
IN FORMER DAYS.
Few are aware that Presidents wives
used to suffer from this same sort of de-
mand on their time and strength John
Quincy Adams mentioned that prior to
January, 1918, and at that time all ladies
who arrived in Washington as strangers ex-
pected to be called upon not or4y by the
wives of the heads of the departments, by
which he meant members of the Cabinet,
but also by the Presidents wife. He added
that Mrs Madison had subjected herself to
this torture, which she felt very severely,
but from which, having begun the practice,
she never found an opportunity of rece ling.
He continued: "Mrs. Monroe, wife of the
President then in office, neither pays nor
returns any visits"
my WIFE" said Adams, returns all Wis
its, but adopts the principle of not visiting
first any stranger who arrives, and this is
what the ladies have taken in dudgeon"
Now, the number of strangers who come
is 100 time as great. When Mrs. Monroe
sent for Mrs Adams to discuss this with her,
the latter told her she should adhere to her
principle, but not on any question of Ell
quette, as she did not exact of any lady that
she should visit her.
On Jan. 5, 1918, John Quincy Adams,
then Secretary.of State, mentioned receiv-
ing call from Mr.. Gaillard, the President
protein, of the Senate, who asked him if
there had been any new system of etiquette
established with regard to visiting, to which
he replied none to his knowledge. II was my
self determined to make no question of Ell
quette with any one He mentioned that
Mr.. Gallatin while Secretary of the Treasury
never paid or returned visits. = otiT
In his life the question, was a. troublesome
about calls between gentlementas batweea
ladies. The wives Of officials always, then
and now, followed tine rule as between
them and other ladies recognized as binding
between their husbands and those of other