Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-17

I WUT
by order Of ancestry, virtue of money. OF
power of politics, and to be instructed as to
ranking her guests in proper order of pre-
cedence at her grand dinners and in the
amenities and conventionalities of society
at the capital generally, of which knowi-
edge, as coming from as far west as Ohio.
the tabbies set her down as lacking. But.
| in truth, it is not to be supposed that any
woman, however heroic and self-sacrifeiue.
could do all that is now required of a
society leader without help. It NAV be
said, too, that the implied reproach flung at
Mrs. Whitney on the score Of hiring we'll
posted secretary to keep her straight as tn
etiquette, good form, and the requirements
of her exalted position, may now be turned
over to Mrs. Morton, who, as wife OF the
Vice President and prospective successor OF
Mrs. Whitney, has engaged the same lady
to fill the Office of secretary aud keen the
books balanced as to calls and cards and
conventional cOurtesies during the present
administration.
It seems to be the generally understood
thing that the wife of anv member OF tB
Cabinet whose husband is millionaire. or.
as the politicians put it, has 'sbar'l. .
must go largely into the business of enter
tanning the multitude
FOR THE SOCIAL CREDIT
of the administration. However quietly she
may desire to live, she must yet sacrifice her
inclinations, and devote all Of her powers of
mind and strength and body to keeping nm
with the etiquette of exaltation of Office.
She feels bound to hold weekly receptions.
and receive sweetly and cordially all callers
no matter how much of a bore it NAV be.
This ceremony brings an avalanche of cards.
which are to be duly inspected and booked
in the visitors list. All of this state and
greatness, enjoyed at first perhaps on the
score of novelty, becomes most grievous
burden, endured heroically on the ground
that the Government must be sustained So
cially as well as politically. But while the
President and his wife, who occupy the
White House, complain of the weariness of
receptions and the countless bores who
throng its halls, still they can live in con-
dition Of Washington formalitY, Jeffersonian
simplicity or Hayesian severity, but the
wives of Cabinet officers and congressman
under precedent must stand the stress and
strain, and slave and suffer in the struggle
with calls and cards. They must hold
receptions, and smile, and say sweet moth
ings, and be charmingly hospitable when,
if they lived in the palace of truth, most of
them would confess to being sick Of it all.
and of being bored beyond words to tell.
while some would break down altogether
with nervous prostration.
We take it that the question before the
house at present is: Is the game worth the
candle? Does it pay to thus squander money,
to waste energy, to fritter away time on
what after all is but sheer vanity and yexa-
ton of spirit? Is not life too short to throw
away its golden glowing hours on what.
sifted down, is really sham and hypocrisy?
IaA
things" goes on q round of formal calls
how pleased she is to find most of those she
visits 'not at home, since she can thus get
through more of her task, and thank heaven
when she gets home that she has "done"
that lot for some time at least. Another
gets even on her social score by grand re-
ception, to which she invites everybody to
be crushed and jammed, and have their
trains walked upon" and their lace gowns
torn, and their tempers rufled to almost the
the last notch.
Many fashionable women, it is presumed.
like this sort of thing. The blaze, the dazzle.
the excitement give zest to dull and dreary
lives, and furnish filling for shallow minds.
But to women Of brains, with capacity for
common sense, nothing hardly can be more
stupid and insipid. These love congeniaI
company, social intercourse with kindred
minds, and revel in the joys OF real friend
ship, but they have no love for the shams and
NsINCERITIES SoFFAsHIoNABLEsoCI
Although women have been enjoined for
centuries to be "keepers at home" it is
nevertheless held that society is their realm
that they make its laws and maintain
thoir supremacy in the empire of manners.
Considering this truth is it not strange that
as a class they make SO little effort for their
own relief from the mock courtesies and
eonventionalities that bear so heavily
upon their time and tax their energies to no
end, save folly? When Mr.. Blaine was so
closely upon the verge Of nomination for
President in 1884 that his election was
looked upon as ioregone conclusion, it was
publicly announced that Mrs. Blaine and
Gail Hamilton had put their heads together
and their wits to work and had devised an
emancipation act that would greatly relieve
society women from the tyranny of cards
and calls. By their new code of etiQuette
to be promulgated from the White House,
when Blame had assumed the reins of Office,
it was announced that great society reform
was to be instituted that would do away
with a vast deal of fashionable lionism.
modify in some degree the laws of social
slavery and give to women in society little
time to breathe and pray at intervals. But
alas there is many a slip 'twixt the cup
and the lip" All this proposed reform
came to naught because Brother Blaine
failed to "get there" But if there is any
real desire Sin society" for reform, or any
urgent call for a new and less onerous code
that will inculcate more of real politeness
and do away with the tax upon precious
time, and tighten the burden of hypocrisy,
L. o1SI
Men invented the Clearing House for
the convenience of bankers, why should not
society, as someone suggests, have clear
ing house for cards. Such measure Of econ
omy would enable women to enjoy the calm
consciousness of being kept straight with
the conventionalities, and yet be saved the
horrors OF boredom and the terrors of nervous
prostration.
Men, in the main, hate the goings on in
swell society,"" They hate to talk sweetly
polite nothings to people they care nothing
about. They love congenial company, but
they abhor the twaddle of fashionable
drawing rooms, hence their unwillingness
to be ''trotted out" has resulted in afternoon
ladies' lunche cons. matinee card
parties, where women alone take part.
When these are mainly confined to friends
and acquaintances they are pleasant, but |
when a reception means jam of people |
largely unknown to each other, it is stifly |
formal and formidable, and only when |
women protest as men do by staying at
home will change come to pass. Social |
intercourse should be means of enjoyment,
and not an infiction to be credited to the |
score of good manners. Hospitality is one !
of the sweetest of virtues, through which |
may be found way to heaven, but as |
Bishop Atterbury saws: "Hospitalitv some |
times degenerates into profuseness, and ends
in madness and folly"
BESSIE BRAMBLE.
The Rasp of she Cigarette.
GGD, nv ab