St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-06-01
WH0ISTHE IDEAL LADY
President HarrisOn'S Wife
Gives Her Mature
Opinion.
Tom Reeds Better Half Be-
slows Praise on Mrs.
Window.
Mrs. Frye, Mrs. Clarks0n and
Others Tell Their i'm
pressions.
Mrs. Cleveland is Pointed Out
as Mrs. COckerell'S
Ideal.
Washington Letter.


viewed our leading statesmen's wives
as to the perfect lady. find that each
has her ideal and that their talks are
full of good points of advice to the
young women of the land. | first
chatted with Mrs. Harrison. Said she:
"Girls should imbibe good manners
without much teaching, but there is one
quality that mothers should impress ON
their daughters, and that is that they
should always consider other peoples
pleasure before their own.
81 am sure that this is the one thing
lacking in the well-bred girl, add have
been panied beyond measure by seeing
girls when they were introduced to any
person, who for some reason they did
not consider their equal, bow coldly
without one kindly word of greeting
and turned the head to continue their
interrupted conversation with some
friend. That has happened at my re-
ceptions and it occurred once or twice
when l myselfh ave made the introduce
ton.
'Disrespect to any caller at the White
uOuSc iS UiSItSptCG W tucs anu hdfo uc-
cided never to officially recognize girls
whom have seen guilty of this breach
of kindliness, if not of etiquette.
| am fond of young girls and like tosee
them winning and cordial in their man
ner to the most humble person who
comes into their presence.
''Fhey can find ample time to enjoy
their friends society in their own draw
ing room, but when they are in any
home to assist the hostess they should
make courtesy to their guests the first
consideration. | always think, when |
see any one disdainful of those whom
they meet, of the story of Washington
when he met his colored man-servant,
and raised his hat in response to the
mans salutation. Some one said to him:
"'ls it possible, Gen. Washington,
that you raise your hat to your slave?"
Eyes. always; for | will not have
slave Guido me in politeness.'
ITO me-" continued Mrs. Harrison,
'that is the most essential lesson girl
can learn, and if she remembers that
story we'll older people will never have
to blush for her, and"-with little
laugh-.I will not have to debar her
from the White house."
Mrs. Harrison on Washington So
ciety.
sDo you think Washington society
open to criticism on other pofn ts?"
NO" replied the presidents wife,
81 do not think of any special things.
for 1 think the capital deserves its
claim of being the most friendly and
courteous of cities. There is one Gus
tom that [ have some time regretted,
and that is the fashion which has arisen
in the last three or four years of not
introducing strangers to your friends.
sOf course, | don't mean making gen.
eral introductions, for that has all the
faults of the other extreme. But it
surely makes every caller feel more at
her ease to have the right to speak to at
least one person in the room. In this
city it is the more necessary because the
official houses are open to strangers.
1t is understood that it is lady's privi-
lege to recognize auy one she has met
in this way, but at the time it is GER
tainly more kindly and more American
to introduce. Then, too, as a rule a
hostess invites very few people to her
house whom every lady present cannot
recognize"
Wife of Speaker Reed Talks.
Mrs. Reed, the wife of the speaker of
the house, is another lady who agrees
with Mrs. Harrison that the unkindli-
est custom in Washington is that of not
making any intrOductions. In talking
of it she related little incident of how,
when see first came to the capital as a
members wife she took friend with
her to call upon a lady high up in the
official scale, and who had just returned
oh Tbnvy no
and were received winningly by the
hostess, who soon had to give her whole
attention to some new arrivals. The
ladies who were receiving with her
looked at them coldly, chattod among
themselves, and they drifted through
the rooms fairly oStraciZed, because
they CHANGED not to know any one.
"We soon took our departure" said
Mrs. Reed, land the lady who was with
me said: If this is the hospitality for
which Washington is so famous, will
have none of it, and | never gain,
when she returned for visit, could
persuade her to go with me to that
house."
81 always" continued she, "introduce
people who may enter my drawing
room, and whom | see are strangers, if
for no other reason than because L do
not want them to feel miserable as /
did at my first call at that house. One
need never continue the acquaintance
made in so imSromptu a fashion. l
have talked with number Of ladies On
the subject, and we all agree that in
spite of fashions edict we will make
introductiOns."
In further piquant chat about good
breeding, this little woman, who by the
way, is as clever as her famouSly clever
husband, said that to her the perfect
lady" was the one who quickly sinter-
preted the character of every one who
came into her presence. and tried to
make them feel at their ease.
She paid pretty compliment to Mrs.
Window, the wife of the secretary of
the treasury, by saying that she came
nearest to her ideal of well-bred
woman. "She always sees every guest
who comes in her parlor, and, no matter
how weary she is, she always says the
riget thing to them, and seems to in
terpret their needs, always paying most
attention to shy people"
In speaking of the training of girls,
Mrs. Reed SAID that above everything
else they should be taught to be genu-
inc: whatever they did, TO mean it. as
nothing was SO easily detected as in
sincerity.
Wife of Senate ingalls,.
Every woman has an ideal woman
whom some of her sex almost equals.
AS Mrs. Window is Mrs. Reeds, so is
woman now almost forgotten in Wash
ington the ideal of that thoroughly
lovely woman, Mrs. ingalls,.
Mrs. Carlisle Patterson, according to
her, was the most perfect lady the CAPT.
tai has ever seen. Ten years ago Mrs.
Patterson was leader in society here,
and so kindly was she that her good
deeds have lived after her reign. Mrs.
ingalls, describes her by saying that she
had quality which the most Ignorant
person recognized, but which the most
learned could not define.
Said she: .'Mrs. Patterson used to
come into my house, and some way even
the servants treated her with more rev.
erence than they did my other guests.