The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-02-08

walls were decorated with some of the
finest pictures in the country. The paper
on the walls wSs Of SATIN good enough to
make \ dress. and Il was Of such tin. a.
tc throw out the pictures. The pastnas-
ter general has perhaps 3 hundre d
thousand dollars or SO inyeste 4
these walls. and ii is the same throughout
the other rooms OF the house. The dining
room Is also hung with satin. and
rs We came in here. / saw General Van
Niiet taking a glass of Bethany punch.
As the cool, lemonaie-like iiquiG flowed
down his throat, noticed \ spSsra of sur
prise crawling from his chin on up towards
hrs nose and on until il mantled his fair
brow and reached the roots Of his frosted
silver hair. The general. like most of the
army officers, likes punch, but he does not
approve OF the article when not made with
the best of old Jamaica rum or some other
sriritnons liquor. Mrs. Postmaster Gen
erSl Nanamaker IS temperance woman.
She does not permit wine To be served at
her cabinet dinners. and she has
in2ugurated this Bethany punch,
which Is combination of lemons
and oranges. favored in some peculiar way
that makes il actually sppetixing. Ii has
become quite popular in Washington, and
you ind il everywhere now. even though
the simon-pure intoxication article il
served froTn a different bowl ut the same
time. As We munched over indigestible
sailed almonds ana took a cup of tea from
= piece Of china thai was worth its weight
in gold, asked my friend 10 take note OF
room. IL was . tall, well-formed, fine
looking man Of perhaps s.. II see him.
said she in whisper, "and who is he2"
That" replied /. as the Ward
McAllister of Washington. He used
to be even more OF an authority
ON social MATES when Mrs. Cleveland was
here than heiS now. He Is considered the
handsomest man in Washington, and his
name is DR.. Ruth. He has been the best
man at Fifty weddings, and he is one Of the
Old standhys of the navy. He is q bach
eloT, however. Notwithstanding"
MRS SECRETARY MOBILES RECEPTIONS.
Leaving the Wanamakers' mansion and
crossing Farragut square, we next went
past the residence of Senator Stanford, and
in a few minutes stood before the bic
house Of the secretary of the interior. Ii
Is red brick facing Franklin square
and il has the same awning and carpet
leading out to the street. There was the
same swell butler at the door. and Mrs.
Noble looked net unlike Mrs. Wanamaker
AT the right of the hall SIS we entered. She
greeted Us just as cordially, and my friend
said she made exactly the same remarks
about the weather. in the same tones. as
those we heard at Mrs Wanamakers. The
crowd was almost as great as at the post
master generals, and my friend seemed
surprised at the number of public men she
saw, and asked me who were the chief
beaux among the statesmen.
Our STATESMEN AS sKArx.
"Fully one half the senators and repre-
sentatives,n said I, s'likc 10 be considered
as society men. That tall man with the
big head, the beefy shoulders and the face
like great Chinese doll is Speaker Reed.
This is the first time have seen him out
this season, but he usually goes to the re-
ceptions and he looks like another man
when You see him in a dress coat. The
vice president makes the regular round Of
calls and all the naval officers are fond Of
society. The diplomats all call and they
are among the most popular of the society
beaux. The Chinese minister and the Kor-
can minister are among the callers and the
Korean minister always brings his wife
with him, met him last night, and not
ing that there was some change in his
clothes asked him what it meant. He
replied he was in mourning. s'0h," said
/, Il suppose you are in mourning for
your little child who died the other day7"
.sOh, no." said he. ~ am sorry for my
child, but do not mourn for her. mourn
for our queen dowager, the greatest wo-
ago."
From Secretary Mobiles we went to Mrs.
Senator Proctor's and thence called upon
Mrs. Rusk and Mrs. Attorney-General
Miller. 1t was, however, the same thing
OF handshsking and chatting about little
nothings, and my friends at the end
agreed with me that it was awfully nice,
but that 1t must get awfully tiresome.
WILL CABINET CALLING LAST?
VIII cabinet calling last7 Yes, I sup
pose so. Mrs. Secretary Blaine is the only
cabinet woman who has, so far as know,
ever objected to it. She will receive none
but her friends on most cabinet days, and
callers are told that the wife of the secre-
tary of state Is not at home. Why should
we have cabinet calls2 Why should our
cabinet officers wives have to dress up
and put themselves on dress parade to DO
looked at by people about whom they don't
care cent, every Wednesday afternoonf
The expense of the receptions Is some
thing. | know of some cabinet officers
who spend three and four times their
salaries and can't afford to spend once the
amount they receive. / know OF others
who would drop cabinet receptions today
if they could and of still others who say
they ike them. The returning the calls is
quite an item of trouble and expense.
HOW CALLS ARE RETURNED.
Let me tell you how they do it. 1t used
to be that all calls were returned in per-
son and the time was when the presidents
wife was expected to return all calls
made upon her. Mrs. Fairchild
who received as many as eight
thousand calls on one day
tried TO return all of them. She found il
impossible however, for many Of the cards
had no numbers upon them, and upon
looking for the names in the directory
they could not be found. Mrs. Senator
sherman once told me that in attempting
70 return a call made upon her while her
husband was secretary of the treasury, she
found her carriage stopped in front Of a
meat shop, and upon going up the side en-
trance to the second story sha$found the
lady who had called upon her kept mil
linery establishment whose chief constitu-
ents seemed to be colored people. Many
of the cabinet ladies now return their calls
by merely sending cards, and some are
even returned by sending the cards
through the mail This, however, is the
refinement of red-tape snobbishness, and
the sending around of the cards by mes
senger is bad enough, and, perhaps, the
best way would be not 10 return the calls
at all.
The returning of calls, however, is not
matter OF choice as far as officials are con-
cerned. The senator's wives and the wives
of the members of the House of Represen-
tatives would feel very much insulted il
their calls were not returned, and the cab
met ministers might find some Of their
the iil-feeling caused by such blundes
on the part of their wives. We
have, in fact, merry war" here every
year over who shall call first, and the rank