The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-02-26
AT AN OFFICIAL DINNER.
It Seems Hard to Arrange the
Cabinet and It's Wives
in Order.
Was Mrs. Noble Given the Place
Belonging to Secretary
Elkins' WifeP

Elklns Wlfe7 " M
However, Women Have NO Ofactal Rank
IS at n Dinner in Honor of Their
Husbands.
W%AsHtNoroN Feb. 25.-The order OF seat
ing the cabinent members and their ladies
at the cabinet dinner has been reduced by
Mr.. q. L. Pruden, assistant private secre-
tary Of the president, to almost an exact
science. 1t has taken many years OF severe
mental labor to accomplish anything like a
satisfactory rule that shall meet inexorably
all contingencies. The system has been
submitted for criticism to some of the hness
iurists and formalists Of the country. Inc
late Secretary Frelinghuysen has left the
impress of his Individually correct sense of
propriety and heavens first law upon IL A
cabinet dinner is q dinner at which the
president and his wife. the vice-president
md his wife, and the heads of the eight
great departments of the government and
their wives dino together.
Some of these may be absent for cause;
the wife sometimes goes without her hus.
band. and the husband is on occasions un-
accompanied by his wife. "A we nave no
official code we will not comment upon TINS
point, but all the members of the cabinet
should be included in the invitation for 9
cabinet dinner. Other guests may be pres
ent besides the members of the cabinet at .
cabinet dinner; and as the number often
exceeds thirty, and even forty guests, there
always are other distinguished persons az
table, but they have no official precedencs
until the cabinet members and their wives
are placed.
When q cabinet dinner il eaten at the
executive mansion it is called . state din
ner. At Windsor Queen Victoria will select
for her escort to dinner the prince or some
petty principality, whose acres are rldlcu-
lousy few, giving him precedence over a
drawing room full of magnates OF lntellect,
millions or military honors. And where
Macpreaor sits Is head of the table.
According to the presidential SUCCESSION
hill. which but the speaker of the house at
the end of an improbable presumption or
mortalities, the cabinet now ranks, with
president and vice-president, as follows:
The secretaries OF, state, treasury, war. the
attorney general, the postmaster general,
the secretaries Of the navy, interior and
agriculture. Thu principal difficulty in the
way at arranging the guests at a CABINET
dinner in a perfectly mechanical ana
wholly inerrant manner. at which not even
the most exacting person could cavll, 10
that there are two sides to the rectangular
figure of the table.
Then. it ID difficult for ladies to appre-
ciate the stern realism that the official din
ner il given in honor of their husbands, and
that they have personally no official
rank. The most preposterous EXPRESSIONS
that are ever found in print are Mrs. Sen.
ator Blank and Mrs. Secretary Green
the latter meaning the wife of a cabinet
officer, it is nondescript.
At the state dinner Of last week a criti-
cism upon the placing of a cabinet lady at
table was made. 1t was said that Mrs.
Miller was given this seat due Mrs. Elkins.
Things have come to a poor pass, indeed.
when out-of-town publications can boldly
arraipn us of the capital, who live and move
and have our being in the very odor of
court etiquette, and to whom its forms are
the familiar events of daily life, without q
sturdy protest.
while there is a rule of precedence in
these matters, it ia not wholly arbitrary.
While officials take the rank in seating at
table, for instance, it is not done without
due Difference to the ladies' positions. The
places rank from the middle of both sides
OF GuG GnOle, 1EUIA tAo 1lSAU dL0 LA0
president. and from the right and left of the
lady of the White house. 1t is clear that
there must be a lady of high degree on each
side of the president, and q high Official on
each side of his wife, who sits directly OPP
posite to him.
Tho absence Of the secretary of the treas
ury and Mrs. Foster, who officially ranks
all other cabinet officers wives but the
secretary of state, impairs the use of the
diagram of the latest state dinner for clear
illustration of the system, but we will take
it as it is. Here the president has the wife
of the vice-president on his right, and the
wife of the attorney general, sixth in rank
(the wives Of secretary of state and score
tary of the treasury being absent), on his
lett, the wife of the attorney general being
brought out by the secretary of war, who
ranks her husband.
Directly opposithe the president is Mrs.
Harrison, with the vice-president on her
left, and he has brought out the wife of
the secretary of war. This crossing of
the table brings the secretary of state
one place nearer the middle Of the table
than he could be by continuing
the order of precedence to the right
or left side of tho president. The diagrams
make it very clear. Fortunately, as Mr..
Blaine sent his regrets when the guests
were about to go to dinner last week, the
diagram had been made emitting the secre-
tary of state, SO that it took u short time to
rearrange the cards, and the dinner was
not DELAYED. There was an extra man at
the table, but that could not avert the
entire reconstruction Of the officials ola
gram.
So they finally sat in this order: The
president had the wife of the secretary of
war on his left. who was brought in by the
attorney general; Mrs. Harrison had the
secretary of war upon her left, aud he
brought the wife of the attorney general:
below them were the secretary of tho in
terror and Mrs. Rusk. On the right of Mrs.
Harrison, after the vice. president, were
Mrs. Wanamaker and the secretary of the
navy. AS the latter was accompanied by
no lady of his household, the postmaste,
general escorted Mrs. Noble, and the score,
tary of agriculture escorted q lady outside
of the bin family, the wife of the
head of the army
Mrs. Schofeld and these four sat in order
at the presidents right. This plan OF
placing the secretary of state across the
table and next to the presidential name OF
the board, instead of Two removes on the
presidents side, was evolved by the deer
discussions of it by learned men who have
the proprleties. 1t is not a small matter
We should have a code of official etiquette,
wherein the laws should be given for the
conduct of all state functions. And those
who sheer at the mere idea of an America,
court with fixed forms and ceremoniet
show little patriotism and less pride O.
country and love of the flag. For if W.
have not order We shall have all disorder
~rll~1 --A0 49,