The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-03-09
HEAD OF THE TABLE.
MRS. NOBLE GAVE IT TO THE
PRESIDENT IN HER HOUSE.
Not All the Talk About This Innovation
Is ComPiimentary-On the Contrary,
There Is Much Criticism, Which Is
Here Summarized by Robert Graves.

Is Compiimentary-On the Contrary,
There Is Much Criticism, Which Ii
Here Summarized by Robert Graves.
Especial Correspondence
WASHINGTON, Feb. Give have a new
state question at the national capital-a
question which attracts more attention and
is more generally and more earnestly dis
cussed than the tariff or the silver questions.
1t is, Shall the president of the United
States sit at the head of the table when he
is invited out to dinner" This great prob
lem was thrust upon us by the innovation
which Mrs. Noble, wife of the secretary of
the interior. recently made on the occasion
of dinner at her handsome home at
which the president was the chief guest.
Mrs. Noble stationed the president at the
head of the table
This innovation was not sudden freak,
but the result of careful inquiry and a
great deal OF thought and consultation.
Let no one imagine that Mrs. Noble rushed
into such striking experiment without
due deliberation. she has for long time
had the notion that the chief magistrate
OF the nation should sit at the head OF the
table when dining out, and to make sure
she wrote to England and ascertained
authoritatively that the practice there was
for the sovereign always to occupy the seat
at head of table, whether in her own house
or that of another Mrs. Noble then in
quired at the state department if any good
reason was known there why the president
should not sit at the head of her table, as
would Queen Victoria while in the house
of a subject, and she received the reply
that there was no rule one way or the
other, and that a hostess was at liberty to
exercise her own discretion and taste. Then
Mrs. Noble decided to try the new idea, and
thus it came about that the president was
a few days later somewhat surprised to
find himself at the head of Secretary
Mobiles table, with Mrs. Noble at his right
and Secretary Noble at le other end of
the board.
At once the world of society began to
wag its busy tongue. For ten days our
social devotees, men and women, have
talked of little else than Mrs. Mobiles new
wrinkle 1t is needless TO say that thou
sand different opinions are entertained and
expressed, and that the bold CO .et lady
has her critics as well as her champions.
At the present moment the hostile faction
clearly outnumbers the other, and at most
Of the teas and receptions poor Mrs. Noble
is being hauled over the Goals in particu-
larly lively fashion. Those who do not
like the innovation comment that it is a
disgusting imitation of English style,
which is monarchical and aristocratic and
not at all suitable for democratic America.
They point out that, while it is true Queen
Victoria occupies the head of the table
wherever she goes, the custom in England
is based upon the fiction that the sovereign
is supreme in all places and all things, and
consequently cannot be permitted to oc-
cupy an attitude in the least suggesting
inferiority to any other person whatever.
On this theory the queen would, by sit
ting at the right of her hostess, confess
that she did not own the house in which
the table was spread and consequently
that she was not mistress there and was
for the time being a subject sojourning in
a castle where another was ruler. This
sort of thing may be dreadfully humil-
iating in England, but it is not in &C
cordance with American ideas.
" len Queen Victoria graciOusly inform
a subject that she viii be pleased to di
at his table in response to an invitati
from him, her acceptance is in the form
command that rests upon the monarch
ical fiction that she will simply partake
of her own under his loyal attendance. In
England the host abdicates when the SOW
ereign is present. Over there they think
the queen would not be sovereign if she
recognized the proprietary right of tbr
host. The British notion about tn
things is that the sovereign has ultim
property in everything, while what
subject has he has only to hold and enjoy
at her pleasure. In order to keep up this
somewhat absurd fiction the queen must
sit at the head of her hosts table.
Now, it happens that the president of
the United States is not sovereign. He
has no ultimate property in things and
makes no pretense toward having. II is
not necessary for him to act when he goes
out into society on the assumption that he
has absolute mastery of the earth, that he
is supreme everywhere and in all things,
and that he takes with him to the banquet
hall or the conversation room all the great
ness of the Office which he chances to fill
for a period of four years. On the con-
trary, the president makes no such pre-
lenses or assumptions.
This is the way the more sensible of the
men and women of Washington have talked
about the innovation made by Mrs. Noble
Down to this time no other lady of the cabi-
net has had the courage to follow Mrs
Mobiles example and / have heard that
the president himself does not like the new
style and has quietly whispered his disap-
prevail Of it. As the gossip goes in the
drawing rooms of the fashionable world
Mrs. Noble has not only made mistake
in trying to initiate British royalty in free
but she went far beyond her
in endeavoring TO change social
precedence all by herself.
There is no written social law in this
ii is true, and the unwritten law
has no official sanction, inasmuch as we
have no court chamberlain or high author
ity of that sort in this capital But the
social precedents and customs are pretty
well settled, nevertheless, are well under
stood, have been followed for many, many
years. and are not TO be changed in day
Or a night by the wife of a cabinet officer,
estimable lady and worthy hostess though
she is. In the absence of any good reason
why the unwritten law which prevails
among civilized people should be changed
and the place of honor at the hosts right be
shifted TO some other seat, Washington so
ciety is agreed that no innovations should
be attempted or permitted.
As matter Of fact, the president Of the
United States dimes out in Washington,
not as president but distinctly as private /
person. informally. He could not dine ont !
as president without violating the unwrit-
zen law governing his conduct which has
obtained Tor many years. The president |
has vast official power, but he is held in re-
Z rairt fY r..r1aiu sr,ial convent iona f;ss