The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-04-18
WHITE HOUSE RECEPTIONS.
Customary Courtesies on the Arrival


Customary Courtesies on the Arrival OF
New OficIaIs.
At the presidents house on a recep.
ton night, or a the house of cabinet
officer on Wednesday afternoon. or Of
senator on Thursday afternoon, or
at any place to which people are asked
for their public position, there will be
found men and women representa-
every stage of prosperity in the union.
and every honest calling that leads &c
prosperity. And that is precisely what
is 20 be found in the public places of
the republican the house of repre-
sentatives, in the senate, in the cal
met. on the supreme bench, and in the
White House itself. IT is d strange and
interesting accumulation of human
beings, most of them too tinid to be as
interesting as they might be. Even
when the president issues cards, the
people who get together make up a
curious couglomerate.
The new congressman takes his wife
to the presidents, expecting to find the
entertainment not very different, al
though perhaps on a somewhat grander
scale, from that to which he is accus-
toned in the judges house ct the coun-
tyseat during court week So he goes,
perhaps in his frock- feeling an
American prejudice against evening
dress. and a white or lilac tie, while
his rather fearful help mate has put on
her best black silk. modest or prudish,
as you viii, with its high neck and its
long sleeves. T he new congressman
experiences no trepidation in address,
ing the president. They are both poll
ticians. and the new congressman NAV
even believe for q moment that some
day he may stand at the mead of the
line of well-dressed women, whose
necks and arms now shine in his
startled eyes. He does not doubt that
the president is aware of the unique
vicissitudes of the recent campaign il
his district. There are a hundred sub
jects that the two have in common,
but he is disappointed as he is about to
utter his first smart phrase OF converse
ton to feel that the presidents hand is
gently impelling him forward, and that
there is soft pressure of the crowd be-
hind him in the same direction. j is
his first introduction to the reticences
and restraints of high life. an introduce
ton which is emphasized and made
more impressive by the disinclinatio
of the receiving women to shake hands,
or to indicate their recognition of the
new member by anything warmer or
more emphatic than a courtesy. which,
however, is quite enough for the
timorous wife at his side, who, much
more than her husband, shrinlis be-
fore the grand DANES of the White
House and cabinet, some of whom were
born to polite ciety, while some have
acquired a large amount of social assur-
ance during their husbands struggles
up the ladder of ia me.
Other persons besides congressman
are here, some of them equally uncom
Portable. many of them, however. en-
loving themselves to the utmost.
There is panorama of all that is
prominent in official and political
life. There are officers of the army
and navy who have been on staff duty
at the capital. and are now undergo
ing, with pleasure or fortitude, as the
case may be, the pronounced admira
ton of young women. There are older
officers who have been more recently
on the plains, and who come to the
function with wives and daughters and
sisters with delight or reverence due.
to their honest thinking, to the highest
and most resplendent social ceremony
in this Countrywide drawiug-room
not only of the head of the ma
ton. but of the commander
in-chief of the two military services.
The army and navy folk of the staff
are usually of that inner circle whose
peculiar traits and customs are not
now under consideration; but the army
people who have spent years on the
plains know nothing better, or higher,
or wiser, or generally more praise
worthy, than their own people. There
fore they will be found together, al
though the excited women, who have
for years endured with noble pa
thence the monotony of life at army
posts, are reioiced beyond words if
they may only grasp the hand and hear
the voice OF some paragon OF congress
sional wisdom who has been good to
their husbands or to the service
There will be diplomats in dazzling
uniforms; Chinese mandarins in silk
attire: japanese officials. the mensin
the black evening dress of convention,
and the women in the proper costume
of Europe and America
Nearly every one of those who make
up this interesting human collection
finds somewhere in the moving throng
friend or comrade who will save him
from that terrible isolation of an even
ing party which most persons have
felt, and which is often as depressing
as the solitude of great city. There
is little need to be alone. and the ob-
iect Of a wondering gaze that freezes
the warm blood, in a crush at a Wash
ington eption.-Henry LOOMS Mel
son, in Harper's Magazine.