The Portland daily press., 1893-01-07


of the Guests Are Strangers to the
Hostess and to One Another.
Especial Correspondence
WASHINGTON, Jan. 5.-There is great
slater of horses hoofs on the pavements
of the Capital City, rumble of heavy
carriage wheels, a banging of the doors
of broughams. Society has awakened
from its long lethargy and is once more
endeavoring to be gay and imagine it is
having good time.
want to tell you little something
about swell society in this American
capital of ours. 1t won't take me long
to tell you all / know, for am anything
but fashionable. went to a tea a DAY
or two ago-one Of the SWEETEST teas the
town has seen for many month-and
probably l shan't go again for long
year. A swell tea in Washington, par
ticularly in big house where the hostess
is ambitious and the invitations numer-
GUS, is one of the most soul narrowing
and provoking instruments of torture !
ever had the misfortune to meet with. A
tea in Washington, you should know, is
called tea probably from the fact that
no tea is served; that no one thinks OF
tea or even coffee, and that the one great
beverage which every one eagerly looks
for and lovingly fingers by is champagne
punch.
You are invited from to in the aft
ernoon, but after you have haggled
with cabby about the price for half an
hour and finally reached an agreement
by which he is to call for you at quar-
ter to sharp neighbor who is fashion
able, or who thinks she is, kindly sug-
gests that it is very bad form for any
one to appear at o'clock tea before o.
"And if you want to be right in the
SWIM" she adds, 'you won't get there
till quarter after and will stay only
half an hour. This makes you look like
an old hand" l accepted her advice
about not going till and wish / had
made it an hour later and had staid only
thirty seconds.
Well, we arrived at 5. There is long
string of carriages just ahead of us, for
every one else wants to be fashionable
too. After long wait we get up to the
port cochere and alight The man who
opens the carriage door is SO magnificent
a parsonage that am at once in awe OF
him. am afraid won't do something
Just right and that he will look reprov
ingly at me- He hands me a little ticket
with number on it, which I afterward
learn is the carriage number, to be used
in ordering your vehicle when you get
ready to tear yourself away.
Within the hall another magnificent
person in livery waves you to the right
and your ladies to the left, and after you
have given one young man your coat and
received check for it, and another young
man your hat and received check for
that, you begin to look around for the
ladies who are so unfortunate as to be
under your escort. During the ten min
utes which are occupied in this search
you have your toes walked upon by at
least dozen distinguished people, cab
met officers and senators and their wives,
who are nearsighted and important and
who appear to think they have right of
way, Some men would consider it an
honor to have their toes trod upon by
such distinguished persons, but l have
been SO long in Washington that the
honor conferred seems to me to be out OF
all proportion to the pain inflicted.
There is nothing now to do but to take
your place in the line of guests and adj
vance as rapidly as possible to the place
where the hostess is standing to receive
you. As you near her you can see that
she is magnifcently attired and that
her face wears perpetual smile. As
she is stranger to you, you fall to Won
dering who is to give you the intloduc-
ton, when you observe that young
man stands near by to whisper an in
quiry as to who you are, and. in turn to
announce with another whisper your
name, SO that the hostess may gra-
ciously greet you as one Of her Oldest
and dearest friends Il is a great relief
to discover that you are not the only
one who must thus be made known.
In fact two-thirds of the guests are
strangers within the gates, like your
self. Probably our capital society is the
only society in this country in which
people are invited to affairs of this sort
ElmDlY D6CduS0 buGlI dI0 huONu
and without any previous acquaintance
with or even an introduction to the
hostess.
The worst of it is as you presently
discover, that not only are majority OF
the guests strangers to the host and
hostess, but to each other. There is 8
great big crowd of people, and those
whose acquaintance is somewhat limited
wander about disconsolately looking fol-
some one to say word TO- The crush i;
great. Half the time you are wedged II
so that you can't stir one way or the
other. A big fat diplomat bars YOU
progress in one direction, and thret
women of goodly size and great com
pactness render it difficult for you t.
take even single step in the other di
rection. Like the arctic explorer Whose
ship is beset in the ice pack, you have
nothing to do but wait and watch for
favorable opening and then make you
escape.
The house is richly furnished, but no
L..