The Progress., 1893-03-11

is not now a bride Having attained the
dignity of matronhoOd, she acts more the
matron and less the impulsive schoolgirl
that she was when Mr.. Cleveland first
brought her to the White House. They say
Mrs Cleveland is going to eschew news
paper notoriety and gossip about her private
life as much as she can. | do not much
blame her for that.
Admirable as is some of the work of the
women correspondents here, they are L
tie too much inclined to report petty 'e
tails. to indulge in small talk and trivial
gossip about persons in high places. Per
haps you do not know that the women cor.
respondents of Washington form class OF
newspaper workers distinct and apart from
all other newspaper effort here. Some OF
them are very successful, living in theif
own houses and driving their carriages
with coachy and footman just like the la
dies of whose social goings on they write.
The women correspondents are much like
their male contemporaries in that they
think all doors must open before them
and that they are entitled to the secreti
of the drawing room and boudoir, Just aj
we men think the innermost occurrences
of committee rooms and caucuses belong
to u.s. OF course there is difference be
tween the two fields, and the field worked
by the women correspondents requires
much more delicacy of treatment and tacl
! in operation because it involves the sacred
! rights and privacy of the home.
! Just now the women correspondents aId
! up in arms against Mrs. Cleveland. Their
} plaint is that the mistress of the White
J House no longer gives them adequate OPP
portunities for plying their trade She is
loft.
! AS to the merits of the case have no opin-
ion, but could safely warn Mrs Cleveland
! that it is not prudent to incur the i'll VIII oi
the women writers. They know JUS -
well how to wlite the things that cut 70 tEj
mental quick and harrow up the soul al
they know how to gush and cOmplimen;
and say sweet things. And they have such
deft way OF conceGliEg the Claws with
which they scratch behind velvet glove
and fiowery wOrdsl
1t is ratheran odd circumstance that IL,
best society writer Washington has had
for many years was man. The leaders p
society here say they would rather have 4
man than a woman sent to write up affair:
in which they are interested. When aske,
for an explanation. they say it is because
man has so much better judgment as Il
what to write and what not to write Prob
ably half a dozen women prominent /.
Washington society have said to me durin:
the last four years: why don't you tur.
society writer? With that as specialt!
you could make yourself supreme in Was h
ington society. Women would bow dow;
and worship you. You would be king ,.
a throne of your own making. All til
debutantes would sue for your pleasure
and all the matrons would bear you gifts.
Alluring, isn't it? But am not going int
the society speciality till other avenues O
earning living with my pen fail me.
1t was a man, by the way, who wrote tn
first distinctive society letters from Wash
ington. Nathaniel Willis was that man
Willis was at that time a slender, foppisl
| young man, always dressed in the extrem
J of fashion. He was wee bit priggish, bu
| knew how to mix fancies with his facts
something that few women society writers
oddly enough have the art to do. Will
} not only wrote the first society letters on
= of this town, but he introduced steel pen
, here and caused them quickly to displac
the old goose quilts. Some man with tn
! facile pen of Willis, and with a Hays o
, a Nicolays love of historical research AIT
3 accuracy, should come forward during thes
3 closing years of the first century of tn
: White House and write the history of tina
| famous mansion from Abigail Adams Il
Frances Cleveland RoBERT GRAVES.