The record-union., 1893-03-13
A RECEPTION
At the White Housewife Goes and
How They Dress.

At the Presidents house on reception
night. or at the house of Cabinet officer
on Wednesday afternoon, or of a Sem
ator on Thursday afternoon. or at any
place to which people are asked for their
public position, there will be found men
and women representing every stage of
prosperity in the Union, and every honest
calling that leads to prosperity. And that
is precisely what is to be found in the
public places of the republican the
House OF Representatives, in the Senate,
in the Cabinet, on the Supreme Bench,
and in the White House ITSELF 1t is
strange and interesting accumulation of
human beings, most of them too timid to
be as interesting as they might be. Even
pie who get together make up a curious
conglomerate.
The new Congressman takes his wife to
the residents, expecting to find the en-
terteinment not very different, although
perhaps on somewhat grander scale,
from that to which he is accustomed in the
Judges house at the county seat during
court week. So he goes, perhaps, in his
frock coat. feeling an American prejudice
against evening dress, and white or
lilac tie, while his rather fearful helpmate
has put on her best black silk, modest or
prudish. as you will, with its high neck
and its long sleeves.
LIZ hO" SOilRItoSIIidu eAp0IlCuc6S no
trepidation in sElressing the President.
They are both politicians, and the new
Congressman may even believe for
moment that some day he may stand at
the head 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 in his
district. There are a hundred subjects
that the two have in common, but he is
disappointed as he is about to utter his
first smart phrase of conversation to feel
that the Presidents hand is gently inn
pelling him forward, and that there is
soft pressure of the crowd behind him in
the same direction.
1t is his first introduction to the reti-
cences and restraints of high life, an in
PRODUCTION which is emphasized and made
more impressive by the disinclination of
the receiving women to shake hands, or
to indicate their recognition of the new
members by anything warmer or more
emphatic than a courtesy, which, how
ever, is quite enough for the timorous
wife at his side, who, much more than
her husband, shrinks before the grand
danes of the White House and Cabinet,
some of whom were born to polite society,
while some have acquired large amount
of social assurance during their husbands
struggles up the ladder of fame.
Other persons besides Congressman are
here, some of them equally uncomfort-
able, many of them, however, enjoying
themselves to the utmost. There is a
panoroma of all that is prominent in
official and political life. There are Off
GERS of the army and navy who have been
on staff duty at the capital, and are now
undergoing, with pleasure or fortitude,
as the case may be, the pronounced ad-
miration of young women. There are
older officers, who have been more re-
Gently on the plains. and who come to the
function with their wives and daughters
and sisters with a delight or reverence
due, to their honest thinking. to the high
est and most resplendent social ceremony
in this Countrywide drawing-room not
only of the head of the nation, 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 pecu-
liar 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 praiseworthy than their