St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-01-09
A Negro Said to Have Sworn
to Bring Sickness to the
White House.
This in Revenge for the Har-
rison Family Diseharging
Several Africans.
Mr.. Blaine a NeVer-Failing
Source of News of Great
Interest.
New Years Calling Dead Al
most Everywhere Except
Washington.
Special to the Globe.

WASHINGTON, Jan. S.-The custom
of New Years calling, everybody says,
originated with the Dutch long ago in
New Amsterdam. Time was when no
woman considered herself at all deserv-
ing of social distinction unless She
"kept open house" OH the 1st of Janu-
airy; but everybody knows how and
why the practice fell into disuse, until
now Washington is almost the only city
in the country where people receive
their men friends on New Years day.
Washington, you know, is law unto
itself in this, as in most social obServ-
ances, and, although in official circles
there was absolute dizziness last Mon
day. there were carriages in twos and
threes and singly before many door.
The fact that the mistress of the house
is receiving is announced by wreath
of holly or greenery hung in the win
dow.
Wreaths were to be seen in all sorts
and conditions of windows. They hung
behind plate glass, and against the
snowy lace curtains in window, whose
ill-painted saShes proclaimed the dusky
color of the inmates. There is strong
individual something about the negro
which attaches itself even to the house
he lives in. You can tell anegrO'S house
wherever you see it. 1t is like his attire
all for show. The paint is of bright
hue, but there's only one coat OF it,
The furniture is of the brightest posi-
bic color, and the frailest possible tex
ture, and it is never quite complete.
One-third of Washington's population
is made up of people in whose veins is
more or less negro blood. One finds
among that third the best dressed peO-
pie in town. The negro can be
the ShabbieSt of mortas, but when he
does dress there is an elegance about
him, distinctiveness of coloring and
jauntineSs of bearing that no mere
white man can hope to approach. The
The Washington darky is polite; oh,
painfully so, ii he thinks himself sure
Of a tip from you; but his covert inso-
lence at other times furnishes new ma
terial for discussion on the much-yeXed
race question. The hatred and intoler-
ance the Southern white man and the
Southern negro have, one for the other,
crop out now ana then in terrible way.
The conduct of negroes on street cars
toward white women is enough 10 make
a white mans blood boil. They loll on
the seats, taking up as much room as
possible, and never have [ seen negro
man surrender his seat to a white
woman. OFTEN in crowded Car col
ored man will be the only one of his sex
to retain a seat, but. though women of
all ages are standing, he sits still in
comfort. When he dares. he is openly
inSolent; but most of the time he con-
tents himself with a yelled imperti-
nence that makes one think the eman-
cipation proclamation gigantic mis-
take.
Superstitious people are beginning to
think that some evil spirit has deliDer-
ately "hoodoed" the White house. How
ever that may be, the executive mansion
has certainly seen evil days during the
present administration. Busybodies say
that when the Harrisons came in sew
eral old servants were discharged,
among them one old man who SWOre in
revenge that sickness and death should
come in as he went out. Since then
there has been somebody i'll either in
the presidents family or among the
servants nearly all the time, and when
the scarlet fever placard was hung in
the White house pOrtico expressions of
deep concern and sympathy tor the
Harrisons were heard on every
side. The holidays could not
have been merry for them under
any circumstances, and when the visit
of Mrs. Russell Harrison. instead of
Frightening the family circle, deepened
its gloom by the illness of her little
daughter Marthena, the festival season
was an anxious. The little girl is said
to be recovering from the dread disease
well, and the Mckee children are in no
danger.
Extra pains will be taken with the
thorough fumigation which will follow
Marthcna'S illness, so that when the
Cleveland baby comes to her new home
there will be no danger to her health.
She is said to be very healthy baby,
and is growing as nearly pretty as so
young a child can be. She was not
pretty to start out with, fact which III
itself gives hope that she will be as
good to look at as her mother some day,
since pretty babies always grow up ill
favored and vice versa. She looks like her
father, they say, and that gives her cast
of face, if so, that while full of strength
of character is cast in too rugged mold
Tor feminine beauty. Somebody COM
mented on Baby Ruth's resemblance to
her great father one day, Whereupon her
mother, with twinkle in her eye and
gravity in her voice, replied: "Oh, yes,
we know it. We can't help it, but we
don't mind it so long as she's healthy
Did Mrs. Cleveland say that? l don't
know, I'm sure. They say she did, and
Washington is a town where Truth,
being we'll bred and modest, is always
so thickly clothed that it is impossible
10 tell what she'd be like if she were
naked; and even if she were. Washing
tonans being modest and Truth lady,
we'd all politely turn our backs on her
and swear we never saw her. People will
gossip, and, being unable to find I'M
pleasant things TO say of so universal
favOrite as Mrs. Cleveland, are fam to
say pleasant ones.
~
When Mr.. Blaine dies, as die he must,
If he has half the ailments Dame Ru-
NOR accredltS to him, he will have
robbed the newspaper men of Washing
ton Of one of their never-failing sources
of what they are pleased to call news.
Mr.. Blaine has in his day furnished
more sensations to 90 humming over
the wires than any other man of these
times. There can always some story be
found or invented concerning the Red
house and its famous inmate. Every
thing the wonderful man does is a
subject for comment. Catholics of the
city firmly expect that he will openly
enter the church before he dies,
but whether he will OR not.
only himself and the priests who
visit him know. There was one day,
some months ago, when, of Sunday
night, utter stagnation reigned along
Newspaper row. Nobody was ill. no.
body was saying anything, but each
man was watching his neighbor.
Finally, two crafty correspondents pat
their heads together, and, going to the
telegraph office, concocted dispatch,
purporting to come from the home Of
flee Of one of them. 1t alleged the
rumor of Mr.. Blaine's intention to
write-no matter what. inasmuch as
that is not the point of this story. The
bogus telegram was carefully prepared
and sealed in an envelope addressed to
the arch conspirator. Armed with this
document, the precious pair invaded
the Blaine mansion and gave the
opened envelope containing the tele-
gram to the butler TO give to NJ. Blaine.
The servant was absent some time and