Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-01-09
M0RSELS OF GOSSIP
Personal, Political and Social Matters
in City Of Washington.
The Fearful Society Dinner-The Informal
Kird-Senator Stewards Hobby.


ner is all conquering. Washington is a
city CT dinner giving. A member OF the
cabinet who has been out to dine every
night Of late tells me that this Is the
hardest part Of his work in Washington.
''Bcfore ] came here, he said, Il was az
plain and temperate a man as there is in
the country, but Washington has spoiled
me. / have neither appetite nor digestion
any more and am afraid am acquiring
awfully bad habits When retire from
office and 90 back to my simple home,
think I shall have to devote about one
year to steadying down and getting into
the old rut Another three months Of this
dinner campaign, and l would be dead
man. it is bore too. About half the
time ore is thrown into congenial com-
pnny, bnt the other half you are put where
you have to talk with your tenders out all
the time for fear you will say something
impolitic or offensive. Another thing,
concluded the cabinet minister, u don't
know but it would be q good idea for me
to sue Uncle Sam for ruined health and
for tho $4,000 "a year it has cost NE to
live in Washington beyond my salary"
Informal Dinners.
The best dinners--that is, the most en-
joyable dinners-in Washington are not
given in the official set. They arc given
by little coterics Of friends who know all
the guests will DO congcnial people and
bright people. These persons say lifo is
too short to spend ones evenings at a fash
ionable and formal dinner, where the con-
versation is kept ~ only with an effort,
and where one has to be constantly on ones
guard. They go in for good time, and
probably the reader Of this dispatch, who
lives, like most Of us good Americans, in
a simple and transformations way, would
be surprised If he could drop in at some of
these swell dinners, or at least these din
ncrs given sy swell people, and see the
manners and methods employed
heard story the other day about the
wife of tho Chinese minister which Is
rather amusing. She Is the little creature
who created SO much talk at the New Y ear
reception at tho White House by her
quaint manners and her highly painted
face and her queer costume. Nine. Cana,
wife Of the Chilean minister, and the wife
of another South American diplomat called
at tho Chinese legation one day to see
Mrs Yang Yu. The callers can speak
only Spanish, while the Chinese minis
ter's wife can say in English nothing but
''How do You dof" and cannot speak
Spanish at all. 1t happened that the in
terpreter Of the legation was out, and
there was no ono present who could help
the ladies out of their difficulty. By some
accident 1t was discovered that Nine.
Cana and her friend understood enough of
English to know what Mime. Yang Iu
meant when she employed her one English
phrase, and SO the little Chinese woman
made the most of it. Onco in five minutes
or some such matter she would look up at
her callers with smile and say, How do
you dof" Then she would pour some tea,
and after another five minutes had passed
she would say again, smiling her prctti-
est, "How do you do2" BY this time the
bonbons were due, and when a sufficient
quantity Of them had been consumed
Nine Yang Yu would return to the at
tack with another How do you dof"
Finally tho whole scene struck the three
ladies as being so conicnl that they burst
into laughter, and the Chinese hostess
nearly went Into Mysteries. In that fit Of
laughter the three ladies understood one
another perfectly, and Nine. Cana says it
was ono of tho most enjoyable calls she
has paid In many day
senator sts5artS siODDy.
Senator Stewart of Nevada breaks out
every few weeks in. an interview on his
favorito topic of the crime of 'T3, rs he
Invariably calls tho decentralization of sill
yer. Whether or not that was crime is
none of our business and not pertinent to
our story, but Senator Stewart talks so
much of this so called crime that it has
become one of tho standing jokes Of the
capital. AT John Chamberlin's restaurant
in this city there is nightly assomblage
Of statesmen. Almost every evening Sen
ator Stewart tall white whiskcrGd and
bright eyed, comes in under his big SLOUGH
hat. II he sees three or four men at table
having aquet drink, he approaches them,
sits down beside then and at once begins
20 talk of the crime of '73. 1t does not
matter whether or not he knows these
men. A little thing like that does not
bother this bluff old senator from tho
west. IIo wants to talk about that crime,
and nothing will stop him. 1t usually
happens that in about five minutes these
mon got up and leave him make their
escape" they call it. Then the senator
looks around, spies another group or per-
haps some lone, defenselsss mar, and he
gets up and moves over 20 that table and
starts anew his story of the great rime of
'73. When there is no ono else tt talk to,
Senator Stewart takes ono goci, solid
drink all by himself and makes FOR home,
sati SIZED that he has done his duty for the
night. For all this popularity the old sen
ator is one of the most vigorous and conf
panionable men in public life in Wash
ington.
Social Democracy.
On New Years day members of the dip
lo,natic corps were much surprised at one
incident OF Secretary Gresham breakfast
to the corps. IL is one of the unwritten
laws of Washington that every Jan. the
secretary of state must give a so called
breakfast to the foreign ministers and
their retinues OF course it is not a break
fast at all, being merely Il luncheon that
is eaten whilo all the guests are standing.
Nor is it served until about half past ~
o'clock. Secretary Gresham gave his
breakfast at tho hotel where he lives and
used for the purpose the great dining room
in which SO many notable banquets have
been given. As the guests arrived at the
door Of this hall they were surprised to
find there as butler. to usher them in and
announce their names, a clerk in the state
departments. one Hubbard 7. Smith. Mr..
Smith did his work IN fine style too. He
Knows almost all the members of the