The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-27
WASHINGTON HIGH LIFE.
The New Secretnry's Arrival Affords
joy to jenkins.

Correspondence Boston Transcript
The new Secretary of the Interior has
been joined by his wife and six sons, and
Jenkins is accordingly active and happy.
The Francis family is a rare bird for Jen-
kins. In the first place it is unusual TO
draw brand-new Cabinet member at this
stage of an administration, and such a
member as Mr.. Francis-truly Jenkins may
bless his stars, which he is doing in most
grateful and characteristic fashion. Mr..
Francis. in himself, is, according to Jen-
kins, something for the gift of which
Washington society may bow its head in
Thanksgiving and deep sense of unworth-
mess. Mr.. Francis golfs-a sacred duty of
the administration, more necessary than
coast defenses or an increased navy in
preserving the good will of England, yet a
duty which previous to the advent of Mr.
Francis has fallen to an under secretary,
Mr. William Edmund Curtis. to perform.
Mr. Curtis COLTS well; he drives a deadly
iron" not more glorious to behold than the
beautiful curves and forcefuI promise of
his prasticed ''waggle." Yet nobly as Mr..
Curtis has done his duty in the office
of plenipotentiary golfer of the
Cleveland administration, his rank of un-
der secretary has hindered that perfect ex-
ercise of all the dignity possible to be
attached to the office which a Cabinet
member on the links is able to accomplish.
Secretary Francis has already been elected
a member of the Washington Golf Club
and Jenkins through the society columns
of the monopolistic press. hugs himself in
the discovery that the checkered stockings
in which the Secretary of the Interior COLTS
are a degree more vivid than those in
which the British ambassador was last seen
in this country. To be sure, the British
ambassador is now abroad, and there is no
telling what new stockings he may bring
home with him. For all we, or even Jen-
kinS knows, when he returns in the fall he
may be equipped to outshine our new Sec
rotary in the glory of his neither limbs
To consider that now, however, is only to
lied, and whatever Sir Julian may do to
cause Great Britain to appear more bril-
Sir Julian, nor Great Britain, can rob Jen-
kns of one jot of joy, present and prospec-
tive, he finds in Secretary Francis's wife.
Next to the wife of the President, the
Cabinet ladies' are meat for the body and
mamma for. the soul of jenkins. Their
beauty, their manners; their clothes, their
Jenkins never can have done talking of asl
these things, and oh! what ghoulish glee
kins Were. ever. to tell the truth about
them! What for instance, if somebody
were to hypnotic Jenkins and make him
write a perfectly true account of Cab
met lady's" reception! I'll tell you this
confidentialy and candidy. you thus
would have a glory of a social function
at Washington that corresponds with moth
ing else / know quite so exactly as it does
with the superb machinery by which hogs
just the same dispatch and neatness you
are shot into the notice of the Cabinet lady
with grinning glare of welcome, accom-
panied by a grim grip of the hand that
passes you on before you have so much
opened your mouth to express your
emotions, and before you know where you
are or what has been done to you-there
you are, through the machine. the life OF
your social mood extinct. your heart and
other vitals removed your self-lovc
slzinned-a finished carcass ready to be
shipped.
The present administration in the matter
of Cabinet ladies has been trial, even TO
Jenkins. In but one or two exceptions nc
sufficient degree to give any but the most
ordinary character to the entertainment the
Cabinet ladies provide Thus the ADVENT OF
Mrs Francis is an unmiXed blessing. for
she has announced her intention of start
ling Washington with the magnificence. of
past experience and vast wealth.
Mrs. Francis is a daughter. of many
identifying her Jenkins invariably defines
her not much as the wife OF her husband
as the daughter OF the late 9oh h -. ,i Rerryff
steamers plying between st LOUIS ana
New Orleans I have the idea of writing
some time when 1 have time equal to my
ideas a book for reference on our Ameri-
can peerage.'' This was first suggested to
me on a trip to Nassau recently when
variaby named herself as Mrs McBlank,
of the McBlank reaper. A British ofncer
complained to me of the inaccuracy of this
habit we have of distinguishing
ourselves and it was he who pointed out
the aid there is to be rendered humanity
by printing for general circulation, similar
to Burke's Deerage, a volume that shall
distinctly trace the source and number of
dollars which constitute our value in So
oia said this
.'how do | know how much money the Nc
Blank reaper represents. and how much
lady's acquaintance if, say. the McBlank
reaper We're authoritatiVely traced back
saw say fro from the Aston furs or the Wander
bilt railroads? Really, this IS owed TO So
Getty
agencies published something in this
line but still one see that it is mat
ter to be ana f. fox eTp nn ba lr
reason that the female branches OF Ameri-
can wealth may have their identity duly
dangers now existing, OF being swallowed
up in matrimony. jenkins has been careful
about this in the instance of Mrs. Francis,
for if if be not instantly apparent to every
body lust what wealth and what security
the Anchor line of Mississippi river boats
represents Jenkins has at least made clear
that it is the Anchor line that is at the
bottom of Mrs. Francis's prosperity.
Says Jenkins. writing touGhingly OF MIS- MIS-:
4
1871 She married David r. Francis at that
time a young commission merchant. but
little known either socially or financially.
The marriage has been exceptionally happy
and prosperous and few wives have ever
more to their husbands ad-
vancement. ,4 NJ,
Francis had passed through successive
STA ges of greater and greater glory winch
him finally to be Mayor OF ST
7 ,ouis and subsequent Governor of Mfz-
zonra.' the brilliancy of Mrs. Francis's
administration in the social sphere at every
ge demonstrates the ability with which
She will reign as a Cabinet lady at WASH
ington.
Mrs Francis is the mother of six sons.
two of them aged, respectively. seventeen
md eighteen years, now in Yale. But
Jenkins conscious of the Malthusian doc
frines of Mrs Grundy, which he knows to
have their chief warrant in the fact that
children unpleasantly affect the age of Il
woman who can with difficulty remain
ha RELY sixteen herself when she is plainly
the mother Of a son that age-Jenkins rec
onciIes Mrs FranciS's family with Mrs.
crundy's prejudiceS. asserting that Mrs
f7rancis. with her slight girlish figure and
fair. fluffy hair. her current information
and her sparkling repartee, seems more
like the sister than the mother of her
sons
History of the Cent.