Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1896-02-09

anu the southern draWl, tne yduheo
nasal and the western burr is far more
grateful to the robust ear than is a
correct, but acquired form of speech,
however laflious. And this is not pro-
vincialism, but patriotism.
When l contemplate contempora-
necus Washington, like to think of the
days when Abraham Lincoln, gaunt
and gnarled and grim, with the sombre-
ness of the burden which lay upon him,
would stand, at night, bsslde the pill
lars of the south front OF the Whlte
House, staring into the night and the
future as gloomy and fathomless as his
eyes; that Hannibal Himlan, that
American CT Americans, and gentleman
o. gentlemen. pacing the Senate Cham
Der in her blue dress coat, with its brass
buttons, and refusing 10 intrigue for
denomination that might produce dis
sensiOn, dangerous 10 the National well
fare;of Seward and Stanton and Chase,
and all the genuine men who MADE
Washington society as we'll as National
existence possible, and who gave, some
how, even to the lighter side of life,
dignity and sincerity and character.
There were as many fools in those days
as now, and as many traitors, but the
traitors were forced TO keep under cover
and The fools themselves never thought
of rising to the top. To-day the quail
ity of caste, the instinct of social exac-
ton and the permeating influence o.
strong minds and high character seem
utterly absent. Prominent men-the
Judges Senators, Cabinet Officials, Am
bassadOrs and Ministers, even the edl-
tors-moye through society like unleav-
ened Jumps in a pan of fermenting
dough, in which only the yeast bubbles
are rising to the top. They give TO So
ciety nothing Of themselves, and indeed
they cannot. Society has been taken
out OF their hands, by the rich men and
women Of no other account, who are
making genuine hospitality impossible,
and taxing their self-respect of over-fed
and satiated guests. Once upon time
l remember reading in my Roman his
tory a paragraph that ran something
like this: Among the tasteless extray-
agances OF the day there was none TO
which the vulgar rich more commonly
devoted themselves than to that of the
table. II was not so much their ambi-
ton to surround themselves with the
most graceful and gorgeous appliances
of luxury, with richly furnished cham
bers, with exquisite music, with couches
and tables of costly materials, as 10
amaze their guests with the eXtTaordin-
airy money value of articles they man
aged to consume. Il was their rarity
only that nightingales and peacocks
and the tongues and brains of phoeni-
copters were regarded as delicacies
Still less could i give pleasure 10 swal-
low pearls dissolved in powerful acids. y
Washington has not precisely Calig-
ula or an Apiceus, or a Luculous, VINO
would spend a m.ll-cn CT a meal, but
we are swallowing our social pearls
diluted with champagne and encrusted
with sweets OF course society is not
made up entirely OF barbarians. when
men like Senator Gray, Senator Lodge
John Hay. Thomas Nelson Page, Chaun-
cey Dspow, and Theodore Roosevelt can
be got together at one dinner. in one
evening. as happened last week. And
! there are many women here, worthy 70
head The salon of Madame Adam or pre-
side ever a dinner cooked, as we'll as or
dered by the Theodore Child. | allude
only TO the evident tone of general So
ciety.