The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-16
GOssIPs IN 4 FLUTVTER.
Wife of Secretary Francis Breaks a
Precedent,
From the Chicago Record.

From the Chicago Record
Washington, D. c., Jan. 7-Official soci-
ETY. in Washington is all in a turmoil, and
Mrs. Francis, wife of the newly appointed
Secretary of the Interior, is the cause of
1t. The row all grows out of a violation
of official etiquette peculiar to Washing
ton, and social gossips are talking them
selves hoarse tonight over the question
as to whether the wife of the Secretary
of the Interior merely made a mistake or
intended to snub some of the callers Ac-
cording to the usual rule at the outset of
the social season everybody must call up
on everybody else in official life, etiquette
requiring that persons of subordinate low
er rank shall call first upon those of high
er up. This rule is adhered to very strict
ly and no senator's wife would think of
calling on the better half of a represent
alive first, while Of course the same rule
holds good as to the departmental social
four hundred.
Everybody, of course, has to call first
upon the cabinet families, and these WISH
tations were duly made at the home Of
the Secretary of the Interior. The official
etiquette requires that these calls shall be
returned by the wife of the cabinet officer
in person, or at least that she shall make
the rounds in her carriage and have cards
sent in by her footman. The laws of the
Modes and Persians are but unanimous
!
compared with this social statute
| Society was set in a fiutter yesterday by
| Mrs. Francis adopting a new system. 1t
was cabinet day. and of course everybody
| who knew anything at all knew that the
! wife of the Secretary of the Interior was
! necessarily at home holding the usual
! formal reception. Nevertheless messen-
ger boys in full uniform were sent out on
| this particular day distributing her cards
to all those who had called upon her.
There was at once great rage in official
| society, and sundry informal caucuses
were held during the evening at which
| the proposition was made by some of the
ladies that the cards should be sent back
by mail without further ado. 1t cannot
| be learned that this course was ~aken by
anybody but several of the ladies, includ-
! ing the wives of a number of assistant
secretaries whose official and social ranks
| are undoubted, declare that they will elm
mate the house of the Secretary of the
Interior from their list of calls hereafter.
| The affair has created no end of talk. and
| has resulted in calling attention to the
| fact that the only other instance when the
unique manner of returning calls was
adopted was in the case of another st.
Louis woman. the late Mrs. Noble, who
was curiously enough also the wife of tho
Secretary of the Interior. Mrs Noble
did not trust to a messenger boy. but sent
| out a man on bicycle, who distributed
cards upon official and resident society.
and the result was an immediate cold
shoulder similar to that said to be in
| preparation for Mrs. Francis.
The only other time when society has
been upset by an infringement of the
strict rule was a couple of years ago, when
| Mrs. Calvin Brice attempted to observe
the externals without subjecting herself to
the bother of driving about town. She
sent out her carriage empty, but supplied
the footman with a list and a big bunch
of cards which he distributed faithfully
and in fact successfully in many places
| but before his rounds were completed the
fact that Mrs. Brice vas not in the car
| riage became evident, and there was con-
siderable hubbub in consequence.
AS Mrs. Francis used a district messen-
! ger and there was no attempt at deception
some of the society ladies believe that the
affair grew out Of ignorance of the pecu-
liar customs of Washington society rather
| than desire to defy them. Whichever
may be true, sympathy seems to be with
Mrs. Francis among people not in the So
| cial set, for the cabinet ladies' are imposed
| upon constantly by people who call upon
them and expect the calls to b9 returned
| when, as matter of fact, il is a serious