The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-02-25
SOCIETY IN WASHINGTON.
SOME OF ITS PECULIARITIEs AND
FEATURES.


in-The Omnipresent Reception-It
Is the Chief Means of Entertaining.
The Upper Crust and the Middle
GIass-Relative Value of Money
and BrainS-POliticaI and Social
Pleasures Not DivOrced-0ther Mat
tiers of General Interest.
Washington, Feb. 2.-Capital society
strikes different people in different ways.
il is the fashion to praise its simple
IN" and yet external simplicity is about
she last epithet that fits it. To a stranger
its machinery is as artificial as the man.
ner of the people who make it. The great
central fact in Washington. about which
everything social revolves and upon which
the whole structure depends. is the omni-
present and eternal reception" Down
through the whole social gamut, from
highest circles to lowest, from gorgeous
functions in the White House, the lega-
tons of titled foreigners, the cabinet fam
lilies the lawmakers, at the humber homes
Of department clerks, trade-people, me-
chanics, even to the colored wash-ladies
(who Sling Style at a furious rate when
once started in that direction)-everybody
who does any entertaining at ALL begins
aud ends with the reception. 1t is the
pivot on which the social fabric turns, as
nowhere else in the United States. In the
nature of things, as Washington society
is organized, if receptions were left out
of the reckoning, society as it exists would
come to an end In the first place there
is a regular day on which the President
receives; another on which the members
of the cabinet receive; another when the
senators are at home; another for the
judges, or for the female members of
their families, which amounts to the same
thing. Though the House of Representa-
lives is too numerous and democratic a
body to have a special day reserved for
its callers, there are many members of it
who have their days" also. Besides this,
the residents of the city have their days,
TOO; and as many of them in the same
street are apt to fix on the same day for
convenience sake, a new complication
arises in the fact that there is also III
street. days, and Connecticut avenue
days, and Il street days and Capital
Hip days-all of which you should I'M
derstand and religiously observe. Neither
should it be forgotten that each household
of the diplomatic corps has a day of its
own, entirely, Independent of anybody
else's day. and that the families in each
hotel, apartment house and large board
ing houses are, as a rule banded together
IN their days, as Riggs House day." Ar
Hngton day" Portland Flats day." and
so en- to the end of the chapter. There
FORE one needs to set up a register TO keep
trick Of them all.
Receptions consist invariably of the
same sort of entertainment the world over
you go In one door and out at another;
touch gloved hands, make two or three
stereotyped remarks, and on to the next
house on your list During the greater
part of the time in the short Washington
season, receptions are going on every day
an every quarter, the general effect on a
winters afternoon being that of a city
IN which everybody is making a hurried
examination of his fellow citizens houses.
with a view to purchasing or hiring the
same for a term of years. 1t is mpossi-
bic for the least curious stranger not to
speculate on the probable causes of this
phenomenon; and Of course the first that
suggests itself is the comparative cheap
ness of this form of social entertainment
Economical heads of families have long
recognized the fact that the "kittle-drum''
(which is simply a modified form of re-
cepuon), has great advantages for those
VINO wish to entertain without wasting
their substance; and this-without any re-
Election upon the hospitality of the place
Is the desire of the prudent householder
in Washington. If he takes any part at
al in the social and political life of Wash
1hgton, he has so much entertaining or
strangers to do-of Tom Dick and Harry,
Tor whom he cares not a straw-that it is
altogether different matter from the
privilege of entertaining only ones
friends, as in other places. Considering
me subject from the local standpoint of
the national capital, he sees that while
pals and dinners are good In their way
there is nothing which goes farther and
covers more ground than a reception. 1t
may unquestionably be said that for
SVEN amount of money, any family which
wants to have couple of months society
IN the winter, can have more of it. and on
me whole of a better kind, in Washington
than anywhere else In the country.
or the couple of hundred thousand who
make the population of Washington. fully
!hree-quarters are dependant directly or
indirectly, on the government for their
livelihood, and thus capital society il
made up of salaried people, as nowhere
use IN the world. Now, as the highest
salary after the President. paid to any
body connected with the government is
only 10000 and by far the greater part
me salaries are not quarter of that.
II IS obvious that the scale of living must
~ HNed on an entirely different level from
tnet in European capitals where incomes
u $4,000 are not noticed and $4,000 in.
comes are too numerous to excite COM
meut.
Washington is the only capital In the
lulied States where good society is ma lie
~ and managed by political people. In
NeW York, in Savannah, indeed in al
most every center of wealth and culture.
'Ferybody knows that the divorce between
~, two is complete. The social and po-
Hlleal classes having little in common.
ere quite distinct. The popularity of
Washington life is that society and poll
YES are one. This gives to every gather
ing a peculiar spice and attractiveness
l'o' found elsewhere. Converse ton il
H' Limited to q number of hackneyed
SDnJecis, but is forced into channels of
fenl Importance. The general facts of
''lues, the game of parties. the charac-
yer OF leading men. their motives pur-
l'ses and strong and weak points are not
~ elsewhere, matters of remote specull-