The leader., 1900-01-17
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From the Newspaper Correspondence Divis
of u. G.. SiggerS.


From the Newspaper Correspondence Division
OF 4. G.. Sggers.
The social season i'm Washington be-
gins With the New Years reception at
the White House and continues with
ont intermission until the beginning
of Lent. It does not close then for
any religious reason, but simply be
cause official society is tired out by
that time and because Lent furnishes
good point at which to stop. The
White House is, of course, the center
of the entertaining. The President
gives every year several dinners to the
Diplomatic Corps, the Supreme Court,
and to Congress. The idea is to invite
every Congressman at least once dur
ing his term of office. There are also
four big receptions every winter; to
the diplomatic corps, to the army and
navy, to Congress and the Judiciary,
and to the public. Swallow-tailed coats
are regulation at the first three, but
not at the last unless the callers wish
to wear them. Until McKinley's time,
anyone with the proper clothes and
with sufficient nerve could attend any
of the receptions, but the brushes were
so frightful as to detract seriously from
the pleasure of the entertainment.
Now, cards of invitation must be
shown at the door and the ladies
dresses are no longer torn from their
backs by the crowd.
Washington is still discussing ques-
tions of precedence. There are proba-
bly, not dozen men in the city, out
side the diplomatic corps, who care a
rap about it, but the women are all
interested and insist on their husbands
rights. A year or two ago, the British
Ambassador raised contest by claim
ing to rank the Vice-President and
only yielded when the question was
decided against him by his own gov
eminent. Secretary Hay has recently
settled anew the relative rank of Sena-
tors and Cabinet officers, a question
that has been hanging on ever since
the establishment of the government
Under the old law, the President of
the Senate was next in line to the Vice
President, for succession to the Presi-
dency. On account of this fact and
also because the Senate confirmed
Cabinet officers, it was held superior
in rank. Under the present law, the
President in line of promotion to the
Presidency, and might therefore claim
to rank the Senate. But Mr. Hay de-
cided otherwise.
Mrs Dewey has also stirred up some
trouble by claiming to rank Gen. Miles,
to rank the Cabinet, and to rank the
Senate, and has refused to call on any
of these until they had called on her.
After sitting in solitary grandeur for
some time waiting for callers who did
not come, she carried the case to the
President, who returned a fiat negative
to her pretensiOns.
The annual seed distribution will
soon begin, and millions of packages
of seeds of every description. valuable
and valueless, will soon be flying over
the country. The contract for supply
ing Congressman with their seeds was
secured last fall by Charles Packer of
California, at price which undoubted-
ly means a considerable loss to him
through the general rise in prices. He
will place the seeds in packets and
turn them over to the Agricultural
Department for testing and distribu-
ton to the members, each of whom
will be entitled to certain number.
1t has always been something of
problem to allot the seeds in such
way as to get them to localities to
which they are best adapted, and at
the same time not to favor one Con
gresham over another, but this is now
believed to have been done. Under the
law, members must receive seeds of
equal value. Seeds are now divided
into five classes vegetable, flower,
cotton, tobacco, and lawn grass seeds.
He can exchange his tobacco for cotton
seed in the proportion of go packages
of the former for go quarts of the
latter, or either or both for $50 pack
ages of vegetable seed. The small
packages of seed are combined into
large packages containing five small
ones. They are assorted with a good
deal of care, one package containing
beet, cucumber, onion, radish and bean
seeds, another containing pea, corn,
radish, lettuce and onion, and so on,
each package being made as nearly as
possible the same weight as every
other. OF beet seed, the Department
distributes 1,l64,0O0 packets, of cucum-
bers 100000, of lettuce 263,0OO, of
mushmelons 100000 of tobacco 300
pounds, made up in $1,000 packets, of
cotton seed $4,000 packets, of Ken
lucky blue grass $4,000, and so on.
Members can exchange their seeds
with each other if they wish, either for
other seeds or public documents or
other Congressional perquisites. City
members do not need seeds and they
generally strike bargains with country
members by which they obtain articles
more important to their constituents.
A New York Farmers MISSISSIPPI
pi Experience.
The land and industrial department