Waterbury Democrat., 1901-02-06
TIE SOCIAL SEASON.
Washington Society Deplores Mr McKinley's Indisposition.
1t Was Responsible for the Postpone ment of Many State Functions-A Chat About Diplomats and Their Ways.

>hAc &DodI D1P1OualS tuu dCil
 Ways.
 Washington, Feb 6.-Society is be- calmed, lethargic and unhappy. There seems to be no breeze ripping tine. social horizon. All of the buds and butterflies of fashion are simply miserable, because there is nothing doing in a big, dazzling way.
 The social season always begins here with the New Years reception at the white house; but this year, very soon after that function, Pres ident Mckinley became ill., Instead of recovering quickly he grew worse and was finally obliged to take to his bed and give up all business. Society did mt care for the health of the great
 man in the white house, but it did care, and does care, for the fact that all of the great social functions ceased on account of his illness.
 The state diISners, the receptions to the supreme court, to the senate and house of representatives, to the members of the cablnet, to the army and navy, to the general public, all these and many others were set aside for an indefinite period, greatly to the annoyance of those who are always anxious to be on the go. to see and be seen. The young people do not suffer that intense agony of regret which anim ates the hearts of the mothers whose daughters are growing one year older every 365 days, without increasing prospects of good match. Even old age is not respected in the hunt for men; and some old fellows are soon to be married to young girls who ought to be in school several years longer.
 Young MT. Vanderbilt is said to have given his br1ue a dowry of up- wards of $3, ,0OO.O0O. That is the Amer ican way of doing things. The for eigners give their American brides titles, some of them shopworn, and expect the brides to give them plenty of money. Hence it happens that the members of the diplomatic corps here are regarded as good catches by many rich mothers. The foreigners will not pay any attention to girls who have not handsome dowries. The diplo- matic corps is composed of diplomats, statesmen, gentlemen and snobs, the latter being in the palpable majority.
 This diplomatic corps is often spoken of in the newspapers, but the people generally do not know much about it. Human ideals are frequent ly erroneous, and popular impre ssions concerning the diplomatic corps are wrong. The general supposition of writers outside of this city seems to be that the members of the diplomat ic corps form sort of military com munity in civil life. As a matter of fact they seldom are seen together, as body. Occasionally there is some public function at the capitol which causes all of these officials to assem- ble in the galleries set apart for them. On New Years day they assemble in the department of state and attend the reception at the white house. On each inauguration day they sit to- gether on the floor of the senate and witness the inaugural ceremonies. But, generally speaking, this corps is scattered and has no homogeneity. Very few people resident in the na- tional capital ever see these diplo- mats thus assembled. because very few have the good fortune to gain admittance to the state department, white house or senate chamber.
 Nobody can have an adequate or comprehensive idea concerning any person or thing with which he can- not come into contact, visual or tan gible. Therefore it is that few writ ers treat public men conservatively >1d wisely. Editorial writers who do rot know presidents and presidential candidates, senators and senatorial candidates. personally and heart to heart, are likely to have distorted ideas of the individuals of whom they write. Consequently they unconscious ly and unintentionally often do in- justice in their work. Few people who write about William Mckinley, Will liam Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roose- welt and Adlai E. Stevenson know those men we'll enough to properly portray them in print.
 So it is concerning the diploma tic corps. There are many divergent ideals entertained about this aggre- gation of individuals who represent the nations of the civilized world here; and those ideals are almost as diverse and numerous as the individ- uals who give the subject thought or considerat ation.
 There is. and should be, no clamor nor glitter surrounding the diplomat ic corps in th1s city. It is com posed of eminent gentlemen from the different nations of the civ ihzed world, but these gentlemen are not always on dress parade. Except ing the Chinese and Corean ministers and their attendants, the members of the diplomatic corps dress as other gentlemen do, and no stranger could tell diplomat on the street from an ordinary citizen.
 The residences of the members of the diplomatic corps are scattered about the city, so that there is no residential homogeneity of the corps; and it is only on rare state occasions that they assemble in q body, wear ing the uniforms and decorations.
 British Ambassador Pauncefote is a typical British gentleman; large, strongly proportioned, of grave mien ;ol o<13I