The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-10-20
Tue GOSSIP OF WASHINGTON.
rHAPTER MOSTLY OF A SOCIAL
AND PERSONAL NATURE.

cav season PreuIcted-Debut OF
President's Daughter-Changes
che Diplomatic COrps-The New
,,o,resentative of Siam-The Going
a Gaming of Some of the Nota-
bIes.
wellington, D. c., Oct. 1e.-Ash
,,,,s,asday falls this year on Feb. 10.
cha season will be a short one: but
n the social prophets are predicting
o+ il will be unusually gay. Per-
- mat is the natural reaction from
49, sadness that has so long over
-ra5owed us. At any rate, it is the
So, Of this old, old world, from which
o~rtless millions have suddenly drop
- into oblivion. The month of off,
1..1 mourning for the late President
s-,,ras next Saturday. His successor
Va, evidently desired to give it the ut
most limit of time in his power; and
when most people, believing it to prop
.r,y end on the thirty-first day after
,fcKinley's death, hauled up their flags
<.or, the dropping half mast, President
roosevelt sent a messenger, post haste
- ali the public offices with orders to
,orer them again for four days more,
mill a month after McKinley's body
mas laid to rest in vault at Canton.
Mrs Roosevelt has decided to hold
three public receptions in December,
the dates selected being tn 14th, 21st
and 2Sth. To the general satisfaction
of everybody interested, the Wednes-
dav cabinet receptions are to be re-
suned. The White House dinners were
given on that evening Of the week dur
Ing the Mckinley regime, but they will
NOW be arranged for some other even
inc on account of the cabinet recep-
tions. The latter have not been near
" so brilliant for four years past as in
nrevious administrations, simply be-
cause the cabinet ladies soon found
that receiving callers three or four
hours in the afternoon, and then at
tending a state dinner in the evening
was too great a strain, both mental
and bodily. According to official ETH
ouette, an invitation to the White
House is equivalent to a command,
which nothing will excuse one from
obeying but the sole alternative for
refusing to return ones partners lead
in whist, DEATH so of course the
afternoon receptions had to suffer.
1t is probable that Miss Alice Roose-
welt, oldest daughter of the President
by his first wife, will make her debut
here late in the winter. She is at
present In Boston, from which city she
goes to New Haven, meeting her father
there when he comes to receive the de-
gree of LII. D. from Yale on Oct. %.
The President will bring his daughter
back to Washington a week later. Miss
Helen Roosevelt, cousin, who is to
be presented to New York society this
season by her grandmother, Mrs. As
tor, will afterwards come to Washing
ton, to spend a month in the White
House with her relatives. Mrs. Cowles,
the Presidents sister, returned to her
country home at Pennington, Conn,
after the President and his family
were installed in the White House.
She opened her Washington home in
the excessive heat of early autumn to
receive them when they were so unex-
pectedly called to Washington. The
Cowles family which has never figur-
ed much in society, on account of quiet
tastes and Commander Cowles' deaf
ness, will come back to Washington
next month as usual and their house
will be open to their intimate friends.
Do you remember how all the world
and his wife declared, when President
Mckinley first entered the White
House, that his invalid wife would
never be able to stand the fatigue of
official life? What an example of
fate's inscrutable ways-that the
President and the Vice President, both
strong, robust men in the prime of
life are in their graves; also poor
Mrs Cage who was another picture
Of health: Secretary Porter, young
Adebert Hay, and the daughter OF
Secretary Long. Frail, feeble Mrs.
Mckinley has outlived them all and
is apparently in better health to-day
than she was then. In her sheltered,
guarded existence, with doctors and
nurses to watch her every symptom
and not care in the world, it is not
unlikely that she may live to be an
octogenarian. 1t is not generally
known. but is nevertheless a grim
fact, that death, which has so many
times invaded the Mckinley cabinet
circle. seriously threatens another visit
in the near future.
SO many changes in the personnel of
the diplomatic corps have lately been
made, or are about to occur, that this
much-sought-after contingent of capt.
tai society will be mainly made up of
new corners this winter. When Lord
Pauncefote took his family aboard last
spring, there was considerable doubt of
ms return. Both the German and
French ambassadors. who are now in
Europe, are likely to return; but the
russian and Italian ambassadors will
De new men. The honor of the dean
snip, in the absence of the present
British ambassador, will therefore fall
70 the German and French ambassa-
dors, and in their absence to the MeM-
can ambassador, who seems the one
most likely to spend the remainder of
ms days here. To people at distance
~ls may not seem of much conse-
quence; but the fear of it sends cold
shlVers up and down more than one
diplomatic spinal column. 1t may not
De remembered by outsiders how I'M
mercifully Senior Azpiros, the Mexican
minister, was snubbed by most of the
european ambassadors when he first
arrived here. This was partly due to his
youth and his former subordinate posi-
uoh here, as well as to the fact that
Hooody, however wise and worthy,
could fill the place of the lamented
Noheo and his American wife, who for
90 many years represented Mexico. The
e.IeI difficulty, however, was on ac-
eqIuht or the ancient unpleasantness
,Ioo1t poor Macmillan, who was re-
.a'eq to all the sovereigns of Europe,
eIu met his death in Mexico, for the
a.. nae OF aspiring to be it's Emperor. AS
'H OF the diplomatic corps, who takes
seedence in all things social and Of
Nllal, Mr.. AZpiroz will have ~ n, his