The age-herald., 1901-02-17
 Exciting Contest Over Choice of
 a PresideRt- General WILL MEET IN WASHINGTON Alabama Regent Leaves for the Na- tionaI Capital. Gossip of the Week In the World of Fash
 ion and Society
BY ANNE kENDRlck WALKER.

National interest will be centered this week in the Daughters of the American Revolution, their annual continental con- gress, which is always held in Washing ton, opening tomorrow. Preceding the opening of the congress is the meeting of the executive board, which includes the
 ate regents, and to be present at this F ting Mrs. J. Morgan Smith, Ala
 aas regent, left on Thursday for hington. She was accompanied by
 Charles Read, who goes as dele
 from General Sumpter chapter. Ala
 na will also be notably represented
 the congress by the regents and dele
 tes of other chapters. To those at all
 i.liar with the work of the National
 ..ety, its laudable ambition to build a
 5ntinental hall is familiar theme, and t the approaching congress will again take precedence over all other discus sons.
 The patriotic and brilliant work of the Daughters, their growth in numbers, there being now more than thirty thou sand members of the National Society,", the distinguished recognition accorded them both in this country and abroad naturally makes the election of the pres ideat-general of the society an exciting and important theme. This office has always been filled by distinguished wc- men. whose social prestige was equal to their patriotism and whose wealth gave them an added distinction.
 The retiring president-general, Mrs. Daniel Manning, Is a woman who pos sesses all the qualities required in this high position. The part, too, she played in the unvelling of the Washington stat ue in Paris last summer placed not only the Daughters of the American Revo- lution under obligations to her, but the entire country was honored by the charm ing and gracious woman who virtually represented during that great ceremony the women of America.
 One of three women will succeed Mrs. Manning. The three candidates are Mrs. Donald Mclean of New York, Mrs. Washington Roebling of New Jersey and Mrs Fairfax, wife of Senator Fairfax of Indiana It is said that Mrs Theo- dore Roosevelt evaded the honor of be- coming a candidate, as did Mrs. Potter Palmer. while her husbands defeat saved 70 Mrs. Bryan.
 d that the contest really lies between Mrs. Roebling and Mrs. Mclean. A re- cent Washington letter sums up the con- dition of affairs as follows:
 "The prize really lies between Mrs. Mclean and Mrs. Roebling, possibly as we'll matched a pair of antagonists as or ganized womanhood could supply.
 .The Duchess of the D. A. Killings, as the former has recently been called, has been a figure In the Daughters doings al- most since the inception of the society With her forceful personality, natural gift of oratory and iidomitable energy, she has stormed many fortress in the face of great odds and carried the day. When the civil war broke out in the New York City Chapter Mrs. Mclean forced out the dissenters and built up an or ganization which three times outnumber- ed that of her rivals. She excels as parliamentarian. As a speaker she ts more widely known through the country than any of the patriotic sisterhood, and has more firm friends and rabid enemies than any candidate who has sought the presidency.
 ''It was when Mrs. Stevenson had closed her first term that Mrs. Mclean first as- saulted the national office Discovering, however, that the vice-president's wife had consented to run for second term, she Automatically withdrew her name Her defeat by Mrs. Daniel Manning was an epoch in D. A. R. history. The halls of the Daughters Continental Congress the Washington opera housse) re-echoed with the volleys of eloquence that mark ed the occasion.
 'In the present campaign the New York woman has shown the fruits of experi- ence and marshaled her clans, like a