The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-03-17
THE NEW MEMBERS WIFE.


Mrs. Green Congressman Finds Wash
ington Quite Different From Kala-
! maZoo.
I The discomforts and discipline which
new Congressman passes through on
arriving at the Capital are nothing in
comparison to what his wife endures.
! In most cases she has, like her husband,
i taken herself seriously, and having been
! the leading woman of the small town
from which she halls imagines she will
! Immediately occupy a like position in
Washington.
| For the first few days after her ar
rival she arrays herself in the purple
and fine linen her wardrobe affords and
waits for the visitors that do not come.
It is finally explained to her by some
anna Bile person about the hotel or
! boarding house where she lives that it
is the custom for newcomers at the
Capital to call upon those who take
official precedence. and that if she de-
sires to make friends it will be neces-
sary for her to start upon a round of
visits on the members of the official
| circle from the wife of the President
down to the wives of her husbands col
! leagues in the House. This she regards
as a cruel and unnatural law, and re-
members with some bitterness how,
when at home, she rushed to welcome
new arrivals. At first she determines
she will not accept the rules of official
society in Washington. but homesick,
depressed and Wearied with her solitary
| existence, which is varied only by
OCCASIONAL visits to the House, when she
! looks from the members gallery with
| pride upon the figure of her husband,
| she purchases a book on etiquette and
| determines to break the ice.
| The first experience is not an agree
able one and her pride is sorely hurt to
| find that the fashionable circles in
| Washington have never heard of her
husband before, that they hardly know
| where the town he comes from is sit
uated, and that she is treated with as
little ceremony as if she were not the
! Wife of one of the greatest men of the
| day. But American women adjust
| themselves to new conditions even
| quicker than American men, and the
| awkward little lady from the back
| woods district, who dreaded the first
! plunge in society, soon becomes a host
/ ess with assurance. The wife of a new
member of Congress is tenacious of the
emoluments, perquisites and honors
which she assumes belong to her posi-
| ton, and strange demands are made
! upon the various departments by new
Corners The Commission of Indian
Affairs at one time received a note from
the wise os new member, asking for
! ~ Nt-I,
| missioner, who distributes the surplus
| gold fish bred in the commissions ponds
| among the members who desire them,
was amazed one morning to find in his
! mail the following note from the con-
| sort of an M. c.:
Dear Sir-T understand that you dis
tribute fish free of charge to Congress-
men. l am going to give a dinner to-
| morrow night, the first one since we
came to Washington, and would like
ton of all the people of our state"
fine salmon if you have one on hand.
| The doorkeepers of the members gall
| lery have hard life of 1t, the first few
weeks of new Congress. The women
of Representatives. family are always
astonished when their position is not
|
| threaten to report the unhappy ques-
toner, and to secure his discharge. The
questions of precedence and etiquette
are serious ones to the wife OF a new
member, and the sale Of the books on
etiquette in the first month or so Of a
new Congress is 10 times that at any
other period, and one often comes across
little LADY in the corner of a draw
lining room of one of the big hotels, in
dustriously studying the book.
But with this laid to polite conduct
they make serious mistakes. One wo-
man from the Southwest committed the
grievous error of not acknowledging an
invitation to a dinner at the White
House. and when called to account by
her indignant husband, said that, ac-
cording to the book on etiquette, an in
vitation from the White House was a
command, and as long as it was a COM
mand she could see no reason for an
nouncing that she was going to obey it.
Washington Special.