Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1908-04-30
ISCITY UNAMERICAN?'
LONDON WRITER so DESCRIBES
WASHINGTON.
Capital Declared to Be the One Place
in the Country Where America
Is Really at Leisure
Official Etiquette.

The London Daily Chronicle recent
ly contained an article by Sydney
Brooks entitled "Monarchical Amer
ica,' in which the author makes some
interesting remarks about the growth
of etiquette in Washington In the
course of his article he says:
'The beautiful and spacious city
on the banks of the Potomac is unlike
any capital in Europe, or any of its
sister cities in America 1t is an
American community, doing un-Amer-
lean things, leading an un-American
life. 1t lives simply for two things
society and politics. 1t neither talks
business nor thinks it; the word con-
veys no more than a remote and alb
stract meaning to it's mind. Com
merce and all it's banalities are re-
freshingly, delightfully."- absent. There
ordering Of the routine of life. No
body 'hustles' in Washington. 1t
is the one city on the continent where
America is really at leisure.
Being a city of leisure, Washing
ton must have something to amuse it.
self with. Being also the headquar-
ters of officialdom, the seat of govern
ment and the center of diplomacy, it is
natural that it should amuse itself
with the problems Of a republican
court and the minutiae of precedence.
l sometimes doubt whether any cap
mi
itself SO much about these questions
as Washington. They are debated
with a heat, al nervousness, and
bitterness that can hardly be matched
anywhere
1T is not, however, all chaos. Ger
tain rules have been evolved and GER
tain customs established, which serve
to guide each successive occupant Of
the White House. Thus the number
of state dinners and receptions that
the president has to give is now def
nitely fixed. Thus, too, it is now
pretty well understood that an invita-
ton to lunch or dinner at the White
House is the equivalent of a COM
mand. Thus, also, it is now accepted
that the president should on all Occa-
sions go in first, that nobody should
sit down until he has taken his place,
that he should always be served first,
that he cannot accept hospitality
under foreign flag, and that if he has
consented to dine at the house of one
of his cabinet ministers, a list Of the
proposed guests should be submitted
to him in advance.
But beyond this narrow region
there is a whole wilderness still to be
surveyed and staked out. Should sen.
ators, for instance, be given the pass
over cabinet ministers? Does the adj
miral of the navy rank above the sec
rotary of the navy What is the rela-
tive position of the speaker and of the
secretary of state? The vice-president,
being sort of heir-apparent, ought
ambassadors to follow or precede him?'
What is the exact place Of the judi
ciary in the scale of precedence? If
two senators were elected on the same
day, which of them should make the
first advance? And what about the
status of the unmarried daughters Of
the great officials?
These and a hundred similar con-
undrums are debated in Washington
with more than monarchical fervOr.
The mere fact that they can be pro-
pounded shows that the American cap
ital is still in the embryonic stage Of
social development. Etiquette, for in
stance, prescribes calls as the first of
social duties, and calling is INDUCED
in by the Washingtonians on scale
that puts Londoners and Parisians,
who pay their calls not in person but
by post, hopelessly to shame.
THAT, too, is sign of a society that
has not yet found itself, that is at
tempting the impossible and that has
not yet learned to limit and regulate
it's activities. But time and expert
ence are teaching it order and self-re-
straint"