Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-03

midnight hour tolled 1t sounded
a the curfew of society for forty
days. With the downing of Ash
Wednesday his satanic majesty will
take up his long vigil outside the gates
of the pavilion of social rest and plan
new mischief for frivolitys gay votar-
les. Shrove Tuesday marks the end Of
the social season in the leading cities
Of the world and from the calm sink
ing into rest that characterizes the en-
trance into Lent of the northern cities,
10 the spectacular court paid King
Momus in New Orleans, the passing of
the social season is marked in divers
ways.
To the nation in general this third of
March will mark the close OF the Of
flcial social season in Washington. The
four semi-public receptions given by
the president and the first lady of the
land are over, the official dinners have
Keen eaten. the musicales have closed
n series of bright panoramas in the big
east room, and the family of the chief
executive will settle down to a period
Of we'll earned rest, for n time at least.
ut is perfectly wonderful what the
people will undergo and suffer i'm order
10 shake hands with the president at
the White House receptions" wrote
Tom Pendel, for many years q member
of the White House staff. And TON
Pen," as little Tad Lincoln affectionate-
~ called him, was not far from the
truth. The ordeal, however, is harder
On the president who must stand In
one place for two hours and shake the
hands of rarely less than two thousand
60 11o orf7xy a N
such ass the present incumbent of the
White House. with muscles toughened
by tennis playing and Dy lifting hard
mouthed horses over hurdles, to stand
such a test General Grant, soldier
as he was. is said to have suffered
Great pain in his arm for days after a
large reception, while General Wash
!ngton escaped all such tributes to pop
ularity by never shaking hands at his
principal levees.
There have been many other changes
since President Washington and Mrs.
Washington set up the American court
in the mansion of Robert Morris in
Philadelphia, which was added to and
redecorated for the purpose and rented
to the government for $4,000 a year.
Here the first president received every
other Tuesday from to in the
afternoon, his guests forming In cir
Gle in the dining room, and he passing
around to bow to each in turn. He
wore his sword and carried a cooked
hat under his arm at these receptions
when he appeared as the head OF the
nation, but when Mrs. Washington re-
ceived, he appeared at her levees as a
private citizen with the hat and sword
conspicuously absent.
But already the desire to have voice
in all matters had become evident in
the people, for in Washington's Sec
ond term there were many who openly
criticised his bow. 1t was too formal,
end his manner was TOO reserved! He
could be something of a Dictator it is
true. for when Citizen Genet refused to
enter the executive mansion because a
portrait of Louis XVI hung in the
hall. offending his republican spirit.
washington promptly had him recalled.
Eefore this, when New York was the
capital of the United States and the
executive mansion was on the corner
IF Cherry street and Franklin square,
there were many dinners. private the
atricals and a few balls, besides the
leYees, although Mrs. Washington did
rot care for balls. She preferred her
the first ice cream were served, and
quiet dinners with Robert Morris, Ben
samin Chew, Edward Shipper and DR..
Rush to enliven her guests.
When Washington was a city with
out houses and Georgetown a city with
out Streets" as witty French traveller
described it, John Adams and his clever
wife braved the bottomless mud of the
roads from the east and came to the
unfinished White House. To see the
great east room, with it's dignified SIM
plicity and it's coterie of distinguished
guests that graces each of the -four
great semi-official receptions each sea-
son, one smiles to recall passage from
Mrs. Adams letters: "The great un-
finished audience room made a dry
ing room of to hang clothes In" Fol
theer were only six chambers finished
not fires enough, and only a little oval
levees, the first being on New Years
day, 1901.
Jefferson, to accentuate the great
democracy of his spirit did away with
the levees that he fancied savored too
much of court life, and held each year
two public receptions, one on January
1, and one on July 4. Mrs Madison,
fond of driving over to Cherry alley,
for tea, had her social seasons rather
broken into by British Intervention,
Yet when the White House had been
rendered uninhabitable by the fire,
she moved her democratic court to the
famous Octagon house, and so great
was her hospitality the day that the
Treaty of Client was signed in one of
the upper rooms, that her servants,
even, were incapacitated for work by