The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-28

- Sydney Brooks entitled Mon archical America" in which the auelor makes some interesting remarks about the growth of etiquette in Washington. In the course of his article he says:
 "rhe beautiful and spacious city on the hanks of the Potomac Is unlike any capital in Europe, or any of it's sister cl'- les in America It is an American cofh- munitv doing un-American things, leading an nn-American life. It lives simply for two things-society and politics. It nei- ther talks business nor thinks It, the word conveys no more than remote ana abstract meaning to it's mind. Commerce and all it's banalities are refreshnsiy' oe- lightfully absent. There is serenity, ai- most benignity, in its ordering or the rou- tine of life. Nobody 'hustles' in Wash- ington. It is the one city on the continent where America is really at leisure
 "That, indeed is it's great atttraction. That. together with the lure and glltter of the diplomatic corps. Is the reason why Washington steadily tends to become the center of American fashion and the haunt of the nouveaux riches.
 "Being a city of leisure, Washington must have something to amuse itself with Being also the headquarters of official dom, the seat of government and the center of diplomacy it is natural that 1t should amuse itself with the problems Of a republican court and the minutia or precedence l sometimes doubt whether any capital, even Vienna or Madrid, trou- bles itself so much about these questions as Washington. They are debated with a heat an ingenuousness and a bitter ness that can hardly be matched any where.
 Tt Is now, however, all chaos. certain rules have been evolved and certain GUS toms 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 definitely fixed Thus, too, it is now pretty well understood that an invitati tion to lunch or dinner at the White House is the equivalent of a command. Thus. also. it is now accepted that the president should on all occasions go in first, that nobody should sit down until he has taken his place, that he should al ways be served first, that he cannot ac- cept hospitality under foreign flag, and that if he has consented to dine at the house of one of his cabinet ministers list of the proposed guests should be sub mitted to him in advance.
 But beyond this narrow region there is a whole wilderness still to be surveyed
 T fAr. fnv n stance be given the pass over cabinet ministers? Does the admiral of the navy rank above the secretary of the navy? What is the relative position Of the speaker and of the secretary Of state? The vice president being sort or heir apparent, ought ambassadors to follow or precede him? What is the exact place of the judiciary in the scale of preced- ence? If two senators were elected on the same day. which of them should make the first advance? And what about the great officials?
 "These and a hundred similar conun- drums are debated in Washington with l. a more than monarchial fervor. The mere fact that they can be propounded shows that the American capital is still in the embryonic stage of social develop ment. But the intensity of emotion de- voted to their discussion shows also that Washington when it finally evolves pro- tocol will set an inordinate value upon 1t. Indeed, wherever a point in the code of definitely established it is adhered to with an almost comical tenacity. Etiquette