Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-31

enCe is to be theirs as a recognition of his
genius.
1t takes only few sessions at Washing
ton, possibly only one, to disillusion her, on
the latter point at least. James Henry may
continue to go to bed after each election
flushed with triumph; but the experienced
Congressman wife will take that oppor-
tunity to wonder how they can possibly do
all the things expected of them and come out
even on James Henry's congressional salary.
That seventy-fve hundred dollars looks
big to their district too and everyone whose
vote helped to put the Congressman on
Uncle Sans payroll feels there ought to be
a rebate In some way or other they try to
cash in their vote from that salary.
Sometimes this demand takes the form of
public sentiment" which feels itself out
ragged unless the Congressman keeps up
home in the home town as we'll as that in
Washington his official stay there makes
necessary Men have been defeated on the
slogan of loss of interest in his home town I"
and putting on the dog" in Washington,
when in reality the Congressman wife was
obliged to give up their house in the district
in order to live in Washington on a scale to
satisfy visiting constituents whom she was
expected to entertain.
This open house system at the Capital is
expected to discharge his obligation to the
district for having presented him annually
with seventy-five hundred of Uncle Sans
dollars. The Congressman takes his con-
stituents' interests on the floor of the House
and earnestly tries to get all the courthouses
and creek improvements possible at Gov
eminent expense; but that apparently is
only half the reason they elected him. And
on the shoulders of Mrs Congressman falls
the rest.
Living in Washington is VIGOROUSLY high,
and as one tradesman naively remarked,
"Congressman's wives are as easily spotted
as brides" Although he did not complete
his confession, happen to know that their
necessity is as victimized as newly wed
ignorance. They are his legitimate prey.
There for only part of the year, obliged to
keep the larder stocked, always ready for
with dining with our Congressman
large spot in his program, and "sure pay"
since the rumor of unpaid accounts is prussic
acid to the Congressman's career, is it any
wonder the marketman welcomes the Con-
CHEESEMAN'S wife and rubs his hands over the
prospect of an extra session?
The Wife as Equalizer
A ND what of poor Mrs Congressman?
A very modest house, either scantlly
furnished or monstrously cluttered, rents
for at least one hundred and twenty-five
dollars in Washington, and to this must be
added several servants required by the
more formal living and the fact that Wash
ington servants have advanced far beyond
the scientists in specialization. The Con-
gressman's wife who kept one or no servant
at home will consider herself fortunate if she
escapes in Washington with cook, cham
bermaid, and furnace man, with all the
laundry sent out, nurse if there are chill
dren, and always extra help from the caterer
if she attempts formal entertainment.
Moreover, if she is Northerner, she has
a soul vexing season of readjustment to negro
servants of the Southern type,-the per-
petual children, who can never be drilled
into good machines, who will brag of your
possessions to all the neighborhood servants;
but are absolutely disloyal, who leave your
house at night with Bible and hymnal under
one arm and enough stolen food to feed their
back alley clan under the other. The wife
of a Northern Congressman may come to
Washington with the broadest theories re-
garding the colored race; but after she has
kept house one season at the Capital she al
most invariably comes to refer to this race
with quite a Southern accent.