The Washington bee., 1911-12-23
Public Men And ThinDs
By the Sage of the Potomac.)

! uDIIu WGll hIIu | lllIIlu0
(By the Sage of the Potomac,)
Well | have not heard a thing this
week but talk about the Arlington
dinner Nothing has occurred i'll
Washington which has occasioned as
much talk as this dinner, except the
failure of the Capital Savings, eight
or nine years ago. | wasn't there.
that IS, at the dinner-but it was en-
urely the fault of the committee. 1t
seems as if the invitations ran out
before they reached my name. If |
had got an invitation, all the sold rrs
out at Fort Meyer couldn't have kept
me away | don't know what to ex-
pect next from that Washington
crowd They certainly are a mighty
moving bunch-Just spring new dish
on you every meal-and a new place
tor every meal. | have heard a few
Old Ironsldes declare they didn't at
tend, and sort OF CrItlCise il. lust use
your StOp-WatCh on all these croakers.
When they tell you this-its because
they were in my Class-invitation
ran out before they reached their
names. Everybody l have met who
attended, say 1t was the real thing
the finest that ever happened in. or
out of Washington 1t may not be
exactly right TO say that everybody
who who stood for something was
there, but it's a chip-munk to a tape
worm that everybody there was some
pumpkins
The comments we hear about it are
interesting. They say Doc. Williston
was there, and took like a royal flush
Doc. is an awfully swell looking bit
of briar-rOOt when he Is logged I'D,
ard they say he was logged up to
show everybody few points on really
how to dress. They Ga couple of fel-
lOws) were talking about it at the
Howard Saturday night, and | heard
one of them say that Dancy surely
got his S. worth, because he acted as
d vigilance committee for the big cut
glass bowl that contained the rooster
tails, and eat everything that could
be masticated, including one or two
napkins by mistake.
x * x
Speaking about how fast this B.
Washington crowd moves, reminds
me of the days of auld-lang syne.
recall when a number of us COlored
correspondents were roasting B. K
Bruce, then Recorder of Deeds. You
know, in those days, nearly every
fellow was a correspondent for some
royal black newspaper. Fact IS, if you
we're not a correspondent, you had
little or no standing And We all call
eG ourselves free lances. Any time a
Negro newspaper writer writes an ar
ticle with a pair of hammers, he calls
himself a free lance Well, all of us
free lances were after Bruce. He
felt it, too, and he knew we were
trying to work him for a little hush
money. One day | dropped into his
office and in the course of the talk
said. "Mr. Bruce, | see the cOlOred
correspondents are all after you.
What's the trouble?" Bruce showed
his chair a little closer to mine, leaned
over and whispered in my ear: Yes,
they are after me, but the old senator
is working when they are sleeping -
Well, we all know he won out
against the whole brigade of hemmer-
smiths Now this B. Washington
crowd are at work when the others are
asleep, and that's why they put so
many strikes over the plate They
have an awfully fast infeld.
4
I was invited to the reception and
banquet to Bishop Alexander Wal
ters ! attended, to be sure, and
while soliloquizing prior to the en-
trance of the guests from the upper
part of the church, Prof Kelly Miller,
who had been booked to preside,
sauntered into the church about II
o'clock. Prof Miller. as usual, was
riding two horses in opposite direc-
tions last Thursday night He wei
coined DR. Washington to the city on
behalf of the citizens of Washington
and introduced the guests at the ban
quet in honor of Bishop Walter, the
same night. Prof Miller was among
Republicans in one instance, and hob
nObblng with Democrats the same
evening. Seriously speaking, both
functions were social and there was
no politics in either, except the
speech of the distinguished Bishop,
who stated why he was a Democrat.
Prof. Cook said that while there were
some things in the Republican party
that he didn't like, he could not be a
Democrat. Prof Cook has a level
head and knows a good thing when
he has it. | was much amused at my
friend Dr. Waring, who only had two
regrets to make: one was having
voted for a mayor while he was in
MARYLAND, and the other one was hav-
| ing voted for President Taft.
hardly think that the doctors vote
was recorded in the Presidential cleo
ton of 1908 1t is amusing how freely
| Republicans express their opinion
when they get out of office. | ad-
mire Bishop Walters, and hope that
he will realize what Is the heighth OF
his ambition He assured me that in
the event of Democratic success, the
Negroes will be protected He has
every reason to believe so. He is
very much elated over the appoint
ment of J. c. Cunningham. I always
sympathized with this gentleman
Cunningham Is a man who should
have been cared for
Speaking of Mr.. Cunningham, he
never turned to be a Democrat until
after he was separated from the gov