Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-01-08
WASHINGTON KEEPS
ITSELF INTERESTED
Social Year Opens All Awry, But There's
Black Magic to Wonder AT and the
Servant Problem Furnishes Some
Excitement.
By EDWARD W. TOWNSEND

ASteiy VI Sldles belnB OHilISu'
At the White House, of course, all big So
cial affairs are cancelled, and diplomatic re-
ceptions by the Secretary Of state are impos-
sible because of the stained" relations, as
some has called them, resulting from
that messy affair in Europe.
Old Jack Frost did his darndest to start
something by unexpectedly laying an eight
inch sheet Of ice over Potomac Park tidal
basin. The frosty old gentleman did very
well, too, for exactly on the first day of the
year the red flag went up announcing skat-
ing ice on the lake. 1t is some lake, rs or 80
acres, should say, dredged out of the old
swamp Of malarial ill-repute between the
monument and where the S2O0O,O0O Lincoln
Memorial Temple is slowly raising its beautl-
full proportions in white marble.
The wonder was at first where all the
skaters came from in this region, where ice
is more familiar clinking In tall glasses than
in other shapes. "The red ball is upl" The
word flew through bored Washington and in
couple of hours 1000 men, women and chill
dren delighted participants in an ice
carnival on which Quebec had nothing in the
way of variety, fashion and fun.
Gone But Not Forgotten
There were some secretaries and assistant
the Entente flocked by themselves, as did the
| Alliance That suggests why there was no
! diplomatic reception that day. Diplomatists
who no longer speak as they meet can man
age very we'll on a 25-acre lake, but the thing
couldn't be done in the assembly room of the
Pan-American Union building where Secre-
taries of State have held these New Years
receptions Of late years. More's the pity, too
for they were decidedly interesting and pic
turesque affairs.
That Pan-Amercan Union (here's note
for tourists: it's the most beautiful building
in Washington has been used because no
Secretary of State, either in his home or in
the department building, had room suited for
such an affair. The first of these affairs I
attended was when Philander Knox-born
host-was Secretary of State. And it was
then first had the quivering delight of not
ing the miraculous performance of the Secre-
tary's messenger-a colored man, a little, |
old, smiling Negro, with suggestion of a |
Richard III back, but upon whom correct !
evening dress seems wholly in place. But |
perhaps that is because he is magician.
First, here's the stage setting: Scores of
Ambassadors, Ministers, secretaries, military
attaches, naval attaches, many accompanied
by ladies, are entering the foyer facing the
lovely Aztec court with it's beautiful foun-
tain. Ladies to the right, if you please;
gentlemen to the left" to be relieved of wraps
and coats. They rejoin at the foot of the
noble stairway leading to the lobby outside
the assembly room. The Secretary of State
stands at one end of the lobby his wife be-
side him; at the other end, flower screened,
the Marine Band plays
Impossible But True
Never mind them, nice enough in their
ways but never mind them. Keep all the
attention of your ears and eyes for that
smiling little old Negro at the head of the
stairway. You notice his look of ease, of con-
fdence he faces those scores of approach
ing and women-the men brave in gor-
geous diplomatic and military uniforms the
women (all but the wife of the Chinese Am
bassadorl in Paris gowns. Enough to throw
a scarce into almost any one, but that is not
what ought to make that little old Negro pass
away. 1t is because he must announce each
man and woman to the Secretary, all with
their names in full, correctly, including titles
of nobility and military titles and never a
mistalSel
Impossible you think, considering the fact
that every country the globe that keeps a
perfectly good diplomat on its payroll is rep
resented there, and every jaw cracking ma
tionally characteristic name borne by those
scores of people must be given its proper
accent
Whew You perspire in sympathy with
that little black man. But he just smiles.
They're off! Chinese orchestra accompany
ing duet between a pack of firecrackers
and a banjo would remotely suggest the sound
issuing at times from the smiling lips of that
little man doing magic-black magic as it
We're
Some names and titles are entirely formed
of consonants, it would seem; and, listening, |
you long for the sound of one, only one,
vowel. until you could scream.
I'll bet the prettiest red apple sold for a
half dime that that prodigious feat could not
be performed by another person in Washing
ton with the exception Of one other Negro.
This is man who has recently risen to be in
charge Of the House Democratic cloakroom
The man whose place he took had held the
place for 40 years; the present man had been
an assistant at least half that time.
Here's Another Marvel
Now, as / am an honest man, here is ex-
actly what happens when a new member goes
into the House for the first time: A friend
or page directs him, If he's Democrat
to this cloakroom, where he is met at the door
by colored man, who takes the members
coat and hat, turns on his heels, walks conf
IDENTIFY to a certain rack and hook and there
slows the luggage. The new member, per-
haps, investigates. ana is hattered to find
over the hook where swings his topper new
metal plate engraved with his name and the
abbreviation OF his State.
The explanation. which leaves a lot TO be (
explained, Is that that cloakroom man gets
rlv nossession Of nfcttiraa of navu man, ba,s