The Washington herald., 1918-04-07

4
The Countess of Reading stood tall
and slight and straight. a striking
figure in a beautiful gown of black
brocaded in silver. She seems quite
as tall as her husband. which is tall
for a woman, though rather short for
man. She wore almost no jewels
| a splendid string of pearls, a hand
some diamond broach-that was all.
In her gray hair a little coronet of
cut jet glittered. A most distinguish
ed and interesting looking woman.
heard someone say, Il bet she has
the brains OF the family"-but I
couldn't agree. She undoubtedly has
brains-but the brains of the family?
no indeed, not with Lord Reading
! standing nearby as Exhibit A. 1t was
I the first time that they had been on
public view. so to speak. and the pub
4 lie was vastly interested. So much
| so that Mrs. Glover, Mrs. McCawley,
! Mrs. T. T. Gan and some other well
known women were lowering in the
| offing, apparently,a hastily organized
bodyguard for Lady Reading. to pro-
tect her from close contact with the
crowd.
An oddly assorted crowd, 1t GER
tainly was, Ladies in magnificent
evening gowns rubbing shoulders with
quaint, hesitating little ladies in rusty
black. Clergymen of course, plenty OF
! them, few in the garb of Roman
Catholic priests, many in the clerical
attire usual to the Episcopal Church
even in America. others in the unmis-
taxable ministerial black" Of the dis
senting denominations. several Epis-
| copal deaconesses in their simple black
garo, and-as is becoming usual in
almost every gathering in Washing
/ ton-the uniforms Of almost every
nation on earth.
The Archbishop had kindly smile
and handshake for them all. And
after standing In line for ages, and
being herded by as arbitrary a group
OF ushers' as even Washington has
ever produced. until one understood
| just how an immigrant at Ellis Island
must feel. one appreciated a little
friendliness. But it was pleasant to
see how his face lighted up when he
spoke to a lad in uniform. and how he
had more than a casual word OF greet
ing for the scores of officers, British.
French, italian, Roumanian, and ne
rest. who passed down the receiving
I line.
Many, on leaving the reception went
! on to one Of the two big balls in
Progress. the one at the WilIard-the
| annual Easter Monday Dixie ball, Of
! the Robert E. Lee Chapter of :he
I United Daughters OF the Confederacy;
| the other the equally annual Easter
ball of the Woman's Army and Navy
| League. way down at the Marine
| Barracks. The first, of course, at
| tracted all the professional South
| erners in town. (And Washington's
fairly swarming with 'em-including
! those who live at 1900 Pennsylvania
avenue, better known as the White
House,. The other gathered in tho
I Army and Navy set of course. md
most of the official set, as well as
/ mCst of the smart new people who
! aTc here for war work of one sort OF
another.
! The President and Mrs. Wilson,
] even though they do glory in theIr
southern origin. went down to the
, barracks. You see the President is
head of the land and water forces
t'Ot these United States. and he
couldn't go back on them. They
went rather late-it was about 1890
when they arrived and they didn't
stay very long. And they brought
no White House party" 1t was
just the President and Mrs. Wilson.
C"cOrted by Col. Clarence Ridley and
Lieut.. Charlton E. Battle-twO of
Inc White House aides. For per
Elps half an hour they stayed and
chatted with such Of their acquaint-
;-nce. and such army and navy officers
"a" stopped at their box to greet them.
: Mrs. Wilson?-ner clothes? One Of
he favOrite black evening gowns
Il t,r1I Ii
= was. with a draped corsage of the
tulio. caught at the left side with a
. cluster of maUve orchids. Two broad
hands OF Jet sequins formed the trim
ming of the long pointed train. She
wore jet tiara. and carried a big fan
Of shaded ostrich feathers as usual.
Alter half. or perhaps three-quar-
| ters. of an hour, they felt that they
had done their duty and withdrew.
leaving the dancers to enjoy them
selves and have fun with the refresh
meEts. which it took Considera Dle
courtesy to regard as a supper There
was cake and ice cream and coffee.
and some OF the guests found some
funny little things. hard and about
like good big marbles decidedly
smaller than golf balls-whiCh were
:'Uid to be chicken patties. They were
certainly well camoufla ged, for they
didn't in the least look the part, No. /
didn't have the nerve to Investigate
But l quite sympathized when 7
heard the next day that the hungry
horde returning from the ball stopped
in at the-well the Cafe de FEnfant.
on the way home-with rather a feel
ing that they were Summing. simply
swarmed in and Taided the place, de-
randing ham and eggs, oysters and
potato salad. even corn-beef hash
tthey certainly do make good corn
beef hashD anything so it was food
real food. un-Hooverized. 1t was about
, a. m. and they probably thought
! Herbert was not looking. / am even
crcdibly Informed that one well-known
society girl who had entertained at
CiTner at the Chevy Chase Club in
honor of two of the weeks brides and
their wedding parties. and taken her
guests to the ball afterwards, was
, ceen winding UP strenuous night
there. And that an army captain
presenting at the desk eight of those
little punched checks they give you at
, such places protested when the CASH
. Ter told him it came to $2Sj. Now. you
j know. before Mr.. Hoover injected
himself into our national life it would
have been hard to conceive of an
army captain kicking at being muIctcd
Of S2.S5 for supper for eight! Eyah!
but Those were happy days,
The last of the balls-the one foI
the permanent fund for those blinded
in the war-English. French, Italian.
American-all REGARDLESS of national