The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-01-08
By BETTY BANTER special Correspondent of The Age-Herald Copyright. 1921, by Tho Agc-Herald)


 Washington, January 7.--Gracious, what a -weeki The new year cer- tainly came in with a bang; never has Washington been gayer than dur ing the last seven days and it has been very gay, can tell you, for some months now. The social world and his wife celebrated the arrival of the new year with dinners and danc- ing. every club, hotel and place where two and three get together was the scene of many parties Then Sunday they hardly slept at all; were off early In the afternoon to a round of functions, the most delightful per haps being tbse egg-nog and tea dance which the Prince de Bearn of the French embassy staff gave. Senator and Mrs. Key Pittman staged a de- lightful reception, too, a cooperative function, one might say, for their next door neighbors, a group of young attaches of the British em- bassy. opened up the connecting door and guests of one were entertained by the other. In the morning the Japanese ambassador and Baroness the embassy staff and conference delegates. the Peruvian ambassador and Madame Pezet had dinner party; the Secretary of Agriculture and Mrs. Henry c. Wallace were also dinner hosts. Sunday was busy day but nothing compared to Monday.
 It makes me dizzy to even think about Monday. It Was worse than a three-ring circus. First, of course, there was the White House recep- ton when "everybody~ went to wish the President and his wife a happy New Year. Those functions have al- ways been extremely popular in Washington, but there hasn't been any in eight or nine years. There were several innovations in the ar rangement of details for the recep- tion, the most notable of which was the dispensing with the long receiv- ing line-the wife of the vice pres ident and of all the cabinet officers in previous years standing in line with the hosts. However, Monday after greeting their hosts, the cabi- net group, also the speaker of the House and Mrs. Gillett the chief jus tice and Mrs. Taft. and few others, stood back of the hosts greeting their friends informally, holding little re- ception of their own, in way.
 | Of course, all the diplomats were there. Many of them have attended similar functions at the executive mansion, though generally in minor l positions to that they now hold. Throngs who lined the streets to see the diplomats had another glimpse of thenl when they went to the Pan- American Union building to attend the breakfast Which the Secretary of State and Mrs. Charles Evans Hughes gave for the diplomatic corps, an an nual event in Washington.
 | Then in the afternoon the wives of the vice president, the members cf ' the cabinet who were i'm town re- ceived informally at their respective I homes. A great many people. off cial and otherwise. also kept open | house Monday afternoon and New | Years Day on a whole was more like the old-time traditional New Years l Day than I have seen in decade or more. The diplomatic children had a good time, too, that day, while their elders were flying around. for the British Ambassador and Lady Geddes gave a party for the children of the corps. as did also the Prince de | Bearn.
 l Most of the debutantes and their