Evening star., 1924-01-20
RY MARGARET B. DOWNING.

Official etiquette in Washington is.
according to some experienced social
observers. framed on simple and
direct lines. which befit the most
powerful of the worlds republics
one iron-clad rule is that the wife
takes rank from her husband, and
that she must be content with this
In recent years daughters of
presidents have married, and from
that time they ceased TO be members
Of the executive family so far as
official precedence could be applied
as. for instance, Mrs. Longworth, who
ranks solely according to the
seniority of Representative Long
worth in the House. and Mrs.
McAdoo. who dropped into the cab
met ranks. Mrs. Sayre, Jessie Wood
row Wilson. and Mrs. Frederic John
Son. who was Helen Taft. have been
accorded no official precedence at all
except as guests of Their distin
sulshed parents. Princess Zenad,
the wife of the Egyptian minister,
though member of the reigning
family of the ancient Nile kingdom,
would i'll an old world capital take
High rank on her own account and
circle about the throne. In Washing
ton the Egyptian minister and his
wife are rel"gated to the last place
in the ministerial class. and fCi' the
nonce must hold that position until
later corners move Yousry Pasha
higher up in the pageant. Many at
temptS to break through this rule
have been. evident during the 1875
years during which diplomatic
corps has been established at the
\ ,ns.if. r,I.
delphia and Washington. But it has
stood up against all attacks. though
in President McKinley's term the
maJor-domo, so to speak, of the
ham. afterward Gen. Bingham. added
the explanatory clause that official
precedence pertained only to the wife
Of am official. and not to his mother.
daughter or any other lady who
might be presiding over his home.
II is with this definite policy of the
government in mind that Washington
will welcome Sir E,smc Howard and
Lady Isabella with a clamcr mind than
when they came first in 1906. For then
they arrived on the heels of the Walter
ToWnleyS. Sir Walters wife is Lady
Susan Townley, recently the author of
a bulky volume. which she has entitled
Her lndiscretionS.' Seemingly about
half of them We're committed in Wash
ington, for she had turned the Ameri-
can Capital topSy-turvy through her
claims to precedence over all and sun
dry who We're not like herself, the
daughter of an earl. or like Tennyson's
Lady We're de We're 'of a hundred
earls." Lady Durant was the daugh-
ter of a modest country clergyman. and
possibly in Britain her rank would
have been lOwly. But in Washington
She was the wife of the British am
bassador and one Of the grand ladies
of the Capital The struggle was hot
and furious and finally led President
Roosevelt to suggest the recall of the
British counselor and Lady Susan. |
Lady Isabella Howard, an Italian |
princess we'll as the daughter of |
British earl. however. dropped into the |
rank assigned her, and though Wash |
ington was prepared for the worst after |
the bout with Lady Susan Townley, not |
Il single unpleasant incident was re- |
corded.
Prandial fashions at the Capital, |
after long season of enforced SIM |
plicity, owing to the servant problem. |
are beginning to take on the formal !
ways of the pre-War times. 1t was
President Roosevelt and the late |
Senator Eugene Hale who decreed |
that in a busy day one hour and one
fourth was all that could be given !
to the most formal dining. Ten min
uteS in advance of the meal. forty to
fifty minutes to partake of it and one
fourth of an hour after it. unless
some special program had been an
nounced and arranged. Hostesses in
that day Were alert to keep within