The Washington times., 1934-12-20
NOW
Capital Boasts
BarOnidL Hall
LEGATION FETE
BY Helen ESSaFy

The dining room IN the
Swedish Legation is IKE a
baronial hall.
AS we sat at dinner the
other night at the long state
table in the highceilinged
room, panelled in deep brown
oak and hung with portraits
Of early Swedish kings, with
the light from the center can.
delabra falling on the vivid
faces of the Minister and Nine.
Bostrom, 1 thought of the
harmonious picture the room
and it's host and hostess would
make in a romance of Scandi'
navia.
The dinner was given for the
Minister of Finland, Mr.. AS
from. whose departure, January
Z, is distressing his many
friends. Medals and bright rib
bons gave the customary mas
culine evening dress a dra'
matte air. In fact the entire
party had a ceremonial quality.
The Swedish Minister rose at
the end of the dinner to drink
to the health of Mr.. Astrom.
Then we proceeded in dignified
procession into the drawing
room.
Some legations are imper-
'sonal. They have the air Of
temporary places of habitation.
The Swedish Legation has the
atmosphere of the country 1t
represents. It's drawing room
has, moreover, the personality
of the Minister and Madame
Bostrum.
Above the mantel is a por-
trait of Madame Bostrom. The
gold in her hair and the rose
in her gown are exquiSitely re-
produced in water colors. Be
side the mantel are portraits OF
the two daughters of the Min
lister and Madame BoStrom.
Picture-book little girls they are,
with long yellow curls and big
blue eyes. One of the daugh-
terS is now married, with child
quite like her own portrait.
Above the big rose sofa,
where some of the guests-the
Ambassador of and, Mr..
Patek; the Norwegian Minister
and Madame Morgenstierne, and
the former Undersecretary Of
State and Mrs. William r.
Castle-were talking, was a
charming landscape, a scene
outside Stockholm, painted by
Prince Eugene, son of the King
of Sweden.
The Counselor of the Danish
legation, Mr.. Hialmar Collin,
and I wandered around the room
and looked at the autographed
photographs of famous friends
of the Minister and Madame
Bostrom. Kings and queens,
some recently abdicated in favor
of dictators. Scientists, actors,
composers, and writer's looked
politely or languidly from above
their bold signatures.
The royal family of Sweden,
its big and little princesses, Al
fonso and Victoria of Spain,
Thomas A. Edison, diplomats,
members of the nobility in Lon
don, personages in washington
made the room memory Of
friendship and experience.
The legation is particularly
proud Of its portraits of the
Swedish kings. The ones in the
dining room are old copies of
the portraits of the kings of
Vasa who ruled Sweden from
1920 to 1909. They were loaned
the legation by the National
Gallery of Stockholm.
/ Rumor, said to be well
founded.
A tall, handsome and gallant
but long invulnerable bachelCf
of the State Department is
about to announce his en-
gagement to a beautiful widow
in Warrenton.
Though the Colonel's Lady
and Judy O'Grady have been
proved a thousand times to
be sisters under the skin, it
Is still a comfort to learn that
the windows of the White
House stick. Just as anybody
else's windows, they sometime
slip on one side and catch on
the other.
When a breeze from the out
. side is needed at 1900 PennSyl-
vania Avenue, Mrs. Roosevelt
calls an orderly to put his
shoulder to a window. Such
a crisis in an average house
hold results in a strained liga-
ment and a twisted temper.
While on the subject of the
White House, I should like to
say an enviouS word about
the way open fires are laid
there.
There's none of the hit and
miss placing of wood and
paper one regretfully sees in
ones own fireplace. White
House fires are laid by an ar
tist.
No paper is used. SplinterS
OF wood crossed with mathe'
matical SureneSs are the base
OF the fires. Gradually the
SpllnterS grow into sticks. The