The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-03-10
By GERRY DICK

washington - When the snow white drifts of calling cards in Washington begin to melt away, spring is just around the corner.
 From January 4, when Congress convenes, through February, the wives of Washington officialdom leave cards for each other. It's toughest on the newcomer. Unless she wants to be hermit, she has to start the calling card snowball rolling.
 Anywhere else in the United States, the neighbors watch stranger move in, look her over, and pretty soon are running over with a pan of hot biscuits or a jar of apple butter, by way of making her welcome. But to get @ neighbor- ly nod in Washington, a new arrival has to knock at as many doors as a postman and scatter calling cards like Mardi Gras confetti.
 The wife of a new Congressman uses about 1000 cards during the two month season" First thing, she calls at the White House and leaves two MT. and Mrs. cards with the usher who opens the door. If one of the Roosevelt sons were liv- ing with his family, she would leave her husbands card for him. If the Presidents daughter were officially at home, she would leave an extra MT. and Mrs.
 GETS REAL WORKOUT
 ON AT HOME" DAY
 This courtesy call is duly report ed to the White House social secre- tary, who will try to fit Congress- man John smith and his wife into one of her lists for Q tea or musicale.
 Monday afternoon Mrs. Smith will call on as many Supreme Court wives as she can get around to. There are only nine of them, so she can probably clean up that list in two or three Mondays.
 Tuesday is the real workout. That's the day Congressmens wives are officially lat home" First she must call on wives of men who serve on committees with ner husband. If Congressman Smith has been ap- pointed to the Committee on Edu- cation, Mrs. Smith will make sixteen calls before she can check that one off her list. If she has a chauffeur, or any luck parking, nnd none of the sixteen is in when she calls, she might be able to whiz through that list in two Tuesday.
 t.l nk .sxlfA knlI a HANUrAee~ mans wife who was in when she called and asked her to have & cup of tea, that she had been making calls every Tuesday for three weeks and not once before found anyone at home.
 In a way that's help to the newcomer. She doesn't get acquaint- ed with anyone but the servants, but 1t saves a lot of time. And If her husband is a new member Of the House, she must call on all the members who rank him in years of service, SO the list of sixteen she got through the first two Tuesdays was just beginning.
 On Wednesday the Cabinet wives are tat home" and she sets of again. Thursday Is the Senate ladies days and she begins by calling on the wives of the Senayors from her state, and after that squeezes in as many of the others as she can in two months of Thursday. Thursday night she goes home to soak her feet, and wash out her white gloves, for the last days grind.
 SEES LEGATIONS
 FROM THE OUTSIDE
 Friday she calls on the diplomats, and that sounds like fun except that the only gold braid she sees usually is what the doorman wears. And her dreams of beng invited to an intimate little dinner, with titles on the left of her and titles to the right of her, explode with the sound of each door closing as she proceeds down the list from Albanian Lega- ton to Yugoslav, without ever get ting a peek inside.
 If that was all there was to 1t, Mrs. Smith could pay her station- CTS bill, get into something com fortable and catch up on her darn Ing. But all the ladies for whom she has left cards must leave cards for her. So every Tuesday she limps home, to find the maid fearful and too tired to get dinner, and from 75 to l5O cards on the hall table.
 This exchange of shaded old Roman letters engraved on super white kid finish constitutes an in troduction in Washington society. And Mrs. Smith has the satisfac- ton of knowing that 1t will be proper for her to invite anyone of the l50 who have returned her call, to dinner, with their husbands. They may not accept, but she can invite them. Only by that time, all she wants to do Is go to bed, forever