Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1887 — Siclet in Washington. [ARTICLE]

Siclet in Washington.

A writer in the Century character' izes Washington society thus: “Leaving aside the question of [political morality, few people who have passed a winter in Washington will deny the charm of its society. Acknowledging all its faults, its crudeness—narrowness perhaps—and its lack of form, it must yet be acknowledged that it differs from all other American society in the fact that it is not founded on wealth. It is the only society which is really republican, though it has little resemblance to the ‘republican court’ of the first administration—the only one in America which has a well-detined basis. And that basis is public station, temporarily conferred, whether directly or indirectly, by the expressed wishes of fellowmen. The holding of such public station necessarily implies intelligence, and such it is intelligence, as distinguished from lineage or wealth, which is the fundamental basis in Washington’s society. Such a society does not feel obliged to adopt certain customs because it is reported at second hand that they are in good form in London. Its opinions are robustly independent, its information is extensive, and its subjects of conversation are many and varied.

“It is not to be imagined that snch a society is well defined, or that its rules are clearly established—though it is true that the ‘Etiquette of Social Life in Washington’ has been most elaborately formulated in a little pamphlet, of which a fresh edition is perennially produced, and which is said to sell in great numbers. It is, undoubtedly, open to the criticism of being raw, to the same extent—but no more—that society in London is subservient and snobbish, and in New York illiterate and commercial. Nothing can be more ridiculous than the public levees of the President, where the doors are thrown open that every person in the street may enter them in a crush, and Stand in a slowly moving procession for two hours, in order that during half a minute of that time the President may be 6een and his arm may be wrenched. But this is not peculiar to Washington alone. Such ‘public receptions’ are inflicted upon Presidents in all cities which they visit. Hardly less incongruous are the Wednesday afternoon receptions of the wives of Cabinet officers, when their doors are also thrown open and hundreds of strangers tramp through their parlors ‘to pay their respects.' The wives of Judges and Senators and Representatives have to endure the same thing on other afternoons of the week. It has come to be considered as part of the price of public station. But, no matter what office a man may hold, no one may come to his dinner table without an invitation. And it is in dinners that Washington society excels. Diplomats and travelers from every part of the world; men distinguished in political life, on the bench, and in war; men of science and men of letters; women of intelligence and culture, with the native grace and beauty for which American women are justly celebrated—there is no such wealth of choice in any other American city, and there are no other dinnerparties so entertaining as those of Washington.”