Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 February 1902 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

Mrs. Roosevelt Is being put to the test The present social season is doing it. In the few weeks after the first day of the new year and up to the time when Lent closes the gayeties, Washington official life is but a round of dinners, balls and calls. If you doubt it, a single attempt to locate even the most retiring and least sociable of the public men after 4 o’clock in the afternoon will convince you. The state receptions at the White House are the tests of the social season of the first lady of the land. They are supplemented by the quieter but no less exacting functions at which she presides in honor of her daughter, and in discharging the social obligations which she feels toward those who entertain in her honor. All sorts of unusual statements have been made since the President and Mrs. Roose velt began to entertain on a scale more elaborate than any of their predecessors. It litis been said that Mrs. Roosevelt has forbidden the wearing of black at her receptions Perhaps it is true that she likes lighter colors, but the statement that she has ever attempted to dictate with her guests or those who receive with her shall wear is absurd. So high an authority as one of the cabinet ladies, who has recently worn a handsome black lace gown at a White House reception, ean be given to disprove the statements as to Mrs. Roosevelt's attitude. Then, too, there is the statement which has been given circulation that the wife of the President wishes to introduce the customs of foreign courts. This has been traced to its origin. It appears that at one of the receptions a lady guest who had passed Mrs. Roosevelt sought to return and renew a conversation. She was asked not to do so by one of the White House attendants. The attendant was prompted’ by his instructions not to allow the line of passing guests to be disturbed, and thus clog the movement through the crowded rooms. Mrs. Roosevelt probably never knew of the incident. The order under which the White House attendant was acting was one given him by one of the secretaries to the President tong skilled in the management of White House functions.

The negro population of the United States is migrating northward. From their homes amid the cotton blossoms •nd the magnolias they are seeking homes in the Northern cities. If the present tnovenfe-nt is long maintained the negro will cease to be associated with the sunny South and Dixie laud. Washington, the capital of the nation, according to the census of 1890, had the distinction of sheltering the largest negro population of any other city in the United States, although at that time it ranked fourteenth among all cities in size. The last census dethrones Washington in the matter of black inhabitants, Chicago having surpassed the nation’s capital in the ratio of gain, having reported a growth in negro population in the last decade that showed a gain of 4,749 more blacks than this city. Philadelphia, if it maintains its present ratio of gains, will show a heavier negro population than Washington in 1920 and may be in 1910. New Orleans for years had the largest negro population of any city in the United States, holding the record until 1890, when displaced by Washington. The plan of having a separate office building for the President has been combined with the plan for a building for the department of justice, and has been extended to include offices for the State Department, which does not need much room, but is crowded in its present quarters. The building is to be located on a site selected by the Burnham commission for the beautification of Washington and will be subjected to its architectural criticism. The project of abandoning the White House as the residence of the President and building a new residence seems to have received its quietus, as it deserved. It would be too bad to use that fine old residence, with its historic associations with all the Presidents since John Adams, for any other than its present purpose. With the offices removed, It is ample for all demands upon It. The investigation of our army's conduct by the Senate Philippines committee Is now under way, and Gov. Taft's testimony before it is interesting as to conditions there. The Senate proper has had n lively week over Philippine matters. The tariff measure relating to those islands was taken up on Thursday, and even previous to that, there were stormy discussions over the troublesome subjects called np by the cry, "Imperialism.” The question, “What shall we finally do with the Philippines?” seems to be receiving more attention nt present than the pressing one, What shall we do now? So great has been the flood of bills for pensions involving claims which have no standing'that the pension committee of the Senate has been forced to take action to curtail the number. With the purpom of preventing the introduction of bills which cannot receive favorable action, and enabling the committee to give attention to those worthy of consideration, the Senate committee has adopted a code of rules governing these measures. Senator Cullom is preparing a speech, to be delivered soon in the Senate, in advocacy of the proposition that the President the United States and the Senate have the power alone to negotiate treaties, and that in no case is it necessary to hove the approval of the House of Representatives. Admiral Sampson's health is slowly but surely failing, and his family has practically given up all hope of his ultimate recovery. It is said by medical authorities who have visited Admiral Sampson that 1 l.e Is practically beyond the aid of medical science and that it is only a question of a short time when the end may come. The walls of the arteries are hardening, I and the result is likely at any time to latise audden death. The patient is becoming lesa tractable and be does not reI spond to treatment