Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 April 1881 — Queens of the Cabinet. [ARTICLE]

Queens of the Cabinet.

Seldom, writes a Washington correspondent, has it been that, in the selection of a cabinet, the wives of members enjoyed such distinction, apart from th*e reputation of their husbands, as do some of those. Qf the present administration. Mrs. Blaine is a fine-looking lady, tall, with good features, and her hair well sprinkled with gray. She is pleasant in her manners, a ready conversationalist, and shrewd. Her long experience in public life has made her a valuable acquisition to the administration, or at least to that part of it represented by her husband. She can keep a secret and ward off the inquisitive. Mrs. Blaine possesses those peculiar qualifications which make a wife a great comfort and aid to a public man. Mrs. Windom is a fine, matronly lady, who has never shown any disposition for society and its frivolities. While she always dresses in good taste, in either black silk or satin, or some solid color, there is nothing dashing to distinguish her in a crowded reception room. She appears to the best advantage in the home circle. The. oddest fish in the cabinet basket is Samuel J. Kirkwood, the secretary of the interior. He is a plain man, and has an agricultural appearance but the -one who picks him up as aflat will be mistaken. Little is known of his wife beyond the fact that she is an estimable lady, who partakes In a measure the quiet manner of her busband, and has a limited circle of acquaintances. Secretary Lincoln’s wife was’Mary Harlan, daughter of ex-Benator Bar-

lan, a woman of exquisite loveliness. In her younger days the suitors for her hand were numbered by the score. Her presence in the charmed circle of the cabinet will add to its brilliancy. The fact that Mrs. MacVeigh is Simon (’ameron’s daughter has given her a reputation which haa preceded her here. She is tall, graceful of figure, and, having spent jeers in society with her father when he waa in the zenith of his political glory and power, conies well prepared for the new honors which both her husband and herself will receive. Those who know her intimately say that she possesses in a marked degree many of the characteristics which distinguish her father, and that these traits are more largely developed than in any of her relatives. Having been brought up in a political atmosphere, she has acquired the faculty of reading men and women at a glande; and I am told that hers had been the directing mind in many of the movements made by her husban<V Mrs. Hunt will be the belle of the cabinet beyond a doubt. She is a beautiful blonde, agreeable in manner and cultivated in taste. Mrs. Hunt is one of the bast educated ladies in Washington, and withal a brilliant society woman. Her, circle of acquaintances is large and she entertains with true southern liberality. Post master has a lovely wire, who will be an ornament to society here.