SOCIETY'S season at Washington starts with the White House reception New Year’s day, and closes with the beginning of Lent. During that time all is gold and glitter. A senator’s wife who has been at the capital eighteen winters says the average of entertainments now is nearly 500 that she did not during the season. By that she did not mean afternoon receptions, but everything that required a bid, luncheons, teas, dinners, evening receptions, musicales and balls.
Bless me! you say, there is no woman living who can attend 500 affairs between New Year’s and Lent. And you are right; but there are women who receive invitations to all, and only send regrets to one-fourth. Take one of last year’s debutantes. She kept a diary of her goings, and with one luncheon, two or three teas, as many evening receptions and a dinner here and there, her category summed up 395 entertainments, with a deficit of a third as many to which she had sent regrets. There were only two theatre parties in her list, as she said that was the one form of amusement she had to omit.
Every society woman omits that, however, and during the season there is less theatre going than in any other city. The debutante whom I have quoted had the task of a Titan, for she must needs make from two to three calls at every house at which she was entertained. First the formal call, then the return, and finally the party call. No woman in Washington, save Mrs. Benjamin Harrison, is so high that she need not pay calls. The square of bristol board tyrannizes over all.
How did the debutante perform all her duties? By being all ready for the season when it began. Not an inch of ribbon or lace did she buy during that time. She had a maid to care for her clothes, and every moment she was not going she was sleeping. It is an easy thing to sleep from 2 a. m. to 12 m., and that is what a Washington belle always learns to do. Not two score entertainments in a year ever go much beyond 1:30 a. m. Every woman who is entertained, must entertain. A luncheon, a series of teas, a dinner and possibly a ball are demanded at each Washington house. The executive mansion is, of course, the center of gayety.
During the season there are at least eight formal entertainments there. First the reception New Year's Day, then two receptions in January to the diplomatic corps and the congress and judiciary respectively, and two in February to the army and navy, and last of all to the general public. These five are obligatory, but the President may give as many or as few dinners as he chooses. The table in the state dining room seats from thirty-six to fifty guests. The usual number is four. Two in January alternate weeks with the receptions to the cabinet and diplomatic corps, and two in February to the Supreme Court and congress. Ex-President Cleveland only gave three the first two years of his administration, omitting the last, and inviting whatever senators or representatives he chose to the other three. Ladies, of course, are invited to all these dinners and receptions.
The mistress of the White House has not the care of an ordinary housewife over these entertainments. She gives a little attention to the decorating of the suite of parlors, but her only other duty is to stand at the head of the receiving line and greet the guests, no small task when the throng mounts into the thousands. In addition to formal entertainments the mistress of the White House usually holds drawing rooms every Saturday afternoon, and receives people by appointment nearly every day in the week. It is only by the most careful allotting of time that she can do all that is expected of her.
Until the opening of the season Mrs. Harrison was the mistress of her own time, but the stroke of 11, Jan. 1, made her its slave. Before that time she made informal calls upon the ladies of the cabinet and her intimate friends, went out to little dinners, was seen once or twice a week at the theatres, and seemed not to have a care. Now she is not expected to go or be entertained at any house at the capital. She may transcend the law as Mrs. Cleveland did toward the end of the season, and be present at her cabinet ladies’ Wednesday receptions.
There is not the least bit of Jeffersonian simplicity in White House etiquette. Every year it gains a more ironclad code. Uncle Sam's mails are not retained to carry White House invitations, but mounted messengers fly from Georgetown to Capitol Hill, and from the Potomac to Columbia Heights distributing the cards. And woe betide him who does not send an answer within two days. Nothing but sickness, the death of a near relative or absence from the city can excuse a declination of the president's invitation. His request is a command.
The receptions to the diplomatic corps and the army and navy divide the glory of the winter. A peep into either is like a glimpse of “The Arabian Nights” tales congealed into one. The first is very stately, I assure you. Every diplomat dons his court dress, and the bullion displayed would fill a vault in the treasury building. Then, the swords! They clank in a way that suggests a tourney, and even the most colorless imagination is disappointed when their owners pace pacifically around the the big east room for half an hour and retire.
The ladies of the corps always wear their most elaborate costumes and finest jewels, and many are the magnificent pairs of shoulders glistening with diamonds upon which the light falls. The question of precedence at this reception used to bother even Presidents, but now the whole affair is ranked by time of service. Friends of the President and his wife and people of high degree are bidden to meet the foreigners. Next to the White House the home of the Vice President will be a center for society this winter.
The position of the wife of a cabinet minister is not a sinecure. They are expected to keep open house every Wednesday until Lent begins, to assist the mistress of the White House at all her receptions, and to carry on their special duty to society by receptions and dinners. They are all expected to call upon Mrs. Morton and the ladies of the Supreme Court and senate, and nearly all of them had their full hundred calls made before Dec. 15. Their daughters usually accompany them on the rounds. The only alleviation they have from the binding rule is that they need not call upon the “day” of each person.
As they remain but two minutes they can call upon the “day” of each person. As they remain but two minutes they can make from sixteen to twenty-six calls in an afternoon, which means from 3 to 5. Only one thing is incumbent on a senator’s or representative’s wife, and that is to receive Thursday and return all calls made upon her. She need not give a dinner or card reception unless she desires, and not more than a score of senators’ wives and twice as many wives of representatives ever do much more. Much is demanded of the speaker’s wife if she lives in her own house.
Outside of this vast official circle, which includes the diplomatic corps, there is an equally large resident population who, it is conceded, make up the exclusive society of the capital. They entertain in a year even more lavishly than the official circle, for nearly all of the “old families” of the capital have wealth. – Miriam Hamerton, Associated Press, 1891
🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia
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