Evening Star Newspaper, June 7, 1923, Page 40

s grme B+ THE Many Ex-Officials and Others Prefer Remaining Here to Returning to Homes—Conventions, Precedence and Calling-Card System Bewilder New Arrivals—Schoolgirl Gorging It you are a member of Washington ) soclety you are a cosmopolite. The cap- | ital is a cosmorama, but not more so than are other capitals of the world only in that we exaggerate peoples and | conditions a little more. We jazz up | on individuals and sets and give our | favarites a showy and terrific spin | for a long or short time. A howling | social success of one administration | or term of office may leave one but a | respectable recluse, semi-recluse or a | cave dweller for the rest of his days | in Washington. | Official, unoffictal and just folks. | That is the way the social scale runs. Officials are the more important be- cause it is necessarily so in a great capital. Unofficials are the cushions | upon which officials sit. and just folks are the backbone of the city. | Washington may not be quarreled with because of her good or bad officials, because they are chosen by the citizens at large and_ sent to Washington to function. Unofficials are truly cosmopolite. for. having| been onmce ehosen by the people and, | from personal desire or reasons be- | vond_their control, they are rejected | as officials by their particular section of | country, they feel themselves persona | non grata back home, and, being thril ed with the glamour of social succes: they remain on. If their worldly fo tunes are not quite sufficient to meet social demands they may at least for a time land on some well-feathered commission and sc party in the change. Official Versus Unofficial. There is arcely lose a rl‘nner} \ always an explanatory at- rom each of the two set: nd unofticial, as to why the: as “they are—an’ air of eclucidas | From the unofficial, an illy di guised explanation that they are not official, not in any way to be confused with official society, they are merely private residents etc. With the offi- cial there is a blessed assurance that having been chose particular | niche in the uation’s capital other | things come to the ter of | course. Quite natur: fact. | Diplomats are t lights | around which bhot and u official society revolv o less nearness and rapidity. They are the splendor of dinner parties, the | brillfant radiating points for dances, the interesting friends of traveled | folk and altogether they are the most envied-residents by society folk of Washington. Just folk envy diplo- y. in meteoric official | fear. | of the United States MRS. CHARLES E. HUGHES, Wife of the Secretary of State. mats not hecause they are diplomats; not because they are the representa- | tives of great or small countries nor for any particular honor that has been conferred upon them elsewhere, but because they are known as our exempt residents. A diplomat is exempt from the arm | of the law in eve His country might be called upon to discipline him, but this has seldom: happened. He is sometimes asked to “go home,” but this has happened so infrequently that there is scarcely enough of it upon which to found a story. He may rent a small house in an ob- scure corner or a mansion as good as the capital boasts, and it is for the term of the lease foreign soil, and is therefore exempt. If his country owns an embassy or legation—and most of the countries do—it certainly is exempt from every intrusion of the law. His chauffeur, Ignorant or dis- regardful of trafic regulations, may dash about as he will, bre MME. JUSSERAND, Wife of the French ambassador. safety rule and maintain whatever peed he or the occupants of his car wish, and he is exempt from arrest. Embassy Cellars. But_perhaps it 1§ for none of this that he s most envied just now, especially by the convivial members of society, but because of his cellar. The Volstead law cannot touch him when he drinks his own wines and administers them to his friends on his own native soil. The women of the diplomatic corps are - the most envied by other women, not for their ! splendid attire—the American wives| of foreign diplomats are almost} always the only women of the corps! who make much of a stab at the sar- torial art—but because of their su- preme independence in such matters. To all appearances they never come to Washington to excite envy along at Cabinet Teas Eliminated. INTERESTIY WARR HER STUD POSE OF HARDING, T WIF! FIRST LADY OF THE OF THE PRESIDENT, LAND. MRS. TAKEN IN ). - ! clement of Washington, sitting | diplomatic position; for be it said ‘ther in the seats of the mighty|mere brains and blood count for but or at their feet, but simply looking | little in the more superficial part of 1 in an interested way. They are|the structure. Take it as you will, it cientists—many of them wearing un- blessing to this as well o ler a shabby jacket decoratio the | other cities, for it pours money into iighest bestowed by foreign coun-|the coffers of the merchant, creates ries, for some special prowess In|a mar where otherwise there their line—scholars, professional peo- | would be none nd gives rise to am ble, writers, business or commercial | hitions which would not otherwise people, and then government clerks | spring within the human breast. to the number of more than 100,000. The axis of Washington soclety, as And now you have Washington so-|it is of all Washington life, is the ciety. or at least as society Is defined | White House. Around it revolves the Webster—the union of a number|entire social structure, whether from of rational beings; and Blackstone the standpoint of what is ordinarily says “the true and natural founda- designated soclety or fr the view- tions of society are the wants and|point of an American citizen at large of individuals But from what- Not only is the White House the ever standpoint it may be viewed, the | axi: but it is the very beginning institution as it exists in the capital [of ings social The first thing you is an interest-|do, whether aspiring to social recog- ing one and so elastic as to be adapt-[nition or merely tulfilling an official ed to any class, sort of condition.|duty, is to pay vour respects to the Officially 1t rily interesting. | President and the first lady of the As a means of mere social pastime|land. Thus you become a part of and self-aggrandizement it i still | the White Housze social card index. And as viewed by residents at| You drive up to the door and leav neces Horris -Ewtard ; MRS. HENRY C. WALLACE, Wife of the Secretary of Agriculture, showing Mrs. Harry S. New, wife of the Postmaster General, through the government greenhouses. large, or folks, it is a big show, with frequent stars arising; it is a_source of income to the merchant, a pleasure to the scholar and a well set stage for the diplomat, where there is plenty of applause from the audience, especlally the boxholders. Cosmopolitan Washington. And Washington society is so cosmopolitan that but to knock is to enter—-rrcvided you have the re- quisite—that is, money or officlal or cards. If you are a feminine member of the great social structure you leave a card for the temporary mis- tress of the mansion—for at the most she may have a residence there but for eight years. If you have a hus- band you leave two _cards bearing his name, one for the President and one for the first lady. RIght here you become a part of the social index. You are registered soclally. You are, all things being equal, going to be put on the White House social list, MRS. CALVIN COOLIDGE. this line. Just folks are the most interesting wite of the formor-Vies. Wife of the Vice President, photographed with Mrs. Thomdé Marshall, Presldents X | and naving tulfilled your firat obliga- tion, you are going to be invited there for 'a garden tea, a musical, a re- ception or by special request. unless, of course, it is a matter of mere curlosity ‘with you, you may ask, through the White House social sec- retary, a special audience with the | mistress of the mansfon. If it is pos- | sible for her tp receive you, and there is no question about her doing it if | it is at all possible, you will be given |2 day and an hour for calling. Not | to be on the very second of time is |an offense not to be excused, and you will meet at this appointment a | group of other guests, a sufficient {number to take off the edge of em- | barrassment. White House Register Gone. There was a time when you | to register at the White House just as In a big hotel, but that scheme seems to have vanished and your card | is registered for you. However, the register was a splendid thing, for it gave to the White House one of the most complete autograph albums in the world. Om it were registered all the great men, and often women too, from every point of the compass. Bearing a date at the top of the page, it became an official document of un- told value, as from it could be fixed the exact day of a visit pald at the White House by members of the roval family, grandees of the old world or the historic characters of our own country. When a new prestdential | office building arose and the executive | part of White House business was removed from the President's resi- |dence the social routine also changed, | becoming, perhaps, less democratic. | Having started on your social climb | in Washington by leaving your card {on the President’s household you have but to proceed along down the line of officialdom. Unlike the business | world, where You begin at the bottom | and go up, in officlal Washington so- | clety you begin at the top and come | down. If you function socially as | you should You are apt to become so | |inspired and awed with the upper | strata of the official world, that. like | an astronomer who hunts for new | celestial beautles, you are all too apt | to forget the terrestrial sphere, the |terra firm or foundation upon which tha entire soclal structure is bullt, and so never know your neighbor | unless, he, too, is on a card-dis- | tributing faunt | Socially “Washington is_terribly like | | the old, old nursery rhym born on Mor day—, born on Tuesday——. Call on | Monday you meet the ladies of the Su- preme Court circle. Call on Tuesday, | had | % # {mention only a few. | 4 eign works of special distinction are | MRS. HERBERT HOOVER, Wife of the Secretary of l‘nm—e"e.i the wives of the members of the lower House of Congress; Wednesday, the wives of cabinet officials; Thursday, the wives of nators : Friday, the wives of Adiplomats, and Saturda; the soclally smart from everswhere who disdain on official preserves. Even is a visiting day, thought not | Iy scheduled, and the very cream of society hold it a day at home, breakfasts at midday or sometimes an old-fashioned midday dinner or a lun- cheon being favorite methods, while teas and evening dinner parts on Sun- day are quite popular. Endless Round of Calls. This line of visits must be made if you_wish to figure in the eoclal world | of Washington. After calling on the wife of the President and the wife of the Vice President. and the wives of cabinet officers, you may think of let- ting up on if, “but had better not. You will wish ‘to give dinner parties, and_while nothing could_be more de- sirable than to have the Vice President | and his wife, and the Secretary of State | and his wife, and so on through the cabinet, as guests, vet they never ail dine together, except in the series of cabinet dinnérs_or some great organi- zation event. You will need senators | and their wives and representatives and | | their wives to make a well balanced | LADY GEDDES, Wife of the British ambassador. dinner party. You should add to this formula some persons of lesser official rank, say an assistant secretary of something and his wife, or the heads of commissions, or reach out into the judiciary and get two or three couples. Lest you may be thought too preten- tious, it 18 nice to skim the cream off of the mere folks set, and thus add in- terest to the feast You may think to ignore the card game in shington, e visiting card but you cannot do it. You will not be invited about wife who The new representativ had a h:fndhrsd gards printed by the en- ver .t er home to not beca ffi: expected to need th::.l. but beca:‘: she might, found herself cardloss after three afternoons of calling, and in a perfect frenzy ordered her first thou- sand. And, indeed, the m uf'lvod - paateboard itsel{ lanota Dut raths fof A mitte. lection American painting, United States, and gold, are distributed In prizes, Clark of New these exhibitions additions are made | death, to nearly twice that size. con- | taine notable works by George Inness, | through which | Alexander Wyant, John W. Alexander, permanent collection, words, exhibitions are to t been opened to the public May 9. is Freer of Detroit, funds for the building and its endow- ment, as well as the collections which | Christ.” are contained therein. | ental EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. 0, THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 1923 — CAPITALBECOMING SOCIAL CENTER World-Famous Paintings Are Contained In Noted Collections and Exhibits Here Freer Gallery of Art, 12th and B streets southwest, the newest addition to W artistic gallery, together with an endowment fund and collections of paintings, together with collection of Whistler in existence, BY LEILA MECHLIN. | With the Freer and the Corcoran galleries, the National Gallery of Art, the Library of Congress, with its | great mural paintings, sculpture and | its division of prints, the Duncan | Phillips Gallery and the various | artist organizations, Washington fs| fast becoming one of the principal | urt centers of the United States. And | this, as the capital eity, It should be. | No city In this country Is quite so much a work of art as Washington, because it was originally planned along artistic lines and In an artistic manner by a French engineer, Maj L'Enfant, under the Inspiration and | supervision -of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who were both admirers of class! art, and who ap- preciated the value of expert adv in such matters. The city of Wash- ington today owes much of its e turesqueness to the forethought and the artistic instinct of its original planners. For this reason it much to attra artists, d its life since the carliest davs, when t city was little more than a s in a wilderness, has always b high plane. « tuart, the great American por n whose trait. it as high as $76,000, spent several years % ington in the early part of the ni teenth century, when Mad the White House and Dolly the leader of Wash ot only did ritles and the fair ladies of that day. but planned to establish an art mu- seum here, which dream, however, never came true Notable Corcoran Collection. The Corcoran Gallery of Art was established in 1874 by W. W. Corcoran of Washington in the red brick struc ture on the corner of 17th street ar Pennsylvania avenue, which has now become a government building. In 1897 the handsome white stone build- on a |ing on 17th street between New York avenue and E street was erected and opened with a brilliant recept evening of February 22. This ¥ contains a very charming collection of modern paintings, chiefly Ameri- can: casts from the antique, Barve bronzes and small works in sculp- ture by Cotemporary American sculptors. Notable in the collectio) rican palntings are Churc agara”; “Mother and Child,” by George de Forest Brush; a landscape by Willard Metcalf, entitled “May Night"; “The Ovster Gatherers'™ by John Singer Sargent: “Girl in Brow v J. J. Shannon, and George Inn. Sunlight in the Woods” to With the for- “The Wood Gatherers.” by Corot “The Passing Regiment.” by Detaille! “The Helping Hand.” by Renouf, fa- rough reproduction, and “The a peasant picture, by L'Her- The Corcoran Gallery's col- is rich in portraits of the early American school—Stuart. Mal- bone, Vanderiyn and others wonderfully ~charming collection, made up of pictures that one likes not only to see, but to study—plc- tures of intimate charm and real in- terest, Biennial Exhibition. In this gallery every other vear is held an exhibition of cotemporary representing the works of artists from all parts of the at which time $5.000 silver and bronze medals the former of ex-Senator Willlam A York. From each of the gift purchase to the gallery’ besides numerous sales are made. In other to an extent, these blennial this_country what the Paris Salon is to France. The Freer Gallery is a compara- tvely recent acquisition. having on\x\- the gift of the late Charles L. who provided the It {s a small, intimate little gallery, built around & plcturesque court, and contains ori- art, works by Whistler and paintings by a few other American | artists. The oriental department is uncommonly rich, containing rare and unusual examples of Chinese, Japan- ese and Korean painting, pottery, sculpture and bronzes. So fine, in| fact, and so unusual is this collection .. that students desiring to study the art of the orient will find it neces- | Bary henceforth to come here for this purpose. reat Whistler Collection. The Whistler collection comprises ofl paintings, water colors, pastels, etchings and drawings, and is the largest and most comprehensive col- lection of the work of any one painter in this country, If not in the world. In it are included several of Whis- tler's world famous nocturnes, his por- trait of Mr. Leyland and, complete, the famous peacock room which was built into Mr, Leyvland's London home and purchased and brought to this coun- try by Mr. Freer at his death. Over the mantel is Whisticr's well known painting. “The Littlc Princess of Porcelain Land,” and on the wall op- posite s the peacock decoration, which is repeated on the shutters and in the other decorative features. Rare examples of oriental pottery are on the shelves which cover the walls Besides the Whistler paintings, this gallery shows charming collections of paintings by Abbott H. Thayer, in- cluding one of the best of his well Corcoran Gallery o ings, chiefly American, known Virgin serles; of interiors and figures by Thomas W. Dewing, and | of landscapes by Dwight W. Tryon. The National Gallery of Art as has no building of its own, but its collections, temporarily housed and displayed in the National Museum, aggregate in value several million dollare. Although the Smithsonian Institution was made the custodian of a national gallery of art at_the tis a | time that it came into existence, about | Homer. by Sain 1855, it was not until 1802 that defi- nite steps were taken to develop such a gallery. Then the Johnston collection came to the na- tion as a bequest. Almost immedi- ately thereafter the Willlam T. Evar collection of American paintings was glven, which, in turn, was followed by the gift by Ralph Cross Johnson of Washington of a r ollection paintings by the old masters Best of American Works. The Evans collection, which origi- nally was to include a hundred pa ings. but grew, before Mr. Ev George Fuller. Willlam Morris Hunt John La Farge, Sergeant Kendall, Elihu_Vedder, Fredesick J. Waugh and Winslow Homer. “High CIliff, Coast of Maine,” by the last, is reck- oned by many as this great Amer- ican palnter's masterpiece, a superb pleture of the rock-bound New Eng- land coast. La Farge is represented by his painting “Nicodemus and Tncluded with these col- lections at present is the McFadden collection of British masterpieces. which, with the Ralph Cross Johnson collection, brings tegether in one building at this time the finest and most comprehensive collection of works by such men as Revnolds, Rae- burn, Romney and Lawrence, that Is to be found outside of Great Britain. The Ralph Cross Johnson collection occuples one room and contains re oriental art and paintings by Thaye: Harriet Lane | of | Wit a8 S ix the gift to the nation of Charl ewin superb examples of not only the Brit- {sh masters, but of such great paint- ers us Titian, Guardi, Nicholas Maes and Rembrandt. The great need now is for a bufld- ing. Congress a few years ago set aside the National Gallery as a sepa- rate unit. Last y it designated a site for a National Gallery building. but as vet no appropriation has been | made to cover the cost of erecting I:&u(-h a building. nor has any appro- priation ever béen made to purchase exhibits or to provide more than incidental costs Famous Library Murals. The Library of Congress was first great public building owned by the national government to include mural paintings as n integral part of its design. It was completed in 1897, and the men who had made names for themselves at the great world's fair in Chicago were called on to provide its decorati They | did it, in most instances, ag a pa- triotic service, and their works have done much to give impetus to fural | painting throughout the United | Stat Among the most notable are the and castx of the antique. The b ashington's imposing galleries. The building, which ix an ideal and lex E. Freer. It contains the biggeat its power to make Washington, as s one-time president, the late Thomas Nalson Page, said, the most beautiful cupital city in the world, Under it auspices for the benefit of its mem bers and their fends are held each year Hlustrated lectures on the fine urte, lectures on literature, concerts and lecture recitals. The New York | Symphony Orchestra for several vears past has given eac winter, under auspi f s organization, a serifs {of evening concerts in the auditoriun of th Central High School, w! seats anproximately two thousand. av a price whie thos moderat | means can afford to pay. On Connecticut avenue at L strec: i located the art center where th Art and Archaeology Leagus ham its headquarters and where exhibitions | mostly of the arts and crafts of for- | eign people. are held for the purpose {of bettering international relation- | ships and increasing sympathetic in- ternational o anding | Threc associations hava their headquarters in Washington at e Octagon House, 18th and New York avenue American Institute of Architects, which owns the build- Art, 17th street and New York avenue, which containk n fine collection of modern paint- Barye bronzes uilding was designed by Ernest Flage. by John W. Alexander illus : He Evolution of the Book." Henry Oliver Walker's Poetry series, Walter MacEwen's “Greek Heroes." On the etaircase leading to the gal- lery is a superb mosaic—"Minerva, Goddess of Wisdom,” by Elihu Ved- de In the rotunda are notab statues. among them Cnlumbus and Michelangelo, by _Paul Bartlett; Shakespeare. by MacMonnies, and audens. The print divisfon of this library | has its cwn reading room and sets forth from time to time instructive and Interesting exhibitions drawn |from its own collections and from loan collections, such as the ( collection, which have been deposited | with 1t for sa eeping. It include }alsn among its possessions the or tlon of Whistleriana assembl |Joseph Pennell and his wife lis in irseif a complete history | Whistler and a great monument bo! to the man's genfus and to the nob! | friendship that he inspired. Professional Associations. There are two profess tions of artists {n Washington, Washington Society of Artists the Washington Water Color Club, both of which for more than twenty years have held annual exhibitions of their mem works. There js also a Handicraft Guild, made up of craftsmen. and a Landscape Club. the nmembers of which are chiefly business [ men, who spend thelr holidays recreation hours in_ painting | "“The Arts Club of Washington has both artist and lay members and has Rarmactistan ies g dmevs i 2017 T street, which at the time of the war of 15812 was occupied hy Monroe then a member of the cabinet | "The Washington Society of Fine Arts Is a local organization, having & membership of approximately a thou- and. Tt was organized in 1805 with | the purpose of stimulating interest in lart and aiding in every way within which ot rrett { ing: the Archaeological which oceuplies floor, and the n of Arts, which on the first floor. The last n Fedaration of Arts Instituta of rooms on American is located the Amari- includes in fts untry and a majority of the art tions, besides which it has a large individual membership. Annual | ccnventions are held every other year in Washincton and on alternate years in other parts of the country. This organization sends out traveiing ex- hibitions. circulates illustrated. ty written lectures. publishes the Ameri- n Art Annual, a comprehensive di- rectory of art in America, agd the American Magazine of Art. Among 1 tre such men of high broad_vision as Elihu t W. de Forest, the presi Metropolitan Museum of 2y, president of £ Fine Arts; Henry r assador to Fra L. Hutchinson, president of 1g0 Art Institute. and Robert American minister to its f the Morris forn; m Sweden Much could be written of the art who reside in Washington, or w | temporarily have work here, for tt irclude Sargent Saint-Gaud. Trank D. Millet. Charies Y. Tur rles Hopkinson, Philip de Laszio, | n Day Hale, Edward Lin | K. F Brown, E. ( James Henry M During the w round of exhibitic e the National ational Muse the the Library ongress, the Publ {Library, the Arts Club and the Art | Center, ‘not to mention the charmt [1ittle Phillips Memorial Gallery, w has lately come into existence which is generously open to the p lic during the winter on thres af noons a week, but which at this tim« of year is closed _—m er a consequential matter of expense. To present oneself at a door without visit- ing cards in hand is to commit a ter- rible breach of etiquette. However, one little woman got bravely by last sea- son, when on calling at a legation she discovered no card in her case. There ‘was one, however, of a woman who had called upon her, but who was just then in Europe. Down went the card on the tray, and in she sailed to meet her hostess. The only trouble arose when the poor hostess attempted to return the visit of the woman who was abroad. The card system has its curses, too. There are hundreds of persons in Wash. ington who have no fixed abode or live in unaccessible places. They, too, own calling cards, and use them on officlals who sometimes epend fruitless hours in attempting to return a visit on some one Who wae merely passing through the town. Rockbound Dutfes. It is the business of young diplo- mats to call on senators’ wives, even while the wives of foreign ministers and senators’ wives are contending behind thelr fans as to which should make the first call, and If they do not. they will find themselves let out on something when it is not desirable. Women in official life have lived in Washington for twenty years with- out ever seeing the inside of the White House or meeting a President and his wife. There was but one explanation and that is that she had not fulfilled her offcial social duty. While not of the cave dwellers, she yet was one of the extremest type: And speaking of cave dwellers re- calls an incident which happened last season. The wife of a clever young diplomat frequently heard the term “cave dweller,” and at an afternoon tes remarked after being asked if she had seen everything interesting in the capital, “Yes; everything but a cave dweller, and I do wish I could sep one.” Not so different this story than the one of another foreigner who had theught much of seeing Indians when he arrived in this country, that | going to the reservations to see them, but who instead was confronted by quite a number when alighting from a train at the Union station. It was not he himself, ,ut his young son, ished, while sightiesing in the capital later on, to be shown the wigwams where they lived. Ex-officials Stay On. Some years ago Washington was sought out by the rich retired-class of citizens over the country who first came to spend a season or two and became 80 enamored of the beau- ties of the place that they concluded to remain on and on. This has given to the capital an impetus In real es- tate which it could have enjoyed in no other way. There is the circle of ex- ambassadors which includes the Rob- ert McCormicks who saw life from that_standpoint in Russia and Italy; the Henry Whites, the former having enjoyed life as ambassador to Fraace; the George Maryes, who were in Rus- sia; David Jayne Hill, who was in Germany, and so on, having enjoyed the sweets of official life abroad returned to end their days | in the same social atmosphere in the American capital. Retired buainess men, retired pro- fessional men, miners, bankers, mer- chants and what not are all_repre- sented in soclety. and to condemn a man in trade who seeks social honors is but to throw cold water on Wash ington’s entire social structure. While many familles of other cities come here to live and enjoy soclety, there are others, natives of the soil, who have gradually climbed upward from obscure corners and, gaining a little, generation by generation, stand at last upon safe social terra firma. A ladder never to be ignored is one whose rungs are made of private schools. As a mere educational cen- ter Washington holds an enviable place in the world, for added to the regular curriculum is the advantage of feeling the very heart-throb of a great natlon, studying various branches of the government, meeting officials, and, in fact, enjoying a phase of social life such as students mey not enjoy in any other city of th country, but sometimes to a small extent in the capitals of other republics. There was a time when included in the prospectus or cata- logue of several young ladies’ schools social reference was asked from the students. On the very face of it this was 80 terribly incongruous that finally it has been cut out. Hence tha #ohools- are- stapping-stonga-ia all of whom | social life as well as splendid educa- tional institutions. Schoolgirls Wreck Ten. ‘While social reference is no longer asked by any school in Washington, certaln social advantages are offered: and in the days of open house in the homes of cabinet members and other high officials it was not unusual to e a bevy of twenty or thirty pretty girls from a fashionable boarding school swoop down on the tea table of a cabinet woman on her day at home and leave it looking like a locust plague had p; ed that way Now such receptions are by appoint- ment and the embarrassment of hav- ing late official callers find an ewpty table is obviated. Where once were modest official homes in Washington have in late years—in the past thirty years—ris lup homes equal in elegance splendor to those of the capitals pf the old world, some of them the resi- dences of officials, but more of them belonging to the retired class. When the late L. Z. Leiter of Chicago chose Dupont Circle as a site for his resi- dence it was a section in the full glory of social preference. Later came the Robert Pattersons from the ame city, and the Herbert Wads- worths, the W. J. Boardmans, the Thomas F. Walshes, the Edson Brad- leys and others, ho settled in the same vicinity. Dupont Circle was the mecca of the retired class. Alas, the inroads of trade have crept on apace until the once socially sacred pre- cinct boasts a bank, an automobile sales place, a drug store, cleaning establishment, florist shop, soon an opera house and a glgantic business i block, which will greatly dwarf in \size the residences near by. Massa- chusetts avenue extended, once a i enemshasa of @ntehs, 1ais plens did wide avenue, with a vista seldom to be seen in a city. Vieing with Du- pont Circle, there rose up Sheridan Cirele, sfrounded by palatial homes, while the adjacent streets are ave- nues of great beauty. Soctal Center Moves. The awakening to the social possi- bilfties of the capital has been slow but sure, and there is now a realiza- tion that every foot of ground in the arew of seventy square miles i of- almost- unreckoned yslue:: Zhosg. mas Circle to Dupont | have shifted their moori bullding palatial homes several mil-s beyond. - Sixteenth street, with i's bewildering cowpaths of a few vears ago. Is now the boulevard for mora embassies and legations than any other section of the city, while thow, who have come to know the value f country life have established on U outskirts of the city, but within tI District, some as beautiful and ge- lightful homes as are to be found in America, while others have sgaght Virginia and Maryland, but incloss proximity to Washington. ourse, Washington sociefy has parasites, but what capighl ha not? These microbes of thé social world are hest described by Milton Jand Dryden—one marvels #hat they existed in those days, tyo—as a trencher friend: one that/frequent the tables of the rich and/enmss: hix welcome by flattery; a hapger-on, ani so on. But frequently ‘they are of use if not of entertalnmest and their | habitat is not restricted to Washing jton. The breed congtontly spreads and while catching up the crumbs o the rich the aseoclated charities ar saved expense. Fowign countrics have ceased to paupefize their younx diplomats and are selecting men with private fortunes on they pay bette alaries. The youps attache or secre tary who once laundered his ow hosfery, pasted Yfs handkerchiefs o the window papg to dry and denied himself week e/Ml house parties be cause of the ths to servants of the house now keyps a tolerable estal~ lishment of hi§ own and entertains in charming manmer. Club life, f00. holds out its lure i social Washington and while a few years ago there were but few clubs patronized/by the wealthy and fnflu- ential clafs, there are now many The Congressional Club sprang up for the wives and daughters and sis- ters of sepators and representatives and made; eligible the wives of Vice Presidents and cabinet mempers other wemen's clubs have assumed equal igportance, and the Metropoli- tan Chyb, the Army and Navy Clu the Raequet Club and the many coun- try clpbs all hold out an invitati to tiie newcomer who may need hos- il ir gs and ar- P |