Senator North | Page 8

so often elude the most
earnest seeker after truth.
Betty turned impulsively to an old woman clad in shabby black who
stood besides her gazing earnestly at the crowd. Her large bony face
was crossed by the lines and wrinkles of long years of care, and her
eyes were dim; but her mouth was smiling.
"Tell me," exclaimed Betty, "please--are all these people in politics?
I--I--am a stranger, and I should like to know who they are."
"Well, I can tell you pretty near everything you want to know, I guess,"
replied the old lady. She had the drawl and twang and accent of rural
New England. "I guess you've come here, like myself, jest to see the
folks. A few here, like you and me, ar'n't in official life, but the most
are, I guess. Nearly all the Cabinet ladies are here to- day and a good
many Senators' wives and darters. That there lady in heliotrope and fur
is the wife of the Secretary of War, and the one in green velvet and
chinchilla is Mis' Senator Maxwell. That real stylish handsome girl just
behind is her darter, and I guess she has a good many beaux. They're
real elegant, ar'n't they? I guess we have good cause to be proud of our
ladies."
She paused that Betty might express her approval, and upon being
assured that Paris was responsible for many of the gowns present,
continued in her monotonous but kindly drawl,
"And some of them began life doin' their own work. The President ain't
no aristocrat, and most of his friends ain't neither; but I tell you when

their wives begin to entertain they do it jest as if they was born to it. I
presume if my husband--he was a physician--had gone into politics and
had luck, I'd have been jest like those ladies; but as he didn't, I'm still
doin' most of my own work and look it. But the Lord knows what he's
about, I guess. Senator Maxwell's a swell; they've always been rich, the
Maxwells, and he married a New York girl, so she didn't have much to
learn, I guess. Mis' Senator Shattuc--she's the one in wine colour--was
the darter of a big railroad man out West, so I guess she had all the
schoolin' and Yurrup she wanted. Now that real pretty little woman jest
speakin' to Lady Montgomery is Mis' Senator Freeman. They do say as
how she was the darter of a baker in Chicago and used to run barefoot
around the streets, but she looks as well as any of 'em now and she
dines at every Embassy in Washington. Her dresses are always
described in the Post: she wears pink and blue mostly. You kin tell by
her face that she's got a lot of determination and that she'd git where she
had a mind to. I guess she'd dine with Queen Victoria if she had a mind
to."
"I feel exactly as if I were at a pantomime," cried Betty, delightedly.
"Even you--" She caught herself up. "I mean I always thought the New
England playwrights invented all their characters. Who are these
plainly dressed women and--and--half-way ones?" "Oh, they're
Representatives' wives mostly," drawled the old lady, who looked
puzzled. "They take a day off and call on each other. One or two is
Senators' wives. Some of the Senators is rich, but some ar'n't. Mis'
Montgomery's jest as nice to them as to the swells, and she told me to
be sure and go into the next room and have a cup of tea. I don't care
much about tea excep' for lunch, and she don't have a collation--I
presume she can't; too many people'd come, and I guess she has about
enough. Now, those ladies that don't look exactly as if they was ladies,"
indicating the large birds of tawdry plumage and striking complexions,
"they don't live here. Washington ladies don't dress like that. I guess
they're the wives of men out West that have made their pile lately and
come here to see the sights. First they look at all the public buildin's,
and I guess they about walk all over the Capitol, and hear a speech or
two in the Ladies' Gallery--from their Senators, if they can--and after
that they go about in Society a bit. You see, Washington is a mighty

nice place fur people who haven't much show at home--those that live
in small towns, fur instance. There is so many public receptions they
can go to--The White House, the Wednesdays of the Cabinet ladies, the
Thursdays of the Senator's wives, and six or seven
Representatives--mebbe more--who have real elegant houses; and then
there is several Legations that give public receptions. You can always
see in the Post who's goin' to