A NEW ERA IN SOCIETY.
Rutherford B. Hayes had not entered upon his fifty-fifth year when
he was inaugurated as President. He was a well-built man, of
stalwart frame, with an open countenance ruddy with health, kind
blue eyes, a full, sandy beard in which there were a few silver
threads, a well-shaped mouth, and a smile on his lips. He had
served gallantly in the army and creditably in Congress, without
having contracted any bad habits or made any personal enemies.
His manners were courteous; he bore himself with dignity, yet was
affable to all; quick in speech, but open as the day. Politicians
did not always obtain the places which they imperiously demanded
for themselves or for their henchmen, and he refused to acknowledge
that some who had busied themselves about the Southern electoral
votes had claims on him which he was to repay by appointments to
office. Impassive, non-committal, and always able to clothe his
thoughts in an impenetrable garment of well-chosen words, applicants
for place rarely obtained positive assurances that their prayers
would be granted, but they hoped for the best, thinking that
"The King is kind, and, well we know, the King
Knowest what time to promise, when to pay."
Mrs. Hayes exercised a greater influence over public affairs than
any lady had since Dolly Madison presided over the White House.
Tall, robust, and with a dignified figure, the whole expression of
her face, from the broad forehead, which showed below her hair,
worn in the old-fashioned style, to the firm mouth and modest chin,
bespoke the thoughtful, well-balanced, matronly woman. She had
such a bright, animated face that nothing seemed lacking to complete
the favorable impression she made upon every one who came under
the influence of her radiant smile. That smile was the reflection
of a sunny disposition and a nature at rest with itself. She and
her husband looked like a couple who lay down at night to peaceful
slumbers, undisturbed by nervous dreams of ambition, and awoke in
the morning refreshed and well prepared for the duties of the new
day, which never found them fretted or flurried.
Mrs. Hayes brought with her from her rural home what was known as
"the Ohio idea" of total abstinence from intoxicating drinks, and
she enforced it at the White House, somewhat to the annoyance of
Mr. Evarts, who, as Secretary of State, refused to permit the
Diplomatic Corps to be invited to their customary annual dinner
unless wine could be on the table. This Mrs. Hayes refused to
allow, and all of the state dinners served while she presided over
the hospitalities of the White House were ostensibly strictly
temperance banquets, although the steward managed to gratify those
fond of something stronger than lemonade. True, no wine glasses
obtruded themselves, no popping of champagne corks was heard, no
odor of liquor tainted the air fragrant with the perfume of innocent,
beautiful flowers. The table groaned with delicacies; there were
many devices of the confectioner which called forth admiration.
Many wondered why oranges seemed to be altogether preferred, and
the waiters were kept busy replenishing salvers upon which the
tropical fruit lay. Glances telegraphed to one another that the
missing link was found, and that, concealed within the oranges,
was delicious frozen punch, a large ingredient of which was strong
old Santa Croix rum. Thenceforth (without the knowledge of Mrs.
Hayes, of course) Roman punch was served about the middle of the
state dinners, care being taken to give the glasses containing the
strongest mixture to those who were longing for some potent beverage.
This phase of the dinner was named by those who enjoyed it "the
Life-Saving Station."
While Mrs. Grant had always denounced the White House as not suitable
for a President's residence, Mrs. Hayes was charmed with it. She
once took an old friend through it, showed him the rooms, and
exclaimed: "No matter what they build, they will never build any
more rooms like these!" She had the lumber rooms ransacked, and
old china and furniture brought out and renovated, and, when it
was possible, ascertained its history. Every evening after dinner
she had an informal reception, friends dropping in and leaving at
their will, and enjoying her pleasant conversation. Often her rich
voice would be heard leading the song of praise, while the deep,
clear bass notes of Vice-President Wheeler rounded up the melody.
She almost always had one or two young ladies as her guests, and
she carried out the official programme of receptions to the letter.
While the President was earnestly endeavoring to restore peace at
the South and to reform political abuses at the North, Mrs. Hayes
was none the less active in inaugurating a new social policy. One
of the evils attendant upon the "gilded era" of the war and the
flush times that followed was the universal desire of every one in
Washington to be in "society." The maiden from New Hampshire, who
counted currency in the Treasury Department for nine hundred dollars
a year; the young student from Wisconsin, who received twelve
hundred dollars per annum for his services as a copyist in the
General Land Office; the janitor of the Circumlocution Bureau, and
the energetic correspondent of the _Cranberry Centre Gazette_, each
and all thought that they should dine at the foreign legations,
sup with the members of the Cabinet, and mingle in the mazes of
the "German" with the families of the Senators. The discrepancy
in income or education made no difference in their minds, and to
admit either would be to acknowledge a social inferiority that
would have been unsupportable. But while some of them, by their
persistency, wriggled into "society," the stern reality remained
that their compensations did not increase, because their owners
sillily diminished them in what they called, maintaining their
social position. "Vanity Fair" no longer existed, and the shoddy
magnates no longer furnished champagne and terrapin suppers for
fashionable crowds, regardless as to who composed those crowds;
the strugglers for social position retired into modest quietude,
and no longer aspired to be ranked among those in "society."
The people one met at the White House and in society, after the
inauguration of President Hayes, were an improvement on those who
had figured there since the war. One seldom saw those shoddy and
veneer men and women who had neither tradition nor mental culture
from which to draw the manner and habit of politeness. They lacked
the sturdy self-respect of the New England mechanic, the independent
dignity of the Western farmers, or the business-like ease of the
New York merchants, but they evidently felt that their investments
should command them respect, and they severely looked down upon
"them literary fellers," and others with small bank accounts. In
the place of these upstarts there were cultivated gentlemen and
ladies, who could converse sensibly upon the topics of the day,
and if there were neither punch-bowls nor champagne glasses on the
supper-table, there were fewer aching heads the next day.
Mrs. Hayes, while blessed with worldly abundance, showed no desire
to initiate the extravagances or the follies of European aristocracy.
The example she set was soon followed, and her pleasant expression
and manners, retaining the ready responsiveness of youth, while
adding the wide sympathies of experience, won for her the respect
of even those devotees of fashion who at first laughed about her
plainly arranged hair and her high-neck black silk dresses. Lofty
structures of paupers' hair, elaborately frizzled, were seldom seen
on sensible women's heads, nor were the party dresses cut so
shamefully low in the neck as to generously display robust maturity
or scraggy leanness. It cannot be denied that fear of women and
not love of man makes the fair sex submit to the tyranny of the
fashions, and Mrs. Hayes having emancipated herself, the emancipation
soon became general. While, however, "the first lady of the land"
discarded the vulgar extravagances which had become common at
Washington, she by no means held herself superior to the obligation
of dress, and of the pleasant little artificial graces belonging
to high civilization. Some of her evening dresses were elegant,
the colors harmonizing, and the style picturesque and becoming.
If she had the good taste not to disfigure her classically-shaped
head, or to load herself with flashy jewelry, so much the better.
Prominent among the festivities at the White House during the Hayes
Administration was the silver-wedding of the President and his
wife, which was the first celebration of the kind that had ever
occurred there. The vestibule, the halls, and the state apartments
were elaborately trimmed with bunting and running vines. In the
East Room, at the doors, and in the corners and alcoves tropical
plants were clustered in profusion. The mantles were banked with
bright-colored cut flowers, smilax was entwined in the huge glass
chandeliers, and elsewhere throughout the room were stands of potted
plants. Over the main entrance was the National coat-of-arms, and
just opposite two immense flags, hanging from ceiling to floor,
completely covered the large window. The Green, the Red, and the
Blue Parlors were similarly decorated, the flowers used being
chiefly azalias, hyacinths, and roses.
The members of the Cabinet and their families were the only official
personages invited to this celebration, and with them were a few
old friends from Ohio connected with the President's past life and
pursuits. A delegation of the regiment which he commanded, the
Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, brought a beautiful silver
offering. Among the President's schoolmates was Mr. Deshla, of
Columbus, who said: "I knew him when we called him 'Rud,' when he
was called 'Mr. Hayes,' then 'Colonel Hayes,' and 'General Hayes,'
then 'Governor Hayes,' and now that he is President we are equally
good friends." The guests promenaded through the parlors, and
engaged in conversation, the Marine Band playing at intervals.
Precisely at nine o'clock the band struck Mendelssohn's Wedding
March, and President Hayes, with his wife on his arm, came down-
stairs, followed by members of the family and the special guests,
two by two. The procession passed through the inner vestibule into
the East Room, where the President and Mrs. Hayes stationed
themselves, with their backs to the flag-draped central window,
and there remained until the invited guests had paid their
congratulations. Mrs. Mitchell, the daughter of the President's
sister, Mrs. Platt, stood next Mrs. Hayes and clasped her hand, as
she did when a little child, during the marriage ceremony twenty-
five years back.
Mrs. Hayes wore a white silk dress, with draperies of white brocade,
each headed with two rows of tasseled fringe, and with a full
plaiting at the sides and bottom of the front breadth; the heart-
shaped neck was filled in with tulle, and the half-long sleeves
had a deep ruching of lace. Her hair, in plain braids, was knotted
at the back and fastened with a silver comb, while long white kid
gloves and white slippers completed the bridal array. On the day
previous, which was the actual anniversary, Mrs. Hayes had worn
her wedding dress, making no alterations save in letting out the
seams. It was a flowered satin, made when ten or twelve breadths
of silk were put in a skirt, and there was no semblance of a train
appended thereto.
The Rev. Dr. McCabe, who had married Mr. Hayes and Miss Webb twenty-
five years before, was present, with Mrs. Herron, who was at the
wedding, and who was a guest at the White House. She had an infant
daughter, six weeks old, with her, which was christened on the day
previous Lucy Hayes. After the happy couple had been congratulated,
the President and Mrs. Hayes led the way into the state dining-
room, which had been elaborately decked for the occasion with cut
flowers and plants. The table was adorned with pyramids of
confectionery, fancy French dishes and ices in molds, the bill of
fare including every delicacy in the way of eatables, but no beverage
except coffee. At midnight, when the guns announced the birth of
a new year, congratulations and good wishes were exchanged, and
then the company dispersed.
The gossips had much to say about the petition of the venerable ex-
Senator Christiancy for a divorce from a young Washington woman,
who was a clerk in the Treasury Department when he married her.
The irascible, jealous old man magnified trifling circumstances
into startling facts, and deliberately attempted to brand his young
wife with infamy. She may have been foolish, she may have said or
done what was not wise, but those who knew her well asserted that
she had given no cause for the terrible accusations brought against
her by the man who persuaded her to become his wife, and who proved
the truth of the proverb, that "There is no fool like an old fool."
His resignation of his seat in the Senate to accept a diplomatic
appointment, that Mr. Zach. Chandler might return to it, was said
to have been anything but creditable to him, although profitable.
Washington society was also kept in hot water by the young secretaries
and attaches of foreign legations, who prided themselves on their
success in breaking hearts. There were two classes of these foreign
lady-killers. Those of the Castilian type had closely cropped,
coal-black hair, smooth faces, with the exception of a moustache,
and flashing eyes that betrayed an intriguing disposition. The
Saxons (including the British, the Germans, and the Russians) were
tall, slender fellows, with their hair parted in the middle, soft
eyes, and downy side-whiskers. Both sets were exquisitely polite,
courteous in their deportment, and very deferential to those with
whom they conversed. They stigmatized a residence in Washington
after their sojourn at the various capitals of Europe as unendurable;
they intimated that the women of America were "incomplete" and
"fastidious," but their criticisms were so courteous that no one
could muster heart to contradict them. Every year or two, though,
some poor girl was captivated by the glitter of their small talk,
and got more or less scorched before she could be extricated.
[Facsimile]
W. M. Evarts
WILLIAM MAXWELL EVARTS was born at Boston, February 6th, 1818; was
graduated at Yale College in 1837; studied in the Harvard Law
School, and was admitted to the bar in New York in 1841; was Attorney-
General of the United States, July 15th, 1868 - March 3d, 1869;
was counsel for President Johnson on his trial upon his impeachment
in 1868; was counsel for the United States before the Alabama Claims
Tribunal at Geneva, Switzerland, in 1872; was counsel for President
Hayes in behalf of the Republican party before the Electoral
Commission; was Secretary of State of the United States, March
12th, 1877 - March 3d, 1881; and was a United States Senator from
March 4th, 1885.