Ladies of the Senate

CAPITAL KALEIDOSCOPE--Frances Parkinson Keyes--Harper ($3.50).

MRS. COPELAND'S GUEST BOOK--Frances S. Copeland--McKay ($1.50).

The only trouble about being a Senator's wife is that the Senator may not be reelected. Wives of Supreme Court Justices, who are appointed for life, can really settle down in Washington. Senatorial families usually find it safer to rent a house than buy one. F. F. V.'s and Mayflower Bostonians may consider Washington society a cosmopolitan free-for-all except in those small circles tangent to their own, but to the vast majority of U. S. housewives, a Senator's wife is well above the social timberline. Commoners who suspect that Senators' wives them selves sometimes share this view will find their worst suspicions confirmed by Capital Kaleidoscope and Mrs. Copeland's Guest Book.

Both Mrs. Keyes and Mrs. Copeland write with the little finger delicately curved, with the half-shut eyes and far away look of those who have inhabited Mt. Olympus. But Author Keyes's book is three times as long, illustrated with mouth-watering photographs of the Washington Great, and keyed in a gaily professional manner which reflects the fact that Mrs. Keyes was long a regular contributor to Good Housekeeping and the author of several novels. Her book is full of adventures, and all the adventures are parties. She had her first adventure (a White House reception) when she was seven, but life did not get continuously exciting till 1919, when she went to Washington as a Senator's wife (Rep., N. H.) and the mother of three sons. In spite of the handicaps of ill health, a small apartment, not much money, few friends and "a husband who groaned at the mere mention of giving or going to a party," Mrs. Keyes was soon having as much fun as she could stand. "It was not infrequent for me to pledge myself for luncheon engagements 20 days in succession and seven weeks in advance; to pour tea at several different receptions in the course of the same afternoon and 'look in on at least a dozen others, unless I were at home to hundreds of callers myself; to receive six dinner invitations for the same night; and to tumble into bed at four in the morning after having gone to a private musicale and a ball or two after dinner." Most amusing incident she can remember is the late William Jennings Bryan getting high on what he thought was nonalcoholic punch. Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt's words of comfort to the late Senator Walsh's daughter made a deep impression on Mrs. Keyes. She reports them as follows: " 'Dear child,' she said vibrantly, 'life does go on. It must go on.

It will go on!'' (Adds Mrs. Keyes: "Thank God it has gone on for Genevieve Walsh Gudger!") Mrs. Warren G. Harding was a dear friend; Mrs. Keyes once wrote her up, like this: "Mrs. Harding herself looked like the embodiment of a fairyland vision in white velvet and diamonds."

Mrs. Copeland (Dem., N. Y.) went to Washington four years after Mrs. Keyes but she is still there as a member of the hierarchy. (Mrs. Keyes lives there too in an unofficial capacity, practices her journalistic art while her husband manages his New Hampshire farm.) Mrs. Copeland does not profess to be a "Society woman." Her little book is a mixture of etiquettry, copybook maxims and obviously original remarks. Like her conservatively Democratic husband, Mrs Copeland believes in the status quo. "Much is said about the rules of official etiquette. Many persons profess to fine them burdensome. To me, they seen wise--more helpful than the reverse. . .

Fancy trying to seat the guests at an official dinner party at one's own discretion. . . . One dinner party of that sort should be sufficient to shatter the sturdiest nerves." Wife of a public man, she does not mind publicity: "Reporters and photographers are always with those who are in public life. However, this is really no hardship, and it is pleasant to have reminders in the form of pictures and newspaper clippings of the days that have been the most enjoyable in one's life." She presents a stoutly idealistic front: "A cheerful, unworried hostess is much more conducive to the guest's enjoyment than a wine of rare vintage." And once in a while she cracks a joke: "Once in a moment of distress, I said to the Doctor [Senator Copeland] : 'I do believe you are the best friend I have.' He laughed and said, 'Surely not the only one!'"

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