Unofficial letters of an official's wife [by] Edith Moses.

AN OFFICIAL'S WIFE

of the first row. This was again almost immediately filled by those who belonged there and several
who did not. I declined to change my seat to the
front row, as I was quite comfortable and out of
the sun, but there was a good half hour passed in
getting the right persons in their proper places. No
one seemed to realize that the wife of the principal
figure in the day's ceremonies would, on her arrival,
be obliged to sit on the railing or take a back seat.
When she finally arrived, there was another scurry
for seats by the long-suffering officers acting as ushers, and it was a miracle how two more chairs were
squeezed in at the top of the first row. I felt that
the civilians might truly say that the army should
have arranged things a little better, for they were
in charge of the ceremonies, and are supposed to
understand that bugbear " rank." At the same time
it was partly the fault of the women, who wanted
to sit in the front row whether they belonged there
or not. A democratic society when the idea of
rank and precedence first dawns upon it is likely to
run into all manner of pitfalls, for very seldom do
all its members remember their proper places all the
time. Rank not being part of their inheritance, their
native Americanism causes them to forget it at
times when they ought to remember it, and to remember it when it would be just as well to ignore
it. Those who occupy the lesser positions are, as a
yule, the most sensitive on the subject.
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