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Mrs. James Rush
The ideas which Mrs. Otis applied with such charming results in
Boston were also applied by Mrs. James Rush, of Philadelphia, to
the social life of that city. She, like Mrs. Otis, "had learned
social democracy abroad where American women are still
frequently obliged to go to learn it" In spite of our pretended
democracy very frequently extreme formality and ridiculous
social customs prevail in this country. Mrs. Rush's husband was
one of the great physicians of his day, a man of wide
cultivation and a great student, and their circle gave Mrs. Rush
ample opportunity for the social reforms which she inaugurated.
Among the first changes she made was the abolition of the day at
home, and instead she established a fashionable hour for
promenade, and at this time the walk to the river in the
afternoon was quite the fashionable thing of Philadelphia social
life.
Mrs. Rush's dinners and receptions were quite affairs of state.
She took these gatherings quite seriously and studied to bring
together interesting people. Miss Wharton says Mrs. Rush's
recipe for making up a party ran: "An ex-president, a foreign
minister, a poet, two or three American artists, as many lady
authors, a dozen merchants, lawyers, physicians, and others who
are there on the simple footing of gentlemen, their wives, who
come as respectable and agreeable 'ladies' fifty young men who
are good beaux and dance well, fifty pretty girls without money
but respectable, well dressed, lively, charming, are always
indispensable at a party."
The effect in a community of such a circle is incalculable. It
breaks down prejudices and caste, it starts lines of thought and
creates breadth of opinion. There is no activity of a community,
political, social, philanthropic, educational, artistic, which
does not receive impulses from circles made up as Mrs. Rush did
hers on the base of character and achievement, which should be
the basis for every social circle of every city of America, at
our national Capital particularly.
Mrs. Rush was a graduate of Mrs. Emma Willard's Seminary of
Troy, New York. Mrs. Willard herself was a great social leader.
The life at her seminary reflected in those years in a rather
unusual way the strong social instincts of its great founder,
and the effect was felt all over the country as those women went
out into the various sections to establish their homes.
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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