Part 24 (1/2)

All of the large balls and parties of this date, including the bachelors' geriven at Lewis G

Marini's on the south side of E Street, near Ninth Street Marini was an Italian and the dancing master of the day Twice a week he went to Annapolis to teach the midshi+pton, became very acceptable beaux, as they danced the saht his pupils here The bachelors'

ger others by Robert F Stockton, Hamilton Fish, Jr, John Davis, and Hamilton Perkins; while soon thereafter Seaton Munroe becaiven by the bachelors at Marini's, on the twenty-second of February, 1876, when Lady Thornton, wife of Sir Edward Thornton, British Minister to the United States, received the guests The decorations were unusually elaborate, consisting chiefly of A; while at one end of the roo, the stars and stripes s A small cannon and a allery, while above them was a se spears behind which were the musicians In an old scrap book I find a brief notice of this entertainment which mentions the belles of the ball, soton and elsewhere This is the list:--Miss Zeilin, Miss Dunn, Miss Kilbourn, Miss E of Philadelphia, Miss Patterson, Miss Jewell, Miss Badger, Miss Warfield, Madame Santa Anna, Mrs Gore Jones, Madame Mariscal, Madame Dardon, Mrs Belknap, Mrs

Robeson, Mrs Frederick Grant and Miss Dodge (”Gail Hamilton”)

In the old Stockton house, next door to the residence of William W

Corcoran, lived Mr and Mrs Elijah Ward who probably entertained more lavishly than any other faress frorace of manner and a subtle charm quite impossible to describe I enjoyed her inti invitation to take tea with her In her drawing-room one constantly met acceptable recruits from social and political life, all of whom she char Upon her return to New York Miss Virginia Stuart, her daughter by a fore, married the Rev

Alexander McKay-Smith, assistant rector at St Thoe he received a call to St John's Church in Washi+ngton, where he remained the beloved rector until in 1902 he was elected Bishop-Coadjutor of Pennsylvania

It was about this same period that I formed a friendshi+p with Lieutenant Commander and Mrs Arent Schuyler Crowninshi+eld He was then Ordnance Officer of the Washi+ngton Navy Yard and lived in the quaint old house later assigned to the second line officer of that station Mrs

Crowninshi+eld's sister, Elizabeth Hopkins Bradford, lived with her and I attended her wedding there She ua, New York, a son of Judge James C Smith of the Supreme Court of that State, and the cerehan Lewis of St John's Church, Washi+ngton This weddingto an unfortunate circumstance which attended it The est sister, Louise, were traveling in Europe and had arranged their return passage in ample time, as they supposed, to be present at the ceremony The shi+p met with an accident off the coast of Newfoundland, however, and during the delay the wedding took place There wasthe safety of the bride's looe feast, but in a few days the shi+p came into port and unalloyed happiness prevailed

After Mr Crowninshi+eld's promotion to a Captaincy in the Navy he was ordered to command the _Richmond_ in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and there I repeatedlywife He remained there, however, for less than a year, when he was placed in command of the ill-fated _Maine_, and about ten ton as Chief of the Bureau of Navigation with the rank, first of Commodore and then of Rear Ad the Spanish-Ashi+p of the European Squadron He retired in 1903 on his own application and died five years later, deeply regretted by a large circle of official and personal friends Mrs

Crowninshi+eld is so well and favorably known to the public as an authoress that it would be impossible for me to add any leaves to the laurels she noears; but I cannot refrain fro a tribute to her re my admiration for those unco presence, have reatly adton that I now recall was near the close of Grant's administration, and was for the benefit of the Church of the Incarnation It was in an old house on the corner of Fifteenth and H Streets, since torn down to ton University As much interest was shown in the enterprise and ton fae su the contributors were William W Corcoran, Miss Olive Risley Seward, Senator John P Jones of Nevada, and Seth Ledyard Phelps, the latter of as at the tie nu his life in the East I, too, was glad to aid so worthy a cause and sent some of my most cherished possessions Before the exhibition was foriven in honor of Willia Of Mr Corcoran I have elsewhere spoken; with Mr King I was also well acquainted In 1839, while a young man, he was appointed to a position in the Post Office Departn service in which he originated and perfected postal arrangereat importance to the country His promotion was rapid and he finally became Postmaster General under President Buchanan, a position which he held with credit both to the administration and hi, they lived in a , many _litterateurs_ and proather and discuss the important literary and political problems of the day John Pierpont read a poem at the first of these receptions and Grace Greenwood rendered soe William Curtis and other men of note contributed their share to the success of other similar occasions These literary reunions are said to have been the first of their kind ever held in Washi+ngton

I was invited one evening in 1877 by Mrs Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren,of Rear Ad at the corner of L and Fourteenth Streets, to attend a ton Historical Society held in her drawing-rooton's birthday and James A Garfield, then Senator fro In one portion of his reo out of his way to eton's mother, was a very plain old woe necessarily added greater luster to the Father of His Country, was not apparent to quite a number of his audience, for even the numerous votaries of the Patron Saint of Erin, ”the beautiful isle of the sea,” took honest pride in according hiintleren was a wohter of Samuel Finley Vinton of Ohio, who for ress and was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee In 1879 she published a small voluton” She followed this book with another, whose title I do not recall, in which she dwelt at length upon society in Washi+ngton It was not well received as her criticisms upon the wives of Cabinet Officers and others were such as to invoke general disfavor and arouse bitter resentren's ablest work, however, was the life of her husband, which was published in 1882 in a volues She had a fine coe and excellent literary discrimination in the use of its words, as appears everywhere in her writings and especially in the following tribute to her husband in the preface of his Life:--

”Adenius, of professional skill; but beyond all these, he was a _patriot_ While cli, at first with slow and toilsoress, that suain confronted by the clamor of discontent, the jealousies of his profession, and the various forms of opposition his rapid, upward course evoked; and until the present generation of actors in the great drama in which he played so conspicuous part shall have passed away, it will be difficult to gain an i arrested his ultimate conceptions while yet midway in his career, and set the final seal upon his actions, we are content to leave the verdict of a 'last appeal' to his beloved country and the hearts of a grateful people”

Two years later I attended anotherof this Historical Society at the residence of Henry Strong, who built and owned the house on K Street now occupied by Mrs Stephen B Elkins, and for a tie and it deeuished historical writer and essayist, as the orator of the evening He spoke upon the leaders of the Federal party during the forovernment, and soon made it apparent that his syly denunciatory of the Federalists, going so far even as to brand some of theland in 1794 which was their pet creation He spoke at soth of Oliver Wolcott, one of the norant meanwhile of the fact that some members of the Tuckerman family, his descendants, were in the audience At this ti the life of Tho after his lecture on the Federal party he called uponto Paine, which raphy of the latter, was to be found in the private papers of Ja our conversation I ventured to remark to Mr Conway that possibly he was not aware that the previous evening certain descendants of Oliver Wolcott were in his audience He responded that he had no desire to give offense but that unfortunately he could not adapt history to suit the views of the descendants of early statesmen

To use a terse expression of Hamlet, I have often heard that Paine was one of the unfortunates ere not treated by our govern to their deserts” It is now conceded by students of our national history that no man rendered more effective service to the American Revolution than ”Tom” Paine His devotion to the cause and his conspicuous sacrifices in its behalf were repeatedly acknowledged by Washi+ngton, Franklin and all the lesser lights of the day After independence had been secured, still imbued with the spirit of liberty, his pen and his presence were not wanting when required in behalf of the liberties of the French people He was i, where he languished for nearly eleven uillotine Following the fall of Robespierre he was liberated through the kindly offices of James Monroe, who had succeeded Gouverneur Morris as our Minister to France, and was at once croith honors by the govern the terle word froht to expect it, but he waited in vain He holly unconscious, ton had been poisoned against hinorance of this fact addressed him the well-known denunciatory letter which evoked such wide-spread criticiston, however, was not to blame, for he had been deceived in the house of his friends; but of this Paine was entirely ignorant Delaware Davis, a son of Colonel Sauished service during the War of 1812, told o that his father was present at a dinner where Paine was asked what he thought of Washi+ngton Doubtless in a spirit of acri lines:

Take froh and rudest stone, It needs no sculptor, it is Washi+ngton; But if you chisel, let the strokes be rude, And on his bosoratitude

There is probably no period of our national history when party rivalries were so intense and the expression of political anio between the disciples of Jefferson and Hamilton Epithets in popular discourse were openly hurled at political antagonists that decent ave expression to charges and insinuations against honorable partisans such as none but the very yellowest and most debauched journals would now deele illustration, I have in my possession what is called ”An infallible reiven toof its origin except that it was a Boston production It speaks for itself, and is as follows:--

Take the head of an old hypocrite, one ounce of Nero's conspiracy, two ounces of the hatred of truth, five scruples of liars' tongues, twenty-five drops of the spirit of Oliver Cromwell, fifteen drops of the spirit of contenthteousness and pound theh the skin of a Doctor of Divinity and put the compound into the vessel of rebellion and steep it over the fire of Sedition twenty-four hours, and then strain it in the rag of high treason After which put it in the bottle of British influence and cork it with the disposition of Toryiseneral court rises, and it will then be fit for use This composition has never been known to fail, but if by reason of robust constitution it should fail, add the anxiety of the stamp act, and sweeten with a Provisional Arentleents in America

F TARGET

The last days of the Grant ads and excitement I shall always reton that Rutherford B Hayes had been noer inquiries: ”Who is Hayes?” It was then I heard for the first time an expression which constantly occurs nowadays--”A dark horse” Samuel J Tilden, as is well knoas the standard bearer of the De and bitter, as aluration the question as to which candidate was successful was a reed upon by both parties, was composed of the same number of Republicans and Democrats with Justice Joseph P Bradley of the Supreme Court as the fifteenth member, chosen on account of his neutral position It decided that the Republican nominee was entitled to the electoral votes of Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina, and the Electoral College accordingly awarded the Presidency to Mr Hayes by a vote of 186 to 185

The Tilden caineered by Manton Marble, an able man and the editor of the New York _World_ I had known Mr Tilden when he was a great adherent of Martin Van Buren He was a siven up to politics As I re upon his favorite subject regardless of ”time and tide” His father had been affiliated with the celebrated ”Albany Regency,” and the son, inheriting his views, became one of the ablest as well as shrewdest political leaders that the Dereat ability was universally recognized, and yet his last as successfully contested, although it had been drawn up by hiard for details and engrossed with his own hand

I saw the Hayes inaugural-parade from aon the corner of Fifteenth Street and New York Avenue All through the day there was a suppressed feeling of uncertainty and excitement, but at the appointed hour the President-elect drove to the Capitol in the usual manner and took the oath of office The procession which escorted hi as others I had seen, auration, when General Fitzhugh Lee rode at the head of the Virginia troops and received a greater ovation than the new President himself It was late in February before it was definitely knohat the final decision of the Electoral Co fro political disquietude, doubtless hadthe size of the parade

I soon made the acquaintance of President and Mrs Hayes and was always a welco presence and endoith great beauty, while she possessed moral and intellectual traits that not only endeared her in time to the residents of the Capital but also won for her the respect and ade She was also a woth of character, and rarely failed to make her influence felt in behalf of what she believed to be right Although, for exaard to the use of wine at the White House entertainments was a radical departure froonism of many of her friends and adht and successfully persevered in her course to the end; so that William M Evarts, Hayes's Secretary of State, kept pretty close to the truth when he asserted years thereafter that ”during the Hayes adne!”