Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1877-03-03

HoSpliuDic DiliI. u green Wluc 3 ltSs
for sherry, a red one for paler wine
and two crystal glasses for hook and
madeira; under one sideboard lurked
in ambush suggestive punch bowl
The warm, bright room, with its
tropical perfume, its cleaning crystal
and silver, its airy tilagree of floral
adornment relieving the massive ele-
gance of its appointments of state,
impressed me with o dreamy, sensu-
Gus delight. I am but an average
daughter of the people; yet in sense
the scene was mine. Every faithful
student of history is the possessor
and inheritor of his country's glori-
GUS past. I thought of the stately
men and women who had surrounded
that banqueting board in the elder
days. remembered bon-mots that
have filtered down to us through the
sieve of tradition, too good to be lost
in the dim echos of that grim old
mansion of state.
HERE IS ONE OF HENRY CLAY,
Who sat there guest, just after the
Inauguration of his rival, James X.
Polk, which was told me by an old
New York Congressman, who was
present: Mrs. Polk was an admir-
able ruler of her house, and the en-
tertainment was unusually sump-
tuous and also gracefully appointed.
Madam" said the gallant Ken
tuckian, looking towards her, 81
like your administration much bet
ter than your husband's!" Looking
lcisurely about me at my own sweet
will l thought, by way of contrast, of
the inaccessibility of royalty's ban
quoting halls, where only the titled
blood of ages may exhilerate itself
with beholding or partaking. But
in our Republican palace one may
easily enter within the penetralia
and he a comfortable rooker-on, and
q dreamer of dreams not impossible
of fulfllment: and standing by the
chair of the President at the center
Of the inner side of the table, 1
looked across to Mrs. Grants seat,
n proud and happy post to fill, and
thought withrepublican complacency
of the years, still recent in history,
when she lived frugally in Galena,
in little one-story brown house with
n lean-to, and sent the little ones to
bed early, so that she could mend
their scanty clothing while they slept!
Suddenly raised to this higher and
broader sphere, no one can ever
charge asaint her one unbecoming
or ill-judged act. Without being a
woman of personal beauty, or of
high endowments, she has a whole
some and inviolable good sense and
kindly feeling that have tided her
over eight years of dizzy and danger
GUS social prominence, from which
she will retire with dignity and we'll
earned esteem.
1T Is A NOTICEABLE FEATURE
Of the PRESIDENTS house that its
numerous force of retainers are
gravcly courteous and attentive to
nll who are admitted, T. F. Pendel,
the head messenger, has been there
since President Lincoln's time, 80
also his associates, Messrs. Chase
and Dunn. They ransack their
memories for stories of the olden
days to tell me, and I have grown
quite pleasantly dependent on their
unfailing courtesy and good humor.
John H. Whitton, the steward of
seven years standing, a bright mu-
latto man, and a great politician, as
all our colored citizens here are,
brought in the different brands of
wine to show me, all ready for open
ing Chateau Yquem, Chateau Laftts,
one particularly choice champagne
of the vintage of Ayara, and still
another, named "The Presidents
Champagne" I cannot tell you of
the viands, for the dinner was ordered
from n French caterer outside, and
the bill of fare was not yet sent in.
Mr.. Chase showed me the dinner
cards, about the size of an ordinary
visiting card, handed to each gentle
man before leaving the Blue parlor,
where the President and family
receive the guests promptly at z
o'clock. The parlor is the middle
one of the suit of three, and the
stateliest of them all. It is oval in
shape, forty feet by thirty, and sump-
tuously finished and furnished in blue
and gold. Here the President re-
ceived Diplomatic Ministers accred-
tied to the United States and pre-
sented for the first time. Here, also,
in front of the central divap, he
stands with his family, In solemn
line, on New Years Day and at other
receptions. The cards above men,
toned have o diagram of the table,
! each card checked off with two lead
pencil marks denoting the seats as.
signed to the gentleman and to the
lady whom he is expected to escourt,
Her name is written in a large bold
hand ON the center of the card, and
the gentleman on receiving it makes