The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1910-07-28

r,vers-resacas, as the natives call
them. Tall palms sometimes grow
along the bayous, for the country is
half tropic. Again, on the dryer
ridges. there might be taller detached
trees, heavier forests-palo alto, the
natives call them. In some such place
as this, where the trees were tall,
there was fired the first gun of our
war in the southwest. There were
strange noises heard here in the will
derness, followed by lesser noises, and
by human groans. Some faces that
night were upturned to the moon
the same moon which swan so 'glori-
ously over Washington. Taylor camped
closer to the Rio Grande. The fight
was next to begin by the lagoon
called the Resaca de la Palma. But
| that night at the capital that same
moon told us nothing of all this We
! did not hear the guns. It was far
! from Palo Alto to our ports of Gal
weston or New Orleans. Our cockaded
army made its own history in it's own
unreported way.
We at the White House ball that
night also made history in our own un-
recorded way. AS our army was add
! ing to our confines on the southwest,
so there were other, though secret,
forces which added to our territory in
J the far northwest. AS to this and as
to the means by which it came about,
have already been somewhat plain.
1t was a goodly company that as
sembled for the grand ball, the first
J one in the second season of Mr.. Folks
somewhat confused and discordant ad.
ministration. Social matters had
started off dour enough. Mrs. Polk
was herself of strict religious practice,
and imagine 1t had taken somewhat
of finesse to get her consent to these
festivities. 1t was called sometimes
the diplomats ball At least there
was diplomacy back of it. 1t was
mere accident which set this celebra-
ton upon the very evening of the lat
tie of Palo Alto, May 8, 1916.
By ten o'clock there were many in
the great room which had been made
ready for the dancing, and rather a
brave company it might have been
called We had at least the splendor
of the foreign diplomats uniforms for
our background, and to this we added
the bravest of our attire, each one in
his own individual fashion, l fear.
Thus my friend Jack cambridge was
wholly resplendent in new waist
coat of his own devising, and an even
ing coat which almost swept the floor
as he executed the evolutions of his
western style of dancing. Other gen,
tlemen were, perhaps, more grave and
staid. We had with us at least one
man, old in government service, who
breeches of an earlier generation. Yet
another wore the white powdered
queue, which might have been more
suited for his grandfather. The young.
: er men of the day wore their hair
long, in fashion quite different, yet
this did not detract from the distinc
ton of some of the faces which one
of them to sleep all too soon upturned
, to the moon in another and yet more
bitter war, aftermath of this with
Mexico. The tall stock was still in
evidence at that time, and the ruffied
shirts gave something of formal and
Old-fashioned touch to the assembly
Such as they were, in their somewhat
varied but not uninteresting attire, the
best Of Washington were present. In
vitation was wholly by card. Some
said that Mrs. Polk wrote these invi
tatlons in her own hand, though this
we may be permitted to doubt.
. Whatever might have been said as
to the democratic appearance of oul
gentlemen in Washington, our women
were always our great reliance, and
these at least never failed to meet the
approval of the most sneering of oul
foreign visitors. Thus we had pres
ent that night, as l remember, two
young girls both later to become
famous in Washington society; tall
and slender young Terese Chalfant
later to become Mrs. Pugh Of Ohio
|. and to receive at the hands of Den
. marks minister, who knelt before
her at later public ball, that jew
eled clasp which his wife had babe
|, him present to the most beautiful
woman he found in America. Here
| also was Miss Harriet Williams OF
Georgetown, later to become the sec
1 ond wife of that Baron Bodisco OF
r Russia who had represented his gov
eminent with us since the year 1898
tall, robust, blonde lady she later
grew to be- Browns hotel, home OF
many of our statesmen and their la
: dies, turned out full complement
: Mr.. Clay was there, smiling, though
| fear none too happy. Mr.. Edward
Everett, as it CHANGED, was with us
at that time. We had Sam Houston
of Texas, who would not, until he ap.
peared upon the floor, relinquish the
striped blanket which distinguished
him-though a splendid figure of a
! man he appeared when he paced
forth In evening dress, part of which
was waistcoat embroidered in such
fancy as might have delighted the eye
of his erstwhile Indian wife had she
, been there to see it. Here and there,
scattered about the floor. there might
have been seen many of the public
figures of America at that time, men
from north and south and east and