The Yale expositor., 1918-12-19

begin, and might be kept up almost indefinitely
though, for his part, Washington went be-
yond a second glass of wine and it was his usual
custom to leave the table within few minutes
after his wife had gone.
Toasts in those days. never drunk until
after the ladies' had left the table, and beautys
health was pledged in this fashion while she
was present But when the found them
selves alone, it was the proper thing for young
gentleman to get upon his feet-which it is to
be hoped, were still steady-and to say II give
you Betty Lomax, the most beautiful girl In West
moreland county, Or perhaps 1t might be Susan
Lee of Rappahannock. Such toast custom
ariy drunk standng-with all the honOrs, as the
phrase was
Indeed Christmas was great day of festv-
ity in the Virginia of that epoch. Breakfast was
at eight or nine o'clock unless it had been de-
clded to go a-huntlng in the morning-in which
case the meal was eaten by candle-light If there
was a fox-hunt-a sport of which Washington
very fOnd-the host wore a brilliant red waist
coat trimmed with gold lace, and the ladies who
rode were beautiful in scarlet habits. On such
occasions Mrs. Washington would go out in her
"chariot and four" keeping as close to the hunt
as the roads would permit. Not until 1855
the Mount Vernon kennels abolished and the dogs
sold
Those were days when meals ample, but
were not multiplied. Eating when undertaken
was no mere frivolity but serious business. This
Christmas dinner was at 80 p. m; there had
been no lunch, and there was no supper to come
After dinner there games-blind mans buff
hunt the slipper, and the ke-with much romping
and more or less kissing. A sprig of mlstletoe
was hung up in convenient place and if a girl
happened TO be kissed under ii by young man
she did not faint or call for help In fact II
might be suspected that she did not seriously OBJ
ject.
Never, and nowhere in this world were there
more capable and expert makers of love than the
young of WashingtOn's day in old Virginia
Nobody ever saw jollier fellows than they were.
If they loved fercely they proved their sincerity
by marrying early; and, when one of them was
so unfortunate as to lose his wife, he would in
variably marry again. Marriage was considered
just about the most important duty of life and
the love affairs of the gentlefolk were freely
confded even to the servants. Black Tom knew
that Mars james "going after" Miss Sallie
Lee and would talk the matter over with his
young master. And it was the same way with
the girls.
SO II may easily be imagined that on a festive
sion such this Christmas celebration q
good deal of incidental iove-makng some of it
serious enough accomplished But the
Master of the Revels, though he himself had been
sufficiently ardent in his youth was in later life
eager sympathlzer with such follies.
Though Mr.. Washington took no part in the
romps that followed the dinner he heartily en-
joyed the fun. Occasionally he rellshed game
of cards, and probably on this Christmas evening
he INDUCED In some such amusement, In company
with the older people, while the young folks
scampered and romped. He played for money
but the stakes small.
There two young people at Mount Vernon
in those days-the son and daughter of Mrs
Washington by her first husband 1t is easy TO
imagine the part they took I'm the romps on Christ
day. John and Martha, their names were
but everybody knew them as Jacky and Patsy
Pat cd 1773 wi fnto
anhood, while her brother married young and
had four children, two OF whom, George and Mel
lie Custs, adopted by Mr.. Washington To
George he left the famous Arlington estate, oppo-
site the city of Washington, which afterwards
fell by inheritance to the wife of Gen. Robert e.
Lee.
On Christmas eve there was dance to which
all the neighbors for many miles around were
as a matter of course, invited The party began
before eight and was over by ten o'clock
Young ladies' beauty In those times was not
spoiled by late hours. For music there was
single fiddle, played by an old slave on the place
"a whte-haired negro who kept the time and
helped on the tune by pounding the floor with
his big foot
All the young ladies wore low-necked dresses,
making brave display of pretty shoulders and
the men were in knee-breeches and silk stockings.
Mrs washington's gown, cut v-shaped and filed
In with ruchlng of French silk; but the
clothing she ordinarily wore was Of domestic
manufacture. being woven at Mount Vernon, where
no fewer than sixteen negro women we're kept