Though the eyes of the nation were already turning toward the future occupants so soon to be installed in the White House, public interest in the Clevelands had not diminished. Mrs. Cleveland’s New Year reception of 1897 and the evening reception which followed were attended by the largest throngs ever known. People seemed just to realize she was leaving the White House, and they were anxious to see and speak with her. Many brought their children, impressing upon them the impending departure of the sweet wholesome lady who gave another opportunity to shake her hand to those who had been too confused to do so when they first passed. Great numbers of guests crowded also to the last of the Saturday afternoon receptions. These delightful affairs for the public ceased with Mrs. Cleveland’s departure, and since her régime, there have been no affairs for the public save the New Year receptions.
From Helen Nicolay’s pen this description of one of Mrs. Cleveland’s farewell “crushes” is taken in part:
“A little before three o’clock Mrs. Cleveland entered on the arm of Colonel Wilson, and took her place in the improvised passageway, near the northern door leading from the Red into the Blue Room. Colonel Wilson stood between her and the door.
“Then the doors were opened and the real reception began, when for two hours people of high and low degree, white and black passed through the room at the rate of twenty-five a minute. Mrs. Cleveland had a smile and a hearty handshake for each one, and her quick wit and gracious tact were exercised to the utmost in kindly deeds. The little woman, for instance, who was so absorbed in gazing at her hostess’s beautiful face that she missed the outstretched hand was given another chance, after she had quite passed on; and the children were greeted with special kindness. There were touchingly many children: little ones in arms, toddlers almost as small, who seemed in danger of being trampled underfoot, but who had been brought because it was Mrs. Cleveland’s last reception and in after years they would be proud to have seen and touched the hand of this most popular mistress of the White House.
“Women of course made up by far the larger part of the crowd. Many were evidently ‘flustered’ and passed on with set smile and lowered eyelids, hardly seeing the President’s wife at all. Others seemed trying to photograph her face in their memory. The men were more inclined to stop and make little speeches to the First Lady of the Land; they cared not one whit what she wore. But the young officer standing opposite laid a warning hand on the arm of each who wished to linger, and urged him on. Sometimes a rather vigorous push was necessary to start the procession again. A few coloured people came through, both men and women, more men possibly than women. One regular Topsy of a servant girl, black, undersized, in battered straw sailor, twisted into shapes that only a coloured Topsy’s hat can assume, with tattered apron and faded clothes, walked down the line, gleams of such exultant daring and satisfied desire illuminating the look she rolled over the daintily clad ladies behind Mrs. Cleveland, that it seemed a whole revelation of character, and a volume of race history besides. Toward the end of the reception two Indians added their characteristic features to the throng.
“Occasionally the stream would be held back for a moment or two, that she might rest, and she would turn, a little breathless, to lean on the back of the sofa and survey the group of people behind her, with bright nods to this and that acquaintance. During one of these intervals she showed her shapely ungloved right hand to a lady standing near. It was literally black with the contact, but as she regarded it with an amused smile she asserted that she was not at all tired. Three hours of such exercise might make her so, two hours never did.
“At five o’clock Mrs. Cleveland again took Colonel Wilson’s arm, and followed by the Cabinet ladies, proceeded to the dining room. There the ladies from behind the line, and such as had been personally invited to stay, joined them. A round table was set with tea things, red roses, fancy cakes, and the gold spoons of the state dinner service. Chairs were placed in two or three rows around the sides of the room, and Mrs. Cleveland begged us all to be seated. The company broke up into little groups, when tea and ices were served, Mrs. Cleveland being helped first. She then moved about, cup in hand, from group to group, sitting and chatting a few moments with each.
“It made a picture long to be remembered—the square room with its airy buff-tinted walls, and sideboard set with historic china and silver, the dainty table, the groups of attractive women in dresses as many-tinted as a garden of flowers; the gay pinks, greens, cherry, blues, and whites subdued to just the right proportion by those of gray and black and rich dull colours; and moving about among them, Mrs. Cleveland in her lavender gown, by far the most beautiful woman there, and as wholesome and sweet and natural as the violets at her belt.”
The ladies of the Cabinet, learning of Mrs. Cleveland’s love for the “true blue” of the turquoise, presented her with an exquisite ring set with this gem as a parting gift of affection.
She set the mansion in order for Mrs. McKinley and departed with her little folks to get the new home at Princeton ready for her husband, who, with the burden of state lifted from his shoulders, joined a party of friends for a restful cruise and fishing trip before joining her. Achievement was writ large upon Grover Cleveland’s presidential history page. He laboured long and arduously for the welfare of the nation, most of the time under the strain of great criticism, but he discharged his duties in a way that, as time goes on, adds greater lustre to his name.