The breaking up of the inaugural reception baffles description. The tearing up of the icebergs in the Arctic seas of a spring morning might seem more solemn, but alas! alas! not half so enthusiastic and interesting. The hats and coats of the gentlemen had been numbered, and then all thrown pell-mell together. As a matter of course when a check was presented, the hunt commenced. For hours men waited, and then were obliged to go home without hats or coats. In the meantime, the ladies, weary of waiting, sunk down in graceful attitudes on the carpeted floor, or else called their carriages and took their departure alone, leaving their escorts to follow as soon as the hat-and-coat trouble found solution.
When the sun arose on the 5th of March, his rays gilded eight hundred frantic men, who still stood doggedly at their posts, calling in vain for their hats and coats; but as this letter has nothing to do with anything but the 4th of March, the kaleidoscope is finished with the dawn of a new day.
Olivia.
[PRESIDENT JOHNSON’S FAMILY.]
Traits of the Female and Younger Members Thereof.
Washington, March 9, 1869.
The family of Mr. Andrew Johnson was the least ostentatious of any that has yet inhabited the White House, and its members preserved at the capital the simple manners of their former State. The retirement and quiet of their life was so great that many are curious to know of them, and a few words of description may be interesting to your readers.
During her occupancy of the Executive Mansion Mrs. Johnson has lived almost as secluded as a nun. This has been in part owing to a bronchial difficulty and a consumptive tendency, with which she was first afflicted at the beginning of the rebellion. This physical trouble was subsequently aggravated by the loss of her eldest and favorite son, who was thrown from his horse and instantly killed, at the beginning of the war, whilst on his round of duty as surgeon of the First Regiment Tennessee Infantry. Very few American women have suffered more than Mrs. Johnson in behalf of the Union. She has known what it was to fill with her own hands the basket of bread and meat that was to be stealthily conveyed to a hiding place in the mountains, to keep from starvation her daughter’s husband. It was a chastened spirit she brought to the White House, and though her presence was seldom denied to personal friends, with the glitter and pomp of state she had nothing to do.