Upon my return to Washington I soon renewed my acquaintance with Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft, and the entertainments I attended in their home on H Street, between Sixteenth and Seventeenth Streets, revived pleasant recollections of Mrs. Clement C. Hill, whose house they purchased and of whose social leadership I have already spoken. Mr. Bancroft at this time was well advanced in years, and in referring to his age I have often heard him say: "I came in with the century." In spite of the fact, however, that he had exceeded the years usually allotted to man, he could be seen nearly every day in the saddle with Herrman Bratz, his devoted German attendant, riding at a respectful distance in the rear. I may add, by the way, that a few doors from the Bancrofts lived Dr. George Clymer of the Navy with his wife and venerable mother-in-law, the latter of whom was the widow of Commodore William B. Shubrick, U.S.N.
Colonel Alexander Bliss, Mrs. Bancroft's son and familiarly known to Washingtonians as "Sandy" Bliss, lived just around the corner from his mother's. His wife was the daughter of William T. Albert, of Baltimore, but when I knew him best he was a widower. A few doors from Colonel Bliss lived Senator Matthew H. Carpenter, a political power of the first magnitude during President Grant's second presidential term, whose daughter Lilian was a reigning belle. Equestrian exercise was not then quite so popular in Washington as later, but it had its devotees, among whom was Colonel Joseph C. Audenreid, U.S.A., an unusually handsome man with a decidedly military bearing. He was generally accompanied by his daughter Florence, then a child, and was often to be seen riding out Fourteenth Street towards the Soldiers' Home, which was then the fashionable drive.
John L. Cadwalader, a cousin of Mr. Gouverneur and now one of the most prominent members of the New York bar, was Assistant Secretary of State under Hamilton Fish during the Grant régime. He was a bachelor and was accompanied to Washington by his two sisters, both of whom lived with him in a fine residence on the corner of L Street and Connecticut Avenue, which has since been torn down to make way for a large apartment house. It was while the Cadwaladers were occupying this residence that I first made the acquaintance of Dr. S. Weir Mitchell. Miss Mary Cadwalader brought him to see us in our Corcoran Street home and during the visit announced her engagement to him. He was then the highly eminent physician alone, as he had not yet entered the arena of fiction and poetry in which he has since attained such wide-spread distinction. It gives me pleasure to add that he suggested to me, while I was visiting in Philadelphia many years later, that I should write these reminiscences.
All of the large balls and parties of this date, including the bachelors' germans, which I frequently attended, were given at Lewis G. Marini's on the south side of E Street, near Ninth Street. Marini was an Italian and the dancing master of the day. Twice a week he went to Annapolis to teach the midshipmen, who, when subsequently ordered to duty in Washington, became very acceptable beaux, as they danced the same step that their master had taught his pupils here. The bachelors' germans were organized among others by Robert F. Stockton, Hamilton Fish, Jr., John Davis, and Hamilton Perkins; while soon thereafter Seaton Munroe became one of its officers. I especially recall a german given by the bachelors at Marini's, on the twenty-second of February, 1876, when Lady Thornton, wife of Sir Edward Thornton, British Minister to the United States, received the guests. The decorations were unusually elaborate, consisting chiefly of American flags draped along the walls from floor to ceiling; while at one end of the room, in compliment to the hostess of the evening, the stars and stripes made way to two British flags. A small cannon and a miniature ship were placed below the music gallery, while above them was a semicircle of cutlasses and a chevaux-de-frise of glistening spears behind which were the musicians. In an old scrap book I find a brief notice of this entertainment which mentions the belles of the ball, some of whom became matrons of a later day in Washington and elsewhere. This is the list:—Miss Zeilin, Miss Dunn, Miss Kilbourn, Miss Emory, Miss Campbell, Miss Kernan, Miss Dennison, Miss Keating of Philadelphia, Miss Patterson, Miss Jewell, Miss Badger, Miss Warfield, Madame Santa Anna, Mrs. Gore Jones, Madame Mariscal, Madame Dardon, Mrs. Belknap, Mrs. Robeson, Mrs. Frederick Grant and Miss Dodge ("Gail Hamilton").
In the old Stockton house, next door to the residence of William W. Corcoran, lived Mr. and Mrs. Elijah Ward who probably entertained more lavishly than any other family of that day. Mr. Ward was then in Congress from New York. His wife possessed much grace of manner and a subtle charm quite impossible to describe. I enjoyed her intimate friendship and often availed myself of a standing invitation to take tea with her. In her drawing-room one constantly met acceptable recruits from social and political life, all of whom she charmed by her affable conversation and unaffected bearing. Upon her return to New York Miss Virginia Stuart, her daughter by a former marriage, married the Rev. Alexander McKay-Smith, assistant rector at St. Thomas' Church. Soon after his marriage he received a call to St. John's Church in Washington, where he remained the beloved rector until in 1902 he was elected Bishop-Coadjutor of Pennsylvania.
It was about this same period that I formed a friendship with Lieutenant Commander and Mrs. Arent Schuyler Crowninshield. He was then Ordnance Officer of the Washington Navy Yard and lived in the quaint old house later assigned to the second line officer of that station. Mrs. Crowninshield's sister, Elizabeth Hopkins Bradford, lived with her and I attended her wedding there. She married Edmund Hamilton Smith of Canandaigua, New York, a son of Judge James C. Smith of the Supreme Court of that State, and the ceremony was performed by the Rev. Dr. John Vaughan Lewis of St. John's Church, Washington. This wedding made an indelible impression upon my memory owing to an unfortunate circumstance which attended it. The mother of the bride-elect and the latter's youngest sister, Louise, were traveling in Europe and had arranged their return passage in ample time, as they supposed, to be present at the ceremony. The ship met with an accident off the coast of Newfoundland, however, and during the delay the wedding took place. There was much anxiety concerning the safety of the bride's mother and sister which naturally cast an atmosphere of gloom over the marriage feast, but in a few days the ship came into port and unalloyed happiness prevailed. After Mr. Crowninshield's promotion to a Captaincy in the Navy he was ordered to command the Richmond in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and there I repeatedly met him and his fascinating wife. He remained there, however, for less than a year, when he was placed in command of the ill-fated Maine, and about ten months before she was destroyed was ordered to Washington as Chief of the Bureau of Navigation with the rank, first of Commodore and then of Rear Admiral. He served as such with marked efficiency during the Spanish-American War, and several years later commanded the flagship of the European Squadron. He retired in 1903 on his own application and died five years later, deeply regretted by a large circle of official and personal friends. Mrs. Crowninshield is so well and favorably known to the public as an authoress that it would be impossible for me to add any leaves to the laurels she now wears; but I cannot refrain from paying a tribute to her remarkable loyalty as a friend and expressing my admiration for those uncommon traits of character which, with her commanding presence, have made her so deeply respected and so greatly admired.
The first loan-exhibition given in Washington that I now recall was near the close of Grant's administration, and was for the benefit of the Church of the Incarnation. It was in an old house on the corner of Fifteenth and H Streets, since torn down to make way for the George Washington University. As much interest was shown in the enterprise and many of the old Washington families sent valuable relics, a large sum of money was realized. Among the contributors were William W. Corcoran, Miss Olive Risley Seward, Senator John P. Jones of Nevada, and Seth Ledyard Phelps, the latter of whom was at the time one of the District Commissioners and owned a large number of Chinese curios gathered by him during his life in the East. I, too, was glad to aid so worthy a cause and sent some of my most cherished possessions. Before the exhibition was formally opened, I attended a private view of the collection given in honor of William W. Corcoran and Horatio King. Of Mr. Corcoran I have elsewhere spoken; with Mr. King I was also well acquainted. In 1839, while a young man, he was appointed to a position in the Post Office Department and eleven years later was connected with its foreign service in which he originated and perfected postal arrangements of great importance to the country. His promotion was rapid and he finally became Postmaster General under President Buchanan, a position which he held with credit both to the administration and himself. About 1873, when I first knew Mr. and Mrs. King, they lived in a modest home at 707 H Street where, every Saturday evening, many littérateurs and prominent men of state were accustomed to gather and discuss the important literary and political problems of the day. John Pierpont read a poem at the first of these receptions and Grace Greenwood rendered some choice selections, while George William Curtis and other men of note contributed their share to the success of other similar occasions. These literary reunions are said to have been the first of their kind ever held in Washington.
I was invited one evening in 1877 by Mrs. Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren, widow of Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren, U.S.N., who was then living at the corner of L and Fourteenth Streets, to attend a meeting of the Washington Historical Society held in her drawing-rooms. It was Washington's birthday and James A. Garfield, then Senator from Ohio, was the orator of the evening. In one portion of his remarks he seemed to go out of his way to emphasize the statement that Mary Ball, Washington's mother, was a very plain old woman. Why he considered that her lack of prominent lineage necessarily added greater luster to the Father of His Country, was not apparent to quite a number of his audience, for even the numerous votaries of the Patron Saint of Erin, "the beautiful isle of the sea," took honest pride in according him a gentle descent:—
St. Patrick was a gintleman,
He came from dacent people.
Mrs. Dahlgren was a woman of unusual intellectual ability. She was the daughter of Samuel Finley Vinton of Ohio, who for many years represented his district in Congress and was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. In 1879 she published a small volume entitled "Etiquette of Social Life in Washington." She followed this book with another, whose title I do not recall, in which she dwelt at length upon society in Washington. It was not well received as her criticisms upon the wives of Cabinet Officers and others were such as to invoke general disfavor and arouse bitter resentment. Mrs. Dahlgren's ablest work, however, was the life of her husband, which was published in 1882 in a volume of over six hundred and fifty pages. She had a fine command of the English language and excellent literary discrimination in the use of its words, as appears everywhere in her writings and especially in the following tribute to her husband in the preface of his Life:—