Journey to the Capital—An Early “Congressional Limited”—A Stump Orator of Alabama, the “Maker of Senators”—Arrival at the Capital—The Night Clerk Refuses Us Accommodations at the National Hotel—Undercurrents of Strife in Society—Mrs. Pierce—Pennsylvania Avenue in the Fifties—Survey of Washington’s Hostesses—Mme. de Bodisco and the Glacées—Her Second Marriage at Old St. John’s—Foreign Legations—Reminiscence of Octavia Walton in Washington—Mrs. Riggs Gives a Midnight Supper to Patti—Heller Appears; Likewise the Grand Elephant Hannibal 19 CHAPTER III. A HISTORIC CONGRESSIONAL “MESS.” Our Mess at Historic Brown’s Hotel and at the Ebbitt House—Mrs. Pugh and the Baron Hulseman—The Boy Henry Watterson—Congressmen Clopton, Curry, Dowdell, L. Q. C. Lamar, and Shorter, Senator Fitzpatrick, and Their Wives—Mr. Dowdell Goes to Hear Gottschalk—Circumstances of the Sudden Death of Preston Brooks—The Stockton Mansion and Its Romances—Our “Mess” Considers the Prudence of Calling on a Certain Lady—Retribution Overtakes Us—Master Benny, the Hotel Terror 42 CHAPTER IV. THE CABINET CIRCLES OF PRESIDENTS PIERCE AND BUCHANAN. Washington in 1856—Secret Visit of President Pierce—Personal Recollections of Him—Secretaries Marcy, Cushing, and Dobbin—Incidents of the Latter’s Kindness of Heart—Secretary of War Jefferson Davis—Postmaster-General Brown—Secretary of State Guthrie—Story of the Conquest of Chevalier Bertinatti 58 CHAPTER V. SOLONS OF THE CAPITAL. Society of Supreme Court Circles—Chief Justice Taney—Judge Campbell—Professors Henry and Maury—A Visit to the Latter’s Observatory—Thomas Hart Benton—George Wallace Tones: His Romantic History as Surveyor-General of the Great Northwest. At the Age of Ninety-one He Recalls a Day When He Meant to Kill Seward—Meeting with Myra Clarke Gaines—Senator and Mrs. Crittenden, a “Perfectly Happy Woman” 73 CHAPTER VI. FASHIONS OF THE FIFTIES. Aspect of Fashionable Society of the Pierce and Buchanan Administrations—Perditas of the Period—Low Necks and Lace Berthas—Kind Offices of American Consuls—Mr. Thomson and Miss Lane’s Toy Terrier—He Reports Upon the Petticoats at Brighton—Washington Dressmakers as Miracle-Workers—Mrs. Rich, a True Reconstructionist—Belles and Beaux of the Period—Barton Key—His Murder—Mrs. Sickles at Home—Revival of Moustaches—General Sam Houston; His Strange Attire—A Glimpse of This Hero in the Senate and in Society 86 CHAPTER VII. THE RELAXATIONS OF CONGRESSIONAL FOLK.