While the general public was deeply interested in Ruth Cleveland, she did not command the same degree of enthusiasm as was showered on her little sister Esther, since Esther was a real White House baby, the ninth child born under that famous roof, just as her mother was the ninth White House bride. These facts gave the people of the country a proprietary feeling toward this mite of humanity, and resulted in a deluge of gifts of all kinds and degrees of loveliness and value. In fact, not only America, but England, France, Germany, Russia, all not only sent messages to the babe and her lovely mother, but followed up their missives of greeting with gifts, until a huge supply had accumulated. There were dainty white furs from the Far North, linens from the cloisters of Spain, dresses, christening robes, sacks, socks, robes, booties of wool, of kid, and of chamois, bibs, wee bits of baby jewellery--everything a baby needs multiplied many times. A room overflowed with toys, and one paper of the time, in describing the deluge, insisted that there were enough cradles, cribs, and carriages for a full score of babies, and toys enough for an asylum. The day Esther was born, the President received informally the young Japanese Prince Yorihato Komatsu, the grand-nephew of the Mikado, who was travelling around the world incognito. One of the events in which Washington was greatly interested was the one hundredth anniversary of the laying of the corner stone of the United States Capitol, which occurred on September 18, 1893. The celebration started with the ringing of the centennial chime, after which there was a procession, and other features by civic organizations as nearly like those of a hundred years ago as the changed conditions would permit. William Wirt Henry, a grandson of Patrick Henry, was one of the speakers.