“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.