“The china was miscellaneous; nice enough, but not extraordinary. I only remember some pretty Haviland, and that the bread and butter plates were in the form of flags of the different nations. The President had the Star-Spangled Banner, the rest of us got what was left. The German drew the tricolour; I the Union Jack. The waiters were two spry slim coloured youths, not in livery, and they were kept rather busy. My impression is that they were always moving toward the President. “If my life depended on it I could not tell you about the centrepiece. There must have been one; but the truth is that Mr. Roosevelt was so rattlingly lively, yet so earnest and dignified, his wife so kind and unaffected, and the whole meal so informal in character, that what was on the table dwindled to minor importance. Theodore, Jr., appeared after we were all seated, shook hands all around, took part in the talk with the aplomb of young America, and excused himself before dessert to go riding with his small sister--having meanwhile extracted from his mother permission to use her horse. “It was just a nice lively United States family entertaining with heartiness and pot-luck chance visitors of the hour. The only visible difference was that the President was served first, then Mrs. Roosevelt, and after them the guests. Oh, yes. Another detail not customary. U. S. was embroidered on the plate doilies. The President and Mrs. Roosevelt sat opposite each other at the sides, not the ends, of the oval table. “The talk ranged over many subjects--importunate Senators; Colonel Hay’s Bavarian ancestors; the Negro problem; the impossibility of doing more than establish certain fixed principles in his own mind and live up to them regardless, and his feeling of the deep obligation he was under, as President, to do this; anecdotes of pet riding horses and a humorous account of a portrait recently painted of him, which was, he said, the only portrait of himself he had ever liked. He liked it because it did not resemble him in the least, but looked as he would like to look. It was the picture he wished to leave to his grandchildren, if he ever had any. “In spite of his almost incessant talk, I was impressed with the care he took--the care of a generous, thoughtful host--to bring up topics that would interest and draw out the best from each one of his guests in turn. Von Briesen had worked with him in civic matters in New York, and his praise caused the German to turn shy and rosy as a girl.