One of the charms of the Taft hospitality was the fact that the genial President and his wife joined their guests in the dining room and partook of the supper personally. But the innovation for which Mrs. Taft has received the greatest amount of praise was the transforming the state functions from the formal crushes of the past to the smaller, more exclusive, but withal more enjoyable gatherings where formality was dispensed with as much as possible, and where the dainty buffet supper was served to hosts and guests alike in the state dining room. This displaced the former custom instituted by Mrs. McElroy, in President Arthur’s day, of serving supper upstairs to the receiving party and the Blue Room guests alone. By limiting each reception to the class of guests for which it was intended, Mrs. Taft added greatly to the comfort and pleasure of all concerned, as under this arrangement there was no necessity for the long line which moved its tiresome way so slowly through the length of the entire basement and main floors before reaching the President. The guests assembled in the East Room until the receiving party had come downstairs, and then proceeded immediately to shake hands with the President and greet his wife. Each reception wound up with an hour or so of dancing in the East Room, much to the delight of the younger people, especially when the President would join them, which he almost always did for a few minutes at least. Mrs. Taft also personally examined and approved all bills before they were paid. All her life she had been a careful manager, a fact to which her husband often referred with pride. Her own fortune, while not of great proportions, augmented his earnings to such an extent that he often said, “When Mrs. Taft stops footing the bills, I’ll have to hang out my shingle.” Mrs. Taft’s musical tastes led to a great number of delightful musical entertainments in the White House, and many ambitious young artists had a chance to be heard by real critics. None of the protégés of either the President or Mrs. Taft exhibited such a degree of pride as radiated from the President’s valet, who had served him in the Philippines and accompanied him to this country. His particular reason for the pride that brought forth the wrath of the rest of the servants upon his head was the fact that he boasted of being a personal servant, paid from the President’s own pocket, and was unduly scornful of the others, whom he claimed belonged to the government.