“Your letter stating that Mr. Sartoris and Nellie had been at your house in London was received while Mrs. Grant and I were in Chicago attending the wedding of Fred to Miss Honoré. Fred’s wife is beautiful and is spoken of by all her acquaintances, male and female, young and old, as being quite as charming for her manners, amiability, good sense, and education, as she is for her beauty. Mrs. Grant and I were charmed with the young lady and her family--father and mother, sister and four brothers. We expect them to spend the winter with us and as Mr. Sartoris and Nellie will be here in January, we will have I hope quite a gay household. Buck is in a law office in New York City, and is a student at the same time in Columbia Law School. Jesse entered Cornell University without a condition, although he has never attended school but three years, then in an infant class. My boys are all growing up. Fred with no surplus weight, weighs 193 lbs., and Buck who is a spare looking young man, weighs 160 lbs., twenty pounds more than I weighed at forty years of age. As my children are all leaving me it is gratifying to know that, so far, they give good promise. They are all of good habits and are very popular with their acquaintances and associates. We have had--Mrs. Grant has--a letter from Nellie this morning. But as I was busy, I have neither read it nor heard its contents; therefore do not know whether it was written before or after her visit to London. “Although remiss in writing, I am always glad to hear from you and take as warm an interest in your welfare as though I wrote frequently. “Yours truly, “U. S. GRANT. “GENERAL A. BADEAU.” Among all the brilliant assemblages which have gathered in the Rotunda of the National Capitol throughout its history, it is doubtful if any were more brilliant than filled that place on the evening of December 16, 1874, when the Centennial Tea Party was held there to raise funds for the Centennial Exposition to be held in Philadelphia two years later. The _Star_ of December 17, 1874, says: