g-houses and other questionable resorts, and for
a quarter of a century he lived on the blackmail thus levied upon
strangers.

One of the most agreeable homes in Washington was that of Colonel
Benton, the veteran Senator from Missouri, whose accomplished and
graceful daughters had been thoroughly educated under his own
supervision. He was not willing, however, that one of them, Miss
Jessie, should receive the attentions of a young second lieutenant
in the corps of the Topographical Engineers, Mr. Fremont, and the
young couple, therefore, eloped and were married clandestinely.
The Colonel, although terribly angry at first, accepted the situation,
and his powerful support in Congress afterward enabled Mr. Fremont
to explore, under the patronage of the General Government, the vast
central regions beyond the Rocky Mountains, and to plant the national
flag on Wind River Peak, upward of thirteen thousand feet above
the Gulf of Mexico.

A very different wedding was that of Baron Alexander de Bodisco,
the Russian Minister Plenipotentiary, and Miss Harriet Williams,
a daughter of the chief clerk in the office of the Adjutant-General.
The Baron was nearly fifty years of age, with dyed hair, whiskers,
and moustache, and she a blonde schoolgirl of "sweet sixteen,"
celebrated for her clear complexion and robust beauty. The ceremony
was performed at her father's house on Georgetown Heights, and was
a regular May and December affair throughout. There were eight
groomsmen, six of whom were well advanced in life, and as many
bridesmaids, all of them young girls from fourteen to sixteen years
of age, wearing long dresses of white satin damask, donated by the
bridegroom. The question of precedence gave the Baron much trouble,
as he could not determine whether Mr. Fox, then the British Minister
and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, or Senator Buchanan, who had been
Minister to Russia, should be the first groomsman. This important
question was settled by having the groomsmen and bridesmaids stand
in couples, four on either side of the bridegroom and bride. The
ceremony was witnessed at the bride's residence by a distinguished
company, and the bridal party then went in carriages to the Russian
Legation, where an elegant entertainment awaited them, and where
some of the many guests got gloriously drunk in drinking the health
of the happy couple.

Queen Victoria's diplomatic representative at Washington at that
time, the Honorable Henry