ite of the South, and at Secretary Guthrie's one could
see the majestic belles of Kentucky. The finest diplomatic
entertainment was given by the Brazilian Minister, in honor of the
birthday of his imperial master, and the evenings when Madame
Calderon de la Barca was "at home" always found her attractive
drawing-rooms crowded. General Almonte, the Mexican Minister, was
noted for his breakfast-parties, as was Senor Marcoleta, of Nicaragua,
who was trying hard to have an interoceanic canal cut through his
country. Among the Congressmen, Governor Aiken, of South Carolina,
gave the most elegant entertainments, at which the supper-table
was ornamented with a silver service, "looted" in after years by
soldiers, with the exception of a large solid silver waiter, which
was found in a swamp, propped up on four stones, and with a fire
under it, some deserters having used it to fry bacon in. A gloom
was cast over this gay society, however, by the sad fate of the
wife of Mr. Justice Daniels, of the Supreme Court, whose clothes
accidentally took fire, and burned her so terribly that she survived
but a few hours.

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