drinks, except soft stuff. So there were no
jags, except what some people brought with them from their Christmas
dinners and loaded plum puddings.

And then, of course, that peculiar something we get into us at Christmas
time filled everybody with a sort of loving fellowship and a hankering
to hug their neighbors and divvy up their funds like a Mutual Life
Insurance Company prospectus says it's a-going to do some day.

In the centre of the hall there was a big sign in electric letters:

EVERYBODY IS HEREBY
INTRODUCED TO EVERYBODY
ELSE--FOR TO-NIGHT ONLY

At every State booth you'd see people gathering and recognizing old
friends or introducing theirselves to new ones. It was surprising how
each State had its gathering.

At the Texas booth there was a big, immense crowd. A lot of them turned
out to be old friends of ours; school friends of yours, ranch friends
of mine, people I had worked for, people who had worked me--or for me.
A lot of them sent their love and a Merry Christmas to you. I remember
especially---- [Here we omit a list of names, somewhat lacking in
universal interest.]

I had advertised that people who wanted to give each other Christmas
presents could have them hung on the State trees. My attendants gave
them checks for their gifts and there wasn't many mix-ups. Old Miss
Samanthy Clay got a box of cigars meant for Judge Randolph, and he got
a pair of silver-buckle garters meant for her. But most of them come out
right, and several of them was so surprised at getting presents in New
York that they bust out crying. Major Calhoun's whiskers was soaking wet
with tears when he got a bottle of old Bourbon from Judge Payton.

[Illustration: OLD MISS SAMANTHY CLAY GOT A BOX OF CIGARS MEANT FOR
JUDGE RANDOLPH]

Rich folks who had been poor men met charter-members of the "I'm on to
your origin" association. But the Christmas spirit made them forget to
be snobs. You'd hear millionaires telling plain people how they used to
play Hallowe'en jokes, how they scraped up to buy their mothers little
Christmas gifts--what ridiculous things they used to get and give!

All evening as fast as anybody went out they'd let somebody else in.
Along about eleven o'clock a lot of the people began to go home. Then a
new crowd come in. People who had taken their childern home and put them
to bed would come back for more fun. Others, who had spent the evening
dining, began to dribble in.

All the actor-peop