he files of the city press
for an account of the night's festivity. The pen that has been used in
portraying Margaret's career is entirely inadequate to it. There is a
general impression that an American can do anything that he sets his hand
to, but it is not true; it is true only that he tries everything. The
reporter is born, as the poet is; it cannot be acquired--that
astonishing, irresponsible command of the English language; that warm,
lyrical tone; that color, and bewildering metaphorical brilliancy; that
picturesqueness; that use of words as the painter uses pigments, in
splashes and blotches which are so effective; that touch of raillery and
sarcasm and condescension; that gay enjoyment of reveling in the
illimitable; that air of superior knowledge and style; that dash of
sentiment; that calm and somewhat haughty judgment.

I am always impressed at such an entertainment with the good-humor of the
American people, no matter what may be the annoyance and discomfort.

In all the push and thrust and confusion, amid the rending of trains, the
tearing of lace, the general crushing of costumes, there was the merriest
persiflage, laughter, and chatter, and men and women entered into and
drew out of the fashionable wreck in the highest spirits. For even in
such a spacious mansion there were spots where currents met, and rooms
where there was a fight for mere breath. It would have been a tame affair
without this struggle. And what an epitome of life it all was! There were
those who gave themselves up to admiration, who gushed with enthusiasm;
there were those who had the weary air of surfeit with splendor of this
sort; there were the bustling and volatile, who made facetious remarks,
and treated the affair like a Fourth of July; and there were also groups
dark and haughty, like the Stotts, who held a little aloof, and coldly
admitted that it was most successful; it lacked je ne sais quoi, but it
was in much better taste than they had expected. Is there something in
the very nature of a crowd to bring out the inherent vulgarity of the
best-bred people, so that some have doubted whether the highest
civilization will tolerate these crushing and hilarious assemblies?

At any rate, one could enjoy the general effect. There might be vulgar
units, and one caught notes of talk that disenchanted, but there were so
many women of rare and stately beauty, of exquisite loveliness, of charm
in manner and figure--so many men of fine pr