n appreciation
of Professor Hilgard's scientific achievements presented to him a superb
vase which is now owned by Dr. Thomas N. Vincent.

About thirty years ago my daughters and I formed a friendship with
Senator and Mrs. James B. Beck of Kentucky and their daughter, the wife
of General Green Clay Goodloe of the U.S. Marine Corps. Mr. Beck was one
of the Democratic leaders in the Senate and was regarded as among the
ablest men of his party. He was proud of his Scotch blood and loyal in
his friendships. His wife was Miss Jane Washington Augusta Thornton,
whose grandfather, Colonel John Thornton of Rappahannock County,
Virginia, was a first cousin of General Washington. Both the Senator and
his wife have passed onward, but our affection still lives in General
and Mrs. Goodloe, who are among the best and truest friends I have ever
known.

Just before the close of the Hayes administration, Walter D. Davidge,
whose home for many years was on Sixth Street, built a large mansion on
the corner of H and Seventeenth Streets and upon its completion he and
Mrs. Davidge, who was Miss Anna Louisa Washington, gave a housewarming.
Champagne flowed freely upon this occasion and it is said that the
supper was one of the handsomest and most elaborate ever served in
Washington. The same winter my daughters attended a brilliant ball given
at Stewart Castle by its chatelaine, Mrs. William M. Stewart, whose
husband was one of the U.S. Senators from Nevada. She was the daughter
of Senator Henry S. Foote, who represented Mississippi in ante-bellum
days, and gave the ball in honor of several Virginia girls who were her
guests. She was assisted in the entertainment by her two elder
daughters, both of whom were married. Stewart Castle was well adapted
for such a social function as it was one of the few mansions in
Washington that had a spacious ballroom. This residence was quite
suburban, and the Hillyer house on Massachusetts Avenue which stood on a
high terrace was the only other dwelling in the immediate vicinity. I
remember that when the home of the British Embassy was in the course of
erection, the wisdom of the location was greatly questioned, owing to
its remoteness from the fashionable center of the city.

During the Arthur administration, Mr. Edward C. Halliday and his wife
came to the National Capital to spend a winter. I had known him many
years before when he visited the widow of General Alexander Macomb in
her home on the corner o