s no end of generals that bowed to me that night. There was
General Farnsworth, from Illinois State, about the tallest and most
manly gentleman among them. The long, sweeping beard that fell over his
bosom was something splendid. If that man wasn't born in New England,
he ought to have been--that's all.

But I haven't room nor time, in a short report, to give particulars
about a hundred or so gentlemen. They were all men that you've heard of
over and over again, for in his invitations Mr. Brooks had just skimmed
the cream off from Congress, and it was something beautiful to see it
pour itself through the parlors into the great dining-room, built on
purpose for "that night only."

It didn't take long for the parlors to empty themselves into that room
when a whisper went round that dinner was ready. In less than five
minutes after, another fellow in white gloves came sliding into the
room, and spoke low to Mr. Brooks,--we ladies were left alone, looking
at one another, like babes in the woods.

A cat may look on a king, and ladies do sometimes look in upon stag
parties. Well, I got a little restless, and began to wonder how the cat
got a good look, and how I could get a peep at the feeding stags.

While the rest were talking, I slid off to one of the back windows,
which opened upon the great banqueting hall--you have seen that term in
novels--and, hid under a cataract of stars and stripes, I saw and heard
all that was going on, and a splendiferous sight it was.

The great hall was hung every which way with flags. They rolled over the
ceiling in waves, fell down the wall in festoons and curtains, striped,
starred, mooned, crossed, tangled in gas lamps, looped up with flowers.

Rings of gaslights dropped half way down from the roof, and from them
baskets of flowers swung over the great, long tables that were just one
glitter of silver and glass, flowers and fruit, at which a hundred or
more gentlemen were seated.

Great candlesticks, spreading out with branches of gold and snow-white
candles, stood half way down each table, and rising up above them were
tall pyramids of flowers, crowded in with pineapples, grapes, pears,
oranges, and sugar things enough to feed all the children in Washington
for a month. Smaller flower-pots, crowded in with fruit, were scattered
every once in a while along the tables.

Back of Mr. Brooks's chair was a banner with a lot of lions rampaging
over it, and a harp worked in one corner of i