e
sign-boards; nor was there a night watchman to interfere with their
roistering.

A decided sensation was created at Washington during the Van Buren
Administration by the appearance there of a handsome and well-
educated Italian lady, who called herself America Vespucci and
claimed descent from the navigator who gave his name to this
continent. Ex-President Adams and Daniel Webster became her especial
friends, and she was soon a welcome guest in the best society. In
a few weeks after her arrival she presented a petition to Congress
asking, first, to be admitted to the rights of citizenship; and,
secondly, to be given "a corner of land" out of the public domain
of the country which bore the name of her ancestor. An adverse
report, which was soon made, is one of the curiosities of Congressional
literature. It eulogized the petitioner as "a young, dignified,
and graceful lady, with a mind of the highest intellectual culture,
and a heart beating with all our own enthusiasm in the cause of
America and human liberty." The reasons why the prayer of the
petitioner could not be granted were given, but she was commended
to the generosity of the American people. "The name of America--
our country's name--should be honored, respected, and cherished in
the person of the interesting exile from whose ancestor we derive
the great and glorious title."

A subscription was immediately opened by Mr. Haight, the Sergeant-
at-Arms of the Senate, and Judges, Congressmen, and citizens vied
with one another in their contributions. Just then it was whispered
that Madame Vespucci had borne an unenviable reputation at Florence
and at Paris, and had been induced by a pecuniary consideration to
break off an intimacy with the Duke of Orleans, Louis Philippe's
oldest son, and come to Washington. Soon afterward the Duke's
younger brother, the Prince de Joinville, came to this country,
and refused to recognize her, which virtually excluded her from
reputable society. For some years subsequently she resided in
luxurious seclusion with a wealthy citizen of New York, in the
interior of that State, and after his death she returned to Paris.

During the Van Buren Administration James P. Espy came to Washington
to initiate what has grown into the Weather Signal Service. He
was a Pennsylvanian by birth, and so poor in early life that when
seventeen years of age he had not been able to learn to read. He
subsequently mastered the English languag