portrait was burned many years ago_.]

While I am relating Scott anecdotes, I must not omit to speak of an
amusing experience the old General was fond of relating which occurred
while he was traveling in the West. In his official capacity he was a
sojourner for a short period in Cincinnati, and, upon leaving that now
prosperous city, he directed that P.P.C. cards be sent to all persons
who had called upon him. It seems that the social _convenances_ had not
yet dawned upon this city, now the abode of arts and sciences, as the
town wiseacre, learned in many things as well as social lore, was
called upon for an elucidation of the three mysterious letters.
Apparently he was not as able an exponent as was Daniel at Balshazzar's
feast, who so readily deciphered "the handwriting on the wall." He
construed the letters to signify _pour prendre cafe_, an invitation
which was gladly accepted, much to General Scott's astonishment, who
decided then and there to confine himself in future to plain English.

The charming old resident society predominated in those days in the
District of Columbia, and wealth was not a controlling influence in
social life. The condition of society was, therefore, different from
that of to-day, when apparently the

... strongest castle, tower or town,
The golden bullet beateth down.

The old Washingtonians are now sometimes designated as "cave dwellers,"
and, generally speaking, the public bows to the golden calf. The term
"old Washingtonians," as now used, applies to residents descended from
the original settlers of Maryland and Virginia, as well as to
Presidential families and the representatives of Army and Navy officers
of earlier days. Their social code is, in some respects, entirely
different and distinct from that of any other city, and was formed many
decades ago by the ancestors of the "cave dwellers," who were so
peculiarly versed in the varied requirements and adornments of social
life that to-day no radical innovations are acceptable to their
descendants.

Speaking of the Army and Navy, I am reminded of an amusing anecdote
which has been generally circulated regarding the wife of a wealthy
manufacturer from a small western town who, after building a handsome
home in the heart of a fashionable section of the city, announced that
her visiting list was growing so large that she must in some way reduce
it and that she had decided to "draw it" on the Army and Navy. It seems
almost ne