n Racine's
plays.

This mode of education was adopted in Paris by Madame Campan, the
instructor of the French nobility as well as of royalty during the First
Empire. In her manuscript memoirs, addressed to the children of her
brother, "Citizen" Edmond Charles Genet, who was then living in America,
and of which I have an exact copy, she dwells upon the histrionic
performances by her pupils, among whom were Queen Hortense and my
husband's aunt, Eliza Monroe, daughter of President James Monroe and
subsequently the wife of Judge George Hay of Virginia. She gives a
graphic account of the Emperor attending one of these plays, when
"Esther," one of Racine's masterpieces, was performed.

The dancing master, who, of course, was an essential adjunct of every
well regulated school, was John J. Charraud. He was a refugee from Hayti
after the revolution in that island, and opened his dancing-school in
New York on Murray Street, but afterwards gave his "publics" in the City
Hall. He taught only the cotillion and the three-step waltz and came to
our school three times a week for this purpose. Much attention was given
to poetry, and I still recall the first piece I committed to memory,
"Pity the Sorrows of a Poor Old Man." My father thoroughly believed in
memorizing verse, and he always liberally rewarded me for every piece I
was able to recite. I may state, by the way, that Blair's Rhetoric was
a textbook of our school and the one which I most enjoyed.

Miss Forbes had a number of medals which the girls were allowed to wear
at stated periods for proficiency in their studies as well as for
exemplary deportment. There was one of these which was known as the
"excellence medal," and the exultant pupil upon whom it was bestowed was
allowed the privilege of wearing it for two weeks. Upon it was inscribed
the well known proverb of Solomon, "Many daughters have done virtuously,
but thou excellest them all."

Among the pleasant memories of my early life are the dinners given by my
father, when the distinguished men of the day gathered around his
hospitable board. In New York at this time all the professional cooks
and waiters in their employ were colored men. Butlers were then unknown.
It was also before the days of _a la Russe_ service, and I remember
seeing upon some of these occasions a saddle of venison, while at the
opposite end of the table there was always a Westphalia ham. Fresh
salmon was considered a _piece de resistance_. Many d