"DEAR DOCTOR-I have asked Mrs. Cochran and Mrs. Livingston to dine with me to-morrow; but am I not in honor bound to apprise them of their fare? As I hate deception, even where the imagination only is concerned, I will. It is needless to premise that my table is large enough to hold the ladies. Of this they had ocular proof yesterday. To say how it is usually covered is rather more essential; and this shall be the purport of my letter.

"Since our arrival at this happy spot, we have had a ham, sometimes a shoulder of bacon, to grace the head of the table; a piece of roast beef adorns the foot; and a dish of beans, or greens, almost imperceptible, decorates the centre. When the cook has a mind to cut a figure, which I presume will be the case to-morrow, we have two beef-steak pies, or dishes of crabs, in addition, one on each side of the centre dish, dividing the space and reducing the distance between dish and dish to about six feet, which, without them, would be nearly twelve feet apart. Of late he has had the surprising sagacity to discover that apples will make pies; and it is a question if, in the violence of his efforts, we do not get one of apples, instead of having both of beef-steaks. If the ladies can put up with such entertainment, and will submit to partake of it on plates once tin but now iron (not become so by the labor of scouring), I shall be happy to see them; and am, dear doctor, yours, &c., "GEO. WASHINGTON."

Later in the war, Washington had a pair of plain silver goblets, with his crest engraven upon them, which he used in his tent. These were the only examples of a departure from that rigid economy which he exhibited in all his personal

arrangements while in the army, not because he was parsimonious, but because he wished to set an example of plainness and self-denial to all around him. These goblets are now used in the family of Colonel Lee at Arlington House.

What a contrast do these simple table arrangements, and, indeed, all the movements and appointments of the great Republican Leader, present to those of the generals of the old world, and of those of antiquity in particular, whose achieve

ments for the benefit of mankind, placed in the scale of just appreciation, are small compared with his.

After the victory at Yorktown, the marquée and tent used by Washington were folded up and placed in the leathern portmanteau in which they were carried, and were never again spread upon the field in camp, siege, or battle. They were made by Captain Moulder, of Philadelphia, who commanded a corps of artillery in the battle at Princeton. The marquée was used for general purposes-for the reception of visitors, consultations of officers, dining, et cetera and the smaller tent was for more private uses. In the latter Washington retired for meditation, and wrote his letters and dispatches for his secretaries to copy; and in one part of it was a dormitory, wherein he slept. It composed the private apartment of his canvas dwelling upon the field, and few were allowed to enter it.

What a history is involved in the experience of that tent!

How many important dispatches were written within it, upon the little writing-case, or portfolio, that was presented to President Taylor by Washington's adopted son, and by him deposited, with other mementos of the great Leader, in the

Patent Office, where it is well preserved! How many anxious hours did that great Leader pass beneath the narrow canopy of that tent? How often, during that long war, did the forms of Reed, and Harrison, and Hamilton, and Tilghman, and Meade, and Humphreys darken the door of that tent as they passed in and out with messages and dispatches to and from the illustrious chief!

And in the large marquée, what a noble band of mighty men-mighty in moral force-among the noblest the world ever saw-were gathered in council from time to time, and determined those movements which achieved the independence of these states! In it, too, many distinguished men sat at the table of the chief-members of the old congresses; foreigners of note in diplomacy and war; and last, Cornwallis as captive and guest, after his humiliation at Yorktown. It was quite spacious, and, when fully spread, one hundred guests might conveniently dine beneath its ample roof.

That marquée and tent, wrapped in the old portmanteau, with the poles and cords as they were taken from the battle

field, are at Arlington House. The former has been spread occasionally for peaceful purposes. For several years Mr. Custis, who was much interested in the improvement of the breeds of sheep, had annual gatherings of the friends of agriculture and manufactures at a fine spring on his estate, near the banks of the Potomac, in the early days of May. On

these occasions the old marquée would be erected, and sometimes nearly two hundred guests would assemble under it to partake of refreshments. These "sheep-shearings at Arlington Spring" are remembered with pleasure by the surviving participants.

When Lafayette was in this country, in 1824 and '25, as the guest of the nation, that marquée was used at Baltimore by the Society of the Cincinnati, for the purpose of receiving the Illustrious Friend as the guest of that fraternity—a fraternity of which he had been a member ever since its formation on the banks of the Hudson, more than forty years before. On that occasion Colonel John Eager Howard, one of the heroes of the Cowpens, presided; and Charles Carroll, who soon after

ward had the proud distinction of being the last survivor of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was a guest. And twice since that memorable reception, that war-tent, so often spread upon the line of march and on the battle-field, has been used in the service of the Prince of Peace. On these occasions it was pitched in green fields in the midst of beauty and repose, and thousands came and willingly paid liberal tribute for the privilege of sitting under the TENT OF WASHINGTON. Two churches were erected with the proceeds.

We have just alluded to the Society of the Cincinnati. It is a fraternity originally composed of officers of the Revolution, and was formed a little while before the disbanding and dispersion of the Continental Army. Its chief object was the perpetuation and occasional renewal of the long-cherished friendship and social intercourse which had existed between the officers of the army. The idea originated with General Knox. He communicated it to Washington, who not only approved of it, but gave the efforts to form a society upon such a basis of feeling, his cordial co-operation.

It was in the spring of 1783 that the Society of the Cincinnati was formed. The head-quarters of the army were then at Newburgh. A committee, composed of Generals Knox, Hand, and Huntington, and the accomplished Captain Shaw, was appointed to arrange a plan; and, on the 13th of May, at the quarters of the Baron Steuben, in Fishkill, nearly opposite Newburgh, they reported a form which was adopted as the constitutional organization of the society. After referring to the war for independence, and the separation of the colonies from Great Britain, the objects of the society were stated in the following words: