that I made just before I left home, of worked muslin, as I wish to make a petticoat to my gown of the two aprons." It should be remembered that the writer was in the midst of the gay life of New York, then the federal metropolis; the wife of the presiding chief magistrate of the republic, receiving visits from the great of many lands and the most notable of her own, and having her own and her husband's large fortune at command. Some may call her practice the development of a parsimonious spirit. It was not so. Hers was the "liberal hand" that devised "liberal things" for the poor and unfortunate. It was only an exhibition of economy in the use of articles and the management of affairs, which American housewives would do well to imitate. Mrs. Washington left Mount Vernon for New York on the 19th of May, in her chaise, accompanied by her grandchildren, Eleanor Parke and George Washington Parke Custis, and a small escort on horseback. She was clothed tidily in manufactures of our own country entirely. She lodged at Baltimore the first night of her journey. When she approached that city she was met by a cavalcade of gentlemen and escorted into the town. In the evening fireworks were displayed in her honor; and after supper she was serenaded by a band of musicians, composed of some gentlemen of the city. When she approached Philadelphia she was met, ten miles from the town, by the president of the state and the speaker of the assembly, accompanied by two troops of dragoons and a large cavalcade of citizens. Some miles from the city she was met by a brilliant company of women, in carriages. They attended her to Gray's Ferry, on the Schuylkill, where they all partook of a collation; and from that place to the city, Mrs Robert Morris occupied a seat by the side of the President's wife, resigning her own carriage to Master Custis, then a boy a little more than eight years of age. The procession entered the city at two o'clock, when the beloved lady was greeted by thirteen discharges of cannon, and the shouts and cheers of a great multitude. While in the city she was the guest of Mrs. Morris. On Monday morning, the 26th of May, Mrs. Washington left Philadelphia for New York, accompanied by her hostess. The military paraded for the purpose of forming an escort as far as Trenton, but, as on the morning when her husband left the same city a month before, rain prevented the performance. After proceeding a short distance they took a respectful leave of her, and returned. She slept at Trenton that night, and on Tuesday night she and her family were guests of Governor Livingston, at Elizabethtown. On Wednesday morning Washington proceeded, in his splendid reception-barge, to Elizabethtown Point to meet his family, accompanied by Robert Morris and several other distinguished men. The barge was manned as on the occasion of the reception of the President. When it approached Whitehall, on its return, crowds of citizens thronged the wharves; and from the grand battery the voices of thirteen cannon, in quick succession, uttered a greeting. On the day after Mrs. Washington's arrival, the President entertained a few guests at a family dinner. These consisted of Vice-President Adams, Governor Clinton, the Count du Moustier (French minister), Don Diego Gardoqui (Spanish minister). Mr. Jay, General St. Clair, Senators Langdon, Wingate, Izard, and Few, and Mr. Muhlenburg, Speaker of the House of Rep resentatives. The dinner was plain; and Washington, standing at the head of the table, asked a blessing. After the dessert, a single glass of wine was offered to each of the guests. The President then arose, and led the way to the drawing-room, and the company departed without ceremony. On the following day, Mrs. Washington held her first drawing-room. It was attended by a very numerous company, of the highest respectability. Unlike the levees at the Presidential mansion in our time, they were attended only by persons connected with the government and their families, the foreign ministers and their families, and others who held good positions in fashionable and refined society, either on account of their own merits or their social relations. All were expected to be in full dress, on these occasions. Mrs. Washington, though averse to all ostentatious show and parade, fully appreciated the dignity of her station, and was careful to exact those courtesies to which she was entitled. She was also careful not to allow public ceremonies to interfere with some of the life-long habits of herself and husband. He usually stood by her side, for awhile, on these occasions, and received the visitors as they were presented. But he did not consider himself visited. He was a private gentleman; and when the visitors were assembled, he moved among the company, conversing with one and another, with the familiarity that marked his manner in his own drawing-room at Mount Vernon. On these occasions he usually wore a brown cloth coat, with bright buttons, and had neither hat nor sword. The reception was never allowed to last beyond the appointed hour, which was from eight to nine. When the clock in the hall was striking the latter hour, Mrs. Washington would say to those present, with a most complacent smile, "The General always retires at nine, and I usually precede him." In a few minutes the drawing-room would be closed, the lights extinguished, and the presidential mansion would be as dark and quiet before ten o'clock, as the house of any private citizen. The President held his levees or receptions, on Tuesdays, from three to four o'clock in the afternoon, and these were very numerously attended, but by gentlemen only. On these occasions, after the seat of government was removed to Philadelphia, he was always dressed in a suit of black velvet, black silk stockings, silver knee and shoe buckles, and having his hair powdered, and tied in a black silk bag or queue behind. He wore yellow gloves, and held a cocked hat with a cockade upon it, the edges adorned with a black feather about an inch deep. He also wore an elegant dress-sword which he bore with the utmost grace. This sword had a finely-wrought and polished steel hilt, which appeared at the left hip. The scabbard was white polished leather. The coat was worn over the sword, the point of the scabbard only appearing below the skirt. WASHINGTON'S At his levees in New York the President also wore a dress-sword, but less elegant than the one worn in Philadelphia, which an eye-witness has described to me. The sword used in New York is preserved 15 at Mount Vernon, it having fallen to the lot of Bushrod Washington, in the distribution of several similar weapons, disposed of by the following clause in Washington's will: "To each of my nephews, William Augustine Washingtou, George Lewis, George Steptoe Washington, Bushrod Washington, and Samuel Washington, I give one of the swords or couteaux, of which I may die possessed; and they are to choose in the order they are named. These swords are accompanied with an injunction not to unsheath them for the purpose of shedding blood, except it be for self-defence, or in defence of their country and its rights; and in the latter case to keep them unsheathed, and prefer falling with them in their hands, to the relinquishment thereof." This sword appears in Stuart's full-length portrait of Washington, painted for the Marquis of Landsdowne. It has a fine silver-gilt hilt, and black leather scabbard, silver-gilt mounted. On one side of the blade are the words RECTI FAC ET ICE-"Do what is right;" on the other, NEMINEM TIMEAS-"Fear no man." At his receptions in Philadelphia the President always stood, says an eye-witness, "in front of the fireplace, with his face toward the door of entrance. The visitor was conducted to him, and he required to have the name so distinctly pronounced that he could hear it. He had the very uncommon faculty of associating a man's name and personal appearance so durably in his memory as to be able to call any one by name who made him a second visit. He received his visitor with a dignified bow, while his hands were so disposed as to indicate that the salutation was not to be accompanied with shaking hands. This ceremony never occurred in these visits, |