days after such interviews, Tommy would be the greatest man in the village.

Tommy was appointed postmaster at Elkton, by Washington, and was for several years crier of the Cecil county court. He always deported himself with dignity; and, regarding his acquaintance with Washington and his official position as sufficient claim to profound personal respect, he sometimes assumed an authoritative manner quite amusing. In a recent letter to me, an old resident of Philadelphia, speaking of Tommy, remarks; "I was once obliged to attend court as a witness, and one day went home, a distance of twenty-two miles. I returned the following morning in a snow-storm, in the month of April, and reached the court-house a few minutes after nine o'clock, when Mr. Giles was making his proclamation for me to appear. As I dismounted from my horse, my nose commenced bleeding, and I called across the street to say I would be in court as soon as it stopped. Tommy rejoined shortly and authoritatively, 'You have no business to let your nose bleed when the court wants you!' The court was more indulgent, and readily excused me."

The President and his family reached Philadelphia on Saturday, the 28th of November, and found their house in readiness for them. Mr. Lear had brought on the furniture from New York, purchased some in Philadelphia, and arranged the house much to the satisfaction of the President and his wife. Yet it was some time before they were ready to see company, and the first of Mrs. Washington's public receptions was on Friday evening, the 25th of December-Christmas-day. It is said that the most brilliant assemblage of beautiful, welldressed, and well-educated women that had ever been seen in

America, appeared at that levee. The Vice-President's wife mentioned in a letter that "the dazzling Mrs. Bingham and her beautiful sisters [Misses Willing], the Misses Allens, the Misses Chew, and in short, a constellation of beauties," were present.

The season opened very gayly, and balls, routs and dinners of the most sumptuous kind, succeeded each other in rapid succession. "I should spend a very dissipated winter," wrote Mrs. Adams, "if I were to accept one-half the invitations I receive, particularly to the routs, or tea-and-cards.” Philadelphia had never seen or felt any thing like it, and the whole town was in a state of virtual intoxication for several weeks. But Washington and his wife could not be seduced from their temperate habits, by the scenes of immoderate pleasure around them. They held their respective levees on Tuesdays and Fridays, as they did in New York, without the least ostentation; and Congressional and official dinners were also given in a plain way, without any extravagant displays of plate, or nament, or variety of dishes.

Having furnished his house as a permanent residence while he should remain President, Washington had indulged in some things which would insure congruity, that were not seen in New York. He had ordered through Gouverneur Morris, then in Paris, some articles for his sideboard and table. Among them were some silver-plated wine-coolers, the cost of which rather startled him. He had received an invoice of them, before he left Mount Vernon, and in a letter to Mr. Lear, he wrote:

"Enclosed I send you a letter from Mr. Gouverneur Morris, with a bill of the cost of the articles he was to send me. The

prices of the plated ware exceed-far exceed the utmost bounds of my calculation; but as I am persuaded he has done what he conceives right, I am satisfied, and request you to make immediate payment to Mr. Constable, if you can raise the means.

He then spoke of wine-coolers, that had been sent, an article that he had never used, and says: "As these coolers are designed for warm weather, and will be, I presume, useless in cold, or in that in which the liquors do not require cooling, quere, would not a stand like that for casters, with four apertures for so many different kinds of liquors, each aperture just sufficient to hold one of the cut decanters sent by Mr. Morris, be more convenient for passing the bottles from one to another, than the handing each bottle separately, by which it often happens that one bottle moves, another stops, and all are in confusion? Two of them-one for each end of the table, with a flat bottom, with or without feet, open at the sides, but with a raised rim, as caster-stands have, and an upright, by way of handle, in the middle-could not cost a great deal, even if made wholly of silver. Talk to a silversmith, and ascertain the cost, and whether they could be immediately made, if required, in a handsome fashion.

"Perhaps the coolers sent by Mr. Morris may afford ideas of taste; perhaps, too (if they prove not too heavy, when examined), they may supersede the necessity of such as I have described, by answering the purpose themselves. Four double flint bottles (such as I suspect Mr. Morris has sent), will weigh, I conjecture, four pounds; the wine in them when they are filled will be eight pounds more, which, added to the weight of the coolers, will, I fear, make these latter too unwieldy to

pass, especially by ladies, which induces me to think of the frame in the form of casters."

Mr. Lear was pleased with Washington's suggestions, and ordered a silversmith to make two of the caster-like frames, of solid silver, and these were used upon the President's table on the occasion of the first dinner which he gave to the officers of government and their families, foreign ministers and their families, and other distinguished guests. Their lightness and convenience commended them, and from that time they became fashionable, under the appropriate title of coasters. Thenceforth the wine-cooler was left upon the sideboard, and the coaster alone was used for sending the wine around the table. For more than a quarter of a century afterward, the coaster might be seen upon the table of every fashionable family in Philadelphia. Few persons, however, are aware that Washington was the inventor of it.

The coolers sent over by Mr. Morris, were eight in number, four large and four smaller ones, the former holding four bottles, and the latter two. Two of the larger ones were

presented by Washington to General Hamilton, and are now in possession of Mrs. Holley, of Washington city, a daughter of the latter. The others were taken from Philadelphia to Mount Vernon, and after the death of Mrs. Washington, passed into the possession of her grandson, George Washington Parke Custis. They now belong to Mr. Custis's daughter, at Arlington House. They are both elliptical in form at top, the larger one nine inches in height, and the smaller one eight inches. The silver coasters are also at Arlington House. They are fourteen inches in height, and each is composed of four baskets united to a handle in the centre, made of strong wire. There

is a roller under the centre of each basket, by which the coaster is more easily sent around the table. A specimen of each of these articles is seen in the engraving upon the next page.

Washington took his family plate with him when he went to New York in 1789, and there had it made over into more elegant and massive forms. Several pieces were also added to it, and this service graced his table and sideboard in Philadelphia. Several pieces of this plate are now in use at Arlington House. The engraving shows five of them, namely, a round salver, an elliptical tray, a coffee-pot, teapot, and sugar-bowl. All of these have Washington's crest neatly engraven upon them. The tray with handles, all of massive silver, is plain, except a beaded rim. It is twenty-two inches in length, and seventeen and a half inches in breadth. This,