RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS
as hostess in my place at a dinner we gave for Prince and Princess Fushimi of Japan, but she had never “come out,” so I gave two parties early in the winter of 1910 in honor of her début.
We began with an afternoon At Home, for which, as my daughter says she “got all the flowers there were in Washington,” and later I gave a ball on the night of December 30th, when the East Room was filled with hundreds of young people clamouring for “just one more dance” until two o’clock in the morning.
The New Year’s Reception was followed in quick succession by the Diplomatic, Congressional, Judicial and other state functions; the winter passed like a dream; the Garden Party season was upon us; then came the greatest event of our four years in the White House, our Silver Wedding.
Twenty-five years married and all but a single year of it spent in the public service. It did not seem unfitting to me that this anniversary should be spent in the White House or that we should seek to make it an event not to be forgotten by anybody who happened to witness it. I thanked the happy fate that had given me a summer wedding-day because I needed all outdoors for the kind of party I wanted to give. That silver was showered upon us until we were almost buried in silver was incidental; we couldn't help it; it was our twenty-fifth anniversary and we had to celebrate it.
I am not going to try to remember or to take the trouble to find out how many invitations we issued. I know there were four or five thousand people present and that a more brilliant throng was never gathered in this country.
It was a night garden party with such illuminations as are quite beyond description. Every tree and bush was ablaze with myriads of tiny coloured lights, the whole stately mansion was outlined in a bright white glow; there were strings of bobbing, fantastic lanterns whenever a string would go;
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