instalment of Lord Curzon as governor-general were the levee on the 7th
of January, 1899, which was attended by sixteen hundred gentlemen, and
the drawing-room on the 12th of the same month, at which Lady Curzon
wore her viceregal honors with irresistible graciousness. After the
presentations, which were made in the throne-room, Lord and Lady Curzon
standing in front of the magnificent gold throne upon a velvet-covered
dais, she went up into the ball-room, which occupies the entire third
floor of the central portion of the palace, and which is said to be
one of the handsomest in the world, and there mingled among her guests
with a grace as charming and unaffected as if she were again hostess in
either her American or her English home instead of the representative
of the Queen of England and Empress of India.
[Illustration: Miss May Handy
From photograph by James L. Breese]
When we consider her exalted position and her unusual personality, the
rapidity with which she has established herself in the affections of
the people all over the empire ceases to be a matter of wonderment. The
good judgment and tact of both the viceroy and his wife have prevented
them from falling into the grave error of some of their predecessors in
showing a preference for the European over the educated native element.
As a result, Lady Curzon's praises have been proclaimed by the latter
in the glowing language that is peculiar to them as frequently as they
have been by the former. Ram Sharma, an Indian poet, referred to her,
in the course of some lines of welcome addressed to Lord Curzon, as
"A rose of roses bright,
A vision of embodied light."
Another native scribe, when she received the decoration of the Imperial
Order of the Crown of India, declared her to be "like a diamond set in
gold, or the full moon in a clear autumnal sky."
Not only by her youth and beauty and her social graces, however, has
she endeared herself to the people of India. With a high appreciation
of the viceregal position and of the duty owing to their subjects under
all circumstances, Lord and Lady Curzon last winter made a tour of the
plague-stricken districts of the empire. Besides advising and making
intelligent suggestions to those who were working among the sufferers,
they in many cases personally provided for their care, and by unselfish
heroism bound the whole nation to them by ties of profound gratitude
and a tender personal affection, augmenting thereby India's loyalty to
the queen-empress.
The wives and families of India's viceroys have found a broad field for
the exercise of their benevolent tendencies, and not a few have left
here noble monuments to the memory of their days in the great black
empire. Eden Gardens is one, the beautiful public park adjoining the
grounds of the viceregal residence and the gift of Lord Auckland's
sisters to the city of Calcutta. The Dufferin Medical Mission is
another, inaugurated by Lady Dufferin during the governor-generalship
of her husband as a means of providing medical help for the women of
India.
A few weeks after her arrival in the empire Lady Curzon presided at a
meeting of the central committee of the Dufferin fund, and manifested
a keen interest in the noble charity.
It has within the last thirty years become customary for the entire
English government in India to spend the six hot months of the year
in Simla, the town in the Himalayan hills whose singular natural and
social topography have become familiar in late years to many English
readers through Kipling's Indian tales. The Foreign Office at London
recently expended a large sum of money in the erection of suitable
buildings there, including a new viceregal residence that is a vast
improvement over its predecessor, which was little more than a cottage.
It was perched on a precipitous crag, and Lady Dufferin used to compare
it to the ark balanced on Mount Ararat, adding that in the rainy season
she herself felt like Mrs. Noah.
The villa at Simla and the palaces at Calcutta and at Barrackpore on
the river near the capital constitute the trio of viceregal residences
in which the Curzons are passing the five years of their life in India.
None of them is a home in the meaning we give that word,--a place of
privacy and relaxation,--for each has its own degree of state and
formality. They live to-day in the glare of the world, with no more
seclusion than ever falls either to "the head that wears a crown" or
to those to whom it delegates its power. The state that encompasses
them does not conceal the personality of either, and both are full of
interest.
Marrying a man whose life promised so much, Mary Leiter has undoubtedly
been a factor in the early culmination of that promise. She is spoken
of throughout India with love and pride, and when Lord Curzon's
day comes to pass the government into other hands, it may be that
the empire will be placarded with signs, as it was, says a recent
historian, when Lord Ripon retired, bearing a legend similar to that
they bore then: "We want more Curzons!"
NEW YORK AS A SOCIAL CENTRE
The women who, both at home and abroad, are regarded as the leaders of
American society in these last days of the century are or have been,
almost without exception, at some time in their career identified with
New York. Though there is no city in the United States that fills the
central position which Paris holds in reference to all France, and
which London occupies, at least socially, in England, the geographical
position of New York, to a nation whose progressive spirit inspires it
with a keen interest in the doings of the entire world, has given it a
leading place, and to the commanding position it holds in the financial
life of the American people it undoubtedly owes much of its prominence
as a social centre.
[Illustration: Catherine Duer
(Mrs. Clarence Mackay)]
Those who at present constitute its ruling element, and who in the eyes
of the country at large form the unit of New York society, are, as a
rule, the possessors of enormous wealth. The elegance of their various
homes, the magnificence of their hospitalities, the luxurious state
in which they travel, all tend to give them an immense influence in a
young country where such a princely scale of existence was practically
unknown thirty-five years ago, and where there are many striving for
similar results.
Women born of this class, and who possess, in addition to the
advantages it bestows upon them, personal gifts of an unusual order,
have from the very outset of their social career a remarkable fame
and prestige. In some instances they come of families who have been
distinguished in the life of New York since the days when the homes of
the people who made up its one set were gathered about the battery and
lower end of the town, and when the division of its classes was the
natural one of condition, and not the arbitrary one which its abnormal
growth has entailed upon it in recent years.
New York's belles in the early century were for the most part native,
and anything so remote as the Pacific coast, whence comes one of its
belles of the present era, entered nobody's wildest dreams.
A Franklin flies his kite, a Fulton is born, a Morse flashes his
reverent thought fifty miles in the twinkling of an eye, and lo! the
ages in which man crept and groped have rolled from us. Distance has
lost the meaning it had a little more than a hundred years ago, when
Lady Kitty Duer was accounted one of the belles of New York; they come
now from every section of the country to add their charm to the life of
the metropolis.
Many of these beautiful women, moreover, are as celebrated in European
capitals as they are throughout America, and it is difficult to
estimate how much of our fame in the eyes of other nations we owe
to them. To stand forth, however, in their own country as beings
unusually gifted is quite as great a triumph to-day as it was more than
a hundred years ago.
"Your countrywoman, Mrs. Wolcott," said the minister from England,
admiring the beauty of the Connecticut statesman's wife, to an official
of the young government in the days when its capital was located in New
York, "would be admired even at St. James."
"Sir," replied the American, "she is admired even on Litchfield Hill."
INDEX
A
Adams, Hannah, 150
Adams, John, 22
Adams, John Quincy, 74
Adams, Mrs. John, 14
Alabama, story of, 105
Albany, Duke of, 202
Allen, James Lane, 148
Alston, Joseph, 30, 38
Alston, Mrs. Joseph. See Theodosia Burr
American Graces, 62, 66
Amory, William, 97
André, Major, 191
Ariosto, 116
Armstrong, General, 50
Armstrong, Vene P., 159
Astor, Mrs., 111
Atlantic Transport Company, 255
August, Tom, 179
Ayot, Alexis, 145
B
Bache, Mrs. Richard, 193
Bache, Richard, 193
Baily, Dr. Gamaliel, 214
Baker, Mrs. George W., 171
Baltimore, city of, 39
Bard, Dr., 29
Barney, Commodore, 44
Barton, Dr. Benjamin, 87
Barton, Mrs. Thomas Pennant. See Cora Livingston
Barton, Thomas Pennant, 87
Bateman, Abraham, 254
Bayard, Hon. Thomas F., 271
Beaconsfield, Lord, 248
Beale, General, 88
Beauregard, General, 234
"Beauvoir," 275
Bellefontaine Cemetery, 263
Bentham, Jeremy, 19
Benton, Jessie, 123
Benton, Thomas Hart, 123, 125, 126
Bernhardt, Sarah, 200
Bingham, Mrs. William, 192
Bingham, William, 192
Bladensburg duel, 85
Blaine, James G., 268
Blenheim Palace, 244
Blennerhassett, 34
Bodisco, Baron, 127
Bolin, Lieutenant-Governor, 92
Bonaparte, Jerome, 28, 43, 44, 64
Bonaparte, Jerome Napoleon, 53, 59
Bonaparte, Louis Napoleon, 59
Bonaparte, Madame Jerome, 39, 67.
See Elizabeth Patterson
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 42, 43, 48, 51, 55, 67
Bonaparte, Pauline, 56, 58
Bonsteller, Baron, 57
Borghese, Princess. See Pauline Bonaparte
Boston Library, 88
Bourne, Sylvanus, 53
Bradley-Martin, Mrs., 255
Brant, Indian Chief, 29
Brattle, Thomas, 92
Bremer, Frederika, 108, 115
Bright, Mr. John, 247
British Society, 239
Browning, Mrs., 114
Buchanan, James, 161, 164, 167, 170, 174, 181, 232
Burdett-Coutts, Baroness, 253
Burdett-Coutts, Mr., 253
Burns, Davy, 12
Burns, Marcia, 11
Burr, Aaron, 13, 15, 18, 19, 21, 22, 26, 32
Burr, Madam, 267
Burr, Rev. Aaron, 28
Burr, Theodosia, 18, 48
C
Cabell, Lizzie, 230
Calderon, Madame de la Barca, 101
Calhoun, John C., 16
Calhoun, Mrs. John C., 75
Calverts, the, 14
Camber, Miss, 103
"Canonchet," 219
Carlton House Terrace, 276
Carmichael, Ann, 231
Carroll, Charles, 41, 61, 63, 150, 191, 264
Carroll, Daniel, 12, 14
Carroll, John, 61
Carroll, John, Archbishop, 46, 64
Carroll, Kitty, 61
Carroll, Mary, 61
Carucci's, 86
Caton, Elizabeth, 62, 68
Caton, Emily, 62, 68
Caton, Louisa, 62, 65, 68
Caton, Mary, 62, 264
Caton, Richard, 61, 62
Caton Sisters, 61
Chamberlain, Hon. Joseph, 273
Chamberlain, Jennie, 278
Chamberlain, Mrs. Joseph, 255
Chase, Kate, 206
Chase, Salmon P., 207-210, 212, 214, 215, 220, 223
Chase, Samuel, 45
Chatsworth House, 252
Chevalier, Sally, 118, 119
Chew, Harriet, 191
Chew, Margaret, 191
Churchill, Lady Randolph. See Jennie Jerome
Churchill, Lord Randolph, 240, 244, 248, 250, 255
Churchill, Winston, 252
Cincinnati, site of, 195
"City of New York," steamship, 250
Clarke, James Freeman, 101
Clay, Henry, 82, 108, 110
Clemmer, Mary, 163
Cleveland, Mrs., 162, 274
Cleveland, President, 270
Clinton, Governor De Witt, 73
Clintons, the, 20
Clymer, Dr., 271
Clymer, Miss May, 271
Columbia College, 15
Conkling, Roscoe, 214
Curzon, Baroness. See Mary Victoria Leiter
Curzon, Lord, 264, 265, 272, 273, 275
Custer, General, 160
Custis, Nellie, 191
Custis, widow, 12
Cutts, Adèle, 175
Cutts, James Madison, 175, 186
Cutts, Richard, 176, 178
D
Dallas, Alexander J., 46
Davezac, Major August, 83
Davis, Jefferson, 163
Decatur, Mrs., 84, 85
Decatur Residence, 84
De Staël, Madame, 57
De Visme, Miss, 21
De Visme, Mrs., 20
Devonshire, Duchess of, 253
Dix, Mrs., 145
Dix, Senator, 135
"Doughoregan," 62
Douglas, Mrs. Stephen A. See Adèle Cutts
Douglas, Stephen A., 175, 180, 182, 184
Downs, George F., 159
Downs, Mrs. George F. See Sallie Ward
Duddington Manor, 14
Duer, Lady Kitty, 289
Dufferin, Lady, 285, 286
Dufferin, Lord, 285
Dufferin Medical Mission, 285
Dundas, Hon. Mr., 57
E
Eaton, General John H., 75, 78
Eaton, Mrs. John H. See Margaret O'Neill
Eden Gardens, 285
Eden Park, 197
"Edgewood," 225, 226, 228
Edwards, Jonathan, 28
Electoral Commission, 260
Elgin, Lord, 278
Ellis, Colonel Thomas Harding, 121
Ellis, Mrs. Thomas Harding. See Fanny Taylor
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 266
Endicott, Miss Mary, 273
England, Bishop, 66
England, Queen of, 116, 239, 255, 278, 284
English, Miss, school of, 130
F
Federal Street Theatre, 91
Fife, Earl of, 243
Fillmore, Millard, 116
Five o'clock tea, 95
Flournoy, Miss, 149
Fox, Charles James, 253
France, Emperor of, 116
France, Prince Imperial of, 242
Franklin, Benjamin, 193
Franks, David, 191
Franks, Miss Rebecca, 190
Frémont, John C, 123, 130, 143
Frémont, Mrs. John C. See Jessie Benton
Frewen, Moreton, 246
Fuller, Margaret, 93
Fulton, Robert, 108, 289
G
Gallatin, Albert, 35
Galt, William, 119
Garde, de la, Count, 146
Garniss, Katherine, 209
Garrison, William Lloyd, 98
Gary, General, 234
Gilpin, Hon. Henry D., 200
Gilpin, Mrs. Henry D., 196
Gordon, General, 234
Gordon, Sir John Watson, 173
Gortschakoff, 57
Government House, 283
Grant, General, 223, 261
Greeley, Horace, 221
Green, Timothy, 36
Greenmount Cemetery, 60
Greenough, Horatio, 17
Gutherz, Carl, 263
H
Hall, Captain Basil, 57
Hamilton, Alexander, 13, 15, 20, 23, 32
Hamilton, Andrew, 191
Hampton, General Wade, 234
Handy, May, 233
Harper, Mary, 150
Harris, Miss, 186, 187
Harrison, Archibald Morgan, 120
Harrison, Benjamin, 121
Harrison, William Henry, 122, 131
Harte, Bret, 146
Haxall, Mrs. Philip, 235
Hayes, Rutherford B., 260, 261
Hayward, Mrs., seminary of, 72
Hazeltine, Captain William B., 258
Hazeltine, Nellie, 257
Henry, James Buchanan, 171
Hervey, Sir Felton Bathurst, 65
Hobbes, John Oliver, 254
Holme, Thomas, 195
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 63
Hood, General, 234
Hosack, Dr., 29
Howard, Colonel John Eager, 45, 191
Howe, Lord, 278
Hoyt, William Sprague, 222
Hughes-Hallett, Colonel, 204
Hughes-Hallett, Mrs. See Emilie Schaumburg
Hunt, Dr., 158
Hunt, John, 158
Huygens, 76
Huygens, Mrs., 76
I
India, Viceroy of, 264
Inglis, Fanny, 101
Ireland, Governor-General of, 254
Ireland, Vicereine of, 264
Irving, Washington, 34, 108, 109
J
Jackson, Andrew, 16, 74, 82, 105, 125, 128
James, Henry, 254
Jefferson, Joseph, 111
Jefferson, Thomas, 15, 18, 19, 34
Jerome, Jennie, 239
Jerome, Leonard, 241
Jerome, Mrs. Leonard, 242
Jockey Club, 241
Johnson, Governor of Maryland, 12
Johnson's Band, 193
Johnston, General Joe, 234
Johnston, Henry Elliott, 174
Johnston, Mrs. Henry Elliott. See Harriet Lane
Johnston, Sir Henry, 191
Junot, General, 51
Junot, Madame, 43, 51
K
Kedleston Hall, 283
Key, Barton, 233
King, Preston, 145
Krudner, Baron, 76
L
Lafayette, General, 84, 106, 195
La Grange, Madame, 202
Lamartine, 104
Lane, Elliot, 164
Lane, Harriet, 161
Lane, Mary, 167
Lawrence, Bigelow, 155, 156
Lawrence, Hon. Abbott, 155
Le Camus, Alexander, 46, 54
Leeds, Duke of, 68
Leiter, Joseph, 267
Leiter, Levi Z., 267
Leiter, Mary Victoria, 264
Le Vert, Dr. Claud, 110
Le Vert, Dr. Henry S., 110
Le Vert, Madame. See Octavia Walton
Lewis, Mrs. Nellie Custis, 121
Leyland, Naylor, Sir Herbert, 278
Lincoln, Abraham, 124, 141, 143, 173, 183-185, 215, 220
Livingston, Chancellor, 81
Livingston, Cora, 80
Livingston, Edward, 29, 81
Livingston, Mrs. Edward, 16
Livingston, Robert, 48, 50
Livingstons, The, 20
Louis Philippe, 28
Louisville Guard, 154
Louisville Legion, 154
Lucas, Charles, 88
Ludlow, Israel, 212
Ludlow, Sarah, 212
Lyons, Mrs. James, 179
M
MacFarland, James Edward, 170
Mactavish, John, 68
Madison, James, 35, 178
Madison, Mrs. James, 35, 178
"Maine," hospital ship, 255
Malvern College, 250
Marlborough, Duchess of, 240
Marlborough, Duke of, 243, 247, 256
Marshall, Emily, 90
Marshall, John, 13, 33
Marshall, Josiah, 91
Marshall, Lieutenant Isaac, 92
Martin, Luther, 13, 34
Mary Institute, 257
Mason, John Y., 122, 270
McAllister, Ward, 269
McCall, Mr. and Mrs. John A., 236
McDowell, Colonel James, 127
McFarlane, Thomas Holme, 195
McLean, Mr. and Mrs. John R., 275
Middleton, Arthur, 16
Montgomery Place, 87
"Montplaisir," 204, 205
Moore, Tom, 15, 56
Moreau, Madame, 81
Morgan, Lady, 41, 56, 57
Morgan, Sir Charles, 57
Mornington, Earl of, 66
Morse, S. F. B., 129, 289
Mount Vernon, 172
N
New Orleans, society of, 83
New York as a Social Centre, 288
O
Octagon House, 14
O'Neale, Miss Ellen, 177
O'Neill, Margaret, 69
O'Neill, William, 70
Otis, Harrison Gray, 94
Otis, Mrs. Harrison Gray, 116
Otis, Mrs. William Foster. See Emily Marshall
Otis, William Foster, 100
Ould, Mattie, 230, 262, 263
Ould, Robert, 232
P
Page, Colonel James, 198
Page, Miss, 197
Page, Stephen, 197
Page, Thomas Nelson, 120
Paget, Mrs. Arthur, 255
Paramore, Frederick W., 263
Paramore, Mrs. Frederick W. See Nellie Hazeltine
Paramore, J. W., 263
Park, Dr., school of, 93
Parker, Gilbert, 254
Parker, Miss Hetty, 166, 168
Parsons, Colonel Richard, 216
Pascault, Miss Henrietta, 44
Patterson, Elizabeth, 39, 64
Patterson, Mrs. (Mary Caton), 264
Patterson, Robert, 49, 64, 264
Patterson, William, 40, 47, 48, 54, 64
Patti, Adelina, 200
Payne, Anna, 176
Penal Laws, 88
Penn, Imogene, 179
Perry, Commodore, 216
Piatt, Donn, 220
Picket, General, 234
Pierce, Franklin, 181
Pinckney, Edward C., 71
Pitt, William, 53, 253
Poe, Edgar Allen, 71
Polk, Mrs., 167
Polk, President, 167
Pope Pius, 52
Portland, Duke and Duchess of, 279, 280
Prevost, Colonel, 20
Prevost, Mrs., 21
Primrose League, 246, 247
Princeton College, 28
Q
Quincy, Josiah, 80
R
Ralph, Julian, 271
Randall, Samuel, 260
Randolph, John, 15, 33, 74, 126
Reed, Thomas B., 176
Reid, Whitelaw, 254
Republican Party, origin of, 143
Review, Anglo-Saxon, 254
Rewbell, General, 44, 45
"Richmond Hill," 21, 29, 31, 32
Ridgley, Charles, 63
Rives, Alexander, 118
Robinson, Miss Nancy, 63
Rosebery Cabinet, 275
Rosebery, Lord, 254
Rucker, Miss, 167
Rush, Madam, 111, 198
Rush, Richard, 65
Rutland, Duke of, 111
S
Salisbury, Lord, 248, 265
Sampoyo, Duke de, 78
Sandhurst, Lord and Lady, 281
Sargent (artist), 256
Scarsdale, Baron, 272
Schaumburg, Colonel Bartholomew, 194
Schaumburg, Emilie, 190
Schaumburg-Lippe, Princess, 197
Schoolcraft, Mrs. Oliver. See Mattie Ould
Schoolcraft, Oliver, 236
Schurz, Carl, 221
Secaneh, Indian Chief, 195
Shippen, Margaret, 192
Shubrick, Admiral, 271
Sickles, General Daniel, 233
Slidell, Mr., 109
Smalcalden, Princess of, 54
Smith, Eliza Ann, 209
Smith, General Samuel, 47
Smith, Rev. Dr. Mackay, 273
Spear, Dorcas, 41
Spear, Elizabeth, 164
Sprague, Governor William, 217
Sprague, Kate Chase, 187
Sprague, Mrs. William. See Kate Chase
Stafford, Baron, 68
Stanton, Edwin M., 233
State Fencibles (Pennsylvania), 198
Stewart, Gilbert, 254
Sturgis, Russell, 93
Sullivan, John, 169
Susahena, Indian Princess, 195
Sweetenham, Sir Frank, 254
T
Talbot, Bishop, 273
Tallahassee, naming of, 106
Talleyrand, 28, 57
Tayloes, the, 14
Taylor, Fanny, 118
Tennyson, Alfred, 170
Tilden, Samuel J., 259, 260
Timberlake, John B., 73
Timberlake, Virginia, 78
Triplett, Mary, 230, 235
Tureau, General, 48, 51
Turpin, Miss Sarah, 233
U
Union Tavern (Georgetown), 70
V
Van Buren, Martin, 76, 77, 82, 127
Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 108
Van Ness, Ann, 16
Van Ness, John Peter, 15
Van Ness, Mrs. John Peter. See Marcia Burns
Van Rensselaers, the, 20
Vaughan, British Minister, 76
Visitation Convent, 168
Volney, 28, 29
W
Wales, Prince of, 172, 173, 199, 252
Wales, Princess Louise of, 243
Wales, Princess of, 252
Walker, Miss Sally, 104
Walton, George, 103, 106
Walton, Octavia, 102
Ward, Artemus, 220
Ward, Robert J., 149
Ward, Sallie, 148
Warwick, Abram, 118
Washington City Orphan Asylum, 17
Washington, George, 11, 12, 22, 70
Washington, George Steptoe, 176
Washington, Martha, 121
Waterman, Priscilla, 92
Watson, Sally, 118
Wayne, Anthony, 160
Webster, Daniel, 13, 78, 82, 90
Welbeck Abbey, 279, 280
Wellesley, Lady, 264, 265
Wellesley, Marquis of, 66, 264, 283
Wellesley, Richard, 66
Wellington, Duke of, 65, 67
West, Mrs. George Cornwallis, 255.
See Jennie Jerome
Westphalia, King of, 54
"Wheatland," 165, 173, 174
White House, the, 162, 163
Wilcox, Mary Donalson, 87
William IV., 65, 67
Williams, General Robert, 187
Williams, Miss (Baroness Bodisco), 127
Williams, Miss Susan Mary, 59
Williams, Mrs. Robert. See Adèle Cutts
Willing, Ann. See Mrs. William Bingham
Willis, N. P., 98, 99
Wolcott, Mrs., 290
Wolf, Sir H. Drummond, 246
Wollstonecraft, Mary, 24
"Woodlands," 191
Wortley, Lady Emeline Stuart, 107, 111
Wurtemburg, King of, 54
Wurtemburg, Prince of, 57
Wurtemburg, Princess Catherine of, 54, 58
Y
Yorktown, Battle of, 103
Young, General, 231
* * * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not
changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected.
Occasional unpaired quotation marks were retained.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.
The illustration on the Title page is the Publisher's logo; the
illustrations at the top of the Contents and List of Illustrations are
decorative.
Page 38: "she may not be stripped" was printed as "he", but was changed
here.
Page 76: "féted" was printed that way, with an acute accent.
Page 114: "aisles of the great church" was misprinted as "isles";
corrected here.