fair days) to the Capitol, and took his seat as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, at eleven o'clock. At three the court adjourned, and he walked home, where he partook of a slight lunch, consisting invariably of a cup of tea and three or four cream crackers. The dinner hour was six; the meal was more elegant than substantial, but there were always three courses and dessert; wine was rarely served at his table, nor did he smoke. The conversation at table was of a very quiet character, in which his younger daughter, Miss Janet Ralston Chase, took the lead. The Chief Justice was a great thinker, but not a great talker. Unlike Falstaff, he was neither witty himself, nor the cause of wit in other men; like Poe, he never laughed, and seldom smiled; a joke was foreign to his nature; the nearest approach to one was when I once heard him say to a Catholic gentleman that he " thought a good Catholic was better than a bad Protestant." He seemed oppressed by the burden of life, or crushed by disappointed ambition. After dinner, he resumed his work in the library, or, when not too busy, played chess, of which he was very fond. He was a good, but not a scientific player. Like Napoleon, he always fought for victory, and did not like to be beaten. . I was very much out of practice when I first began to play with him, and he beat me nearly every game, but after I took up my chess manual, and studied the best openings, this was reversed, and he asked me whether I had been studying any work on chess. I told him I had, where upon he said I played a good enough game, and advised me to let the books alone. His favorite summer game was croquet. These were the only games I ever knew him to play. He knew nothing about cards, and there was not a pack in the house. Once or twice during the Washington season, the Chief Justice gave a dinner party at his own house. They were very solemn affairs, — too dignified for laughter, and not
pathetic enough for tears. The principal guests were the justices of the Supreme Court, and leading members of the Wash ington Bar. Ancient legal jokes were told with a gravity that eclipsed the gayety of the table. The guests took their cue from the host, who never unbended under any circumstances. He was dignity personified, yet, in our hours of friendly intimacy, he would reproach me for not being more familiar with him. I remember, one even ing we were sitting upon the piazza of the Charleston, S. C, hotel, when, after a silence of some moments, he said : " You are either very ambitious, or very much in love : otherwise you would be less reserved with me." Among the few visitors who called upon him in Washington, during the time I was with him, I remember Gen. Sherman, Charles Sumner, Gen. Rosecrans, Sir Edward Thornton, A. R. Spofford, and Vice-Presi dent Wilson. The last called the day after the sudden death of Edwin M. Stanton, to get some information for an article on the deceased statesman which he was asked to write for the " Atlantic Monthly." During the whole of his public life, the Chief Justice kept a journal in which he recorded all the events that came under his notice. He read to Mr. Wilson from his journal an account of Mr. Stanton's connection with the cabinet of Mr. Lincoln, touching upon the circum stance of the retirement of Mr. Cameron from the cabinet, and the appointment of Mr. Stanton as Secretary of War. Mr. Chase, in a letter to Judge Black, dated July 4th, 1870, gives the following account of this affair, which created so much talk at the time : — "Mr. Cameron had expressed a wish to retire and take the mission to St. Petersburgh some time before he did actually withdraw, and I believe that he was the first to suggest to Mr. Lincoln the name of Mr. Stanton. I held, myself, several conversa tions upon the subject of Mr. Cameron's
