Identifier: bellesbeauxbrain00dele (find matches)
Title: Belles, beaux and brains of the 60's
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: De Leon, T. C. (Thomas Cooper), 1839-1914
Subjects:
Publisher: New York : G.W. Dillingham Co.
Contributing Library: Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection
Digitizing Sponsor: The Institute of Museum and Library Services through an Indiana State Library LSTA Grant

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BELLES, BEAUX AND BBAINS OF THE SIXTIES 199

and their peers; jurists like John A. Campbell and Thomas J.
Semmes; fighters like Johnson, Hampton and Gordon;
and the most polished and promising of the youth of war,
as gallant and classic Kyd Douglas, handsome John B.
Castleman, Lord King and a host more, not to name all of
whom seems invidious. And with these came the best
of her own sex that the tact and experience of the hostess
could select.
Bref, at Mrs. Stanard's one
met people already noted
for something—or were sure
to be ere long. Her house
was one unremittent salon,
in the regard of variety;
and with the difference that
the comers were entertained
as well as entertaining.
A statement has recently
found it way into print—
doubtless unintentionally—
" that she boasted that she
never read a book." If she
made the boast, in jest, it
is certain that she read men
and women, and that very
thoroughly. Her personality
outside of her rôle as entertainer, was delightful and
magnetic; and she attracted and held to her such strong
men as Alexander H. Stephens, Pierre Soule and grand
and gentle Commodore Samuel Barron, Charles L. Scott—
" '49-er," congressman and diplomatist. She was a wo-
man's woman, too, her most ardent admirers being of her
own sex and the regret for her untimely death lingering
sweetly with them still. Her motherhood was deep, tender
Text Appearing After Image:

COMMODORE BARRON, C.S.N.

200 BELLES, BEAUX AND BBAINS OF THE SIXTIES

and unadvertised. Her only son, Hugh L. Stanard, was
her idol, and his early death left a shadow that never lifted
from her life.
Mrs. Stanard has been called " Madame Le Vert of Rich-
mond." The misnomer must be patent to all who have seen
the receptions of both. They were diametric opposites in
almost all regards; hospitality seeming their only common
trait. The Mobilienne threw wide her doors and bade all
enter, with the prodigal hospitality of the scriptural wedding.
The Virginian chose her guests studiously for what was in
them; and quite as much for their adaptability to each
other. Hence the two noted houses of war sociality were
equally wide apart in theory and in practice. If the two
go down in history as parallels, it must be because they are
tangent at no point.

CHAPTER XVII

THE MOSAIC CLUB

What was known as the " Quiet Set " to the giddier ones
was possibly the best and most compensating portion of
Richmond society. It gravitated sedately around such

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