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A difference of thirty minutes in a schedule was an unconsidered trifle to many of them [foreign visitors].Our official badge was so flamboyant that we shrank from wearing it, but the hemisphere of brass with four inches of tricolor ribbon back of it soon abundantly justified itself. It could be seen afar off, and a description of it to a policeman often resulted in the prompt capture and return of straying statesmen

Uncle Joe Cannon, who keeps alive the torch of American humor...Ridiculing the idea that everything in the White House must stay there forever, he said, “When Adams was President, the family washing was hung to dry in the East Room.” Then, raising his hands to heaven, he exclaimed, “My God! Where are those clothespins?”

Ellen Maury Slayden, wife of Texas congressman James Slayden, kept a journal during their years in Washington, 1897-1919. She edited them herself into this manuscript, which was published decades later, after her death. The excerpts are interesting, but it makes me want to read the journals themselves, just not just her selections.