In his financial memoranda for 29 Nov., TJ recorded paying Pontius D. Stelle (Stille) $15 for a “subscription to balls.” This was a series of dancing assemblies to be held at Stelle’s Hotel each fortnight during the congressional season. The first assembly was scheduled for 9 Dec. (National Intelligencer, 3 Dec.; MB description begins James A. Bear, Jr., and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767-1826, Princeton, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1087). Charles Steele was a War Department messenger (ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1832-61, 38 vols. description ends , Finance, 1:812).