WILLIAM H. TAFT AND HIS FAMILY
On account of his size, his friends always made commiserating jokes in regard to the beasts which Taft rode. Another Philippine story refers to a long and tedious journey he made to the mountains of Bengat.
The Department at Washington knew of the trip, and Mr. Taft reported by cable direct to Secretary of State Root:
“Arrived safe and sound after riding one hundred miles muleback.”
Secretary Root replied like this:
“Congratulations on your health. How is the mule?”
The native Filipinos fairly worship Mr. Taft. They have a way of calling him “Santa Taft,” and think, in order to be a great man in America, one must have a gigantic stature.
When Mr. Taft was appointed Secretary of War, his wife at once became a popular hostess whose drawing room was always filled with interesting people. Her knack of remembering faces and names and her evident interest in the people she met offset a certain austerity made noticeable by contrast to the geniality of the head of the house, but due, in her case, largely to a certain diffidence that was lost entirely during her public life.
Mrs. Taft had been a suffragist all her life, though never of the aggressive type. Regarding the ballot for woman she said: