White House gossip

by Edna M. Colman

The excessive use of intoxicating liquors is the cause of a great deal of the poverty, degradation, and crime of the world, and one who abstains from the use of such liquor avoids a dangerous temptation. Each person must determine for himself the course he will take in reference to his tastes and appetites, but those who exercise the self-restraint to avoid altogether the temptation of alcoholic liquor are on the safe and wise side.

The state dinners of the Taft administration cost from eight to twelve dollars per plate, according to their elaborateness and the number and the personnel of the guests. The diplomatic dinner, being the most sumptuous, cost around twelve hundred dollars. Mrs. Taft followed no set rule with reference to the menus or the wine course, the number of wines served being dependent upon the menu. Cocktails or white wines with the oysters, claret or sherry with the soups, champagne with the entrees, champagne, burgundy, or sauterne with the principal course, port with the sweets, and brandy or cordial to finish with. Good taste was always the dictator. Outside of the state dinners, no wines were served at any of the functions save the champagne punch at the formal receptions, at which a buffet supper was provided usually of dainty sandwiches, salads, relishes, croquettes, little cakes, ices, and champagne punch, and coffee. Mrs. Taft served delicious punch and preferred to make it herself. There is a story to the effect that, during one of her affairs, to her great distress the supply became exhausted and she herself descended to the pantry to direct the preparation of a fresh supply.

One of the charms of the Taft hospitality was the fact that the genial President and his wife joined their guests in the dining room and partook of the supper personally.

But the innovation for which Mrs. Taft has received the greatest amount of praise was the transforming the state functions from the formal crushes of the past to the smaller, more exclusive, but withal more enjoyable gatherings where formality was dispensed with as much as possible, and where the dainty buffet supper was served to hosts and guests alike in the state dining room. This displaced the former custom instituted by Mrs. McElroy, in President Arthur’s day, of serving supper upstairs to the receiving party and the Blue Room guests alone. By limiting each reception to the class of guests for which it was intended, Mrs. Taft added greatly to the comfort and pleasure of all concerned, as under this arrangement there was no necessity for the long line which moved its tiresome way so slowly through the length of the entire basement and main floors before reaching the President. The guests assembled in the East Room until the receiving party had come downstairs, and then proceeded immediately to shake hands with the President and greet his wife.

Each reception wound up with an hour or so of dancing in the East Room, much to the delight of the younger people, especially when the President would join them, which he almost always did for a few minutes at least.

Mrs. Taft also personally examined and approved all bills before they were paid. All her life she had been a careful manager, a fact to which her husband often referred with pride. Her own fortune, while not of great proportions, augmented his earnings to such an extent that he often said, “When Mrs. Taft stops footing the bills, I’ll have to hang out my shingle.”

Mrs. Taft’s musical tastes led to a great number of delightful musical entertainments in the White House, and many ambitious young artists had a chance to be heard by real critics.

None of the protégés of either the President or Mrs. Taft exhibited such a degree of pride as radiated from the President’s valet, who had served him in the Philippines and accompanied him to this country. His particular reason for the pride that brought forth the wrath of the rest of the servants upon his head was the fact that he boasted of being a personal servant, paid from the President’s own pocket, and was unduly scornful of the others, whom he claimed belonged to the government.

The Taft home life was informal and just like that of any other normal American family of congenial tastes. They spent many evenings in the privacy of their own family circle with Mrs. Taft at the piano, as had been her lifelong practice. While the two older children were away at school, the house was never dull, as both the Taft and the Herron families were liberally supplied with young people constantly coming or going. Mrs. Taft had five sisters and two brothers, all of whom were married and had families, and the President had three brothers and one sister likewise similarly blessed with children. So there were always nephews and nieces to keep things lively. Miss Helen was not so athletic in her tastes as the Roosevelt girls. She entered Bryn Mawr at sixteen, and by close study won a scholarship for $300, which gave her parents great pride. Her début was not made until her college work was finished. By her own choice, she preferred the scholastic career to that of a social belle. With Mrs. Taft’s many talents, a live college girl in the house, the President a fun-maker and mimic, and young Charlie to furnish boyish pranks and thrills, they never lacked for amusement among themselves.

The family generally met at breakfast at eight-thirty, Mrs. Taft following her habit of dressing for the day before this meal. Luncheon was reduced to an apple for the head of the nation, but he usually liked to slip in to visit with his family and guests at this hour. Dinner was at seven-thirty, after which, when they were alone, there would be music or whist. Whenever he went out, the President would tap on Mrs. Taft’s door for her to inspect him, to be sure that his hat was on straight or his bodice not wrinkled, as he facetiously put it.