Mrs. Taft made but few changes in the arrangement of furniture or rooms. Miss Helen occupied the same suite used by former belles, and while the members of the family brought but little outside their trunks, the private apartments soon reflected their individual tastes. The President hung his father’s portrait in his study, as he had placed it over every desk he ever occupied.
When the time rolled around for him to relinquish his place to Woodrow Wilson, he set his office in order, as his wife did the mansion under her care, bade the congregation of All Souls Unitarian Church farewell from the pulpit, and slipped out of power with the love and respect of those associated with him.
Among his hobbies are golf and photograph collecting. After his appointment to the Supreme Court, Washington welcomed him as her own.
Miss Helen Taft, who for four years occupied one of the most conspicuous positions in the country, left Washington as unspoiled as when she came, a little girl, from the Governor’s palace in the Philippines. Though constantly fêted she found time for the more serious duties of life and many quiet philanthropies of which the public knew nothing.
When the Tafts departed for the South after rendering every possible attention to their successors, a censorious critic of Washington’s social life gave the following summary to their administration:
“Whatever brilliancy their successors may give to the White House, to President and Mrs. Taft belongs the distinction of having solved many problems as to precedent in the conduct of state functions, etc., which had baffled their predecessors, and of putting soul into the White House gatherings, a soul which made an invitation there a pleasure instead of an obligation perfunctorily performed. Their social record in the White House has been brilliant from beginning to end. They have seen the duties of their position with a broadmindedness resulting in a measure from the almost unprecedented preparation they had for it in years of public life, and they have lived up to them with a graciousness that has left nothing to criticize.”
Mrs. Taft has always been a lover of nature, and in all of her travels about the world has given great attention to the types of flowers and trees common to each country or locality. Her own garden is always a dream of beauty in the spring and summer. She gives it especial attention, making personal visits to each tree, shrub, and clump of flowers with her gardener.
It is to her artistic vision and understanding, coupled with her capacity for quick action, that the nation owes the chief beauty of the Potomac Park. When Mrs. Taft first saw the cherry trees of Japan in full bloom, she thought them marvellously beautiful and resolved to obtain some for planting in her own land.
Shortly after she became mistress of the White House, she secured and had planted a hundred of these trees between the polo field and the Tidal Basin. Many of them failed to live. Later, Dr. Jakichi Takamine, noted chemist of Tokio and New York, the inventor of adrenalin and other important chemicals, learning of her admiration of the lovely little flowering trees of his native land, offered three thousand as a gift from Japan in the name of the Mayor of Tokio. They arrived during the latter part of 1911 and were promptly accepted by Mrs. Taft in the name of the government. It is the common belief that the arrangement of their planting in groups of odd and even numbers represents in Japanese characters a message of welcome.
President and Mrs. Taft did much to popularize the now famous Potomac Park, once a mosquito-infested swamp, rendezvouz of tramps, and hiding place of criminals.