White House gossip

by Edna M. Colman

Being of the South, she was naturally interested in every practical progressive movement that related to that section, and the indorsement she gave to the work of the Southern mountaineer women was the best thing that could have befallen them. Like all people with any self-respect these women did not want charity. They wanted only opportunity to show their beautiful, old-fashioned hand-made rugs, carpets, curtains, and counterpanes to people who might be interested in buying them. Mrs. Wilson allowed them to fit up a room in the White House with their handiwork, and she exploited it by telling her friends and having the women of Congress and the Cabinet come to tea and inspect the exhibit and talk to the weavers themselves. The result was order after order for the quaint work from the toil-worn hands of these women, who have preserved a lost art in the remote fastnesses of their mountain homes, and to whom the chance to sell their work for real money, not trade it for supplies, was the greatest boon the President’s wife could confer. When her daughters were married, Mrs. Wilson purchased numerous pieces of this old-fashioned handwork to be included among her gifts to them.

To the poorhouse, she constantly sent flowers. Never before did the poor of Washington receive so liberally of the floral beauties of the White House conservatories. In hospitals and orphan asylums she was “an angel,” and to the little newsboys of the street, for she would buy their papers and laugh away their return change.

A fall due to a slipping rug brought Mrs. Wilson to her bed toward the close of her busy season. Already worn by the social strain, she was attacked by a complication of ailments chief of which was Bright’s disease, that defied the best medical attention. It soon became known that the President’s wife could not recover. Her daughter Eleanor’s marriage to William Gibbs McAdoo took place under this shadow.

The night before her death she recalled her interest in the alleys and slums and mentioned to the President that it would give her much happiness if the pending bill could be passed. The alley bill passed the Senate unanimously, and the fact was made known to Mrs. Wilson during a period of consciousness about two hours before she died. The hurried adjournment of Congress following her death prevented the bringing up of the bill in the House at that time; but that body approved the measure later.

All through her illness, her constant and chief concern was that the President be kept in ignorance of her suffering. Toward the end, she put a charge upon Dr. Cary Grayson, saying:

“If I go away, Doctor, promise me you will take care of my husband.”

It was August 6, 1914, that Mrs. Wilson died. She had won the hearts of the people by her sympathy toward all in need and suffering. The nation grieved with the White House family. Her death was a shock such as Washington had not felt for years. When the big iron gates were closed and locked, the shades drawn, and the sombre emblem of death hung from the door of the White House, the whole city responded to the grief within, lowered its flags, and stopped its merrymakings and frolics. Telegrams flooded the White House, and flowers filled the rooms. They came from every class and degree of society from the newsboys to the representatives of foreign governments; and from the handsome offerings of the Boy Scouts to the simple bouquet of some lowly protêgê. The interment was in Georgia.

For a time, President Wilson seemed to find continuous work the only relief from sorrow.

With the combined strength and influence of his Cabinet he turned his attention to securing the passage by Congress of a new tariff bill. During this time the Federal Reserve bill had become a law; President Madero of Mexico had been deposed and assassinated; Huerta was fighting for recognition; the insult to the United States Flag on April 9, 1914, had called for action; and Vera Cruz was occupied by Marines in consequence.

When rumour started that President Wilson was planning to bring a new First Lady to the White House, great interest and much excitement prevailed.