White House gossip

by Edna M. Colman

Upon the capable New England shoulders of William C. Endicott, astute lawyer and advocate of Civil Service Reform, was placed the responsibility of the War Department.

The fortunes of our long-neglected navy, with its ninety more or less obsolete warships, were destined to undergo radical changes under the efficient direction of William C. Whitney, of New York. The story of how Mr. Whitney transformed the navy is an epic in American leadership and an epoch in American history.

The Secretary of the Interior, Lucius Quintus Curtius Lamar, of Mississippi, represented the South. He was regarded as especially keen minded, a moulder of public opinion.

Postmaster General Vilas was a Vermonter by birth and a Westerner by adoption, having established his business career in Wisconsin, from which state he went into the Union Army. He was an expert in the intricate machinery of American politics.

The legal authority of the new Cabinet came from the Senate, a man with an enviable reputation. This was Attorney General Augustus H. Garland, of Arkansas.

This Cabinet has been considered one of remarkable strength, but Grover Cleveland was always the President.

Most important to every President is his choice of a private secretary. Cleveland, in selecting his official family, lost no time over deliberation on this position. He simply took with him to Washington Daniel S. Lamont, from every standpoint the best man for the position, fitted in every way for the important part he was to play in the national drama. Mr. Lamont set an example for the future by establishing a new standard and a new conception of the part of the Executive Secretary.

By the middle of March, the President was fairly settled and gave his first official reception, to which the Diplomatic Corps and Congress were invited, to meet the new Cabinet. As the Marine Band played “Hail to the Chief,” the President came down the stairs with Mrs. Bayard on his arm, while the new Secretary of State escorted Miss Rose Cleveland, with the rest of the Cabinet following in succession. It was soon apparent that the President was not in his congenial element; such affairs were not to his taste. He had an enormous capacity for work and a great deal of work to do, of which the social end did not seem to him a really vital part.

Old families of the city, who had ignored the White House since the days of the kindly Buchanan and the lovely Harriet Lane, found it convenient, expedient, and agreeable to call upon the President and Miss Cleveland. While this was done out of deference to the party, it did not impress the new Executive to the extent of securing for them any more attention or consideration than was given to any other representatives.

The church people of Washington were eager to secure the new head of the nation as a communicant. The matter was settled by Miss Cleveland, who chose the First Presbyterian Church at Four and One Half Street. At her first reception, March 21st, the Reverend Byron Sunderland and his wife presented themselves to her. He was delighted when Miss Cleveland reminded him that her mother had attended his church in New York State. Because of this association, she took a pew in his Washington church, which was used later by Mrs. Grover Cleveland.