To assist Mr. Taft in his negotiations with the Vatican, and to make up a dignified and formidable looking Commission, the President appointed Bishop O’Gorman of the Catholic diocese of South Dakota, and General James F. Smith, at that time a member of the Philippine judiciary and in later years Philippine Commissioner and Governor-General of the Islands. His rank of General he attained as an officer of volunteers in the Army of Pacification in the Philippines, but, a lawyer in the beginning, after he was appointed to the Bench he became known as Judge Smith, and Judge we always called him. He is an Irish Catholic Democrat and a man of very sane views and exceptional ability. Major John Biddle Porter was made Secretary-Interpreter to the Commission, and Bishop Brent, Episcopal Bishop of the Philippines, on his way to Manila, decided to go with Mr. Taft, wait for him until he had completed his business at Rome and then continue with him the journey to the Philippines. This was the beginning of a warm friendship between Bishop Brent and ourselves, and no one can have lived in the Philippines since, or have been familiar with the affairs of the Islands, without knowing what a blessing his work and presence have been to the Philippine people, and how much he has aided the Government in its task.
We engaged passage on the steamship Trave, sailing from New York to Gibraltar about the middle of May; the day for our departure was close at hand; many good-byes had been said; and, altogether, the immediate future was looking bright, when suddenly I found myself once more within the orbit of my unlucky star. My son Robert chose this opportune moment to develop a case of scarlet fever. Of course that left me and the children out of all the plans and I was compelled to accept a hastily made arrangement which provided for my remaining behind and following my husband and his interesting party on a later ship. Fortunately Robert was not with the other children when he contracted the disease. He was visiting friends in another part of town and I had him removed immediately to the Good Samaritan Hospital, then settled down to my vigil which might be long or short as fortune decreed.
My husband’s mother was in Millbury while all these things were transpiring and he called her up on the long distance telephone to tell her about Bobby’s illness and to say good-bye.
“Then Nellie cannot go with you?’ said Mrs. Taft.
“No, I’m sorry to say she can’t,” said my husband.
“But you have now an extra stateroom, have you not?”
“Yes, Mother.”
“Well, Will, I don’t think you ought to make such a trip alone when you are so far from strong, so I just think I’ll go with you in Nellie’s place,” said my mother-in-law.
And she did. The intrepid old lady of seventy-four packed her trunks and was in New York ready to sail within twenty-four hours, and my husband wrote that she acted altogether with an energy and an enterprise which filled him with pleasure and pride. On the steamer, and later at the hotel Quirinal in Rome, she presided with dignity for more than a month over a table at which daily gathered a company composed of a Colonial Governor, a Supreme Judge, a Roman Bishop, an Anglican Bishop and a United States Army officer.
Her activity and fearlessness kept her family and friends in a state of astonishment a good part of the time. She went wherever she liked and it never seemed to occur to her that it was unusual for a woman of her age to travel everywhere with so much self-reliance. She thought nothing of crossing the American continent every year to visit her daughter or sister on the Pacific Coast, and out in Manila we used to laugh at the possibility of her appearing on the scene at any moment. In fact, she very seriously considered coming at one time. I was glad that she could go with my husband to Rome because she really could be a comfort and a help and not at all a responsibility.