Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1881-07-23
MRS. GARFIELD.
A woman who Loves Her Husband
and Her Home.

tai attack upon MI. Vafheio HAS
served not only to bringthe President
nearer than ever to the hearts OF the
people, but to show in strong relief
the beautiful character OF his noble
wife. There perhaps has never been
q more happy union than that of
Lucretia Rudolph and James Abram
Garfield. The one has proved to be
much nearer the complement of the
other than usually occurs in this life.
Mrs. Garfield is not what would be
called a pretty woman, but she IS
tall, fine looking, has a kind, good
face, and the gentlest manners. She
has a slight, but well-knit form, small
features, with a somewhat prominent
forehead, and hair originally black,
now somewhat tinged with gray. A
pair of black eyes and mouth about
which there plays sweetly bewltch-
ing smile, are the most attractive lea
lures of a thoroughly attractive face
She is a quick observer, an intelligent
listener, but undemonstratlve IN the
extreme. She is a thoroughly domes-
tic woman, who loves her home and
her husband. Mary Clemner pays
her the following tribute:
'1Mucl of the time that other wO-
men give to distributing visiting
cards, in the frantic effort to make
themselves leaders of society, Mrs.
Garfield spends il the alcoves of the
congressional library, searching out
books to carry home to study while
she nurses the children. You may be
sure of one thing-the woman who
reads and studies while she rocks her
babies will not be left far behind by
her husband in the march of actual
growth. have seen many women
come to the surface of capitolian life
out of obscurity and 60 back into OBJ
security again; have seen hundreds of
so-called leaders of society shTiVel
and 60 out in the scorching flame of
fashion; while have followed with
a tender heart this woman, the wife
of famous mana woman whom
nobody called leader She, mean
while, has not been lifted off her feet,
as many women are, by her husbands
rising fortunes; no spreading forth in
style of dress or living, no airs. And
in Washington, in official life, that
means everything - indicative of
character. She has moved on in the
tranquil tenor of her unobtrusive
way, in a life of absolute devotion to
her duty, never forgetting the de-
mands of her position or neglecting
her friends, yet making it her first
charge to bless her home, to teach
her children, to fit her boys for COL
lege, to be the equal friend, as well
as the honored wife, of her husband.
Gentle, patient, unobtrusive almost
to timidity, keenly intelligent, liber-
ally educated, c0nscientiously dev0-
ted to everything good-this is the
woman who will perpetrate the low
ing, consecrated life that to-day abides
in the white house, if, as its mistress,
she enters it"
Gen. Garfield is credited in one OF
his biographies with the following
words of praise for her usually sound
discretion
II have been wonderfully blessed
in the discretion Of my wife. She is
one of the coolest and best balanced
women | ever saw. She is unstam-
pedable. There has not been one
solitary instance of my public career
where | suffered in the smallest de,
gree for any remark she ever made
1t would have been perfectly natural
for a woman to say something that
could be mislnterpreted; but without
any design and with the intelligence
and GOODNESS of her character, she ha:
never made the slightest mistake tina
ever heard of. With the competi.
ton that has been against me, many
times, such discretion has been a rea
blessing"
She has borne her husband sly
children. one Of whom, a daughter
died in infancy. One of the mos
touching incidents in the life of the
stricken President was his coming
home from the front soon after he hat
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