The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-06
LADIES OF THE WHITE HOUSE.
Three Famous Women Who Have Presided
in the Executive Mansion.

russell III FtSdTu 10 MS social duties III inc W nlI0
House, he may be- able to construct a special
cabinet of most distinguished ladies' for this
purpose, a trio of women who have served in
the capacity of mistress of the executive man
sion in the time when the Democratic party was
at the helm. 1t is an interesting fact, and one
perhaps not generally understood, that while
there are none Of the Presidents of ante bellum
days Yet living, there are no less than three
ladies' left to us who were social heads Of the
White House in the times preceding the Repub-
liean dynasty. Mrs. Polk, Mrs. Tyler and Mrs.
Harriet Lane Johnston are still living,
Mrs. Tyler, tho Bride of the White House."
still lives in Richmond, q brilliant woman of fiji
ty-seven or ffty-eight, near the grave of her hus-
band, made in 1862, still unmarked, a reproach
TO the State of Virginia, whose Legislature
pledged itself ioag ago to erect
Polk, who was the next lady occupant
of the White House, still lives at Polk Place, in
Nashville, now in her eighty-second year, a we'll
preserved intelligent woman, waiting patiently
the sommons to join her husband, who was called
from her side thirty five years ago, three months
after The close of mis- administration, and whose
remains lie beneath a marble temple on the
grounds Of her present homo. Mrs. Harriet
Lane Johnston, "a handsome woman of ffty-three,
whose reign as mistress of the White House
during the administration of her uncle and adopt
i've father, James Buchanan, is spoken of as one
of the most brilliant in the social history Of
Washington, is q resident Of Baltimore, having
married Mr.. Henry Elliott Johnston, of that city,
in 1866. two years prior to the death of her uncle,
the ex-President.
'If President Cleveland wants to do a grace
full thing said n gentleman, commenting upon
the fact that these three women of the White
House, in ante bellum days, still live, - let him
invite Mrs. Polk, Mrs. Tyler. and Mrs. Harriet
Lane to assist him in his first reception after
the Inauguration. 1t would be a graceful ac-
ton. and would recall a food Of interesting
memories"
And so it would. Mrs. Polk, who was spoken
of by a travelled English lady as surprising in
1OpTf anA otfRaaFINnu nnu AE Nh~na 1y.aAN1n
that she had seen upon the thrones of Europe;
Harriet Lane, the brilliant mistress Of the
White House, admired and honored by two
continents, and Mrs. Tyler, the bride of the
White House, whose portrait in bridal dress and
veil still hangs in the Green Room, pointed out
to all visitors as the only bride that has ever
graced that establishment as its mistress.
Il remember her we'll, :" said an old employee
Of the White House "It is forty years ago last
June since she came here as the bride Of Presi-
dent Tyler. 1t was q joyous event, but re-
called some very sad memories, for right hero
in the great East Room, but a few morths be-
fore, the mangled remains of her father had
been brought from the steamer where he had
been killed almost before her eyes. You don't
remember the bursting of the Peacemaker2 No.
there are not many now in Washington who
have a personal recollection of that sad event
We'll, the President had met Miss Gardiner
here, and their engagement had been made. She
and her father, Mr.. Gardiner, of Long
Island, were visiting Washington, stop
pms ob OhO ~ ~ HCiCf WACh
they were invited by the President to
accompany a party consisting of the Secretary
of the Navy, the President, the Secretary Of
War, and some others who were going down the
Potomac to test a new large cannon, called the
P~eacemaker. 1t had been fired repeatedly, and
was considered entirely safe. On the trip it was
fired several times, with satisfactory results,
and rs the boat was nearing Washington on the
return, all were called on deck to witness the
last shot. Mr.. Gardiner and the Secretary of
the Navy, Mr.. Upshur, went on deck, and the
President was about to go when Miss Gardiner
playfully hid his hat, preventing his going.
Probably that little action on her part saved the
country its President, and herself a presidential
husband, for when the gun was fired it exploded,
killing the Secretary of the Navy and Miss
GARDENERS father, the cries of the wounded car
rying the news to those below that some terrible
accident had taken place. That was an awful
experience for that young girl. Her fathers re-
mains were brought here to. the White House
and lay in state with those of the Secretary Of
the Navy, Mr.. Upshur. Their funeral took
place in the East Room, in the presence Of a
very large assemblage. The result was that
the wedding of Miss Gardiner and
the President, which had been set
for the following summer, was a very quiet one,
none except the immediate family of the bride
attending, and all New York being taken COM
pietely by surprise when the guns began firing
in honor of the event. They came directly here.
She was a beautiful young woman, as you will
see by her portrait in the Green Room"
You remember Mrs Polk, then, if your REQ
objection of Mrs. Tyler is so goodls
Very we'll, indeed. She was a handsome and
fascinating woman. She was very popular, 50
much so that q South Carolinian once said to
her during one of her receptions that there WAS
a woe pronounced against her in the Bible. She
inquired with some concern-fOr she was q
deeply religious ~woman-what it was, when he
replied: ''Well, the Bible says: Woe unto you
when all men shall speak well of you II
seemed TO be a very appropriate remark, for it
seems that everybody did speak we'll of her"
AN-1 wN.1 IA,-.,A I - .--n4V
''Oh- yes; that was only a little while ago.
Why, it is only about twenty seven years since
she came here. Remember her-well, l should
say So A beautiful, accomplished. queenly
young woman; q perfect picture as she stood
beside her white-haired bachelor uncle, who
had been so long a father to her, and whom she
loved with the most earnest affection. 1t was
hard to understand how one so young could have
seen so much of the world. She had. when she
came to the White House, seen all that was
worth seeing of the courts of Europe, having
been for years with her uncle at the court of St
Jamess, especially honored and beloved by tho
Queen. MIR. Buchanan Was very fond Of her,
though he used to like to tease her with some
quiet good natured stories of her girlish days,
when she was quite q romp. l remember how
he used to tell of her beating some young man
in a foot race, and also about her wheeling o
load OF wood through the streets of the town
where she lived. to give il TO some poor old
woman. She had many admirers, and many
offers of marriage. Mr. Johnston, of Baltimore,
being the fortunate man. Poor woman, abe is
lonely enough now, her husband and both chill.
dren dead"
Mrs Johnston Harriet Lane, was here a
short time since, a guest of Mrs. Hornsby, the
daughter of the lAts Judge Jere Black. She is
in deep mourning for her husband and children,
al lost within the past two years. She received
few friends, being occasionally seen on the
streets driving q handsome team, which she
managed with all the oId-time grace and pro-
cision recalled of her by those who knew her
here a quarter OF q century ago.
Mrs. Tyler, whose daughter was married at
Richmond a few days since, is a resident of that
city, where she has lived pretty much all the
time since leaving the White House. She Ia,
although a native of New York, q Southern
woman in habit of life and thought, having, as
did her husband lEn OK President svmnnth1zad