Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1885-03-04
A PRESIDENTS WIDOW.
A Famous Woman at Her
Home Near Nashville.
How President Folks Wife Lives in View
Of Her Husbands Grave.


Colonel Mcclure, editor Of the Phil
adelphia Times, says: Forty years
ago, on the 9Th of March, 1916, Mrs.
James X. Polk entered the White
House at Washington as the wife Of
the President and chief lady of the
land. She had then reached even be-
yond the full tide of her years
as more than forty winters had entered
into the story of her honored life,
Few Of the people Of the present have
personal recollections Of the gentle
grace and easy dignity with which she
Shone in the circles Of the nations
most cultured men and women Of that
day; but the pleasant tradition Of the
White House thai makes the name Of
Mrs. Madison illustrious as the most
beloved Of the early mis- resses Of the
nome of the President is supplement-
I'd by the lingering memories and Oft
repeated tributes in every section Of
The land which tell of the well-meiited
and more than generous homage paid
10 Mrs. Polk while presiding as the
central figure Of the social jewels of
The Republic. She welcomed a. her
hospitable board the Clays, the Web
5ters, the Calhouu3 tho BentOns, the
Bells, the Buchanans Of our history,
and in all the bitter conflicts of the
lisputing giants Of the last generation
The more than respect that grows into
the reverence OF affection was COM
manded from all by the lady of the
White House. Soon after the retire.
ment of her honOred husband from the
highest civil trust Of the world he was
suddenly called, in the full vigOr O.
his lite, to join the great majority be
vond, and the whole nation m0urned
The common bereavement it suffered
Dy the death of James X, Polk.
Widowed and alone, Mrs. Polk fitted
The dreamless couch Of the dead in the
green lawn that frontel their b2auti-
full home in Nashville and there the
ashes Of her lord reroSe, in daily view
of the one whose life has had q single
sorrow that makes all other sorrows
fade into forgetfulness. Unforgctting
as if unforgotten, the modest panoply
that covers the tomb of her buried
love is the shrine to which 60 out the
davotions Of each succeeding day, and
the room in the homestead where the
eX-President sank calmly into the
sleep of death has stood unaltered and
unoccupied, save as widowed love re-
turns to the altar of blightel and I'M
wearied affection. Thus while full
generation has come AMI gone has Mrs.
Polk kept faithful vigil over her hus.
bands dust and her husbands honor.
She has seen ten Presidents follow Mr..
Polk in the chair he so worlhily file /,
and is likely TO see the eleventh sue
cessor before the long halt shall come.
OF all the women of the land, the
widow Of James X. Polk has long been
accorded the largest measure of the
nations respect an1 reverence. While
ever faithful to the onebright memory
of her long and beautiful life, she has
made friend and stranger, old and
young, high and low, welcome to her
hospitable home, and the visitor to
Nashville who does not cross the thresh-
old of Mrs. Folks home and receive
her welcome, is fCrgetful Of one of the
most delightful opportunities. Every
day her house bears the greeting of
the journeying strangerand the brieht
taces of childhood, of early man and
womanhood and Of ripened age come
and go as the grand old lady smiles
upon them with the weight of more
than four-scoreyears upon her. saw
her in the midst of a large reception
she had given to Philadelphia ladies,
nd although bowel with age and
unable to stand without support, she
was sprightly as any of the many &C.
complished ladies who assisted in her
queenly hospitality, and her unclcuded
memory and her undated interest in
public men and public events made
her ever the centre Of attraction for
ali.