Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-20
White House Not a Bed of Roses.
Many Questions Asked.
Marriage not a Failure With Her
What the Mails Bring to the
Lady of the White House.
Mrs. McKee's Popularity with Newspaper 1sn
"A Good Glimpse Of Family Lie in
the Executive Mansion.
1Copyrighted, 1901


Jared portico for which Arcadian is too
small and poor q word. Every one of
them has views upon how they would
order and enjoy life in the mansion, but
1t is a question whether the reality could
equal any of these anticipations; whether
the White House is bed of roses for its
occupants.
Mrs. Grant owns that the eight hap
piest years of her life were those passed
within the White House Not all her
predecessors and successors own TO so
much; for while there is the qualification
of all pride and ambition for their
lieges, there are many things that off
set and make the cost OF such station.
While every one approaches the White
House family with Difference, smiles,
and apparent friendliness, and say only
kind and fiattering things, all the I'M
der current of unfriendIy comment and
criticism comes TO them, too, IN differ
ent ways
ANYBODY can do all the president s
wife has TO do and succeed - said &
TO the White House primed full of re-
marks, too, and there is always such
lot of people there that the president :
wife only needs to say, so happy to
have met you, and Good morning or
Good evening to them. Now, if she
had 10 sit down and make conversation
with these people, and return their calls
and talk, then, too, she would have
chance TO make blunders and do real
work -
The mistress of the White House says,
81 wish people would not be afraid of
me. There is nothing in my appearance
to brighten or tOngue-tie people, or never
used TO be; but half the people who
come are so embarrassed and excited
that they do not seem to know what they
are about, and one has not time enough
in the crush TO quiet them or put them at
their ease.
The daughter of a foreign minister
once said: Whenever [ 20 to the White
House 1 have such a fright My heart
jumps out of my body when I get near
the Blue Room, my voice fails and / am
almost unconscious of what 1 am doing
until the greetings are past. Each time
1 see the president I am as nervous and
frightened as the very first time 1 was
presented to her Majesty She told
this TO a senator S daughter, who looked
at her curiously, and could not under
stand the English girl s inboTn reverence
and awe of a ruler; but scores of people
experience the same terrors. There are
stories of Office seekers beng admitted
to the president oral library, and
while they waited such an awful stage
fright came upon them that they could
only stutter and humble a few words of
their long arguments and take precipi-
tate leave Of the kindly and quiet man
who was ready to listen to them.
The want of privacy is what President
Harrison s family and past occupants
have complained most of. The White
House itself is as freely open and public
as any public building in the CITY, &C
cording to the unwritten and 1nviolabIe
law of custom. The publicity of the
presidents life increases with the growth
of the American press. With each cam
paign and administration more space in
the papers is given up to the most init
mate personal life and the daily doings
of such victims. Their portraits are
met everywhere, and every time the
president turns round, or his wife
changes her dress it is recorded across
the whole country. A file of old news
papers will show how recently and rap
idly this personal ohronicling has grown
up, and post presidents had a family and
personal life of comparative privacy.
1.-The papers tell you all more of our
selves than we know, - wrote Mrs. Har-
rison TO a friend shortly after the cleo
ton; but it saves US much letter writ
ing. l grew quite tired of reading of
the Harrisons during the campaign. and
1 hardly know now the country could
before knew how great and good and ac-
complished 1 was, and If another one
had taken up a pen 1 should have
claimed the wings and mounted.
know all that my obituary could say.''
1.-The press has been uniformly kind,
almost too kind 70 us, - said Mrs. Har-
risOn a few days since. 81 sometimes
think though that the press has gone
mad by the questions reporters put to
me. In the midst Of the campaign some
one came to know IF marriage was a
failure For myself, decidedly not.
Then woman came out to Indianapolis
TO ask If the hustle should CO. An
other one wanted to know if 1 thought
that women should propose. A dozen
have come and have written to ask which
blossom l preferred for 'the national
flower Others have sought me out TO
KNOW IL WOMEN are udppy, ana 'W0aC
should be the age of the modern bride,
and who shall wear the decollete dress.
The patent underwear and the dress re-
form people come often. The last of all
the conundrums was from some one
mystified by the funny mans illusions
in the newspapers, who wanted to know
'lf the president ate pie
d" Yes, said the president, 'and
will appeal to the country on that issue
and be supported.
Then the people who want cooking
recipes to print or to sell at their church
fairs! They print them, and I read
critical comments from all parts of the |
country"
"And the crazy quilt people?''
fYou might as well shake a red rag |
at a bull as say crazy quilt 10 me. I |
thought the crazy quilt rage was over |
years ago, but it seems TO be at its |
height just now. They write TO me for |
scraps of my dresses by hundreds, and |
the census must be in the thousands |
now. Happy Martha Washington and |
Dolly Madison, with no one making
crazy quilts in their days. They send
me squares of silk, and ask me to write
my name on them and to get the ladies |