Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1901-04-20
MANY FAMOUS MEN.
"reminiscences Of q Caller at the White House
Reception.

Dear me! If there isn't a turban
bonnet just such as my mother used to
wear when she was here with my faith
er in Dolly Madison's time" said an
old lady at the presidents reception on
Tuesday. Her hair was snow white,
and worn in soft, silvery puffs each
side Of her almost unwrinkled face.
The lady was Mrs. Matilda Brundage,
OF Los Angeles, Cal, and she was max
ing her first visit to Washington after
an absence Of "a years. She was born
in Washington 81 years ago-January
IL, 1S13-while her father, ]. w. Miller,
then Of Philadelphia, and contractor
Of some means, was engaged In fulfill
ing some government contracts.
mo, I can't remember anything
about the White House of that day."
she replied readily to a Washington
Star reporters question, though I've
heard my mother talk so much about
it that I would think I remembered 1t
If did not know it to be impossible at
that early age. I remember those
queer turban bonnets because the one
my mother wore to one Of the famous
receptions. here-we called it the pres
ident's palace in those days, though my
mother said it was the barest, most
desolate Of houses so far as comforts
of life was concerned, that she was
ever in-is carefully preserved In our
family. 1t is horrible looking affair
of yellow velvet, with white feathers
and tarnished old buckles. once bril-
liant with paste diamonds.
Mother told me that President JEFF
ferson once held me on his knee and
admired my long, curly hair. 1t was
almost white then, and 1t Is quite so
now, you see," she added with jolly
laugh. "In 1920, when I was years
old, business took my father to Bos-
ton. and there I saw ex-President
Adams, whom remembered very we'll.
It seems to me that I can remember
President Madison, but mother says
that was not possible, as was but
3 years old when we left Washington.
Mrs. Madison was fond of me and Of
ten gave me sweets, my mother says,
and President Madison sometimes
spoke to me when was with his wife. y
Have you ever seen any other presi-
dent?" was the natural question to put
to this pleasant faced woman who had
lived through most Of an eventful CEN
tury.
"Yes, I saw William Henry Harrison
after he was elected, but before he was
inaugurated president. have also
seen President Tyler, and I saw both
General Taylor and Millard Fillmore
before they were elected to the presi.
dency and vice presidency. I saw ex.
President Franklin Pierce In 1859 an6
James Buchanan just after he left the
presidential chair. I saw Abraham
Lincoln in Philadelphia when he spoke
in Independence Hall just before his
first Inauguration. I used often to see
General Grant, and saw him once after
he became president. Then we went
West, and had not the opportunity tc
see so many Of the great men Of the
day. I saw Mr.. Cleveland in Kansas
City in 1899, I think it was, and now
for the first time I have seen Presi'
dent Mckinley. That makes eleven
counting the two vice presidents. Thai
isn't bad, is it? I hope to live to SEE
the next president" and spry, as
though but so, this remarkable woman
followed her party out of the east
room She had seen the president, who
was inaugurated in the close of the
eighteenth century, been a favorite
with Jefferson, inaugurated in 1901, and
now rounds out a hundred years OF
presidential "reminiscences by a visit
to the White House, where she played
a sunny-haired child, when the old
century was young.