The Savannah morning news., 1901-05-26
SOME WASHINGTON GOSSIP.
THE MOST GENERALLY LOVED
LADY OF THE CABINET.

The Illness and Death of Mrs. Gage.
Improvement Made in the White
HOuse-The Wedding Gown of Miss
Vivian Sartoris-She Is to Marry
Archibald BaIfour of London.
Movements of the British Minister.
He Is Getting Ready to Go to
England Movements of Some
WelI-KnOwn People-Other Mat
tiers of General Interest.
Washington, D. c.. May 24.-Sic transit
gloria mundi was the thought uppermost
in the minds of the friends who gathered
yesterday morning in the handsome home
of the Secretary of the Treasury. to pay
the last tokens of respect to the beloved
woman, who for four years has reigned
in it, a social queen. No lady of the cab
met circle ever made more real friends
than Mrs. Gage. Others have been well
liked and admired, and all have been
bowed down to on account of the lofty po-
sition, behind the throne" as it were
but none has been so genuinely loved. She
was most gracious hostess with charm
ingly unaffected manners and rare con-
formation and the kindest of hearts, she
was peculiarly adapted to the social de-
mands of public life. Always accustom-
ed to entertaining large companies her
house here, as well as the Chicago home,
was seldom without guests at any season
of year Those, too who sought her on
business-and their name was legion-in-
| w Yiah baY 81
pathetic and obliging. A great many
| quiet deeds of charity, of which the world
never heard, are paced to her credit in
| heavens account. Blessed with robust
| health, she enjoyed everything in the way
| of diversion, and was never absent from
official functions in the White House,
| where her place was near Mrs. Mckinley.
She was also the frequent guest of the
President and his wife at informal gath
erings; and her husband now sadly re-
members how happy she was at his call
to be one of the Presidents silent part
| ners,' and how gaily she took her place
in the cabinet family, with no foreboding
| of how she would leave it before her
term was over. The last holiday season
was a particularly bright one in the Gage
household, by reason of family reunions
kept up in Washington, as always in the
nesday receptions were universally con-
coded to be the most delightful in all the
| cabinet round, especially to casual visit
ors in the capital, who received a pleas
ant welcome and were made to feel quite
at ease. In short, hers was a strong.
well-poised and particularly loveable
character, both in the influence of home
and the wider outer circle. While by no
| means beautiful of face, she had a tall,
matronly figure and silvered hair, as be
came her fifty-eight years. Though Of
| remarkably strong physique, she took
| severe cold on Inauguration day, being
| exposed for an hour to the Indictment
March weather. Grip followed, with
! rheumati tic complications involving the
heart, from which she died Though sur
! fering great pain, she maintained her
usual bright and cheerful demeanor to the
very last, and insisted on her husband
going every day to his duties at the treas
ury. Thus it came about that he was at
his desk when summoned hastily to her
bedside, where he arrived just in time for
a last look of dove.
It is not generally known that the late
Mrs. Gage was twice married She was
the widow of Lloyd D. Gage when we'd
| ded to his brother, the present Secretary
of the Treasury Her former husband
was always an invalid, and died a few
years after marriage, leaving one daugh-
ter, who is now Mrs. L. F. Pierce of Chi
! cage. Lyman Gage was then a widower
without children: and after a time he
married his slster-in-law, about fourteen
| years ago, at Denver, Col. The funeral
services in Washington were very simple
| The house was fragrant with flowers, the
| gifts of loving friends, and a choir of
picked singers rendered the sweet old
hymns that have soothed so many ach-
ing hearts-"Rock of Ages" abide With
Me-" and Peace, Perfect Peace" Then
there were prayers, and short talk by
Rev. DIR. Hills, pastor of Plymoth
Church, Brooklyn-an old friend of the
family, who was brought over from New
York by special train. Most of the diplo-
mats were present, the cabinet members
and other officials now in the city; Mrs
Garrett A. Hobart and son, and others,
who had been many times entertained in
the same hospitable mansion by the gem
ial woman now in her coffin. There was
also large delegation from the Treasury
| Department, the Womans' Guild of the
American University, and other institu-
tons in which Mrs. Gage had taken an
active interest. Among thousands OF
messages of coincidence received from all
parts of the country, came a telegram
from the President at San Francisco,
who was then at the bedside of his
supposed-to-be -dying wife, with the
shadow of the same great grief hanging
over him which had overwhelmed his
Secretary of the Treasury.
When Mrs. Mckinley gets back to .he
White House. she will hardly recognize
the historic old rookery, such changes for
the better have taken place during her
absence. The whole structure has been
| overhauled, and outside and inside made
as neat as paint and scrubbing are cap
able Of The north front particularly
presents a handsome appearance In its
new coat of spotless white, with dull-red
trimmings-though to the undersigned it
always suggests inhamed eye-lids to see
the windows of a house outlined with red
The interior has been carefully renovated
from garnet to cellar, and walls floors
and settings shine like mirrors. New car
pets and mattings have been laid and
the furniture cleaned and reupholstered.
| The conservatory rejoices in a new glass
roof, and even every tiny crack and im-
| perfection in the pavement has been re-
paired. The grounds in front have been
beautified by the addition of four splen-
did pyramids of palms. In the rear, the
| grass is green as velvet, pansies and
roses are blooming, and the fountain toss
es up its spray as merrily as It did for