Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-04
DENT ROOSEVELT REVIEWING THE PARADE.

was child. the struggles of her widowed
mother were severe. Early in life the
daughter began the. burden bearing. edu-
Gated herself and began teaching at the
age of fifteen. She was a mature woman
when she married Willard Fillmore, who
was her junior and who had been APP
prenticed to tailor by his father and
hated the work, lie wanted to be a law
yer. To help him to the education he
needed Mrs. Fillmore went on with her
teaching and also taught her husband.
They We're a devoted couple and she was
the guiding star Of his life. To Mrs. Fiji
more whose health had failed so that
she was but little able to exercise the
duties Of her high office as she was SO
well fitted to do, the White House owes
the establishment of the library. Mrs.
Fillmore found her highest pleasure in
books and President Fillmore asked Con-
gress to make an appropriation for IL
brary of the books which she selected
Another woman who married poor man
and who educated and upifted him to tha
highest office In the gift of the American
people was the wife OF Andrew Johnson.
He too, was apprenticed TO tailor ana
hated the work. When she married him he
could not write even his name. She was
a cultured, educated woman, and she found
him an apt pupihn Step by step she walked
with him to thesvery doors OF the w hite
House and then her strength failed her. so
that to their cultured and worthy daughters
the duties of presiding over the White
House were left
Poverty to Af1uence.
The wives of at least four of the first
Presidents of the United States kept step
with them from poverty to affluence, from
STRUGGLING manhood to the prime of lives
rounded out by terms In the White House.
They were Abigail Adams, wife of John
Adams: Mrs. jefferson, who, however, dled
before her husbands elevation to the pres
idency Dolly Madison and Mrs. Monroe
The Adamses were poor in everything but
brains and education, and these seem 10
have counted for little in the MaSsachu-
sets community. for when Abigail Smith,
the daughter and granddaughter OF MINIS
tiers of the gospel, wanted to marry John
Adams her friends objected ana the ram
lily protested that she was going TO marry
beneath her station in life. Abigail with
q mind of her own, married the struggling
lawyer and they struggled together Then
Adams was elected to the House OF DEL
egates" the incipient ripple which ended
in the mighty revolution which swept the
English flag off our domain. Then Adams
was sent abroad on a commission ADJ
gail let him go, though his departure iett
her poor i'll with a brood of little chill
dren to care for, and the revolution even
then muttering around their tiny little farm
home She ran that little farm. read and
studied, wrote the most Wohoeriuiiy
strengthening letters to her husband and
the son abroad with him. and with one
foot on the spinning wheel, earning a liyel-
hood and the other on the cradle rocker.
she taught herself fTcncn, SD lHIl "Itl
she had educated her beautiful daughter
and better times had come to all. she
went abroad the wife of the minister at
the court of St. Cloud and spoke the most
correct French, much to the surprise OF
those about her, who doubted II any good
thing could come out of America.
When at last John Adams reached the
White House Mrs. Adams right at his
side and much of the history of those years
comes to US as recorded in the letters from
her trenchant pen.
The next to the last of the coterie of rev.
dictionary women. beginning with Lady
Washington" who was rich and married
man whose future was already assured, and
who if the desires of her own heart had
been needed would have taken him from
public life entirely, was Mrs. Monroe.
Wife of President Monroe.
The wife of President Monroe was a re-
markable woman and one incident in her
life will keep her memory alive as long as
the Monroe doctrine lives, and mayhap
after-who can tell! She was the daughter
of a British officer, who after the revolu-
ton settled in New York, where his daugh-
ter very beautiful, highly accomplished
and most exclusive, reigned a BELLE
when she married United States Senator
James Monroe of Virginia He was shortly
afterward appointed minister to the court
of st. Cloud, and, for many years they lived
abroad. The details of this life are lost
utterly lost. There is almost a blank for
this five years, so far as the women of the
Monroe family are concerned. Children
were born to them. but where or when is
largely coHjecture Mrs. Monroe, rich,
young and beautiful. was considered to
have married beneath her, to tie herself to
a revolutionist of the ultra type, but she
married for love. One incident has come to
us, however, and it enriches history far
more grandly than if we knew instead that
she wore pink satin and pearls at one of
Napoeons levees. or that she had attracted
the attention of some prohigate prince
Monroe displeased Washington by engag-
ing too enthusiastically and publicly in
the feelings of revolutionary France, to 90
justice to his own country, so Washington
thought-So Mr.. Monroe was called home.
Shortly before his departure for the United
States Monroe made up his mind that he
must do something for Lafayette and his
wife. both of the imprisoned and suffering
fortunes in deep dungeons, widely sepa-
rated, and neither knowing if the other was
alive. Mrs. Monroe accepted his sugges-
ton that she visit Madame Lafayette. 1t
was a dangerous thing to do, but Mrs.
Monroe seems to have been courageous
and a true woman. In full war paint"
as we would say now, panoplied for con-
quest and in the great state carriage of the