The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-12-16
MRS. R00sEVELT's
i. CHRISTMAS PLANS
The Presidents Wife Began Her
f. Shopping Year Ago-Will
! Send a Thousand Gifts.
Special to The. Journal.

Special to The Journal.
Washington, Dec. 15.-Now that mil
lions of women the country over are
In the mad whirl Of Christmas shopping,
1t might be, well for them to reform
their methods in that direction along
lines laid down by the president Is wife.
Mrs. Roosevelt has no Christmas shop
ping to do. She has done it. She
began buying the presents intended for
her relatives, friends and acquaintance
this Yuletide almost a twelvemonth
ago. t.' -.
Mrs. Roosevelt shops, oh, yes-shops
more extensively, doubtless, than the
average woman with the same means.
But she spreads her shopping over the
year, and the result is that the great
feast day finds her, instead Of tired
woman half glad its almost over, rested
and ready for the mirth of the merry
season. She does more or less shop
ping on from two to three hundred
days in the course of the year, and
many of the gifts now on their way
to all parts. of the world were bought
last winter
AS the chatelaine of the White House
gives round thousand presents each
Christmas, it stands to reason that if
she dldn It go about the buying Of them
systematically she would be in a condi-
ton of continuous confusion for weeks
before the holiday. ~ .''
"Mrs. Roosevelt comes in here al
most every morning when she is in
town and looks over our new goods, -
said salesman in a Pennsylvania ave-
nue. JeWelry shop the other day. SIT
IS rarely that she fails to select some
thing
Shoppers are born, not made, and
Mrs. Roosevelt is born shopper. She
gets not only her moneys worth in
actual value, but invariably something
novel, pretty and appropriate. When
other women are running distractedly
from counter to counter in crowded
ing her selection of Christmas gifts in
her own boudoir. She has a regular
system, evolved after careful survey
OF conditions.
A pretty custom to which Mrs.
Roosevelt clings, in spite of her in
creaslng duties, is to write appropriate
words on the card that goes with each
gift. That, of course, is possible only
because she begins her work of getting
days OF the new year.
Ethel ROOSEVELT is an aid to her
mother. Like her aunt, Miss Carew,
she is clever with brush. She adds
quaint little figures and sometimes a
timely nonsense verse to the gifts in
TENDED Tor the children.
Mrs. Roosevelt has other customs
that might be followed by many Christ
mas shoppers. She never has things
has her purchases charged. Her shop
ping trips never are made except when
she is prenared to buy.
Ihruout Washington the clerks in
various shops are loud in her praise be-
cause she is a rapid purchaser She
Loses neither her own time nor the
clerk $ In asking useless questions
the style, or the price She settles ali
those points before going to buy.
= Whlle large percentage of shop
keepers know the mistress Of the White
House we'll, not one of them, save
shoe dealer, can boast of ever waiting
on the president. He, with his wife,
goes several times a year to a dealer
on f street to buy shoes. He buys
those in stock and is fitted easily, but
gifts, he orders thru representative
Or leaves it to Mrs. Roosevelt.
With the reassembling of congress,
society has taken on a more serious
tone, the daily luncheons in honor Of
the. much feted buds have given place
to formal dinner parties, with the high
est officials of the nation as guests of
honor, and each company representing
of the nation, but the nation 8 capital
as well.
The president and Mrs. Roosevelt de-
parted from the custom Of many years
ago, which so restricted the social life
Of the chief executive as to make it
impossible for him to accept invita-
tions except from the members of his
official family, and a few nights ago
dined with Senator and Mrs. Lodge.
Last Thursday evening they opened
their series Of state dinners at the
White House by entertaining the mem
bers of the cabinet and some two score
additional guests, this being one of the
three large companies Of each season
which always brings to the White
House number of distinguished out
of-town visitors
Other state functions at the White
House will be the diplomatic reception
TThhursday' Jan Jan 81 diplGmatic dinner
ner Thursday, Jan. "a; congressional
reception Thursday, Jan. 81, and Army
and Navy reception Thursday, Feb. I.
Separate cards and invitations are
issued for each evening reception. Mrs.
Roosevelt gave the first of her recep-
tions on Wednesday afternoon, when
she received the members of the dip
1omatic corps, who were invited for 5
o'clock.
The only cabinet bud of the season,
Miss Erma Shaw, daughter of the Sec
rotary of the treasury, made her debut
Monday afternoon in Washington So
Getty at tea given by her mother in
the A Rim ptOn under a1lSnicions circ,,m-
stances. The parlors of the hotel were
bright with American Beauty roses and
orchids amid a profusion of palms and
ferns. Mrs. Shaw had assisting her
Mrs. Anderson, wife Of Judge T. H.
Colossal Impudence
| rCl,is ,.oaaaatl1r III, llisL