The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-05-03
An American Beauty.

Dolly Madison! Truly the name IT.
self is one to conjure with To one
even who forgets all the dates and
battles and great generals ana otner
momentous events of history, it clings
with persistence like the lingering per-
fume of some old sweetness, writes
Cora A. Moore, in the May number of
the New Broadway Magazine It
laughing eyes and all the charm and
witchery that make some women Won
derful. All this Dolly was the demure
Quaker maiden from Philadelphia,
| who burst from the chrysalis of SOM
Der girlhood to the brilliant butterfly
| existence Of a womanhood that round
her the absolute queen of society, the
| arbiter of the positions of the day, the
first lady of the land!
| Her parents, who were Friends, had
| moved from Virginia to Philadelphia
for the advantages of the religious as
sociations here afforded. Dorothea-
they called her -Dorothea then-used
to walk on Chestnut street In that al
| ternoon promenade which Chestnut
street still celebrates, and she w1stfui-
ly watched the ladies of fashion IN
their gay brocades and bright-colored
| silk stockings that peeped beneath
| their petticoats; for her heart dearly
| loved all the sinful pretty fner1es that
| her faith rebuked. At nineteen she
married, as her parents wished, John
Todd, staid and proper Quaker,
| lawyer of Philadelphia. At twenty
three she was a widow and then it was
that she began to develop as herself.
Aaron Burr had asked permission to
bring to call on her one OF the rising
statesmen of the day, and all in f1ut-
ter the gay young widow wrote wo-
man friend that the great little Madf-
son is coming to see me this evening"
She got herself up in mulberry satin
gown that set off to advantage the
pearly white and delicate roSe-tints of
her complexion, and when, in her
I,ev 80 IL crn cd no RI
tended a soft, dimpled hand to the un-
impressive little man in suit OF
black, with ruffled shirt and silver
shoe-buckles, he was almost overcome
by the radiance of her beauty, the
laughing eyes of Irish blue and the
saucy black curls that escaped from
the demure cap of white tulle. She
was the 1oveIiest woman he had ever
met. and he went at once about his
wooing In a few months the rumor
of an engagement was af1oat in society.
Martha Washington, with the privi-
lege of a family connection, made bold
to ask Mrs. Todd how matters stood
When the widow plushingly admitted
the truth, she was assured that it was
all right and that the match should
have the blessing of President and
Mrs. Washington.
There followed a splendid wedding.
The dun-colored Quaker abode in
Philadelphia was not grand enough,
and so it was celebrated in Virginia,
at Hardwood. the home of the brides
sister, and it was a very different
scene from the first wedding that took
place in the Friends Westinghouse.
New York.
New York? 1t is a wonderful city,
a very big city, but do not think
very nice city. You think Of nothing
but money. In the daytime you think
of making it; in the nighttime, of
spending it. And your pleasures, or
what you call your pleasures, are Just
as intense as your business. Is that
pleasure? I do not think SO. I have
not seen much happiness in New
York. You try so hard to get it. You
do not let it come Of itself"
The speaker was concert singer
Belgian lady, vivacious, cultured,
acquainted with the most of the cap
itals of Europe. She continued:
You are always striving. Nearly
everybody in New York has the auto
mobile face'-or shall we say the New
York face? Always striving-never
content. And then, some day, you die
and of what use is the striving?
Why not be happy now, like the Ital-
ians, or the French. or the Germans?
Not here, but in their own countries.
Go to Europe, If you would see happy
faces. They have not such high
buildings as in New York, but they
have happiness, which is worth more. |
cit does not seem to do the people |
good to have these high buildings |
The people in New York-no, do not |
like them. In Mexico, where have |
been. and where I am going now, the |
people are gentlemen. A man may be
poor and clad in rags but he carries
his rags with grace. He has a native |
dignity, a courtesy that you do not |
seem to know at all in New York
not at all. You would think it a ter |
rible thing to be deprived of electric |
lights or any other material thing. Is |
1t not more terrible to be deprived of |
gentleness and courtesy? In no city |
in the world is a stranger subjected |
to such brusqueness and rudeness as |
civilization? I do not think so. You |
have many lofty buildings but the |
character of the people, that is not !
lofty.
are many charming people. I have |
met many of them. But speak of |
the mass-the people in the street. in /
the shops. on the cars These are the |
New York. or Berlin. or Vienna, or |
any city, and 1t is on this basis that |
the city must be, what call, sized |
up The Reader.
1t Is said:
The French fight 1000 duels year.
The Norwegian army has a skating
corps.
America imports annually 10000
German canaries.
LIE dH01dS0 CIV yACAAS Wv 6e~AAOAS
of milk year.
Some insects became fathers and
mothers an hour after birth.
The majority of the pawnbrokers in
the French governmental pawnshops
are women.
The United states uses, per inhabit-
ant, 20 per cent more soap than any
other country. ~
In ivory manufacture nothing is
lost. The scraps and dust are burnt
to charcoal, and form "the ivory
black Of the painter.