Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1909-03-18

pertnently still, how does it measure with the
record OF the Roosevelt regime?
These are to-day queries of absorbing inter.
est, and nowhere has this phase of a new adj
mnstration quite the significance that it has
at Washington. Diplomats and back of them
the governments for which they stand, are as
much interested in the personality of the ris-
ing American powers their own country
men.
Mrs. Taft is neither the soft green of the
soul of Burke's ideal feminine nor is she Ma
poleons adherence, intellect in pettcoats She
is that rarer thing a well-balanced woman.
The Tories, said Wellington when Victoria
ascended the English throne could hope for
little Roadway under female sovereign be.
cause he had no small talk and Pitt had no
manners. Mrs. Taft is a woman whom one
might we'll imagine making allowances for
both shortages, provided there were such com
pensations along other lines as Wellington and
Pitt possessed.
Given such a foundation in character with
youth, good health and ambition and the pc
culiar advantages her life has already given
her, few women have gone into the White
House so well equipped to meet the exactions
of the position of first lady of the land" Her
regime, moreover, has not that negative quality
which circumstances have infused into the So
cial atmosphere of some previous administra-
tons. She has tastes and enthusiasms which
will give character to the social life at Wash
ington of which the White House is the center
for the next four years.
Music, which has 1ourished at Washington
under White House patronage during the seven
years of Mr.. and Mrs. Roosevelts residence
there, has even more emphatic encouragement
under the social sway of woman who was
one of the founders of Cincinnats famous
musical organization, the Symphony orchestra.
Not only Is she patroness of music but is a
fnin Shn Knp hnr 1osJtr
practice regularly until within recent years,
when the frequent changes in her life and its
many added duties made the continuance i'm.
possible.
Though she does not regard herself as suffi-
GENTLY in practice to perform for critical
audience, she has by no means lost her skill
and frequently plays for her husband and
children during their evenings at home. These
are more than might be supposed for Mrs.
Taft is one of the women who stays usually
at home unless her husband can go out with
her.
other avenues through which her artistic
taste fnds an outlet are her love of pictures
and her appreciation of wood carving. Charles
Taft's art collection has no more appreciatve
friend than his ssternlaw. She Is enthusias.
tic about every treasure he adds to II, and en-
Joys few things more than pointing out its
beauties to others. Faces and figures appeal
more to her than landscapes, and recently
acquired Rembrandt has given her keen pleas
ure. She has made study of wood carving
and has the nucleus of collection containing
some excellent specimens She is a connois
seur of the craft, and knows the fine points
in the work of various schools and masters
She is book lover and has been student
all her life. first because she grew up in a
home where books came down from the shelves
and made the worlds they contain part of the
domestic environment. Elizabeth Bennett and
her sisters. with their heart affairs and all the
incidental character delineations, stepped from
worn copy of Pride and Prejudice" bringing
"a 'hA Herrsn hcne in Cincinnati. with its