The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1909-05-15
|TAFT'S WIFE IS
real FIRST LADY"
PRESIDENTS WIFE DEVOTED TO
HER FAMILY AND KIND HOS
TESS TO ALL VISITORS.

TESS TO ALL VISITORS.
Washington, d. c., May 15.--Said
one woman who thought sne knew the
mistress of the white house: Mrs.
Taft is an excellent wife and a good
mother, but she does not believe in
expressing any feeling, and she is abb
solutely without emotion-absolutely
So"
Absolutely without emotion? When
| the speaker said that there flashed in-
to her listeners mind picture Of that
June day when the great political con-
vention was on In Chicago to nominate
the candidate for president Of the
| United States. The big war secre-
tary had Mrs. Taft. his two younger
children, and few friends in his Office
at Washington to hear the news over
| the Office telephone. All the day be-
fore Mrs. Taft had flitted out and in
the department building with set
countenance, but on the day of the
nomination she staid in the secretary's
| Office, and the intensity of the look
on her face was painful.
The newspaper men out in Chicago
knew she was in the Office, and every
little while they called her up to tell
her OF the progress OF events AS the
hours wore away heavy rings gather
ed under her eyes and the lines be-
came a little more tense about her
| mouth.
Late in the afternoon some one call
ed Mrs. Taft and she went to the
phone quickly. She held the receiver
to her ear for a moment and then she
| dropped II and ran like a girl to the
chair where the big secretary was sit
ting. Throwing her arms about his
| neck and with tears of joy running
| down her cheeks she said:
20, Will, they have nominated you!
| They have nominated you!"
A woman Of no emotion!
| Calm in Face of Peril.
They tell another story of her. 1t
is the story of q day out there on the
| Chinese coast, when a party of whom
Mrs. Taft was one took small launch
| to go across a little inland bay to
reach their ship. Ordinarily it was a
| journey of brief duration, but just af-
| ter they started the were caught in
| one of those sudden, awful oriental
storms, and for two hours they fought
terrific sea which threatened each
moment to engulf them. Women wept
and screamed with terror, and even
| the sailors blanched with fear
| Through it all, the future mistress OF
the white house sat with compressed
| lips and made not sound.
"How did you do it?" said one OF
her companions when they had final
| ly boarded their ship in safety. u
| thought every moment was our last
$50 did l." replied Mrs. Taft, but ]
thought would rather go down quiet
ly than screaming"
| After all, it depends upon circum-
stances whether people will call the
mistress of the white house emotional
or not.
All Visitors Made Welcome.
Mrs. Tafts keen sense of what hel
position entails prevents her from con-
fining her hospitality to their circle oi
| friends or even the official world. She
appreciates the interest the people
generally have in the wife OF the chiei
| executive of the nation, and she has
put whatever personal feeling she
may have in the background to joir
her husband in extending the courtes.
les of the white house to the public
Those east room receptions for tht
great throng of Inauguration visitors
must have been severe trial to her
but If so, she did not reveal it by the
least sign. .
"She seems so little beside him,
said woman who stood watching one
of the morning receptions, ''and see
how she instinctively shrinks behinC
Mr.. Taft's elbow. And will you water
those beastly peopIe!" the speaker
went on Indignantly, "just look a
them go right past her without ever
seeing her. Why, the lunatics! Hal
of them are so ratified with shakinI
hands with the president that they d,
not even see her.
Which was true, but out in the hal
beyond, half of the women were almos
. in tears of remorse over the though
that they had passed the president
wife and had lost the opportunity o
? shaking hands with her.
Funny Mishaps at Receptions.
Funny things always happen at tn
: white house receptions. The other da,
when President and Mrs. Taft receiv
{ ed the Daughters of the America
: Revolution, who attended 1000 stronl
I three women came up the broad eas
stairway together and passed on wit
: the line toward the blue room. 1t wa
2 evident from their conversation tha
: none OF them had ever seen Mr.. Taf
5 and one of them, a typical New Eng
: land woman of the old type, tall an
Y spare and fully 10, had penetratin
voice that covered all within earsho
!, AS they came through the red roor
Q and within few feet of where tn
0 president and Mrs. Taft stood th
9 party in front of the New England wo
: man moved and she caught her firs
S view of the chief executive.
For the land sakes alive, there b
i isl" she exclaimed, "and he isn't on
/. bit homely il he is big"