The Yale expositor., 1909-03-19

pertinently still, how does 1t 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
ministration 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 as 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 petticoats She
is That rarer thing, a welbalanced woman.
The Tories. said Wellington, when Victoria
ascended the English throne, could hope for
little Roadway under a 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 foundation in character, with
youth, good health and ambition and the No.
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
VIII 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 hourished at Washington
under White House patronage during the seven
years of Mr.. and Mrs. Roosevelt's residence
there, has even more emphatic encouragement
under the social sway of a woman who was
one of the founders of Cincnnati's famous
musical organization, the Symphony orchestra
Not only Is she patroness of music, but is a
musician She kept up her hours of daily
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 sufi-
GENTLY in practice to perform for a 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
Tafts art collection has no more appreciative
friend than his sisternaw. She is enthusiast
tic about every treasure he adds to It, and en-
Joys few things more than pointing out its
beauties to others. Faces and figures appeal
more 10 her than landscapes, and a recently
acquired Rembrandt has given her keen pleas
ure She has made a 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 a book lover and has been a student
all her life, first because she grew up in
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
a worn copy Of pride and Prejudice" bringing
"a shA Harlan homo In Cincinnati with its