The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1909-02-25

WOrId-renoWned art collection has
no more appreciative admirer than
his sister-in- law, the wife of the
president-elect, and there are MANY
canvasses hanging on the walls of
this gallery of her selection.
Mrs. Taft has one advantage
over her predecessors, her knowl-
edge of languages, and what ac-
complishment is more essential to
woman occupying SO exalted a
position as that to which Mrs. Taft
will succeed in a city where as
many languages are spoken as were
at the Tower of Babel? Mrs. Taft
IS, perhaps, one of the best inform
ed women III America, and when
asked how it IS possible for one
with so many demands upon her
time to keep up SO thoroughly
with the events Of the world she,
unhesitatingly replied: by read
ing the daily papers,
This she does assidiously and
intelligently, and when the papers
that are brought to her boudoir
each morning are cast aside Mrs.
Taft has absorbed all that is inter
esting, instructive and healthy
contained in their pages.
AS man is judged by the COM
pany he keeps, so may ones esti-
mate of woman be formed by the
style of woman she selects as her
closest friend. Mrs. Taft's friends
in Washington are reckoned by
the hundreds, but her intimates
are few. Of these Miss Cannon,
the daughter OF the speaker of the
house of representatives, may be
mentioned first Both are devotees
of bridge and each takes the game
seriously, having mastered all of
its many intricacies. Mrs. Taft
and Miss Cannon are frequently
seen in public together. They
drive frequently, this being one of
Mrs. Taft's chief diversions, and
then, too, they are invariably seen
together at the many concerts
given in Washington Throughout
the official season.
Another Of Mrs. Taft's intimates
is Halle Erminie Rives Wheeler,
wife of the secretary ofthe Ameri-
can embassy at Tokyo. Mr.. and
Mrs. Wheeler recently spent sever
al months in this country, part of
which time they were the guests of
the Tafts. Their friendship goes
back to long days of travel in the
far east, when they saw for the first
time many strange things together,
thereby discovering a sympathy in
the point of view. Gen. and Mrs.
Corbin and Gen. and Mrs. Ed
wards will be prominent figures in
the White House social set during
the Taft regime. There, too, will
be found the Longworths. The
latter will conserve the relations
between the past and present
White House occupants and this
may be strengthened should Ethel,
the debutante daughter of the
Roosevelts, be taken under the
wing of Mrs. Taft and chaperoneG
in Washington, should Mrs.
Roosevelt decide to reside at her
New York home in the course of
her husbands invasion of the
African jungles.
The Longworths are quite as
firmly intrenched in Cincinnati's
most exclusive circles as the Tafts,
therefore it is but natural to sup
pose that the president presidents
son-in-law and his wife will con-
tinue to be conspicuous figures in
Washington society.
The army set will have it in
nings with the advent of the Tafts
for aside from the Corbins and
Edwardses, previously mentioned,
Gen. Bell, as well as Gen. Gar
lington and Mrs. Darlington, are
among the closest of the Tafts'
friends. When Mrs. Taft demo-
cratically walked forth rom her
home in Lafayette square the
morning of that bright June
, day on which her husband was
, nominated for the Office he is about