Evening star., 1909-02-28

opinions of her own on most of the sub
jects that commonly serve as topics of
conversatin; but she Is not masculine nor
aggressive nor the slave of the isms of
Helen Taft of today is in mental poise
the Helen Taft of year ago or two years
ago. The limelight of publicity and whole
sale adulation have not affected Miss
brothers that unimpaired natural sim
plicity which is one of the most charming
traits Of President Taft's children
The picture of Miss Taft as an intel
lectual girl must not be construed a
hint that she is what her father laugh
ingly calls a high brow On the con-
trary, this young lady. who started her
career at Bryn MaWr by capturing $500
scholarship and who speaks both French
and German unusually well, is the peer
of any athletic girl in her enthusiasm
for outdoor sport She learned to ride
horseback during her stay in the Philip
pines and declares that there is nothing
she enjoys more, unless, possibly. it be
dancing. In the Orient Miss Taft used
the cross saddle exclusively, but has
adopted the conventional side saddle for
her horseback excursions with her father
and brothers in Washington.
Boating and tennis have been regular
vacation occupations of the new White
House belle during the summers spent by
the Taft family at Murray Bay, Ontario
which means practically every summer
the family has spent in this country.
At school Miss Taft has gone in for
various forms of competitive sport in
Guiding basket ball, but her favorite in
the category of college athletics is field
hockey. and she long since proved her
proficiency in this strenuous sport by her
work as member of the hockey team at
the preparatory school where she laid the
intellectual foundation for her college
career.
Miss Helen Taft resembles her father,
not only in almost unfailing manifesto
tion of good nature, but also in absence
of affectation and in democracy. At the
Cathedral School, the fashionable Episco-
pal institution near Washington. where
she was a classmate of Miss Ethel Roose-
welt during the earlier years of William H.
Taft's service as Secretary of War. Helen
Taft was popular with the girls because
she entered with spirit into all that went
to make up the social life of the school.
Similarly there was not suspicion of Il
desire to hold aloof when Miss Taft trans
ferred to Miss Baldwin's school in the
Philadelphia suburb, although she was
then greeted as the daughter of pro-
spective President. She took her share of
pranks. gained some fame among her
schoolmates as a chatting dish cook and
inventor of a new punch, and went in
aggressively for amateur theatricals,
lodging the sentimental roles and making
almost invariable hits with her exag-
gerated character parts-notably the nerv-
Gus, hysterical girl with a Shrek in MY
Lord in Livery
Likewise did Miss Taft accept uncom-
plainingly the mild hazing which greeted
her when, having completed in two years
the course at Miss Baldwin's., to which
three or four years are often devoted, she
last autumn entered Bryn Mawr College.
She came to the college with a full
fiedged ambition-born Of close-hand OBJ
servation during her years of probation
to seek rooms in Pembroke Hall or Dem
bigh Hall, because in these halls of resi-
dence 1t Is livelier than anywhere else"
Although Miss Taft during her first
year at college observed the proprieties
by keeping much In the background as
becomes freshman, she did organize at
the seat of learning last October a Taft
Campaign Club. which enrolled 200 of the
girl students as members She even made
a speech in her fathers cause at a mass
meeting following a political parade in
which were carried dozens of transpar-
encies fearfully and wonderfully inscrib-
ed, conspicuous among the slogans thus
displayed being Let the Women Vote"
which. however. was inserted, it is sus-
pected, in Difference to the supposed senti-
ments Of Judge and Mrs Taft rather
than because of any convictions on the
part Of the daughter. who disclaims be-
ing a suffragette.
Few girls of her years have Travelled so
extensively as has Miss Helen Taft She
was less than half her present age Of
eighteen when she accompanied her par
ents to the Philippines for several years
residence, and since that time her post
Office address has been successfully