The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-09-02
PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S Wife
Her First Vacation Journey Since En-
tering the White House---A Visit
To Long Branch Then the
Chief Watering Place

August Is, 1861, Mrs. Mary Todd
Lincoln, wife of the President of the
United States, left Washington for
Long Branch on her first holiday jour
ney since she had become the lady
of the White House."
There had been much in the first
months of the war to I'LL the heart Of
this good woman with anxiety and ap-
prehension. She was a Kentuckian
by birth, and, therefore, a Southerner
Some Of her oldest and dearest friends
were wearing the gray of the Confed-
eracy. Indeed, as James Morgan says
in his admirable book, Abraham Lin
coin, the Boy and the Man" "the bat
tie line crossed the very hearthstone
of the Presidents home"
Mrs. Lincoln was deeply attached to
her Southern kindred and when the
war began she had known of the
struggles of some Il her connections
when they had been called upon to
choose between the South and the
Union. The husband of one of her
sisters, Ben Hardin Helm, a favorite
alike with herself and with Lincoln,
had received a majors commission
from the President, which, after a
painful wrestle with his doubts, he de-
clined. He was to prove himself a
brilliant soldier and die CALAMITY for
the Confederacy on the field of Chicka-
manga.
Not only were several Of Mrs. Lin
coins sisters parted from her by the
war;" says Mr.. Morgan, their husband
against her husbands cause, but some
of her brothers as we'll were in the
p Confederate service"
The chronology of events may here
be anticipated to show how heavily
the sorrows of the war were to weigh
on Mrs. Lincoln as time went on. 1t
ball in honor of the Union victory at
Shiloh, while one of her brothers, who
in his youth had heen the darling of
her heart, lay dead on that battlefield
in uniform of gray.
Another brother in the Confeder-
acy fell at Vicksburg," says Mr.. Nor
gan, and was dying while his sister,
in the White House, listened to the
shouts of rejoicing over the victory of
Grant"
Mrs. LincoIns Hard Position.
The first hall year OF Mrs Lincoln s
residence in the White House had
been, in minor ways, most trying. She
had been obliged to encounter the hos
tile eyes of many merciless social crit
les.
Women with Southern sentiments,
especially, criticised her. They de-
clared her short and somewhat stout
figure lacked dignity; that her cos
tunes were not happily chosen; that
her manners were neither gracious nor
winning; in short, that she wanted all
the qualifications of a mistress of the
White House. These critics, naturally,
each supposed herself better fitted
than Mrs. Lincoln to fill the exalted
POSITION of the lady of the White
House.
The home life of the Lincolns had
been searchingly scrutinized by Wash
ington society. Its simplicity, though
appealing to some, shocked others.
The story was told, with some gusto,
in Washington homes, of Lincoln's be-
ing interrupted while holding an i'm
portant state conference, by a servant,
who thrust his head in the door and
said jim a loud whisper, she wants
you,~ No attention being paid to this,
he had repeated the summons, discon-
certing some of the statesmen pres
ent, though not Lincoln.
The President and his wife, in fact,
understood each other. They usually
addressed each other in the old-fash-
Toned terms of father" and mother. "
Their household was conducted in the
simplest rashlon possible under the
circumstances; for neither of them
ever lost a liking for Ilain living.
They had lived plainly enough in their
early married life, when they board
ed" at 50 a week, and the home they
had left in Springfield, Ill., on coming
to Washington, was 80 unpretentious
that an energetic woman like Mrs.
Lincoln could have done her own
work" in it in an emergency.
When the Lincolns entered the
White House March 4, 1861, they had
three sons. The eldest, Robert. was
1e,years old and a freshman at Har-
ward. William, tue second son, was