The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-01-20

at Washington was Abigail Adams.
The Jefferson administration had
preceded Mr.. Jefferson was a widow
err, and, although his married daugh-
ters visited him, and sometimes acted
as hostess for him, they were not, Of
course, accorded the place of a Lady
of the White House. Mr. Jefferson's
extreme democracy was merely a po-
litical protest against the stateliness
of the George and Martha regime, and
a part of the terrific equality of the
French Revolution. Mr.. Jefferson, as
Minister to France, saw much of it,
and became a good deal imbued with
violently leveling principles. Never
theless, he was lover of luxury, and
the White House as il stands is
monument of his architectural taste
The building was not finished during
Mrs. Adams residence there, and the
East Room was used for drying linen.
Mrs. Adams was a stern New England
type, and the traditions concerning
her show that she presided with dig
nifty, but not with the stateliness Of
Martha Washington or the glorious
charm of Dolly Madison.
When Dolly Madison came into the
White House it was finished and
splendid: for the period, it was pala-
tial. Mrs Madison left behind her the
greatest social traditions of any wom-
an who has ever presided in the
White House. She was passionately
fond of society, had much beauty tact,
and grace, and maintained an ascend
ancy in Washington society until her
death at great age. Probably no
woman ever enjoyed the position more
than Mrs. Madison. She cultivated
young persons, and the White House
entertainments we're very lively.
The impression that the White
House was burned by the British
when they held Washington for
couple of hours, is a mistake. They
set fire to it, as they did to the
Capitol; but in both cases the fires
were put out with slight damage
Dolly Madison was the only Lady of
the White House who ever had to run
away from it. She fed, with Presi-
dent Madison, carrying with her the
Gilbert Stewart portrait of Waahing-
ton, now hanging in the Blue Room.
Washington was then a mud hole
abhorred by European diplomats
They came to Washington under COM
pulsion and with intense prejudice
against republican form of Govern
ment, so that the diplomatic contin-
gent was difficult to handle. But Mrs.
Madison made them all behave them
selves, and, although they wrote
memoirs in which they abused Wash
ington and everybody in it, they all
profited by the example that was
made of Mr. Jackson, the British Min
lister. He became personally so in
solent that the President declined to
have him at the White House, and his
recall was demanded In those days
the collisions between the administra-
ton, both social and political, and the
diplomats, were frequent and anus
ing. The day had not come when an
unmarried attache of European En-
bassy or Legation stood about nienty
chances out of a hundred of succumb-
ing to an American girl. There were
few heiresses in those days, and, eX-
cept the French, every Legation
There were no Embassies them tried
to see how far it could go in impertin-
ence to the upstart Republic. Inter-
national marriages were differently
regarded in the earlier time, and it is
of record that a Washington banker,
whose only child was one of the great
heiresses of the time, coming home
one day from his ride, discovered his
daughter in the drawing room alone
with an attache of a European Power
The banker made dash with his rid
ing crop for the diplomat, who dived
under the grand piano; but the banker
got in a great deal of fine work with
his whip, and finally kicked the diplo-
mat down the steps.
Mrs. Andrew Jackson, woman of
humble origin and few attainments,
dreaded going to Washington, and in
the end never went, as she died be-
fore the Inauguration of President
Jackson.
There was one bride in the White
House prior to Mrs. Cleveland. This
was Miss Julia Gardiner, who married
President Tyler in 1914. The story of
the courtship of the middle aged and
courtly President, who had daughters
older than his fancee, is full of ro-
nance. Miss Gardiner was one of the
GARDENERS of GARDENERS Island, New
York, family that had maintained in
its island home a feudal state and dig
nifty for many generations. Miss Gar
Il l, l.,