The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1913-11-25
In Anticipation of Jessie
Wilson's Wedding
To-day
EAST ROOM, SCENE
OF GREAT BEAUTY
Ceremony to Take Place at
4:3O O'clock This
Afternoon

Washington, D. c., Nov. 25.-Indial
summer weather ushered in the wed
ding day of Miss Jessie Woodrow vii
son, second daughter of President anC
Mrs. Wilson. Carriages early begai
rolling up to the portico of the Whit
House. and there was distinct toucl
of holiday atmosphere everywhere. Ii
the interior of the White House, flora
bower in itself, everything was in readi
ness for the ceremony. President VII
son himself had but one engagement
prior to the wedding, that being meet
ing of the cabinet.
The wedding couple will spend the
greater part of their honeymoon abroad
and it is thought that they will sal
within week, although the time oi
their departure and their destination are
being kept secret.
During the ll3 years that have elapsed
since the White House was built, L
weddings have taken place there and il
falls to the lot of Miss Wilson to be
the 18th, coincidence all the more re-
markable because the president has told
his friends that the number ID has run
through his life as a harbinger OF good
luck. Curiously enough the bridal party
and the minister number just ID.
The ceremony was to be solemnized in
the historic East room, majestically dec
grated in masses of flowers for the oc-
casion, at 4:30 o'clock this afternoon,
but long before that hour the White
House grounds assumed a holiday APP
pearance. The passing of automobiles
and carriages to and from the north
portico told the gathering crowds out
doors that the bridal party-the ushers
and attendant maids-had arrived and
that all was in readiness for the un-
usual event-the giving in marriage of
daughter OF the president OF the United
States.
There were but 400 invitations is
sued--600 less than at the Roosevelt
wedding seven years ago--but the Will
sons are newcomers in Washington,
whereas the Roosevelt administration
was then five years old and officials and
their wives had had greater opportu-
nifty to establish intimate relations at
the White House.
East Room Decorations.
In the East room, as it was prepared
for the wedding, three crystal ehande-
liers with their pseudo-csndle lights were
to be but half illuminated, spreading a
dim but suffused light over the gold
trimmed walls with their cream colored
pilasters, their huge vases and mantels
of colored marble. The walls of the
East room are covered with wood panel
ing, the ornamental ceiling is done in
stucco and set in the walls are IL low
relief panels, their subjects from Rsop's
fables. The window draperies of heavy
yellow silk damask were hung loose to-
day and the shades drawn. At the east
end of the room facing the treasury
building there is a series of four win
dows, broken by piers. 1t was in front
of these windows on a dais banked with
flowers that the wedding ceremony was
to be performed.
The windows were draped with a large
lambrequin of old gold plush with cur
tains on either side. Wherever there
was a loop or wherever the overhanging
borders of the lambrequin joined, there
were large ropes of smilax and punches
of lilies. In front OF these windows a
platform approached by two semi-cir-
eular steps had been erected. The plat
form itself was covered with rug, and
Immediately above the steps was kneel-
ing bench upholstered in white cloth,
tied with white satin ribbons and filled
out with bride roses and lilies. Behind
this, with just enough space for, the Off
ciating clergyman to stand, was a mass
of palms and smilax with great bunch
of lilies.
Everybody was to stand on the glist
ening parquette floor, for there are no
chairs in the East room except on rare
occasions, at musicales. The so-called
official guests, including members of the
cabinet, the vice-president and the speak
er of the House and their families, the
justices of the supreme court and the
diplomatic corps and their ladies were
to be grouped in the southern half of
the room, while the guests generally
were to stand in the northern half with
the immediate families of the bride and
groom in the aisle between, surrounding
the dais after the bridal party had
reached the floral bower and improvised
altar. Two ropes wound in white satin
marked the green carpeted aisle.
Looking down the main aisle from
the dais, the green carpeting met the red
rugs of the long corridor which bi-sects
the lower floor of the White House lead
ing from the state dining room to the
East room and bordering the trio of
parlors-the Red room, the Blue room
and the Green room. The United States
Marine band grouped behind palms was
to occupy part of the great reception
hall of marble floor and bufftinted pilas-
ters.