The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1913-03-07
SCENES HUMAN
AND PRECEDENT-BREAKING
MutudeS Cheer Wilson as Tafts Farewell Is Sunny
He Becomes the President Smile, as Thousands Cheer
MAGNIFICENT TRIBUTES TO NEWAND OLD PRESIDENTS

WASHINGTON, March 4.-William
Howard Taft, public servant since he
was 81, said farewell to public life
today and became a citizen of the re-
public that he has served over the
seas and throughout the world for
so many years that he has almost for
gotten when he enlisted.
His goodbye was q smile. A hand
shake for the members of his cabi-
net; a courtly bow to the women
friends who braved the Inauguration
discomforts to bid him and Mrs. Taft
goodbye in the union station; wave
of the hand and another smile for the
people who stood in the train shed
and watched his train pull slowly
out for the South.
The last that Washington saw of
the twenty-seventh president was the
dim outline of a big smiling figure
in a frock coat, with hair a little
awry, standing on the rear platform
of private car as 1t WAS swallowed
in the curling smoke of the tunnel
that leads under the city to Dixie.
| His last glimpses of the city where
| four years ago he became chief exec
, utive and today a private citizen by
! the peoples will was when he look
ed from the platform of his car
across the broad Potomac to where
| the Washington monument lifted its
gray, pointed peak to the sky.
On His Way to Georgia.
Tomorrow he expects to be in
Georgia to rest and play as the guest
| OF the city of Augusta for three
weeks. On March 9th he plans to
go North again to New Haven to set
| tie down under the elms of Yale
! to the peace and quiet of life as a
professor of law. He left with no
bitterness in his heart, he told his
friends, but only with thankfulness
that he had been given the opportu-
/ nifty to serve.
Absorbed as it was in the inaugu-
ration pageant Washington did not
] forget the man, the retiring presi-
dent Although he was hurried in
one of the white house cars from the
back of the white house down
/ through the hall and over the back
streets hundreds of those on the side
walks who recognized him cheered
him Justify. He was forced to break
through the line of march in front OF
the capitol to get to the union sta
ton and the massed thousands for
got the parade for a moment to pay
their last tribute of applause.
At the station most of the mem
hers of the Taft cabinet and their
wives and several close friends OF
Mrs. Taft were waiting. Miss Helen
Taft wept gently as the farewells
were said and the eyes of some OF
the others were far from dry.
Through Cheering ThrOng.
With all the ceremony that has at
tended his departure on other oc'
casons, the roped wide passageway
across the broad cOncOurse, the
scores of station police, the secre
: service men and his former aid, Ma
5 jor Thomas l. Rhoades. with hi
= spurs clicking on the stone, Mr.. Tai
! marched through a cheering thrOnI
$ to his train.
l He stood for a few minutes by thu
side of his car. shook hands one,
Q more with his friends and then stepp
= ed aboard
e Il am now retiring to a pedestrian
;, life" he said
n This had been a busy day for MI
e Taft Although he was up until
t o'clock this morning he slept Onl
four hours and was at his study desl
r again to wind up the business of hi
/ administration. He worked, wit
d only a few minutes for breakfast
e until Mr.. Wilson started from hi
+ hotel to the white house. He spen
e an hour in the presidents room i
II the senate side of the capitol signin
bills, vetoing others and in betwee
times talking with Mr.. Wilson an
with senators and representative
, who paid their last call.
It At the white house luncheon tn
d president sat and chatted for te
Is minutes with Mrs. Wilson. He lei
W by the south door and his last VIE
p OF the mansion came as his automC
bile shot down through the Mall.