The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1913-11-28
Simplicity With Dignity
Characterizes Wedding

Washington, November 25.-Sim-
plioity with dignity-the same ideal
which President Wilson has cher
ished for his administration since its
inauguration-wa tho predominant
nCte in the arrangements for the
marriage late today of Jessie Wood
row Wilson, second daughter Of
President and Mrs. Wilson, and
Francis Bowes Sayre,
During the 113 years that have
elapsed since the White House was
built, twelve weddings have taken
place there and it falls to the lot
of Miss Wilson to be the thirteenth,
coincidence all the more remark
able because the president often has
told his friends that the number
thirteen has run through his life as
a harbinger of good luck. Curiously
enough the bridal party and minister
number just thirteen.
The ceremony was to be solm-
niZed in the historic east room, ma
jestically decorated in masses of flow
I'll > lOI lHS OCCOSlOll, dJ I oU " SioSh
this afternoon, but long before that
hour the White House grounds as
sumed a holiday appearance. Inc
passing of automobiles and carriages
to and from the north portico told
the gathering crowds outdoors that
the bridal party-the ushers and
attendant maids-had arrived and
that all was in readiness for the
unusual event-the giving in mar
riage of daughter of the president
of the United States.
The Touch of HomeIiness.
Notwithstanding it's official BRILL
anCy, there was a distinct touch of
LONELINESS in the days affair. The
Rev Sylvester W. Beach, pastor of
the First Presbyterian church at
Princeton, N j., where Miss Wilson
long taught a Sunday Bible class
and where the Wilson family wor-
shipped for score of years, had
been selected as the officiating
clergyman. The maid of honor was
the eldest daughter of the president,
Miss Margaret Wilson. The brides
maids were the brides younger sis
ter, Miss Eleanor Randolph Wilson,
and Miss Mary G. White, of Balti-
more; Miss Adeline Mitchell Scott
Of Princeton, and Marjorie Brown OF
Atlanta, the last relative, and the
others chums of girlhood days.
The best man was Dr. Wilfred T.
Grenfell, with whom Sayre spent
many months ministering to the
sick and needy on the rock-bound
Labrador coast. The ushers were
the groom's college mates-Benjamin
b. Burton of New York, DR.. De Witt
DR.. Gilbert HOITaX, of Montclair, n.
T., and Charles Evans Hughes, Jr.,
son of the justice of the supreme
court.
Eoth Are Blondes.
The bride and groom-both blonde
and of about the same height, she
known as the White House beauty
because of her classic Grecian fea
lures, and he, tall, 1.-the young
man athletic in appearance with
sharp features and fair complexion
were busily occupied during the
forepart of the day mingling in the
bridal party, their relatives and
house guests to whom alone the
White House was accessible before
the wedding hour.
The two young people who have
lived the hardships of the poverty
settlements in big cities and who
have inquired into life's social and
economic problems first hand, would
have preferred quiet wedding, lin
tied to the family circle and close
friends-such as it might have been
had not the parents of the bride
been elevated to the foremost socia
position in the gift of the nation
Reluctantly was it made an officia
affair. The diplomatic corps, it was
realized, had never been omitted CT
any important social occasion at the
White House, nor had the members
of the cabinet and the supreme court
To Washington society today's wa.
the supreme event of the season
yet the guests were hardly drawn
from official life but from the vas
circle of friends of the two familie:
throughout the land.
But 400 Invitations.
There were but four hundred in
vitations issued-600 less than a
the Roosevelt wedding seven year!
ago-but the Wilson's are newcomer.
in Washington, whereas the Roose
welt administration was then fiv,
years old aid officials and thei
wives had had a greater opportunit.
TO establish intimate relations at tn,
White House.
Members of the cabinet and thei
wives and families, as we'll as tn
justices of the supreme court of tn
United States and their families, tn
ambassadors and ministers, repre-
senting kings and emperors through
out the civilized world, the Vice
President and Mrs., Marshall, tn
speaker of the house and Mr.!
Champ Clark, Senator Kern and Rel
resentative Oscar Underwood, tn
democratic leaders,; and Senator Ga
linger and Representative Mann, tn
minority leaders of congress, an
their wives-these were the person
ton, though among them were man