Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1913-01-08

Il as important in the estimation
of multitudes of Americans,
Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, and Miss Mar
garet Wilson, Miss Jessie Wilson and
Miss Eleanor Wilson will move into
the White House next March.
The place of the ladies of the White
House has been kept before the coun-
try almost as prominently through all
these years as has that of the presi-
dent himself Eternally questions OF
precedence and etiquette have come
forward. The public has wanted to
know ali about the daily life and the
domestic doings of the presidential
family, the housekeeping woes of the
mistress of the mansion and her be-
havior at the official receptions; the
tastes and habits of all the feminine
members of the family, and withal
there have been at times little tales
Of boudoir plots and parlor intrigues,
although the history of the United
States has very little of the back
stairs kind of gossip that has played
a large part in the histories of the
nations of Europe.
Abigail Adams, First Mistress.
The wife of the first president did
not live in the White House, of course.
Abigail Adams of Quincy, Mass,
was the first mistress of the mansion,
although in her time it was a mansion
in the making, and the finishing
seemed to her very far away indeed.
1t was she who used the great, I'M
finished audience room" as a place In
which to dry the family wash.
Dolly Madison was almost as much
mistress of the mansion in Jefferson's
time as in that of his successor, her
husband, and it was she who saved
the one piece of the original furnish
ings which is this day in the presiden-
tial residence. When the British
burned the house in 1914 the redoubt-
able Dolly managed to carry away
the portrait of Washington which
hangs now over the mantel in the Red
room.
1t has taken long time for the
mansion to approach completion, and
no sooner was it finished than 1t was
destroyed by the ruthless hands of the
English soldiery.
The building which succeeded the
first residence was a faithful repro
duction in forms and dimensions of
the plans drawn by the original ar
chitect, Maj Hoban. The very foun-
dations and part of the outside walls
are relics of the building which went
in fire in 1914.
Mansion Is Now Complete.
Then in 1902 there was begun the
White House improvements which
have resulted in the mansion of to-
day becoming almost precisely what
the presidents house was intended
to be by those who made the original
plans for it. 1t was necessary to re-
lieve the residence of the necessity
of being headquarters for the bust
ness of the executive. An Office an
mex was built and thus the disfigur-
ing additions to the mansion could be
taken away.
The original plans were studied
for the restoration Of the residence
itself, and the buildings of the Uni
versity of Virginia, planned by JEFF
ferson, were investigated. A dining
room was provided in which 100
guests might be entertained. Space
for the comfortable housing of such
a family as that of Woodrow Wilson
was secured And finally, in 1912,
the Office building has been enlarged
and reconstructed, so that the new
president will have such family ac-
commodations as many of his prede-
cessors sighed for In vain.
The story of the successive White
House families has much of pictur-
esque variety. Not always has the
mistress been the wife of the presi-
dent. Buchanan was a bachelor; he
had been disappointed ia love as
young man. Jefferson. Jackson. Van