The Brandon news., 1915-12-23
PRESIDENT WILSON
WEDS MRS. GAIT
ONLY RELATIVES WITNESS cERE-
MONY AT THE HOME OF
THE BRIDE.
HONEYMOON IN VIRGINIA
Bridal Couple Leave at Once on sSpe-
clai Train For Hot Springs-Epis-
copaI Ceremony 10 Used In
Marriage.

Washington. D. C.-President Will
son and Mrs. Edith Boiling Gait were
married at $3.50 o'clock on the evening
of Dec Is and left afterward to spend
their honeymoon at Hot Springs, Va.
The president and his bride travelled
in a private car attached to a special
train leaving here at 11:10 o'clock.
AT Hot Springs Mr.. and Mrs. VIII
son will live at the Homestead Hotel
until some very urgent business should
necessitate the presidents earlier re-
turn to the capital. Two of the
White House automobiles were sent
on ahead and the couple expect to
spend their honeymoon motoring, golf
ing and walking over the mountain
trails. Beside the secret service
guard, the party was accompanied by
one stenographsr. The president will
keep in touch with the White House
over special wires.
Because the hour Of the wedding
was known to comparatively few peo-
pie there was not large crowd in the
vicinity of the brides home, although
a large police guard had been pro-
vided
All arrangements for the wedding
ceremony were carried out perfectly,
the president arriving at his brides
home soon after o'clock and the re-
mainder of the wedding party, which
numbered less than thirty, followed
soon after. The ceremony was begun
as had been arranged at $3.50.
Mrs. Wilson was married in the
travelling gown she wore to the train.
Took Train In Virginia.
Shortly after 10 o'clock the presi-
dAnt and Mrs. Wilson entered q wait
yHs White House automobile and mo-
tored to Alexandria, Va, across the
Potomac, to take their private car
there and avoid a crowd at the rail-
road station in this city.
After the president and his bride
had departed Secretary Tumulty made
this formal statement on the cere-
mony:
"The wedding was marked with SIM
plicity. 1t was just such wedding
as might have taken place in the
home of the humblest American citi-
zen"
The prayer book which the officiat-
ing clergyman used was once the prop
erty of the late Judge William H. Boil
ling of Virginia, father of the bride,
and was used at her request.
Several guests added to the list at
the last moment includes Prof. Stock
ton Axson, a brother of the late Mrs.
Wilson; A. Boiling Gait, the former a
brother of Mrs. Wilson's first husband,
and Mrs. Tumulty, the wife of Secre-
tary Tumulty One of the added guests
was Matilda Braxton, an old negro
nanny of Wytheville, who has been
a servant in the brides family all her
life.
The ruse by which the wedding
party got away to Alexandria was
complete. When the White House
automobile pulled away from Mrs.
Wilson's house lines Of police blocked
pursuit in all the adjoining streets. At
the Union Station the presidential
entrance was fully lighted and lines
of police were spread all about. Those
who were attracted to the railroad
station by the show Of preparation
were disappointed, while the president
and Mrs. Wilson were speeding to the
station across the river, ten miles
away.
The president and Mrs. Wilson
boarded their special car at Alexan-
dria at 11:4O pm. and began their
Journey to Hot Springs.
No Wedding Attendants.
Everything was in readiness for the
ceremony when the president arrived
at the Gait home and it proceeded
without music. Neither the president
nor Mrs. Gait had any attendants and
there were no ushers or flower girls.
Neither the army, the navy nor the
Diplomatic corps was represented and
the occasion was essentially what both
of the couple had wished 1t to be-a
home wedding.
On the first floor Of the brides home,
In two communicating rooms, we'd
ding bower had been arranged with
a background OF farleyanse and maid
enhair ferns which extended from the
floor TO the ceiling. Overhead there
was a canopy OF green in the form Of
a shell lined with Scotch heather. In
the background and at the center was
pIaced a large mirror framed with or