The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-02-21
When Secretary McAdoo
Married Her Chum,
Washington Society's
Prettiest Debutante Flip
PANTY Remarked, II Should
Worry" But the Flippancy
.Is>All Gone Now.

\ only comment when her
father. the secretary of the
treasury. married her twenty-four-year-
old chum, Jessie Wilson, daughter of the
President. was Il should worry" has
left her father and her chum-step-
mother to soothe the pains and the
spirits Of wounded French soldiers.
The prettiest girl of which the pres
ent administration could boast is gone.
Her secretary-father and her chum-
mother as we'll as many other important
persons were at the dock to wave good
by as the Lusitania carried her away
All the handsome evening gowns
which pretty Mona used to wear when
she off1ciated at her fathers receptions
before her chum was made his wife are
for sale to the highest bidder These
costumes have been displayed at private
teas and the funds derived from their
sale will be given to some war relief
fund.
For many months she and her chum.
Catherine Britton, have been familiar
figures In operating rooms and wards of
Washington hospitals. where they we're
receiving instructions in nursing from a
competent graduate nurse.
They are not going to a field hos
pital, nor to get all muddfed ND drag
ging wounded soldiers back from the
trenches and doing other such unpleas.
ant things. They are going down to the
French Riviera, which is not the worst
place in the world to spend the winter
at any time. There they will establish a
hospital in San Reno in villa which is
being rented for them by Washington
society folk.
And now Washington society folk are
wondering if pretty Mona sailed with a
broken heart. They are asking them
selves If she really wanted to be war
nurse for the sake of being one or if she
wanted to be one because her life in the
east was not as happy as it might be.
Washington knows that the marriage
Of her tifty-year-old father to her TWEEN
ty-four-year-old chum was a hard blow
for her. The capital knows that it de-
prived her of her father, her home and
her dearest chum all at one stroke Not
that Mona has not been perfectly sweet
about the whole thing. She has never
uttered a word except the Il should
worry" comment. But Washington
knows that she really did worry.
When the announcement of the en-
gagement of Secretary McAdoo and Miss
Eleanor Wilson was made the younger
set at the capital was loud in its express
sion of sympathy for the secretarys
daughter.
She had been presiding over his Off
cial household. AS the first indications
Vi HtT GeSdTu the 1TeSluent S
daughter were observed she left no
doubt in the mind of anybody as to her
attitude toward the marriage which
could do nothing but dispossess her of
official empire in Washington in favor of
one who was as young a girl as herself.
At charity ball held at the Will
lard shortly after the announcement of
the engagement Mona was present with a
party of debutantes and when the sec
rnYa he Wit
Wilson on his arm Mona fled to the
dressing room and proceeded to have
fit of Mysteries. She came out of it in
such a limp condition and so detected
that she was Obliged to go home.
She declared that if her father mar
ried Miss Wilson she would not and
could not live at home. Although she
attended the luncheon at the White
House with which the Wilson's formally
ratified the announcement of the en-
gagement she absented herself from
nearly all the entertainments the secre-
tary gave his former fiancee.
poor Nona,'' was the invariable ex-
clamation made by her set whenever the
marriage wars mentioned.
All Washington knew that there
we're several fearful meetings between
Mona and her father and Mona and her
father and Miss Wilson.
Mona, it must be remembered, is
twenty-four years old and that is just
the age of her stepmother. Secretary
McAdoo is fifty years old. Here was the
whole heart of the trouble. 1t aroused
Nona's Indignation and resentment to
know that her father was to take to
wife girl who was just the age of his
daughter.
The two girls had been school
chums. They were inseparable. For
this reason Miss Wilson would not con-
sent to the marriage until she had re-
ceived the consent of Mona. Mona gave
it gracefully but tearfully. She said it
would please her splendidly to have so
dear friend for stepmother and that
it would only serve to cement their
friendship more closely. At least that
was the report given to the newspapers