Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1916-11-16
Mr.. Wilson as Seen by One of Family
Circle.


publication an intimate personal
sketch of Woodrow Wilson, the man,
written by Professor Stockton Axson,
whose sister, Ellen Louise Axson,
was the Presidents first wife. Pro-
fessor Axson not only had close per-
sonal relations with the President for
thirty five years, but served under
him, when Mr.. Wilson was president
of Princeton university. Following
are a few extracts from Professor Ak
sons article relating to the Presidents
home and married life:
'sIt is hard for me to speak in mod
crate terms of the beauty OF the VIII
sons married life-that married lfe
which saw SO intimately for more
than twenty-five years. In
the long years of his and my sisters
life together, they were more COM
pletely one than any two people with
whom have been thrown into inti-
mate contact. We often hear
it said OF married pair-so often that
it has become sort of 'bromide'-'A
cross word never passed between that
couple.' I have been honestly trying
to think if l ever heard anything ap
preaching an alteration between Mr..
and Mrs. Wilson, and can not recall
even shadow of such. And yet
these are no weaklings; buttwo spir-
tied people, each with "a power of
conviction possible only to very
strong characters. They would some
times differ in their opinions. but
their relationship was so rooted in
mutual love and loyalty that their diff
ferences were casual and superficial,
never fundamental. have
sometimes wondered how family
composed of varying and very posi-
tive elements ever contrived to live
in such absolute and undisturbed har-
m ony as did the Wilson family, and |
have come to the conclusion that such
~
a result can be attained only in one
way, not by any prescription, or plan
+ orsdomestic 'scheme' of action, but
only by enthroning love supreme
that where love is always master, ev-
cry day and every hour, there must
be harmony. In the Wilson house
hold love is always law.
''Only few of us know what Wood
row Wilson was really undergoing in
the summer and autumn of 1914, when
the world was catching fire from war
and the foundations of his own life
were crumbling under him. Just as the
war opened my sister died. Il can mol
help thinking he said, that perhaps
she was taken so that she might be
spared the spectacle of some awful
calamity
II was at the White house a great
deal that autumn andsI know that II
is no exaggerated use of words to say
that he was the loneliest man III al
the world. I can see the
lonely figure of the President now
walking down the long hallway, the
hair so much whitened in the few
months. His intimate friends oftei
expressed to me the wish that thu
President could marry again, as hi
was utterly desolate.
ave who love him feel that Got
himself must have directed the cir
cumstances which brought Mrs. Gal
into the White house circle. But fo
her we can only surmise what nigh
have happened, for not even tn
strongest man in the world could bea
up indefinitely under that dumb grief
Sunlight and grace radiate from Mrs
Gait. Her nature is big and generou
and ealth-giving, and in that presenc
the President found new life, foun
that love without which he can no
live. Their love for each other
perfect, and we all love her, both TO
what she has done for him and TO
herself, for to know her is to love hel
"She has entered this great 'caree
as simply, as unaffectedly, as unsel
fishly as Ellen Axson entered into th
obscure career OF the young lawye
who was abandoning law for a ne
and untried life of scholarship an
teaching. To neither woman hs
condition, high or low, meant any
thing; to both Woodrow Wilson hs
meant all.D