The Washington herald., 1919-01-26
IN Prominent in the Social Life of the Nations Capital


Star spansled Banner. the Marseil-
laise. and God Save the King. Mar
tin Richardson, American tenor of
the Royal Opera Company, of
Florence. Italy. who has heen In
Washington since the beginning of
the war. devoting his voice to war
work and singing in one of the
local churches to lead 1t in the En-
glish language songs, and Lieut..
Boyer. of the French Mission. to
lead in the Marseillaise. Bot the
plans did not pan out. For un-
, known reason. Possibly the as
semblage got cold feet. or stage
fright. or something. Possibly
everybody was listening so hard
that they forgot to make a joyful
noise before the Lord. Possibly the
fact that little Prince Johns death
had put the Britishers in court
mourning. and necessitated their
staying away from anything that
looked like a party, put q damper
on the singing. 1t didn't happen,
that's certain, though everybody
was provided with q little leaflet
containing the first verse OF each OF
the three national anthems, so that
there would not be the excuse of
not knowing the words.
The managers OF the ball seem to
have made a point Of rounding up as
many returned soldiers as they pos
sibly could. They had planned to en-
tertain about fifty from Waiter Reed
Hospital, and placed three of the
largest boxes ut their disposal on
the theory that even if they couldn't
dance some of them would enjoy be-
ing there and seeing the people, and
hearing the music. To their amaze
ment the matron when approached
on the subject was delighted at the
idea of having her boys have a good
time-and said there were many of
her boys who could dance and who
loved to dance. and please couldn't
they come and really take part In
the ball instead of merely looking on.
Why OF course they could!
So a young ladies' committee was
organized to look after then,-and see
that they got all that was coming to
them in the way of partners. II they
were able to dance. and wanted to
dance, they certainly did not lack
opportunity. Though alas! there
were many boys there-and they
looked so young and boyish. and
greeted people so notwithstanding
and refusing TO be sorry for them-
selves-whose dancing days seem to
be permanently over!
Among the Rewly-returned I ran
into young "Fitz" Woodrow-Capt
Fitz Hugh Woodrow-to give him his
full and proper name. which nobody
ever does He's nice boy. young
kinsman OF the Presidents, who
made his home at the White House,
and had some sort of unimportant
clerkship during the first years of the
Wilson regime-until a new mistress
came to the Executive Mansion, when
he tactfully eliminated himself.
He at least is an example Of where
being a relative Of the Presidents did
not seem to constitute any particular
pull" He went into the irst officers
training class at Fort Myer. All the
young men who went into that were
given tentatively the grade which it
was thought they might adorn. Young
Woodrow was regarded as probably
good for a first lieutenancy. But at
the end OF the period OF training-in
August, 1917, that first class gradu-
ated-what he drew" was a second
lieutenancy. And then he went to
Camp Meade-and in due course went
overseas. He came back captain
surely not an unduly rapid promo
tion-only got back a week or two
ago-the same smiling modest boy
that he was before.
l did not know he was back until
ran into him at the Russian ball last
week. There he was being greeted en-
Enthusiastically on all sides, Late in the
evening he told. simply bubbling with
laughter, about having been intro
duced to some lady, who either didn't
catch his name-or failed to connect
it with the President. She apparently
did not like his august relative, and
the things she said about him-well.
they sounded rather like some Of the
things that have been said up in the
Senate chamber In the last few weeks
Later. the indiscreet person found out
who the quiet young man was-and
was terribly embarrassed. As a mat
ter of fact "Fitz" Woodrow is one Of
his distinguished hnsman's most ar
,~dent admirers-but-he's one of the
genuine, sensible. friendly youngsters
knows none is meant-and for the life
of him, / don't believe he could show
any temper to a woman.
To return to the ball-probably
the most observed man out Of uni
form was Tommy LoEan-Thomas
F. Logan, lobbyist and adviser of
half the biggest trusts" in the
country-dapper, smiling, with ath-
er large grey eyes. and sleek black
hair, always well groomed. and
rather theatrical looking. The pa
pers had been full of his examina-