Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-03-08
GROUNDS Of WHITE
HOUSE OPENED To
PUBLIC ONCE MORE
BY DAVID LAWRENCE
(Leased Wire Service to The Journal)
DOWNRIGHT 1921

WASHINGTON, March 5. - The
thrill that comes once in the lives
of chosen few in Notwithstanding
up in the historic atmosphere of the
White House-seemed to be reflected
in the beaming faces of thousands
who stood in the sunlight of a veri-
table spring morning, peering
through the glass doors Of the ex-
ecutive mansion hoping to catch
glimpse of the new chief magistrate
and the first lady of the land.
For the first time since the cloud
ed days of the war, the gates had
been thrown open and men, women
and children, walked freely again in
the grounds of the White House, lin
gered beneath the portico as of old
and felt closer to the distinguished
occupants of the executive mansion,
closer than ever before. That phase
of the new administration which
prompted President and Mrs. Warren
Harding to throw open the gates
seemed to fill the air with a spirit
of comradeship which the people of
Washington, have not felt in many
day. It was not that the Wilson's
meant to be distant. The White
House grounds were always open
during the first four years and were
closed as precaution in the days
when mountaineering and incendiar-
ism destroyed many a factory in
capital building itself. When Mr..
Wilson came back from Europe the
grounds were kept closed because of
his breakdown in health and the de-
sire to keep curious eyes from the
wheeled chair which gave it's distin-
guished invalid intermittent outings.
The president and Mrs. Harding
had their kinfolks for breakfast and
the sensation of going about the
| White House, inspecting it's many
many luXuries and conveniences was
as natural as it was American. There
was no Disgusting the pleasure that
was written in the joyful counte-
nance of Mrs. Harding who, from the
start, has wondered if she were
dreaming or if it were really true
that she would occupy the White
House. She has always told her
friends that she was afraid some
| thing would happen something
would interrupt-it was a woman's
superstition which was happily dis
PEELED today as she found herself in
the sacred precincts where so many
women have longed and will always
long to be, there to WELD the scep-
ter of social power which goes with
the exalted position of the first lady
of the land.
| MIS-. f1dEQlnS, however, IS not LC
be mistaken for the type of woman
who, having reached an eminence
comes to look down on her former
| friends and associates. Rather is
she the woman who will always try
| to make her friends feel that being
| in the White House cannot and will
| not change her. If she has any am
bition, it is to prove to her friends
that she is still Florence King Har-
| ding as they knew her in the social
| circle of the senate and still the
| companionable woman whom the
folks back in Marion learned to love
| and admire.
The new president was happy to
| be able to show the White House to
his aged father. No president in the
| memory of this generation has had
that peculiar privilege, though no
doubt many president has wished
with all his heart that he might
have shown his parent what he had
achieved.