Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-05-25
Woodrow Wilson
AS | KNOW HIM
BY JOSEPH P. TUMULTY.

don the old man; the attorney SSH-
eraI had recommended it, and some
of the Warm-hearted members OIL
the presidents family had gone to
him and sought to exert their IN
fluence in behalf of the prisoner.
1t seemed as if everything was NOV
ing smoothly and that the old man
might be pardoned, until the family
influence was brought to bear. 1t
was the last pardon case brought
to his attention before the fall OF
the curtain on March 4. 1 went to
him, and said, my dear governor,
1 hope you will close your official
career here by doing an act of mer-
cy." He smiled at me and 1 thought
l could see the prison gates open for
the old man, but when [ mentioned
the name in the case, the president
stiffened up, stopped smiling and
looking at me in the coolest way,
said, 81 will not pardon this man,
Certain members Of my family to
whom I am deeply devoted, as you
know, have sought TO influence my
Judgment in this matter. They have
no right to do it. I should be I'M
worthy of my trust as president were
| to permit family interference of
any kind to affect my public actions,
because very few people in the coun-
try can exert that kind of influence,
and it must not be tolerated." The
case was closed; the pardon refused.
On His Personal Appearance
He often spoke to me III the frank
est way of his personal appearance;
how he looked and appeared, and OF
the ''old Scotch face" as he called it,
| which gave him the appearance Of
| what Caesar called a lean and hun
CRY look Speaking at the annual
. banquet of the Motion Picture Board
of Trade, he discussed his personal
! appearance in this way:
I have sometimes been very
much chagrined in seeing myself
in a motion picture. have won
dered if J. really was that kind of
| a "guy" The extraordinary
| rapidity with which walked, for
example, the instantaneous and
apparently automatic nature of
| my motion, the way IN which I
| produced uncommon grimaces,
and altogether the extraordinary
exhibition I made of myself
sends me to bed very unhappy.
| And I often think to myself that,
although all the world is a stage
! and men and women but actors
upon it, after all the external ap-
| pearances of things are very
| superficial indeed.
! He knew that his facial expression
i gave one the impression that he was
a cold and canny Scot. In repose
one would get that impression, but
when that old Scotch face took on
q winning smile, it was most gra-
cious and appealing. One of his ia
vorite limericks was:
"F'or beauty am not star.
There are others more handsome by
far.
But my face, I don't mind it,
For l am behind it,
| It's the people in front that jar"
Behind the cold exterior and be-
meath the "gleam of the waters"
there was a warm, generous heart.
I have often thought of the character
discussed by Israel Zangwill in his
book, "The Mantle of Elijah" These
lines, in my opinion, draw a perfect
picture of Woodrow Wilson as I
knew him:
Speaking of Allegra's father, Gang
will said:
| with him freedom was no neDu-
lCus figure, aureoled with shining
rhetoric, blowing her own trumpet,
but free trade, free speech, free edu-
cation. He did not rail against the
church IS the enemy, but he did not
count on it as a friend. His mil
lennium was earthly, human; his
philosophy sunny, untroubled by
Dantesque depths or shadows; his
campaign unmartial, constitutional,
frank focusing Of the new forces
emergent from the slow dissolution
O. feudalism and the rapid growth
Of a modern world. Toward such a
man the house Of commons had an
uneasy hostility. He did not play
the game. Wing and Tory, yellow
and blue, the immemorial shuffling
Of cabinet cards, the tricks and hon.
ors-he seemed to live outside them
all. He was no clubman in the best
club in England. He did not debate
for arguments sake, or to upset
ministers. He. was not bounded by
the walls of the chamber, nor ruled
from the speakers chair; the house
was resentfully conscious it had no
final word over his reputation or his
influence. He stood for something
outside it, something outside himself,
something large, vague, turbulent
untried, unplumbed, unknown-the
people,"
(COntinueO