Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-05-11
CHAPTER XII.

increased with each successive day
of the journey, but not evel4 to us
of the immediate party did she be-
tray her fears. Her resolution was
as great as his.
When the great illness came she
had to stand between him and the
peril of exhaustion from official
cares, yet she could not, like the
more fortunately obscure, withdraw
her husband from business alto
gether and take him away to some
quiet place for restoration. AS head
of the nation he must be kept in
touch with affairs, and during the
early months of his illness she was
the chief agent in keeping hin in
formed of public business. Her high
intelligence and her extraordinary
memory enabled her to report to him
daily, in lucid detail, weighty mat
tiers of state brought to her by Of
ficials for Transmission to him. At
the proper time, hen he was least
in pain and least exhausted, she
would present a clear, oral resume
of each case and lay the documents
before him in orderly arrangement,
AS Womal and wife, the first
thought of her stu and the first
care of her heart must be for his
health. Once, at an acute period in
his illness, certain ual2.,,ls insisted
that they must see him because they
carried in formation which lit was
absolutely necessary that the presi-
dent of the United States should
have" and she quietly replied, II
n int nd in tho TornSidnnk .af
the United States. I am interested
in my husband and his health"
Devoted Nurse
With loving courage she met her
difficult dilemma of shielding him
as much as possible and at the SAME
time keeping him acquainted with
things he must know. Wien it be-
came possible for him to see people,
she, in counsel with Admiral Gray.
son, would arrange for conferences
and carefully watch her husband to
see that they who talked with him
did not trespass too long upon his
limited energy.
When it became evident that the
tide of public opinion was setting
| against the league, the president fl
! nally decided upon the western trip
as the only means of bringing home
to the people the unparalleled world
| situation.
At the executive offices we at once
set in motion preparations for the
western trip. One itinerary after
another was prepared, but upon ex
amining them the president would
find that they were not extensive
enough and would suspect that they
were made by those of us-like Gray
son and myself-who were solicitous
for his health, and he would cast
them aside. All the itineraries pro
vided for week of rest in the Grand
| Canyon Of the Colorado, but when
a brief vacation was intimated to
him he was obdurate in his refusal
to include even day of relaxation
saying to me that 'the people would
never forgive me if I took a rest on
trip such as the one contemplate
| taking. This is a business trip, pure
and simple, and the itinerary must
not include rest of any kind" He
insisted that there be no suggestion
of pleasure trip attaching to a
journey which he regarded as a mis-
sion.
Refuses to Rest
AS I now look back upon this jour
ney and it's disastrous effects upon
the presidents health, I believe that
If he had only consented to include
a rest period in our arrangements
he might not have broken down at
Pueblo.
! Never had I seen the president
look so weary as on the night we
| left Washington for our swing into
| the west. When we were about to
| board our special train, the presi-
dent turned to me and said: II am
| in nice fix. I am scheduled be-
| tween now and the 28th of Septem-
Der to make in the neighborhood
of an hundred speeches to various
bodies, stretching all the way from
Ohio to the coast, and yet the pres
sure of other affairs upon me at the
| White House has been so great that
have not had a single minute to
prepare my speeches. / do not know
how 1 shall get the time, for dur.
| ing the past few weeks I have been
suffering from daily headaches; but
perhaps tonight's rest will make me
fit for the work of tomorrow"
No WEAKNESS or brain-fag, howev
err, was apparent in the speech al
Columbus, Ohio. To those of US who
sat on the platform, including the
newspaper group who accompanied
the president, this speech, with its
beautiful phrasing and it's effective
delivery, seemed to have been care
fully prepared.
Day after day, for nearly month
there were speeches of a similar
| kind, growing more intense in their
emotion with each day. Shortly aft
err we left Tacoma, Wash, the ia
tigue of the trip began to write it
self in the presidents face. He suf
fered from violent headaches each
day, but his speeches never betrayed
his illness. AS one reads the west
ern speeches of the president he
must be convinced that a great con
Viction and nothing else could have
enabled a man as i'll as was thu
president to rise to such heights o.
argument and utterance.
No Recreation
In those troublous days and unit
the very end of our western triI
the president would not permit th'
slightest variation from our dali!
program. Nor did he ever permi
the constant headaches, which
would have put an ordinary man ou
of sorts, to work unkindly upon thu
members of his immediate party
which included Mrs. Wilson, DR.
<D,u,,