Evening star., 1924-03-08
The True Story of
Woodrow Wilson
ByDAVID LAWRENCE.

dresses with few notes ahead of
time and trusting to his power of
concentration in developing theme
This meant that his best speeches
were made when he had an attentive
audience or when he spoke in a small
hall where quiet could be assured.
The speeches sounded well and read
delivery. Newspaper men who travel
ed with him were impressed again
and again by his versatility in han
ding from day to day the same topic
In a different way. If his speeches
were to be examined and compared
it would be found that while he en-
ployed the same argument he never
used the same phraseology. Report
ers never knew what he was going to
say-they found themselves. listening
always for the unexpected
sometimes the reporters used to
feel that he was conscious of their
presence and that he felt the ne
cesslty OF making every speech diff
them to be repeating. Each cam
paign held the interest of those who
! We're reporting it, and in this respect
Mr.. Wilson's publicity sense. which
was none too good as whole, was
especially effective.
Quiet Election Night.
Election might 1912, was about as
| uninteresting and undramatic an oc-
| casion as it was important to the
man who was the chief figure in it.
Possibly it was that Mr.. Wilson felt
| confident of the result and possibly
! it was Mr.. Wilson's characteristic
! ability to disguise his true feelings.
| But were it not for the student body
| CT Princeton University, who came
J marching down to the little cottage
! on Cleveland lane, a stones throw
! from the house where Grover Cleve-
| land lived and died. the incident
! out even n cheer of enthusiasm or a
note of eXultation of any kind.
! To the modest little cottage on
! Cleveland lane came the torchlight
! procession, with fife and drum, sing
| ing, yelling and giving to the whole
! atmosphere more of the appearance
| of an athletic victory than a political
| celebration. Students in Princeton
will parade, anyhow. on the slightest
! provocation. and the fact that a grad
! uate had been elected President of the
United States gave them a thrilling
excuse.
| Down the same streets students
| had tripped in the days when Gen.
| Washington received the thanks of
the Continental Congress, meeting at
! Nassau Hall after the revolution. 1t
! was in the same environment that
| James Madison. another President of
the United States, had lived. More
recently-only five years before cleo
| tion night 1912-the students had
marched to the home Of Grover Cleve-
| land to greet him on the occasion of
| his SEVENTEEN birthday. The last
/ President of the United States elected
on the democratic ticket and the first
| democrat to be elected since then
| both had been a vital part OF
| Princeton.
Speech by Presidcnt-Eiect.
Only few persons were admitted
to the Wilson cottage, mostly news
| paper men who had accompanied the
| governor during his presidential cam
paign. Except for the ticking of a
! telegraph instrument in the library
one would have believed it was a
social evening in the Wilson home.
Serenaded by the students. Wood
row Wilson made his first speech that
[, night as the elected Chief Executive
| of the American people. 1t was an
| inpromptu address, but it paralleled