Evening star., 1924-12-07
BY MARGARET IL. DOWNING.

corresponding oval chamber which
has been from the days of John
Adams given over to the President as
a library. Every Chief Executive
except the first Adams, who moved
into the White House after his sue
cessor, Thomas Jefferson, had been
elected. has brought more or less
extensive collection Of books = fill
the cases which range the roo.~ and
which are kept empty against such
a contingency.
President Coolidge's library is the
largest part by far of the private
possessions which the present occu-
PANTS brought to the White House.
Fortunately he and his predecessors
preferred having books with marked
references and the boarded wisdom
thus represented. But a. in all well
ordered homes. there are cases de-
voted to literature generally desig
mated as Of feminine interest which
are permanent possessions of the
White House and which nil a beauti-
full old Sheraton piece, half desk,
falf shelves.
If only these we'll thumbed volumes
could tell some of their experiences,
light would be shed on the charac-
teristics of first ladies of the land
not possessed at present None of
these books would be found in a
circula ting library of today, and. in
gressional and the public libraries
would have difficult time locating
them. For they are the beloved fiction
of a forgotten day and the works OF
Jane Austen. which Mrs. Taft left as
her donataion to the meager fiction
at the disposal of White House guests
of novel-reading tendencies, might be
described as the latest best sellers
there.
There are George Eliot's novels.
which Mrs. Roosevelt delighted to
read, and those stalwart books for
juveniles of an earlier date, Scottish
Chieftains, Women of Israel" and
the Alcott series. If the necessary
permission could be obtained with
the abundant leisure needful many
q famous name could be deciphered
in fly leaves of these old books.
In the overwhelming list of New
York debutanes, the names of Anna
Eleanor Roosevelt, eldest daughter of
Mr.. and Mrs. Franklin Delano RooSe-
Welt, and that of Henriette Erhart
are of particular interest in Wash
ington, and will take number of
guests from the Capital to the me-
tropolis. Miss Roosevelt the daugh-
ter of the former Assistant Secretary
of the Navy, remembered several of
her classmates at the Cathedral
School for Girls with invitations to
her party, which was scheduled for
December 8, at the home of her par
ents. AZ East Sixty-fifth street. New
York City.
Mrs Roosevelt is the cousin of her
husband, and was. before her maj
riage, as she is now, Anna Eleanor
Roosevelt, of what is known as the
Hyde Park branch of the family. Miss
F;rhart is the sister of that Mar
guerite Erhart who married some six
years ago Signor Andreas Geisser
Celesia, first secretary of the Italian
embassy here, and who was a charm
ing leader of the American wing of
the foreign corps. Miss Henriette
Erhart is the youngest daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. William II. Erhart and
she will be presented in her Fifth
avenue home during Christmas week.
Rutherford b. Hayes, son of the
late President Hayes. has with his
wife, been passing some time in Lon
don and has received a cordial wei
come from the English Speaking
Union of which the ambassador. for
mer Senator Kellogg, is honorary
president. Mr.. Hayes resembles his
father in the personal sense and is of
the. same retiring trend of mind, but
he and Mrs. Hayes soon discovered
that the Englishman knows American
history well and that thousands of
natives of this republic domiciled in
the British Capital had no idea of
permitting the bearer of the name to
be neglected socially.
The American Club both male and
female, claimed them for a luncheon
and then the English h-Speaking Union
took them over for dining, followed
by a reception to scores of prominent
Americans living in London. In view
of the record which Mr.. and Mrs.
Hayes have made, they will find it
embarrassing when they return to
their home in Cincinnati to decline
invitations for frivolities on the plea
that they rarely move in the gay
world. Besides the numerous clubs
established under American auspices,
some distinguished sons and daugh-
ters of Uncle Sam became Interested
IN the entertainment of the son of a
President of the Republic and his
lady. They dined with Admiral Beatty
and his wife. the former Ethel Field
OF Chicago, and Lord Arthur Balfour
gave luncheon for Mr.. Hayes at
which he met the most eminent of
present-day British public men.
Berlin Is going through heavy
trial in the matter of rents and the
price of food and to this comes the
last straw, the soaring price of to-
bacco. Beriners smoke tremendously,
men and women in about equal pro-
portions. and they evidently do not
intend to submit tamely to the frag-
rant weed being placed at a prohibit
tive figure. Beer is showing signs
of following tobacco in the upward
scale and a wholesale protest Is being
directed against the municipal au-
thorities and demands made for allie
Walton.
Americans in Berlin who have been
in Washington lately, as Mrs. Warren
Delano Robbins, seem to think that
Berlin offers better and larger houses
than Washington and at a lower rate.
Food, of course, has been costly and
to get fair a la carte dinner is
luxury not to be induged in too often.
Milk for the use of children has been
made less expensive and meat is also
coming down. But what Berliners
dislike more than these material
privations is that theater and opera
tickets show a disposition to initiate
New York and that even the music
halls and cara bets are asking awful
prices for a mug of beer and light
food to accompany it, while Rhine
wine, for more than year past, has
been only for the opulent.
Mr. Myron Herrick, the Ambassador
to Paris has acquired a fame in that
fair city which was utterly confound-
ing to his most intimate friends in
his native land. The Ambassador is
very frequently designated by the
Secretary of State to betake himself
to Geneva and there to sit in un-
officially on some of the important
conferences held in connection with
the League of Nations. Never having
to advance an opinion nor to debate
a question, Mr.. Herrick beguiled the