Evening star., 1924-02-04
DEATH OF WILSON
LIKE HARD|NG'S
Both Collapsed Under Same
Circumstances, But For
mer fingered Long.
AFFECTION WAS STRONG
Consideration of New President for
Stricken War Leader Long
Remembered.
AFFECTION WAS STRONG
By the Associated Press.

I BY the Associated Press.
Death laid it's fngertips on Wood
row Wilson-as it did on his success
sor. Warren G. Harding-while he
, was on a speaking trip in the west
While Harding's collapse led to
apoplexy and death within a week,
Wilson's led to paralysis and lin
gering disability of years.
Strangely enough, the missions
upon which the two Presidents were
engaged while stricken were similar.
Wilson was campaigning for the en-
try of the United states into the
, league of nations: Harding was
campaigning for the entry of the
country into the world court.
Wilson lived to see Harding dead
and buried. participating in the lat
tcr's funeral, and yet any one of the
hundreds of thousands of men and
women who saw the two men riding
to the Capitol together on the day
of Harding'S nauguration-March 4.
1921-would have wagered that Hard
ing would help lay Wilson under the
sod
Harding Consideration Noted.
The one sight of all the Inaugural
tion spectacle on that day, which
thousands of Americans took home
with them. was Harding's gentle con-
sid Grafton for his stricken predeces-
sor. He had actually helped lift Will
son down the steps of the White
House portico and into their carriage.
On the way to the Capitol, where he
took the oath, he had silenced with
a gesture the cheering throngs, in
respect to the shrunken, sick man
beside him Throughout all the in
auguration ceremony Harding pur-
sidera ton for Wilson. 1t was the
gentleness of Harding's nature to DO
so, and, as time told, the acts were
stored away in the memory of the
man whom some called cold and un-
responsive and others called migrate
full.
At the start of the ride that inaug-
uration day along Pennsylvania avenue
there was an embarrassed silence be-
tween the two men. Then Harding,
serve perhaps to take his companions
mind away from the severe strain
through which he was passing, started
discussion of White House pets. From
that the conversation led to talk of pet
animals in general. and Harding re-
lated Il story of how his sister, a mis-
siOnary in India, had been touched by
the devotion of an elephant that in his
last hours moaned piteously until his
keeper had been summoned and then,
folding the man to him tenderly with
his trunk, had peacefully and content
edly passed away.
Story Brought Tears.
To his astonishment, when the story
was over, Harding saw tears coursing
down the wan cheeks Of the man beside
him.
Wilson, living in seclusion in his
home here, never had any social in
tercourse with Harding, but he always
remembered him kindly. One night at
vaudeville show motion picture OF
Wilson was thrown on the screen. His
fellow townsmen gave 1t q roar OF ap-
plause. Harding's picture followed and
was greeted with a lesser demonstra-
ton InQuiring faces were turned to
Wilson. They saw his jaw set and
his eyes flashing.
''That is a gross disrespect to the
President of the United States," he said
to those about him, "and do not ap-
preciate any such kind OF complf
ment."
Time passed, and one day Death
knocked at the White House door. He
fingered there. too, reluctant to go
away. He was beckonihg to Mrs. Hard:
home, not many blocks away, Woodrow
Wilson, the paralyzed invalid, as he
supported his wavering frame upon his
chair and said his prayer for grace as
he sat down to his meals, murmered
his plea to God that she might be re-
stored to health. All that the world
knew was that he drove to the White
House door and left his card.
Later, with genuine sorrow, he par
ticipated in the state funeral for Mr..
Harding and publicly declared him
President who undoubtedly had won
the esteem of the whole nation by his
honorable and conscientious conduct in
Office"