Evening star., 1924-03-27
CHAPTER XXXII.
The Last Four Years.

Can storied urn or animated bust
Back TO its mansion call the heeting breath
San honor's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or fatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of death
THOMAS GRAY.
On the plains of Kansas, the appeal
OF Woodrow Wilson to the American
people to give their support to the
The presidential train was turned
homeward. The symptoms of a
breakdown of the arteries-the inev-
table collapse of an overburdened
physique-cast their warning none
too soon.
Nervously the President tossed in
his bed in the private car, tormented
mostly by the thought that his enc
mics would say he had quit the fight,
that he was shamming illness. There
were skeptics among the newspaper
men, but they were minority. Most
of us knew the break long expected.
had come at last. The train sped
rapidly 10 Washington with hardly a
stop. Arriving on Sunday morning.
the President walked briskly through
the Union station, was Photographic ed
as usual. and the skeptics increased
in number-for outWardly he showed
10 signs of change.
1t was not until few days later,
in tho White House, that a blood clot
formed in the blood vessels of Mr..
Wilson's brain, permanently impair
ing tde use of his left arm and leg.
.Nfter that he was never the same.
To his physical condition. with the
accompanying lapses of memory. ir-
ritability and excessive emotion, must
Woodrow Wilson beginning in Octo-
bcr. 1919. and continuing until the
day of his death, more than four
years later.
Labors of n Tired Brain.
Every criticism. every coolness
which old friends experienced, every
expression on the part of Woodrow
Wilson with reference to the few
problems that he was permitted to
consider or discuss cannot be ap-
praised in retrospect without being
mindful of the tired brain that once
SWayed the world and then feebly
sought to retain its hold on the presl
dency and public opinion.
There were days when woodrow
Wilson seemed to be mentally as
keen as ever. Shutting ones eyes
to the dropping figure and listening
OF an unchanged personality would
not have been difficult to maintain.
Little by little, as gradual improve
mept in his condition was evident.
more executive work was undertaken,
but always at his side stood the de-
voted wife and the physician, Admiral
Cary T. Grayson. Together they car
ried the secrets of the sick room
while private Secretary Tumulty play
ed the role of everything as usual
in, tlNn fiHn nf1i = If
loyalty to his chief which alone
should have earned him something
better than the brusque treatment
he later received.
and many an old friend who had
served Mr.. Wilson in the past was
turned away. The tragic events that
followed Mr.. Wilson's breakdown can
logic. Those who had it in their
power to persuade President Wilson
TO permit advisers to reach him fail
ed to realize the immensely of their
responsibility in shutting him off so
completely from the outside world.
Denied Needed Advice.
Whether America would have BEN
Gifted by entrance into the league of
nations it is not necessary to dis
cuss, but the United States would to-
day be in the league officially if the
President had been able to get the
advice he so much needed in his en-
feehled condition. On his sick bed,
he almost agreed to accept the Lodge
reservations, but some one urged him
10 make of it an issue in the 1920
campaign. and in January, 1920, he
asked that a solemn referendum be
taken. Was it the whispering voice
of ambition which put into his mind
the forlorn hope that he could re-
Mr.. Wilson was not ambitious. Those
around him-not all--felt the magic
spell of power and inevitably longed