Evening star., 1925-04-19

~ tory makes 1t easy to under
Il stand why President Coolidge
4 \ takes his work seriously and
follows a rational course of
living (even to exercise on his me-
chanical horse) for the purpose of
keeping himself in the best possible
physical condition. In spite of ira
ditions for brilliancy, glory and pow
er, the White House has often dealt
cruel blows upon its occupants. In
the century and a quarter since John
and Abigail Adams moved in more
occupants of the Executive Mansion
have left it in sorrow over some grim
tragedy than have walked out joy
ously, with happy memories of their
sojourn within its historic walls.
The White House tragedy in the
life of Washington was his failure
to live to see the building completed
and occupied.
The Father of his Country, how
ever, knew tragedy while in Office
in New York and Philadelphia, where
he was criticized for every fault of
the new republic and constantly
charged with designing to make him
self emperor.
Jefferson leaves a narrowing pic
ture in his account of Washington
Indignation over a caricature of the
time representing the general wear
ing crown.
John Adams had the most exalted
idea of the presidency of any man
who ever occupied the position. He
brought to the Office all his reverence
for forms and ceremonies acquired
during a long residence at European
courts, but he ratified out of Washing
ton in his coach before daylight on
March 4, 1901 (after only one term),
his heart broken and his spirit crush
ed, because the Democrat, Jefferson,
had been put in his place.
The Sage of Monticello kept open
hearth and open board for eight years.
His almost daily dinners (where they
started eating at 4 and talked until
midnighD were expensive, for he in
sisted upon the choicest luXuries in
food and wines. He kept IL servants
and a French cook, with the result
that he quit the White House a bank
rupt. He had to sell part of his es-
tate to pay his debts and could never
afterward afford to leave Monticello,
as the farm barely gave him a living.
X
JAMES MONROE entered the White
House with an invalid wife, whose
delicate health throughout the eight
years comprising the ERA Of good
feeling" necessitated the simplest sort
of domestic life. And when Monroe
left to others the expenditure of an
appropriation for furnishing the
White House he, too, became bank
rupt. The money was wasted and to
make it good he used his small saw
ings and borrowed from his friends,
which made his later life one of rigid
economy verging on actual want.
''I'll not go out of the White House
q {tya =
Andrew Jackson, soon after he was
inaugurated in 1929. Nevertheless, he
did almost that very thing. When he
retired in 1887 he had to sell off part
of The Hermitage, his old farm near
Nashville, to get money enough to live
on in his old age.
He was 10 when he left the White
House, but his great tragedy was not
financial. In 1928 his opponents cir
culated stories of slander about Jack
sons beloved wife, Rachel" because
of technical defect in a divorce prior
to her marriage to the general. Deep
ly religious, devoting all her life to
pious activities, her noble, proud spirit
broke under such cruel assault.
Jackson was elected and gloried in
the fact that he would put Rachel"
in the White House, over the heads
OF her slanderers. Her co-workers in
the Nashville churches met at her
house every afternoon, to make her
wardrobe appropriate to her station
as first lady of the land, but she
never wore any part of it except that
in which she was dressed for her
grave. Only a few weeks before the
day of departure for Washington she
passed away-and Jackson carried the
bitterness Of what he considered her
murder to his grave.
Every night of his eight years in
the White House, just before retiring,
he took from his breast, where he
wore it suspended by a black string,
a miniature of Rachel" propped it
against a pile of books and, sitting
before 1t, read a chapter from her
Bible, then bowed his head in silent
prayer. At the same time he was pic
tured as a reigning monarch, drunk
on glory and power.
In order to head off the sagacious,
popular Van Buren. and at the same
time get rid of the persistent candi-
dacy Of Henry Clay, the Wings drag