The Washington times., 1925-03-23
WOODROW
WILSON
BY William Allen White
The First Mrs. Wilson
Early Years.

Whites interesting 0n0 g0tOp1!We
story Of Woodrow WiLeO1g. An
ether installmenf Igill appear
exclusiUeIy in The WGshinRton
Times next Monday.
Ellen Arson Wilson lived
with her husband nearly
thirty years, knitting into
his life deeply and closely,
until, as is inevitable In
unions where there is close
comradeship, their lives be-
came q sort Of joint owner
ship Of character, aspirations,
and happiness. And while
abe lived and they loved and
together strove for their
heart s desire ii the way Of
worldly and spiritual things,
It was one career, one COM
mon complex character that
they welded out Of life and
circumstance. Woodrow Viii
son was that kind of q
married man, domestic! This
must be set down early and
never be forgotten in this
story.
James Wilson and Ann
Adams were in him and old
Thomas Woodrow and his
first wife very much in him,
complicating his life, were
Joseph Ruggles Wilson and
Janet Woodrow, all mixing
his blood inheritance and
producing his spiritual en-
vironment, and so, like re
lentless fates, weaving the
fabric Of his life. But into
the texture of their spiritual
wool came the bright skein
that a long line of Presby-
terian preachers, one genera
ton out of New England,
and preachers daughters
had woven into the life of
Ellen Arson.
Where he stood up in that
Wesleyan Chapel to pray, it
was not only that the Rev
erend Thomas Woodrow and
his father before him and
Ann Adams and her Presby-
terrain father and the Rev
erend Joseph Ruggles Wilson
and Uncle James Woodrow
should all be clamoring In
his veins for Presbyterian
liberty and power Of speech,
but also Ellen AxsOn and her
father and her father
fathers father all descended
upon Woodrow Wilson and
gave him grace.
Ellen Axson's Influence.
No intelligent consideration of
the life of Woodrow Wilson can
omit the influence of Ellen
Arson, his wife. So let us set
down something Of the kind Of
woman she was in those forma-
tive days of the late adolescence
Of this pair.
She was the exact compile
ment of her husband; serious
where he was gay; questioning
where he was sure; patient
where he often was brusque.
Her grandparents, coming
out of New England, must have
packed in their belongings a
New England conscience which
came to her. Once, in the
golden age of their thirties
when Mrs. Wilson had doubts of
her Calvinistic religion, fWood-
row." says the narrator of the
incident, chad no doubts!"
Grimly she set to work to read
philosophy, to delve into his
tory, and so to duell her
doubts. No light woman was
she who lightly accepted her
religion. 1t was the core Of
her soul.
She Kept Young Life.
Always in the Wilson home
she kept young life: her brothers,
Mt times his father, who was
Ariel grown gray, and young
cousins of various degrees. With
these about him in his home
woodrow Wilson frisked into a
n1iddle-aged faun still cutting the
CAV capers of youth. But when
he needed counsel, when his pur-
nose needed strengthening, when
the iron prods of life lost their
velvet paddings he turned to
Ellen Arson for help, for strength,
for wisdom.
The ambition in the back Of
his head was forever pushing
him into leadership. He had
been in Wesleyan but a few
months when he organized among
the boys two things: the football
team and the House Of Commons,
q debating society. Professor
Wilson," declares writer in the
wesleyan Alumnus," put new
life into the practice of debate.
AS he put, To argue on any side
without the basis of conviction
IN mental suicide On his arrival
at MiddIetown, Professor Wilson
was made one Of three members
of the Wesleyan Football Associa-
ton, serving throughout the