New Britain herald., 1928-05-29
Little Borah" Confidante
 Of Many Ex-Service Men
BY ALLENE SUMNER

Revelations have been made in the not So far distant past Of toothpicks on the White House table. Little mention has ever been made of a cookie jar in the White House pantry.
 ! But If Senator William E. Bora h of Idaho should be our next presi- ! dent, the first and foremost job of the new First Lady would be to see l that White House cookie crock was we'll filled with sugary cinna- mony. scrunchy. raisin-topped cook ies into which the president could dip the presidential paw at frequent intervals.
 | For" as golden-headed little Mrs. Borah conflded, ''the senator just can't function without his cookie jar."
 Nor would the cookie jar end the First Lady's duties. There's the little matter fonion soup, too. The senator. confides Mrs. Borah, is still searching for the perfect onion soup. He insists that he never gets it at home.
 | Looks for Recines
 Wherever popular Mrs. Borah goes she is constantly on the look out for onion soup. She thought she had found it when in Atlantic 1 City few weeks ago. and inter- viewed the hotel chef himself for the recipe. She special-delivered the recipe back to her cook in Washington. and thought she had earned her wifely laurels. But when got home the senator said it wasn't quite right, either" she moaned. T don't know what he wants-whether it's more cheese or pepper or what-but it'll be red star day when he admits his onion soup is made right"
 They call the Borahs in Washing ton Big Bill" and Little Borah." |" for the possible First Lady wears 14 clothes, child size shoes and comes just about to the big senator's breast pocket.
 l They say. that Little Borah" winds him around her little finger, but she makes no boasts of her prowess. However. it is noted that the senator still rides the street cars, though he once permitted auto salesmen to take him to lunch. Little Rorah" said he needed his horseback riding and walk from the street car more than an auto. The Borah apartment blooms like an exotic flower on the top floor of an old-fashioned red brick apart ment house. A green and scarlet macaw perches on fan-backed l Chinese chair in which Little Borah" sits like dainty bit of Chinese porcelain.
 Long-legged cranes and herons of porcelain drink from table lily pools. Bits Of jade and brass plaques make the fragrant orient live in this little bit of the occident,
 And myriads of canaries and gold | f1nches fly about the sunny rooms. for Little Borah" says it's had enough to take birds from their forest home without cooping them up in cages. Once in 3 while a fluff of yellow feather settles down to drink from a green porcelain turtle bowl
 They Call Her Mother And into this haven of jade and brass and brocade and singing birds comes a strange procession of hu- manity-derelicts boys and girls who call Little Borah" Aunt Mary" and claim her as their near est relative.
 For Little Borah." childIess her self, has offered herself as mother 10 the worlds motherless. She never turns a pleader away. The shell shocked soldier boys of St. Elizaheth's are her special pets. Week after week, her basket filled with fruit and ma magazines and gay pictures. she takes the street car out to the mental hospital to help "the boys" who live for this weekly visit.
 It is no longer popular or the fashion to visit war victims so long after the war. but Little Borah's s fashions are her own-the fashion of eternal service.
 Every morning the postman brings her a stack of mail from the four corners Of the country-from mothers and fathers and sisters and sweethearts Of other soldier boys "gonc west" or missing. Sometimes a grubby dollar bill flor a boy who needs it" is tucked in the letter; sometimes . big box of nuts or vegetables or fruits come from south or west. But for the most part she goes her way alone. working where SO many have forgotten.
 News of her self-imposed mother hood has 30 travelled that other boys and girls ring her apartment bell as casually S Alice Longworth, who is a frequent morning caller.
 A wild-eyed, wet-faced boy was sitting on her Chinese brocaded sofa one day when I was with her begging to get his brother out of prison. They came in at all hours of the day or night 10 be fed and mothered. They call her their next Of kin" when getting jobs, and she never denies it.
 One guesses that certain conven- tional demands of First Lady would not satisfy Little Borah.' who despises form and ritual and rigamarole and only asks to "get big things done"
 "I am just a gypsy" she says T hate planning things ahead. just want to get my hat on and run when I feel like it."
 She won't pay official Washing ton calls.
 T can't answer my letters.v she says. She has no social secretary not even typewriter. Every morning she sits down with her pile of letters from people she has never