The Washington times., 1929-02-26
PROVED AID
TO HER
MATE

,s ~ AAA ALAos SuAAA'S = we %S'
The skill that little Lou
Henry acquired with a .22-cali-
Der rifle when she was a
schoolgirl in this Quaker town
had a direct bearing later on
the "nest-egg' obtained by
her husband, Herbert G.
Hoover, as the start of the
large fortune he is credited
with possessing today.
That fact was made public to-
day in a flood of "reminiscences that
poured from the lips OF William r.
Briggs, in whose home the wife OF
the President.elect lived when a IT.
tie girl. The connection between
Lou Henry's Workmanship and her
husbands fortune will be esta5-
lished later in the story. Let Briggs
first have the floor.
William P. Briggs Is 80. He
wears mutton-chop whiskers, and
the austerity of his classic Quaker
countenance is enhanced by the
right angles which he forms with
Ills OkQsSIyl0 I1C AhO NOOA
of pioneers who founded this city,
and despite his age, his recollec-
.tiohs of the young women of two
generations ago are crystal-clear
and undimmed by the passage of
years:
Good Rifle Shot
Lou Henry was as accurate with
her. rifle as she was with her
arithmetic Briggs declared. "Her
marksp1anship was sharpened upon
a target, which she made herself
and nailed to a post in the back
yard.
Lou and her father, Charles
Henry, who established the first
bank here, Til1inghast, Henry and
Company were inseparable COM
panions. Almost every afternoon,
guns in hand, they ranged the Puente
: hills after game. The daughter was
such q good ~markSman that fre-
0uertly, / recall, her bag contained
snore rabbits than her fathers.
"Gophers were targets for Lou on
those trips with her father. They
were unfortunate gophers, for re-
member how the girl, at a good dis
tance. could knock them back mo
their holes.
"Io,I Henry was great walker
and read now of her still taking
long tramps with her husband,
when she was l3 or IA, it was noth-
inp for her to walk five or six miles
with her father, almost every day ex'
cent in rainy weather. They usually
started out soon after the bank
closed. and on Saturday they otten
would be gone all afternoon.
Skill in Taxidermy
"sha really was quite skilled as
an amateur taxidermist, too, ana
mounted some OF the game sne
"When the family first came to
whittier, they stopped at my house
thera being no hotels here then.
later they moved into quarters
over fhe bank that Mr.. Henry
started and remained there until
thav hought a home on what is now
south Painter Avenue. But there
we're no real streets then-Just
naths through the mustard Ilelos'
with the mustard in some, places so
high that a person could hardly see
"The mustard growth was sort
of forest for Lou and her fatner 10
hunt in. They didn't seem to be
bothered by the weeds and the rank
growth. ,- s.,.+
hunting suit, that her tatner sent
hack to Waterloo, Iowa, for. II
1TasY't like a girls hunting suit OF
todsv. It had a long skirt. There
vas hat with it--a little round
hat that used to get knocked OFF
In the weeds and underbrush. SO
she nut a rubber band on 1T, and
can see her now swapping that band
11nder her chin, grabbing her rifle
and heading away after squirrels
and rabbits
The aged Quaker paused a mo-
nent. and then paid a tribute to
4he forceful character OF Mrs.
Hoover.
Was Determined Girl
"L,ou Henry was determined
~irl 1t was determination that
made her take UP hunting. You
.aa one afternoon in physiology
,cIass she tainted at the chloroform.
Srg of a cat. The teacher con-
= J,Icted the demonstration but be-
sora II was over Lou lost conscious
ress. / don't know whether 1t was
the smell OF the chloroform, or the
Seaf of the cats heart which the
teacher was explaining
"Anyhow, Lou tainted and when
aha was revived she was all out OF
sorta with herself for what she
nrobably thought was lack OF
courage. I know she took up hunt
Ing = little after that"
So ended the "reminiscences OF
William P. Briggs. Now follows
the link connecting Lou Henry'f
) ~ifIe.shooting ability with the for
time OF President.elect Hoover.
lust married-this was in Feb
~uarv 1899-Mrs. Hoover had &C
companied her husband to China
~where he had accepted employment
ss 8 mining engineer with Bewick
Moreing and Company. a British
syndicate, A year later Hoover be
came chief engineer Of the Chinese
imuerial bureau of mines, gov
ernmental department presided over
hv Chang Yen Mao who was said
) 1c he somewhat under the thumb
~ the British syndicate.
Then came the Boxer uprising
r,tninx operations we're stopped, and
ths life of every foreigner was in
his own keeping. Cooped up in Tien
Tsin through that long summer Is
wears ago. the Hoovers were con
stantly, under fire.