Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-19
BY MARGARET B. DOWNING.

Mrs. Calvin Coolidge is an exception
ally graceful epistolary correspondent
and many of her letters are treasured
by the recipients, not only because OF
their being written by the then First
Lady of the Land but because of their
excellent diction and well balanced con-
tents But Mrs. Coolidge as writer
Of letters was not, however, TO be IN
clnded in the same category of her
irnmemiate predecessor, Mrs. Warren
c. Harding. This lady employed sew
eral secretaries other than her social
scribe, Miss Laura Harlan, and she kept
them very busy several hours daily.
However, all these letters were typed
and there are few which Mrs. Harding
penned herself Mrs. Coolidge wrote all
her letters and her penmanShip Is as
pleasing as her style. Neither the frst
nor second Mrs. Woodrow Wilson added
to the literary chronicles of the White
House, ana of others who resembled
Mrs. Coolidge in the exalted role is
Mrs William Howard Taft. After her
husband had retired from his high
office Mrs. Taft gathered loose ends
connecting her life with Washington
much in the same maner as Mrs. Cool
idge is doing, and after the lapse OF
81 years, the records are not radically
unlike. Mrs. Taft remains an authority
on the juvenile social events of the
Rutherford B. Hayes administration
White House and showed genuine
enthusiasm for the small and early
parties.
DR.. Jacob Gould Schurman, the retiring
Ambassador from this republic to Ger
many, spent many happy and profitable
years as president of Cornell University
at Ithaca, N. Y, and now he intends to
lay down the burden of active laborS,
his ambition centerS on returning there
and maintaining a home on the banks
of lovely Lake Cayuga. Dr. Schurman
was always profoundly affected by the
natural beauties about Cornell, the
densely wooded ravines and the poetic
aspect of serrated chaSmS and he re-
joiced when, by the will of the late
Henry Woodward Sackett, a sufficient
legacy was available to preserve these
choicest assets of the university. In
many an address to the students the
former president impressed the value OF
this beauty Of environment and urged
every member of the alumni to take
part in preserving it for the future gen.
erations, that these students might
carry through life the memory of such
beauty and beneficial spiritual up
growth. DR.. Schurman is a native OF
Prince Edwards Island and had
reached the late twenties before he be-
came a citizen of New York State.
* 4 x
When Miss Anne P. Morgan accepted
the invitation of the American Wom-
ems Manhattan Association to address
its executive committee at the club
house in lower Broadway, she hung her
magnificent baby lamb coat in the gen.
- kA,.N I.s~v 1aHtN ch a
found a shabby coonskin affair tucked
under her muffler. There was only the
usual coat room attendant, long In the
clubs service and above suspicion, so
that the conclusion was that some light
fingered person followed Miss Morgan
and found an opportunity for the ex-
change. Seemingly there is no redress,
and another mystery has been added to
the fur theft collection. Since good fur
now costs quite as much as fine dia-
nlonds, a school of fiction is growing up
about such episodes. One of the most
battling mysteries of stolen fur in local
annals was that of the magnificent sable
coat, gift of the Gar to Emma Eames,
which was taken from the White House
in 1908. Mrs. Roosevelt had invited the
diva to sing at a musicale at which
about 800 guests were present. Miss
Eames came little late, slipped off her
CUdG anu IcIJ IL WIN Tic uldlU III JIiC
special dressing room in the English
basement. Two hours later her expert
ence was the same as that later of Miss
Morgan's. Her priceless Russian sable
coat was gone and in it's place a circu-
lar cape lined with cheap tattered fur.
An the resources of the Government did
not avail to recover Miss Eames' van
ished fur and then the President and
the owner both offered liberal rewards.
equally in vain. In the dressing rooms
of the White House were only those who
had served blamelessly for years. But
somehow the thief purloined the gar
ment and got away for all time.
\ X X
DR.. Albert jerks, professor of eco
nonics in the University of Minnesota
has been for some time engaged in a
whimsical research to discover what
rentals were worth some 1000 years ago,
and far In advance of the formation Of
realtor associations. DR.. jerks is search
ing for this important data in the valley
of the ella and Mibres in Southwestern
New Mexico, which was Eldorado to the
Spanish adventures who searched the
villages Of legends where the streets were
solid gold and precious gems as plenti-
fu as pinon trees. But these cities