Evening star., 1934-10-14
BY ROBERT CRAWFORD.

ChAWfOhD.
Mrs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
looked as fresh as daisy when she
mounted the platform last Monday
night to tell large and miscellaneous
audience about the why and where
fore of better housing and why the
campaign was being launched in the
District.
Launched is said advisedly, for there
was the Marine Band, led by Capt.
Taylor Branson, giving such pro-
gram as has not been heard since
the war days Of 1917. Marches, gay
tunes and lifting airs putting the
hearers in good humor
The meeting was in the beautiful
council chamber of the United States
Chamber of Commerce, a baronial
room of splendid proportions and
great dignity-really just such a room
as appeals to the imagination, and
better housing. On either side ban
ners with the heraldic insignia of
Balboa, Columbus, Cortez, Drake and
other great explorers and discoverers
connected with the history of the
North American continent. These
banners were becalmed the other
night and hung rigidly at attention as
Mrs. Roosevelt talked, and cameras
played on the face of the speaker like
sheet lightning-it must take con-
siderable poise to stand such bar
rage when one is trying to get
serious message to the public.
A pretty compliment will be paid
to Col. Harrison Howell Dodge next
Saturday when a distinguished and
appreciative company will assemble
at the National Capital to do him
honor at a Mount Vernon dinner in
celebration of his so years steward
ship as resident custodian of the
historic old mansion down on the
banks of the Potomac.
Mr.. Powell Minnegerode, director
of the Corcoran Galleries of Art, who
is quite enthusiastic about the golden
anniversary dinner remarked the
other day that there were two things
about Col. Dodge which excited not
only his affection but curiosity and
admiration: One was his qualifica-
tions as a gentleman; the other was
his ability through long period of
years to maintain the most amicable
relations, both business and social,
with something like two or three hun
dred women-the Mount Vernon
Ladies ASSociation-whilet the average
man sometimes found it difficult to
get on with one.
A copy of full-length Gilbert Stu
art portrait of President Washington,
painted by Jane Stuart, daughter of
the great portrait painter, is to adorn
the banquet hall, and the table is to
be set right smartly in the style of
the days when Martha Washington
was the lady of the mansion and the
great of the world assembled around
her board to partake of old Virginia
cooking. There will be old Fur
ginny" ham at one end of the table
f1anked by game, sweet pickles and
p1quant hors d'oeuvres; at the other
end roast turkey, Jellies, custards,
"shape"-blanc mange-beaten bis
cults and all the delicacieS which a
menu of the kind calls for.
There will, perhaps, be missing the
Madeira, rum punch and beer which
Gen. Washington frequently drank at
dinner. He was a one-bottle man
that is, he customarily drank a pint
OF Madeira at meal or whatever wine
was served. But besides that he would
drink rum punch, beer and sometimes
cider. In Winter hot apple toddy or
punch was served at bed time.
1t is not known whether the tree
that Col. Dodge and little party sat
under on the lawn at Mount Vernon
recently was tree that Gen. Wash
ington had once sat under and viewed
the beauty of the rolling country and
the Potomac idling lazily by, but at
any rate the air was charged with
the spirit of the gentleman planter
as the colonel recalled events untold in
his delightful book published two
years ago. He talked about distin-
gulshed visitors he had received there
during the half century of his resi-
dence-What they said and how they
looked. He still gets bit of a thrill
out of the many delegations which
arrive there almost daily throughout
the year.
1t is very much to be regretted that
when Col. Dodge, wrote his Mount
vernon, Its Owner and Its Story"
that he did not write two books in
stead of one. He was entirely too
modest, and has left out much that
he could have with propriety revealed
10 the public in his delightful way.
A sense OF humor, a keen insight into
the thoughts and words of men; how
much the great foreign statesmen
Tor lnstance-said, and what he left
to the imagination.
During his long residence at Gen.
Washington's house, the colonel, as
official host, has occupied a sort of
Boswellian attitude toward the events,
the traditions and history of the
place. Nothing relative to it has been
too small to receive his attention
During the progress of its early res
toration and even now, hours Of re-
search and correspondence are spent
In an effort to restore the entire plan
tation IN substance as we'll as spirit.
Many parts of the United States and
foreign countries have been searched
Tor some former object or detail of
its original furnishings.
When the little party arrived late
Col. Dodge was showing a group of
pretty schoolgirls over the mansion
and was so interested that he was
heard to remark: II have an appoint
ment-but hope they won't come"
He was caught, however, red-handed,
and gracefully retreated to the afore-
said tree.
Talking about the first President
led to talks of other Presidents who
had been received at Mount Vernon.
Nine since the colonel has been host.
Some planted trees and some words
OF wisdom; 1t was always more or
less formal until President and Mrs.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt stopped by
unannounced on their way to Wash
ington from the Conference of Gov
ernors at Richmond, Va, in 1882.
There was bit of furry when
the Governor of the great State of
New York and future President of the
United States arrived at Mount Ver-
non that day, for it was about the