Evening star., 1934-12-09
Personalities of Presidents Wiues Center
OF Society Gossip Since Martha Was1,in gton
BY GENEvIEvE FORBES HERRICK

BY GENEvIEvE FORBES HERRICK.
Newspaper Alliance, Inc)
The next time the crowds talking
politics, say softly, And what do you
think of Mrs. Roosevelt?" Then sit
back and listen to the commotion
you've caused.
She talks too much, travels too
much" shouts one group, including
many women. "She must be him
drance to her husband"
Nonsense. She's a great help to
him." shouts another group, including
some men. "She keeps her ear to
the ground; she knows social condi-
tions. Why, she can bring the Presi-
dent news before his cabinet members
know what it's all about"
And the battle is on.
I suppose more words have been
written about Eleanor Roosevelt, more
words spoken about her, than about
any other First Lady since Martha
Washington gave the Nations first
official party. And made the guests
all mad by announcing, 1.-The general
always retires at 10 o'clock, and I
usually precede him by Is minutes"
Many Semi-Invalids.
The spotlight of publicity which
turns'on Presidents policies usually
focuses on his wife's personality. In
the old days, so many of these wives,
worn with the rigorS of raising fami-
lies, came to the White House semi
invalidS. And lived such obscure lives
that censure had nothing into which
to stick its teeth.
Those who did things, whether it
was giving tea, or buying a new sofa,
were criticized. Usually for purely
personal things. For it is only in
recent years that a Presidents wife
dared intimate that she knew or
cared anything about her husbands
game of politics.
Dolly Madison said MY province
begins at the drawing room door"
But they even criticized her because
she spent a thousand dollars a year
on her turbans.
Mrs. Polk, for all that she served
her husband as secretary, declared
primarily: Il never discuss a subject
on which my sex is supposed to be
ignorant"
So discreetly silent was his wife,
Lucretia. that President Garfield fire.
quently boasted that he never had to
excuse any of his wife's words.
Four Criticized Most.
Most conSpicuously criticized, and
for widely different reasons. were the
following four First Ladies: Mrs.
Monroe, condemned for her fancy
French formality; Mrs. Andrew Jack
son, victim of personal SANDER; the
second Mrs. Tyler. a young girl who
went high-hat; the second Mrs. Will
son, blamed by her enemies for being
president-in-fact during the declining
days of her husbands ill-health.
Where Mrs. Roosevelt's informality
is citiciZed by some, Mrs. Monroe's
formality was criticized by many.
Mrs. Monroe's first act, on getting
to the White House, was to put the
servants in livery. Just like French
court" sighed the homespun citizens.
She even tried to get her husbands
cabinet into uniforms, but failed. She
showed up the dinner hour from a
" SlONh W q y.
Mrs. Monroe" her critics said,
has cosmetics, but no cordiality'
And when she refused to return
calls the neighbors declared they'd
never 60 to the White House if that's
the way she felt about it, They stayed
away. too, until Spring day when a
van backed up to the kitchen door of
the mansion and unloaded lot of
French knick-knacks, collected by the
Monroes during their stay abroad.
Ladies Curious About Clocks.
Report flew about the town that
there were some French clocks deco
rated with-they whispered this
nude figurines
Curiosity got the better of disdain.
The ladies all went calling. And
found the fgurines on the clocks all
properly dressed.
Poor Mrs. Andrew Jackson thought
she was legally divorced from her first
husband before she married Jackson.
But she wasn't, and there was quite
a scandal. 1t died down. but popped
out again when Jackson ran for the
presidency. Carefully he kept all
news of it from her. After his elec-
ton she went shopping for clothes
to wear in Washington. Resting in
hotel, she overheard two women
in the next room rehashing the sordid
story of the campaign. heard the
things she had been called. the cpl
thets hurled at her husband.
She collapsed. And died before in
auguration day. Her husband swore
she'd been killed by SANDER.
That was why he sprang to the
defense of Peggy ONeill, who had
been bar-maid in her fathers inn,
whose first husband had committed
suicide, and who was then wife of
Maj. j. H. Eaton, Jackson's Secretary
of War.
Crisis Precipitated.
Thu h;ra{ IoI;oc rof,,eoI T..