Evening star., 1949-01-23

by Katharine AnCnony. tDOu-
bleday G. Co.; $4.5OJ
Washington hostesses are
doubtless feeling too spent this
week end to lift a hand, but If
they do, it should be to pick up
a copy of this biography of Dolly
Madison. Then they can find
out how strenuous life in the Capital
can really be.
Dolly, durable symbol of American
social grace, who murmured the 10Th
century equivalent of so nice to see
you" more often and more sincerely
than any other hostess of her time
paid 200 calls during one winter In
Washington when she was over 10
Official wives who have been freed
from the once-required round OF
visits should ponder that while they
are recovering from their inaugural
exertions.
Her House Burned Down.
Furthermore, the buoyant, radiant
Carolina-born Quaker who was the
most important and popular person
in the administration of the great
little Madison" had her house
burned down over her head, a crisis
that no other Presidents wife has
ever had to meet. Gentle Dolly
calmly supervised the packing of her
husbands state papers and the re-
moval of the Gilbert Stuart portrait
of Washington from its frame while
the Redcoats were storming up the
Bladensburg road during the War
of 1912. OF course, Mrs. Truman
was dispossessed recently, but the
circumstances were indisputably less
narrowing.
Before her marriage to James
Madison, the widow of Philadel-
phia lawyer, buxom Dolly was the
intimate friend of the founding IA
theirs of the Republic. Martha
Washington forcefully encouraged
her marriage to Madison. She was
the first lady of the brand-new
town of Washington from the time
she came here when Madison was
a member of Congress. She held
her pre-eminent position while he
was Secretary of State and Presi-
dent and resumed it after his death
when she returned to her house on
Lafayette Square.
To Her Fingertips.
Despite her closeness to the great
men of her day, Dolly was resolutely
nonpolitical. No wit, no bluestock-
ing, no drawing room strategist, she
held her pre-eminent position
through sheer fitness for the job.
She was social to her finertips,
social till the day she died. Katha-
rine Anthony remarks that Dolly
would have risen from her death
bed to go shopping" She carried
a book to her receptions, not be-
cause she was an avid reader, but
because she liked a conversations
piece in hand. When asked to send
message over the newly opened
telegraph wire from Baltimore to
Washington Dolly dictated: Mes
sage from Mrs. Madison. She
sends her love to Mrs. Wethered." :"
Her dying words were those of the
inveterate hostess: my Dear
Betsey, I am so glad to see you."
Early Capital Life.
Miss Anthony's smoothly written
biography Is q fascinating slice Of
social history. Wisely she indulges
in no speculations about Dolly's in
nermost thoughts, her relations with
Madison. Dolly's life was lived in
public and should be reported just
as Miss Anthony has done. with
proper emphasis on fashions and
menus. But its literary merit will
probably go unnoticed locally while
readers chuckle over morsels of early
Capital history which have a sJrik-
ingly contemporary ring. Mrs. John
Adams, for instance, writes sourly
to her sister that "the Executive
Mansion is an establishment not
very we'll proportioned to the Presi-
dents salary" The housing short
age was as critical in infancy of the
planned city (Which was then little
more than a plan) as it is now. AS
Secretary of State Madison had to
move in with Jefferson, which caused
Federalist wags to say that "the
President was taking in boarders. !"
Congressman had to leave their wives
at home and cabinet members were
run ragged looking for places to live.
In this dusty-streeted pioneer
town." Dolly, with her ceremonious
warmth, her second-nature hospital
ity was the most civilizing influence,
Americas answer to foreign diplo-
mats who expected sadly prim-
tive social life. And Dolly loved
every minute of it. In her 81 full
years only one shadow seems to
nave permanently saddened her.
That was the aboninable behavior
of her only son. the one person who
failed to respond to her charm which
made people better than they were.
M. MEG.