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I g a m m m *96 Mm Q O P CHJ* ® ccr ® 125 «®« i-«»« 3® 22 SC: 32 Td3 3 CD “** o* 0a <30 ?3 F 9 a » c r . 3 7 ? <3? SB H a 9 O B u y «"»* ® O * S t mm — - M l I AS CITY JOURNAL, FRIDAY, MARCH 28. 1924. ? ? ? ? The T R U E ST O R Y ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? W O O D R O W W IL S O N n ? B y D A V I D L A W R E N C E - Chapiter XTIL Woodr The personal and impersonal j any card-playing. Frequently the to storm the strop gets heavy and The Home Life of Woodrow W llson. famMy would operate a oulja board | the razor sticks.” . and jest with each other over what I it spelled. They often played games Woodrow Wilson s life were as sep-1 writing quotations and guessing arate and distinct as if they were derived from two different beings. On March 3, 1018, the day be­fore Mr. Wilson became president, he iiii Once as he stood on the platform of a railroad station during the 1912 campaign and saw a big cloth banner stretched across the street with the words “ For President and Vice Pres­ident, Wilson and Marshall,” he said to the newspaperman with h im : “ Somehow I cannot bring myself to believe that 1 am the fellow men­tioned on that banner, 1 never can get used to It.” And he never did. iYet therein lies the key to an understanding of Wood-row Wilson's life-long friendships on tfro nty hand and his series of breaks business o f regulating the affairs of Princeton university or administer­ing the two public offices he held— the governorship o f New Jersey and the presidency o f the United States. Full of Human Qualities. As a husband and father, as a chum of his college classmates, as a host at family reunions Woodrow Wilson was full o f human qualities, j As a trustee o f the public interest, as a crusader for large policies o f state, he knew neither friendship nor com­passion— he was as stern as he was inflexible. It is, therefore, in the home that one glimpses a Woodrow Wilson lit­tle known to the public. The home life o f the Wilson fam-| ily was simple, modest, congenial and i refined. The Wilsons were closely knit by family ties, especially during their life at Princeton and the early days at the White House. Cousins to the ninth degree were welcomed to the house, made much o f and revisited in turit. Special occasions, were always dear to the hearts o f all in the fam­ily group. Christmas, other holidays and birthdays were remembered and observed by special gatherings. If a member of the family had intended to be away or to have guests, plans would be changed *so that on New Year’s day or a birthday or on other special occasions the whole family could be together. When any member o f the house­hold was to go away for any length of time all the others would make it a point to be there the last few days ^nd refrain from inviting outsiders. The spirit of the home life In the Wilson family was one of uniform, \ happiness. Mr. Wilson was mainly responsible for this, because his heart was as tender as a child’s 151 affection for the members of bis fam ­ily and in consideration for them. Abandons M ayflower Trip. Once, after Mr. Wilson became president, a weekend trip on the yacht M ayflow er down Chesapeake bay, had been planned. H is eldest daughter. Miss Margaret, remembered at the last minute that she could not go be­cause of an engagement to speak at a com m unity center meeting. In ­stantly, the president abandoned the trip rather than leave one member i of his fam ily in the W hite TT nri the authors o f certain quotations. laughingly told his friends that, judg- Each one would write a quotation ing by Ms razor strop. It would be a and the next person would write an­other without o f course reading the first until a long sentence had been evolved. Members o f the family wrote lim­ericks about each other or about any­body else who happened to enter their thoughts. They were always clear day for bis inauguration, And it w as! In one sense the Wilson family life was exclusive. Tom, Dick and Harry were not invited into the home, or to the table, or taken into full friend­ship in the group. The home was considered a sacred place where none on the lookout for new limericks and but those worthy by culture, char-when members o f the family heard acter and breeding were urged to a new verse it was promptly brought I stay. The family was not the least II home. One of the most famous of I bit snobbish. It was simply selective these limericks about him self: “For beauty T am It la the fellow Id was Mr. Wilson's not a atar, fyMHhJhm by front itHalal J4F. *1 far: Another favorite of Mr. Wilson's, o f which the authoishlp is unknown, was the follow ing: "A wondroua bird la the pelican. Hla mouth holds more than hla belltean. He takes la his beak Enough food for a week, But I am darned If I see how the belli-can." Still another favorite w as: “There was a young man who was be­nighted. He didn’t know when he was slighted; But he went to the party And ate just as hearty As If he had been really Invited." One o f trie dominant characteristics the Wilson family was its regular­ity and the methodical habits of the man at the head o f it. From his boyhood on one could set bis watch by Woodrow Wilson's comings and goings. Meals were eaten at precisely the same time every day. He always arose at the same time, and shaved Mmself with an old-fashioned razor. He used the same strop for years— t heavy, well grained and oiled piece of leather, upon which he was able to predict the character of the weather. Wilson a Weather Prophet. I can sometimes tell twenty-foijy or thirty-six hours in advan^T 411 of its companions. Once a person was taken into the home, the bars were completely down. There was n1 tefTitfrh1e1rrr fr fi *g11 Arv«-»i noi,r, limit in the weT Even when he was president, Mr, Wilson seemed to give his complete confidence to anyone within the fam­ily circle. Problems of state, bis opinions o f men and affairs—every­thing— were discussed with the ut­most abandon and without the slight­est hint that it was being said in con­fidence. Mr. Wilson held in good faith to the old Southern idea that confidence given in the home or at 'he table was inviolable. Many of those who were guests at his table. >ften gasped with amazement— al­most with fear— at the frankness manifested by Mr. Wilson. The reason, o f course, that Wood-row Wilson was so unreserved in his conversation was that guests were not invited indiscriminately to the White House. Neither Mr. Wilson nor the members of his family looked upon he executive mansion itself as a pub­lic institution, but as their temporary •'WM home. The executive offices, con­nected with the White House by a || covered corridor, were different.) 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