The Knickerbocker, Vol. 22, No. 1, July 1843Various
General
The Knickerbocker, Vol. 22, No. 1, July 1843
Various
Periodicals
The just perception of Dickens understood at once the character of
Mrs. Tyler. She does the duties of the White House with a graceful
naturalness that is remarked by every one, and she combines with a
keen perception of character, an acute sense of the ridiculous and
a ready wit, the most feminine gentleness of manner and deportment;
qualities which are rarely found in combination. Mrs. Tyler is
devoted to her children, and she dresses them as plainly as if
they were dwellers on a retired estate in Virginia. Her own attire
is simple, and she never departs from this simplicity except when
state occasions demand some little ornament. The greatest sense of
propriety marks her whole deportment in every relation of life.
Mrs. Robert Tyler is now on a visit to a married sister in Alabama;
for another beautiful trait of her character is her devotion to her
sisters and brother. The only inmates of the White House at present
(May first) are the President with his three sons, and Mrs. Jones,
his eldest daughter. Mrs. Semple, the President's second daughter,
is living in Virginia, and is a lady of great beauty, and in the
bloom of health.
The fine features of Mrs. Jones are wan with long illness. She
never leaves her room except on some balmy day, to take a short
ride. The President always accompanies her, supporting her in his
arms to and from her chamber to the carriage, with a tenderness as
gentle and as watchful as her own to her babe. The President, unlike
some distinguished statesmen of other as well as of our times, is
remarkable for his high estimate of female character. He receives
the lady visiters of the White House with a deference and respect
which has been much noticed, and which is not the manner of a
worldling and a courtier, compliment and hollowness, but the impulse
of a lofty and holy sentiment. When a lad at school, he prepared as
a theme for declamation an essay upon female education, in which the
boy expressed those opinions which have ever since been entertained
by the man.
The President is a man of the strongest sympathies. There is not a
human being about him, from his servants to his children, of whose
feelings he is not regardful, and in whose welfare he does not feel
a daily and living interest. If the day be cool, he will ask his
coachman why he has not his overcoat. If his servant happens not
to be cheerful, he will ask him, in the kindest manner, what's the
matter with him. And the complaint, if the servant have one, is
made without the least hesitation, and with the certainty that he
will meet at the President's hands both sympathy and justice. In
his intercourse with his servants he is always kind, and frequently
jocular, for he is a great lover of a harmless jest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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