White House gossip : $b from Andrew Johnson to Calvin CoolidgeColman, Edna M. (Edna Mary)
History
White House gossip : $b from Andrew Johnson to Calvin Coolidge
Colman, Edna M. (Edna Mary)
Presidents -- United States -- Biography; Washington (D.C.) -- Social life and customs; White House (Washington, D.C.)
With this act, the Capital City’s aspect changed. Mrs. Wilson closed
the White House to visitors and locked the gates to tourists and
all except those with definite appointments. To save and produce,
she borrowed a flock of twenty blooded sheep from Bel Air farm in
Maryland and turned them loose upon the White House lawns to keep the
grass in order, in place of a labourer, and, incidentally, to grow a
profitable crop of wool. So well did these sheep follow the aim of
their distinguished shepherdess that, when the first shearing time
came, ninety pounds of wool were cut and two pounds sent to each state
to be sold for Red Cross work. More than fifty-two thousand dollars was
made. The bidding ran high in some places where there was keen desire
to possess White House wool. The next shearing, which proved almost as
profitable, was turned over to the Salvation Army for its fund raising.
Mrs. Wilson had no desire for publicity or for doing spectacular things
either to promote the popularity of her husband or herself, but she
used every personal effort to promote and inspire many of the different
phases of war work that the participation of the United States
demanded. Every woman of the Cabinet followed her lead.
Mrs. Marshall was a host in herself. The home life of the Marshalls had
become traditional for the devotion between the genial, humorous Vice
President and his wife. In all of the twenty-odd years of their married
life, they had not allowed themselves to be separated overnight. Mrs.
Marshall had always kept a bag packed ready to depart upon a moment’s
notice for any trip the one-time Hoosier governor might elect to take.
She campaigned with and for him, and her understanding and support
aided him not only in his election, but also in his filling the very
difficult rôle through eight years as understudy to President Wilson.
Mrs. Marshall infused a delightful spirit in the group of Senatorial
wives over which she presided. Their weekly luncheons became informal
clearing houses for all of their individual problems, and developed
into an institution of force and achievement. Their work in volume and
quality during the war was an example to the women of the land, when
“Do your bit” had become a household slogan.
None of the ladies of the Cabinet gave more royally of her time and
energies than Mrs. Robert Lansing, wife of the Secretary of State. She
had been known, trusted, and loved since her girlhood in the Foster
home when her father was a Cabinet Minister. Her chairmanship of a
measure insured its success. She was head and shoulders in the Red
Cross, the Y. W. C. A., and every other organized relief measure where
her personal interest and backing might count. No snarl of red tape or
personal friction in any of the great projects was too complicated for
her diplomatic wisdom to adjust.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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