The Peoples' Voice (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 18, No. 30, Ed. 1 Friday, February 4, 1910 Page: 3 of 8
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TTOOB SOCT-Mo ^ HELEN BARRETT SMITH
THE White House in all Its
beauty and completeness
ready to receive its new
mistress; the pomp and
pageant attending her re-
ception; the military splen-
dor of Pennsylvania avenue,
the din of music, the shouts
of the multitude—all this is
far and away from the
home coming of that remarkable first mistress
who was lost in the forest while trying fo find
the new capitol.
In June, 1800, the seat of government
moved from Philadelphia to Washington, but
it was November before Mrs. Adams left her
home In Qulncy for the White House. Did
ever a president's wife have such a journey!
It was up hill, down dale and through the
woods by post chaise, stage coach and private
equipage; long waits for relays, delayed on
the highways by
breakdowns; lost in
the woods outside
Baltimore until a
straggling black
was found to extri-
cate the lady and
her party with diffi-
culty; on and on
through forests;
nothing to be seen
but trees and occa-
sionally a cot "with-
out a glass win-
dow," and, as Mrs.
Adams writes, "You
can travel for miles
without meeting a
ing Mrs. Adams for the first lady of
the White House. No woman of her
day had such a varied experience in
establishing official residences. It
was Mrs. Adams' love of family that
gave her the courage to cross the
ocean and join her husband and boys
—John Adams was in France with
Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin
Franklin negotiating peace with Eng-
land. Mrs. Adams took a little house
at Auteuil, a suburb of Paris, re-
nowned for the homes of its famous
men. The gay court of Versailles,
brilliantly artificial, the perfection of
its polished surface hardly conceal-
ing the rottenness of its foundation,
was a revelation to the American vis-
itor. Very charitably Mrs. Adams
wrote, "Manners differ exceedingly in
different countries." Yet the little
the White House—this lady, "tt>e
most beautiful woman of her day,"
passed most of her time abroad. In
discussing the expatriated Americans
Mrs. Adams expressed sorrow that
they should "allow frivolity of amuse-
ment to wean them away from their
native land."
During her stay at the White House
Mrs, Adams watched with interest
the workings of the first congress
that assembled in Washington. She
was always a keen observer of the
political situation. John Adams kept
110 secrets from his wife. In sending
some important documents for her In-
spection. ho writes, "I daresay there
is not a lady In America treated to a
more curioiiB dish of politics than the
papers I enclose ... by no means
let them go out of your hands or be
copied." Thus trained by one of the
greatest statesmen of his day, Mrs.
Adams had a complete understanding
LIKELY.
UK
TSelly They say he has turned over
a new leaf.
Ned—He's so economical I'm afraid
he'll use the same one over again.
SCRATCHED SO SHE
NOT SLEEP
COULD
ri/vy
B 1 ill
\TH£ GILBERT STUART]
\PORTRAIT OF
ADAMS
q a
THE OfUGJMAL WrtirE HOLtJC
house at Auteuil became a social
center. Diplomats, princes and art-
ists gathered at her board. At one
of these dinners an American lady,
horrified by the Marquise de la Fay-
ette s unpretentious appearance,
whispered to Mrs. Adams. "Good
heavens, how awfully she Is
dressed, to which Mrs. Adams re-
plied, "The lady's rank sets her
above the formalities of dress." Mrs
Adams' breezy comment on her
countrywomen is refreshingly up to
date; she writes, "I have seen none
who carry extravagances of dress to
such a height as the Americans
here." But Mrs. Adams' home re-
tained its democratic simplicity and
she left to the French aristocracy
the remembrance of a household
that was typically American.
Grosvenot square, London, was
oaks and broken
ground with shrubs
surround me, giving a
natural beauty to the
spot which is truly en-
chanting. A lovely va-
riety of birds serenade
me morning and even-
ing, rejoicing at their
liberty and security."
It was at this beautiful home that Mrs. Adams
gave her informal garden parties and delight-
ful teas. With characteristic deference she
left the brilliant levees, state dinners and dig-
nified mjnuets to Mrs. Washington at the
presidential residence, No. 4 Franklin square—
as hostesses never were two women better
qualified.
Bush hill became Mrs. Adams' home when
the capital moved to Philadelphia. Unfortu-
nately, the climate did not agree with the vice-
president's wife; she suffered from malaria
and had to take many trips to Quincy to re-
gain her health. Although Mrs. Adams found
her home on the Schuylkill peaceful and se-
rene, she writes regretfully, "When all is done
it will not be Broadway." So the allurement
of "dear old Broadway" had not Its beginnings
yesterday; the famous thoroughfare had at-
tractions distinctly its own 120 years ago.
Mrs. Adams had hardly arrived at the
White House when a servant appeared from
is
a.
X
MRS .j
16 AT TWENTV-OM
HFU.ADAH5, FROM THE PICTURE
BY C. SCHESSELE
buaan being." Finally Washington
—a city in name only. Pennsylvania
avenue, a "muddy, wagon-rucked
road," New Jersey avenue just cut
through; scattered buildings in vari-
ous stages of completion, and, at last
—the White House.
No lawn, no fence, no yard, no ap-
proach, the principal staircase not
up, nor a single apartment finished,
110 bells, no lights, no grates, no
means of heating the building. Mrs
Adams sits shivering and writes, "Surrounded
by forests, can you believe that wood is not
to be had because people cannot be found to
cut and cart it!" It appears that our labor
problem has always been with us. The faith-
ful Brisler is the most distracted man in
Washington; he has used all available wood
to dry out the newly plastered walls of the
White House. No more fuel at any price.
Small wonder that Mrs. Adams exclaims, "We
have indeed come into a new country!"
But this first mistress is by no means over-
whelmed by the chaotic condition of the Ex-
ecutive Mansion. She declares buoyantly, "I
am a mortal enemy to anything but a cheer-
ful countenance and a merry heart, which,
Solomon tells us, does good like a medicine."
A New Englander by birth, the daughter of a
clergyman, Abigail Adams had none of the
austerity or puritanic prejudices of her day.
What does it matter If there are only six
rooms tenantable In the White House—Mrs.
Adams Is resourceful and self-reliant. When
a woman has been through the revolution, her
home surrounded by spies, her husband's let-
ters intercepted, her supplies cut off; when
she has been left on a farm with five children
and tills the soil to support the family; when
she has faced the terrors of Bunker hill and
the siege of Boston; when famine and pesti-
lence have spared none, and she has been
robbed of her mother and her baby; when this
agony and misery has been endured and the
woman, through her sublime faith in God, re-
tains sweetness of character—then the unfin-
ished city of Washington Is a trifle not likely
to disturb her peace of mind. Mrs. Adams'
chief concern ifc a desire to make it pleasant
for those about her. Thus she cautions her
daughter Abby, "You must keep all this to
yourself and when asked how I like it say that
I write you the situation is beautiful—which
Is the truth."
Tha fates mads a happy selection In choot-
PL/* CO.
L
THE WASHIHGTOA THAT MRS. ADfitt5 FO/IND
Mrs. Adams' next residence. She became pre-
siding lady of the first American legation in
Great Britain—alas and alack, what empty
honor! The English were smarting under the
humiliation of losing the colonies. The king
and queen were civil to the point of boorish
ness, the people arrogant and insulting, the
press scurrilous and abusive, the nobility in
absolute ignorance of the new nation across
the ocean. Mrs. Adams declared that Mr. Pitt
and Lord Carmarthen were the only two men
In England who seemed to have liberal Ideas
concerning America. When, after a three
years' stay in Grosvenor square, Mr. Adams
was recalled to become vice-president of the
United States, Mrs. Adams, in commenting on
their coming departure, says, "Some years
hence it may be pleasant to reside here in the
character of American minister; but with the
present servility and the present temper of
the English no one need envy the embassy."
To New York City Mrs. Adams next moved
her household goods. The vice-president's
residence was Richmond Hill mansion, once
the headquarters of Gen. Washington. Mrs.
Adams was delighted with the situation of
her new home. The city has stretched for
miles to the north of this spot, now Varick
and Charlton streets, but Mrs. Adams wrote
that Richmond Hill was a mile and a half from
New York. Wandering through the neighbor-
hood of Varick street, with its Trinity tene-
ments, and over to the shipping activity of
West street and the Hudson river, one finds
it hard to realize that here were once "fields
beautifully variegated with grain and grass
to a great extent like the valley of Honiton in
Devonshire." These fields were to the right
of the mansion and continuing her descrip-
tion Mrs. Adams writes: "Upon my left the
city opens to view, intercepted here and there
by a rising ground and an ancient oak. In the
back is a large flower garden, enclosed with a
hedge and some handsome trees. Venerable
Mount Vernon. He presented Mrs. Washing-
ton's compliments, a haunch of venison, a bil
let from Major Custis, the sou of Mrs. Wash
Ington, a congratulatory letter from Mrs
Lewis, In which Mrs. Washington Bent her
love and a warm Invitation to Mount Vernon.
Nor did Mrs. Adams put off the visit—she
went the next week.
Oh, for the era of motor cars and good
roads! Poor Mrs. Adams is appalled by the
time required to pay calls in the wilderness
city. Her nearest neighbor Is Mrs. Otis, the
senator's mother, who lives half a mile from
the White House and many of the ladies are
in Georgetown, three and four miles apart.
Freight transportation, too, has its vexations
Mrs. Adams laments, "The vessel which has
my clothes and other matter lias not arrived.
rl he indies are impstlent for a drawing-room."
To add to her distress she had 110 mirrors, nor
a twentieth part lamps enough to light the
house. I11 moving, many of her things have
been broken or stolen, her precious china set.
so dear to the feminine heart, Is more than
half missing—How did the lady ever preserve
a cheerful countenance and a merry heart?
\et, in spite of all Inconveniences, Presi-
dent and Mrs. Adams gave their New Year's
reception at the White House in 1801, thereby
establishing a custom that has since been fol-
lowed on the first of every January. Mrs. Ad-
ams used for a drawing-room what Is now the
library. In entertaining she endeavored to
keep up the standard set by the Washing
tons. The first lady of the White House dls
pensed her hospitality with a lavish hand and
was particularly proud of the showing made
by the ladles at her levee. She declared,
while in England, that the beauties of the
court of St. James, the duchess of Devonshire,
the countess of Salisbury and Lady Talbot,
had formidable rivals in Mrs. Bingham, Mrs.
Phelps and Miss Hamilton. Mrs. Adams was
especially happy to welcome Mrs. Bingham to
of the game of politics as played in all parts
of the world. She was shocked by Marie An-
toinette's fate. She grieved for her as on©
woman grieves for another; but this climax
of the great French tragedy was not reached
in a single setting. Of the many Bcenes that
led up to that awful execution Mrs. Adams
wrote with deep knowledge: "Were you to
witness the spectacles of wretchedness and
misery wrhich these older countries exhibit,
crowded with habitudes, loaded with taxes,
you would shudder at the sight." In London
she saw the great army of the unemployed,
encountered the beggars at her doorstep, the
homeless in Hyde park, and, in comparing
this state of affairs with conditions at home,
she says, "The liberal reward which labor
meets with in America is another source of
our national prosperity; population and In-
creasing wealth result from it. The condition
of our laboring poor is preferable to any other
country. Comparatively speaking, we have no poor,
America is in her early vigor ... in a cheerful
nourishing state."
Mrs. Adams had implicit faith in the future great-
ness of her native land; she writes to John Adams when
he is chosen chief executive:
"My thoughts and meditations are with you, although
personally absent; and my petitions to heaven are 'that
the things that are made for peace may not be hidden
from your eyes.' My feelings are not those of pride
and ostentation on this occasion. They are solemnized
by a sense of obligation, the important trusts and nu-
merous duties connected witli it. That you may be
able to discharge them with honor to yourself, with
justice and impartiality to your country, and with the
satisfaction of this great people, shall be the daily
prayer of yours,
A. A."
Standing at the cradle of the young republic, Abigail
Adams "dipped Into the future, far as human eye could
see, saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder
that could be—" and to-day the present generation wit-
nesses the truth of her words: "America has much to
do ere she arrives at her Zenith; she possesses every
requisite to render her the happiest country
on the globe. "—To-day may the spirit of the
First lady linger within the White House
walls; for. if the radiance of her personality
he felt, it makes for happiness.
THE ESKIMO'S PIPE
"I write to tell you how thankful I
am for the wonderful Cuttcura Rem-
edies. My little niece had eczema for
five years and when her mother died
I took care of the child. It was all
over her face and body, also on her
head. She scratched so that she could
not sleep nights. I used Cuticura
Soap to wash her with and then ap-
plied Cuticura Ointment. I did not
use quite half the Cuticura Soap and
Ointment, together with Cuticura Re-
solvent, when you could see a change
and they cured her nicely. Now she
is eleven years old and has never been
bothered with eczema since. My
friends think it is just great the way
the baby was cured by Cuticura. I
Bend you a picture taken when she was
about 18 months old.
"She was taken with the eczema
when two years old. She was covered
with big sores and her mother had all
the best doctors and tried all kinds cf
salves and medicines without effect
until we used Cuticura Remedies. Mi'3.
H. Kiernan, 663 Quincy St., Brooklyn,
N. Y., Sept. 27, 1909."
Fog-Eye's Plaintive Protest.
Fog-Eye Smith of northwest Wy-
oming bore an appalling facade. His
Rtyle of beauty was a blight. Depend-
ing upon his horrific exterior, he was
in the habit of trying to awe newcom-
ers. On one occasion, affecting some
displeasure at the manner in which a
pallid stranger watered his liquor, Mr.
Smith announced, frowning, that un-
less he detected immediate amend-
ments he would send the neophyte
home iu a market basket. "Which I'll
sure tear you up a whole lot," said
Fog-Eye. Half an hour later Mr. Smith
was found groping about on the floor
under the poker table, hunting for his
glass eye, and muttering to himself.
The stranger asked with some evi-
dence of impatience what new line of
sentiments Mr. Smitii was now har-
boring. That injured resident, glaring
malevolently from beneath the furni-
ture, replied: "Which I sure do hate a
man with no sense of humor."
One on the Judge.
A newly qualified judge in one of
the smuil towns of Tennessee was
trying one of his first criminal cases.
The accused was an old darky who
was accused of robbing a hen-coop,
lie had been in court before on a sim-
ilar charge and was then acquitted.
"Well. Tom," began the judge, "I
see you're in trouble again."
"Yes, sah," replied the darky; "the
last time, jedge, you was ma lawyer."
"Where is your lawyer this time?"
asked the judge.
"I ain't got no lawyer this time,"
answered Tom. "I'm going to tell the
truth."
They Win.
Do you look for a favorable out-
come to your lawsuit?"
"No; but the lawyers do."—Houston
Post.
Tlie pipes used by the Eskimos are quite
different from those of nny other North Ameri-
can race and in the shape of the bowl more
resemble the opium pipes used by the Chinese
than anything else. The old pipes were very
small in the amount of tobacco that they
would hold.
1 ltere was, therefore, a wide, flaring mar-
gin to the pipe to catch any grains of tobacco
that might be spilled in filling it; then there
was a hollow which would hold a pinch ol
tobacco half as large as an ordinary pea and
a rather wide hole passing down through the fee- st"ne months ago, till last week,
base of the bowl which fitted inlo the pipe n'hen I began again, here at your table,
stem. The bowl of the pipe was of ivory ' don't see how anyone can like coffeq
stone, brass or
HARD TO DROP
But Many Drop It.
A young Calif, wife talks about coffee:
"It was hard to drop Mocha and
Java and give Postum a trial, but my
nerves were so shattered that I was
a nervous wreck and of course that
means all kinds of ails.
"At first I thought bicycle riding
caused it and I gave it up, but n.y con-
dition remained unchanged. I did not
want to acknowledge coffee caused the
trouble for I was very fond of It. At
that time a friend came to live with
us, and I noticed that after he had
been with us a week he would not
drink his coffee any more I asked him
the reason. He replied, 'I have not had
a headache since I left off drinking cof-
Dpper.
I he pipe-stem was curved and had a mouth
piece. It is said that the small hole running
down through the base of the bowl and Inti
the pipe-stem was usually plugged with cari
bou hair to save any grains of tobacco that
might otherwise have passed down through
this aperture and so be lost. The smoking of
such a pipe would not last long and we may
presume that a very few draws would exhaust
It. The smoke was of course taken Into the
lungs.
The Eskimos are known to be extremely
skillful In the representation of scenes and
objects, while the Indians of Queen Charlotte's
sound and generally all the natives of the
northwest roast of America are famous for
their carving I11 wood and in a black slate
Handsomely carved Eskimo pipes of walrui
Ivory from northwestern Alaska have on each
side of the pipe, that Is to say, on four met 1
or less long, flat surfaces, scenes from ti)
dally life of the Kski-io.
anyway, after drinking Postum!'
I "I said nothing, but at once ordered
a package of Postum. That was five
months ago, and we have drank no
coffee since, except on two occasions
when we had company, and the result
each time was that my husband could
not sleep, but lay awako and tossed
and talked half the night We were
convinced that coffee caused his suffer-
ing, so he returned to Postum, con-
vinced that coffee v>as an enemy, In
stead of a friend, and he Is troubled
ao more with insomnia.
"I, myself, have gained 8 pounds in
weight, and my nerves have ceased to
quiver. It seems so easy now to quit
coffee that caused our aches and ails
and take up Postum."
Read the little book, "The Road to
Wellville," in pkgs. "There's a Reason."
Ever rend thr above lettepf A new
unr nppt-nrH from lime to ttmr. Tber
irf Krniilnr, true, and full of liuiua
Interest.
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Allan, John S. The Peoples' Voice (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 18, No. 30, Ed. 1 Friday, February 4, 1910, newspaper, February 4, 1910; Norman, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc118302/m1/3/: accessed June 4, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.