Evening Star Newspaper, March 5, 1933, Page 69

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, MARCH 5, 1933. President Curtis as to the position his sister would occupy. Traditionally speaking, the sister of the Vice President would not outrank the wife of the Secretary of State though, ot course, a wife would. A diplomat, asked if he was not watching the new White House social reign with great curi- osity, calmly answered, “Not at all. A lady who has traveled, who speaks my language, who is accustomed to social usage the world over and who knows what is due a guest, can make no mistakes.” The expression is worth some- thing, for one of Mrs. Roosevelt's first acts will be to arrange a reception or tea where she will have the diplomatic corps as guests. The corps, like the tide of politicians, comes and goes, and of members of the corps who were in Washing- ton when Mr. Roosevelt was Assistant Secretary of the Navy,-only Viscount d’Alte, Mtinister of Portugal, and Dr. Varela, the Minister of Uruguary, remain in their former positions. It has been said and written that Mrs. Roose- velt could arrange her household affairs either in her private homes or in the Governor’s man- sion in a space of 15 minutes. At that rate she should be able to keep the domestic side of the White House moving in less than an hour each morning. This is not including the work ot half dozen secretaries who must be directed and guided in their work. Mrs. Taft, whose admirable management of the White House has never bcen surpassed, says: “There is never any ceremony abou$ moving into the White House. You just driw up and walk in, and there you are.” No Prest dent’s wife needs ever to make changes unless she desires, because, like each bureau, a govern- mental institution, it is always fully equipped and in good running order. When Uncle Sam requires hospitality at the White House he pays for #t. From the south front entrance where diplomats go through and stop in a luxurious dressing room to leave their wraps and then proceed to the drawing room sulte on an electric elevator, or through the great front door on the north, through which the cabinet and those invited to the blue room enter, or on the east side, where you and I and all the rest go in, there are courteous men to greet one and take one’s card of admission. In the grand marble entrance hall there are mu- sicians stationed—the Marine Band, one of the finest and oldest in America—and there are lights and flowers, flowers everywhere, and all paid for by the Government. There are many White House aides besides the military and naval aides to the President, perhaps a dozen or more officers of lesser rank, each in his full dress uniform, to escort or otherwise pay homage to the invited guests, assigned from their military division to the task, and there are a hundred other things on the night of a reception or dinner for which the generous United States Government pays. OT only is the front and back yard of the President’s house kept clean and clipped and in perfect order from the horticulturists standpoint, but the Government propagating house with its big staff of botanists and spe- cialists and the many day laborers who help to keep the grounds and glassed-in houses are watched each season with the object of always supplying the White House with flowers and to spare. The particular taste of the First Lady is learned and special attention paid to her favorites. Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic prede- cessor of Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, was the most luxurious mistress in her taste in flowers that the White House ever had. Orchids and lilies of the valley were her especial favorite® and for *months before her engagement to President Woodrow Wilson became publicly known until she left the White House, she seldom was seen without a corsage cluster of these choice blossoms. There is a special room on the ground floor of the mansion called the flower room, where the flowers are taken when brought from the hot houses. There they are sorted over, and finally arranged in vases. Methodically filling shelves are vases of many colors and kinds from the most expensive to pottery effects, and there are baskets and bowls and other recepta- cles fitted to any par‘ of the house and for any occasion. After the flowers are placed on the table, where scissors and other necessary con- veniences are at hand, the arrangement is made with often the mistress of the White House as- sisting. Both Mrs. Hoover and Mrs. Coolidge gave the White House flowers personal attention, and Mrs. Hoover had the rare knack of decidedly artistic effect and fitness. She has a highly deco- rative sense and where previously flowers had formed the only adornment of the White House table, she had center pieces of richly colored fruits and a little ‘ouch which showed clearly her forethought was in the dozens of huge pine cones placed on the great flat baskets of wood near the open fireplaces, where they not only furnished a charming decoration, but when the family gathered around were thrown on the fire from time to time to send lurid flames of color from their resin-soaked shells up the chimney flue. - Uncle Sam is the sweetheart who pays for and sends flowers to the First Lady. Nor are all the blossoms used to adorn the social events at the White House. One of the most beautiful pieces to leave the White House in years past was that sent to Northampton for the funeral of President Coolidge. When an important man or woman dies, on days when the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is decorated and on other such occasions the flowers are sent from the White House, There are flower boxes of many sizes, each bearing an engraved picture of the White House, used This view of the W hite House will be familiar to those who have attended garden parties as guests of the President and the for sending out these flowers, and happy, in- deed, is the person who receives them, for no greater compliment could be paid. After all, everything is so thoughtfully ar- ranged for the President’s family from a domestic standpoint that about the only thing they haye to do is smile upon the other folk who pay the taxes. NE of the lonesomest sights in the country is to see the White House without chil- dren, without young people around and a con- stant flow of relatives and friends and other guests passing in and out. It gives a new flavor to things, a new something to tell the country at large every time a new person ar- rives at the President’s house. When President and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt ‘rolled up to the White House door after the death of President McKinley, having with them their family of six children, Alice, Ethel, Theo- dore, Kermit, Archibald and Quentin, it put mew life into Washington, and into the whole country. An invalid mistress had presided there and there were no children, even as visi- tors. Each Roosevelt youngster had his or her several pets and almost before they got their hats off, if, indeed, they wore them, the little boys were skimming around the walks and drives on their bicycles and velocipedes like a lot of swallows, in and out, back and forth, and all this while the two girls were following theic mother on her new piigrimage through the ‘White House. First Lady. There came to the White House yesterday another joyous flock of Roosevelts, some young- er, some older, but Roosevelts through and through with all a Raosevelt’s vim, vigor and good nature. It is hoped this lusty family will all be there in unbroken circle at the end of the President’s administration. There are a sufficient number of young folk in the family of President and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt to make a lively party for dancing, even without another additional guest. At the luncheon in the White House yesterday, the first meal of the executive family following the President’s oath of office at the Capitol, were the son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Curtis Bean Dall and their two children, Anna, nicknamed Sistie, and Curtis B. Dall, jr, called Buzzy, and Mr. and Mrs. James Roose- velt and thei: baby daughter Sara, named for the President’s mother; Mr. and Mrs. Elliot Roosevelt and their baby son William, the " real baby of the family, and two sons of the President who are still in school, John Roose- velt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, jr. Of course, there were the President’s mother, state- ly and becoming, and other relatives and friends, but in the enormous group one realized the size and the power of the Roosevelt family. Ample pyovision now exists in the White House for a big nursery and playroom on the top floor of the mansion and there are also sleeping apartments, so the President’s grand- children need not be disturbed in their dally routine when visiting there. For a fact, it is not the way of the Roosevelt family to have the The White House Béthtub Controversy ERY few people know that great excitement attended the installa- tion of the first White House bath- tub! When the charming and fas- tidious Dolly Madison was the First Lady of the Land she had rooms set apart for bathing and bathtubs of a crude _order were placed therein. The move caused a great stir throughout the land, but Mrs. Madison stuck to her guns—or, rather, her bathtubs! But when Andrew Jackson, the fiery, hot- headed Man of the People, was swept into office a few years later, the bathtubs were all removed. It was undemocratic to bathe, said Mr. Jackson, Not only that, but phy- sicians discredited tubbing as an unhealthy practice and clergymen- condemned it &8 another one of old Satan’s wicked lures. For many years the bathtub was a contro- versial subject, just as prohibition is today! Ministers almost universally censured it and many State Legislatures levied high taxes on bathtubs, while a few even made ownership of a bathtub a crime, Baths were simply not taken in those days. The ey of Ed- ward I took baths only on religious holidays and Queen Isabella had only two baths in her life—one when she was born and the other when she married! Voltaire called the Middle Ages “a thousand years without & bath.” This earnest dislike for bathing is rather incomprehensible when one remembers the historic Roman batlis! However, the depth of religious feeling in early America may have been responsible for it. Millard Fillmore was a broad-minded, far- seeing man. Disregarding the furor aroused by his action, he had a bathtub installed in the White House. Newspapers decried it as “monarchial luxury.” But the strong-minded President was not to be swerved from his pur- pose and a bathtub was installed which was sufficiently long to “float any man.” In fact, Abraham Lincoln used the tub—it is record- ed—with perfect easel After these dauntless spirits had proven that bathing was cleansing and healthful, if un- democratic, bathtubs became popular through= out the country and hotels began to advertise a tub—or in rare instances—two tubs! Now it is not unusual to find hotels with bathtubs in every room, and the White House, not to be outdone by any hosteiry, is well equipped with bathing facilities. Buckingham, routine life of their children disturbed by any- thing, for the President’s mother tells how her mother, Mrs. Delano, traveled for months on a clipper ship to China, where Mr. Delano had & large business, and during the voyage the rou- tine life of the children, even to their lessons and recreation, was carried on just as if they were on land and at their home in New York. There will be the new swimming pool, the great fountain at the foot of the south front lawn where there are hundreds of goldfish playing in the basin, and there are a full 10 acres of ground over which they may romp and exercise. For many years the south front lawn claimed no more privacy than a public park, but Mrs. Cleveland, finding that too many strangers pressed about her baby when it was taken there for an airing, had the gates closed and now they are entered only by special are rangements, while after a great cry from Gove emnment clerks and lesser officials, the north front walk, after a brief closipg, was again opened for the convenience of the public and the Government clerks, who may use it as & cross walk, much shortening their way to the downtown district from the departments. Each administration has its dowager queen, and Mrs. James Delano Roosevelt fills that en< viable role in this administration. President McKinley had his mother in evidence st the time of his inauguration, and no personage lives more lovingly in the hearts of the people than Miss Delia Torrey, the aunt of President Taft, who fed him pies and cookies when he was a little boy and followed him through his college days and his official career which led him into the White House. To the familiar public, she was “Aunt Delia,” and nothing added more to the interest of the last inaugural ball in Washe ington than her presence in the box of tbe President and Mrs. Taft. There, with other relatives, she sat in state, dressed in her handsomest silk gown and oldest and rarest lace, and proudly watched her favore ite nephew launched on the four successful years of his administration. Now there comes another grand dame, the President’s stately mother, whose beautiful life is outlined in every feature and every action, and thougn she is a woman of a newer period than either of the other two women mentioned, and is ex= ceedingly progressive, trying to keep pace with her son and his up-to-date family, she still i sufficiently old-fashioned to love stiff silks, satins, velvets and old lace. She is not olde fashioned looking, however, and nothing will add greater charm to her son’s administration gun her presence when she visits the White ouse. Certain it is she will ornament the blue room when the First Lady of the Land holds her re= ception of state, and mingling in this most select group, mustered from one end of this country to the other, and from the Old World, too, will be not only Mme. Roosevelt, but the daughter and sons of the house. Neither male nor female needs must have made a formal debus in the social world before they are admitted to these stately functions. for one recalls Charley, Taft, the Theodore Roosevelt children and many others who were charming additions to the blue room group as they took a peep at close range of the dignitaries assembled theres