Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, March 1, 1903, Page 24

Mrs. Roosevelt’s Life in MRS. ROOSEVELT IN A CARRIAGE GOWN.—Photo Copyright, 1903, by Fran- ces B, Johnston. ASHINGTON, Feb. 24.—(Special Correspondence.)—With the close of her second season in the White House it {8 commonly acknowl- edged thut as a social factor Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt has succeeded in com- pletely re-organizing Washington society. The arrival of Lent will ring down the cur- tain upon a year which has been marked by a re-construction and awakening of the soclal body in the nation's capital. The president’'s wife has not only set a stiff pace for others to follow, but she has grad- ually been doing away with the threadbare traditions and iIntroducing welcome inno- vations in their place. With the aid of an efficlent social secretary, Mrs. Roose- velt started out with a will to fill the ar- duous duties devolving upon her position. In all her entertaining, there has been a marked simplicity, and the force of her example in this matter has made tts in- fluence very generally felt. The weekly Friday evening musicales, which have been a feature of the new administration, have had a pronounced effect on musical Wash- ington, and their marked success has made them a pattern for other social leaders. Blase Washingtonians and careworn men of affairs have come to look forward with pleasure to these quiet, informal entertain- ments, where one can drop in after dinner with the assurance >f a musical treat. On these occasions the 200 to 400 especially invited guests who fill the chairs of the East room, always include such persons as Secretary Hay, Senator Hanna, and prom- Inent members of the diplomatic corps, as well as the growing musical contingent in the Capital City. Following the example of the hostess all formality is dropped. Miss Alice, who Is very natural and unaffected, makes a good second to her mother, and the president himself, always much in evi- dence at such times, finds occasion for a little personal chat with each of his guests. Refreshments, like everything else, are ex- tremely simple, consisting merely of ices and punch. The musical programs are most varied, covering a wide range, from the classical to the latest popular hit. The artists who give their services have been much pleased by the graceful forethought of Mrs. Roosevelt, who “had -Miss Johnston make some exclusive portraits of herself and the president to be autographed and appropriately framed for them, as souve- nirs of these occasions, The much needed renovation of the White House has obviated, among other things, the necessity for profuse flora. decorations whigh were formerly used to hide the dingy, time-worn walls. One sees now only an occasional touch of white and green in the East room, and some roses or pink carnations against the green background of the s.ate dining room. The now brilliant coloring of the Blue and Red rooms excludes much floral embellishment, and the long hallway looks better without .ny addition to its fresh furnishings. The new arrangements for exits and en- trances are universally applanded as a better solution of the management of hand- ling the huge crowds which attend the five big yearly receptions, and while the pro- cession has a long way to go from the south entrance to the stairway and up stairs around through the dining rooms, the undesirable crush is almost entirely avoided. The compartments for wraps which now honeycomb both sides of the passageway are a great convenience and only another evidence of the executive ability of the Mistress of the White House. Without doubt, & large part of Mrs. Exploring the Land of F ALL the exploration done in re- cent years, none has been more interesting and romantic than the work done under the auspices of Austrian sclentists in Arabia, although hardly anything has been heard about it, The Academy of Sciences in Vienna now poesesses a great amount of material which is being studied and classified. When the results are published, the world will learn of Arab desert kings, whose very names are unknown now, yet who are so power- ful that they have made the great interior of Arabia a sealed thing. These mysterious rulers do more than defy Turkey, which claims sovereignty over Arabla. They despise her. No Turkish caravan may cross their ter- ritories without paying tribute. No Tur- kish official dreams of attempting to ex- ercise authority over them. Some of these kings are the Arabs of tradition—brave, truthful, chivalric, look- ing on their guest as their brother and holding sacred the man who has broken bread* with them. O*hers, as brave, are robbers and murderers uudiluted, who plunder the man who dares to penetrate to their land, and often spear him after they have stripped him. All of them—noble and robber alike— refuse to permit European or Turk to visit the land. Hence the vast interior of Arabia, the land of the Nedjd and the Desert of Rdba-el-Khali, have remained ™~ VVhite Hous_e MRS, ROQSEVELT AND HER YOUNGEST SON, QUENTIN.—Photo Copyright, 1903, fiy Frances B. Johnston. » } Roosevelt’s personal success is due tg a natural fitness - and* taste for society, ;but both the president and his wite have very plainly shown their willingness to go a long way for the sake of giving pleasure to others, and have been so untiring in their efforts to accomplish this desire that the spur of their leadership has been felt by everyone. That Mrs. Roosevelt has becn able to do this .without in any* way neglecting her children or houasehold fhas been a‘matter of much comment. « Besides the management of the house she has digect supervision over each of her children with whom she is a veritable companion. (in)y the other day thc first lady of the laud was seen”on a Washington thoroughfare chasing after a truant pet dog in company with her two youngest boys, Archie anl Quentin, who were hanging on their moth- er's arms and pulling her aloug as if she were one of their playfellows. It is this common interést which makes the White House famous for the good-humored un- derstanding of its inmates, It was a typi- cal remark when Quentin peered with childish * curiosity into Miss Johnston's mysterious camera boxes. ‘“‘Is it something funny?” he said. The Roosevelt youngsters are always on the lookout for the ‘“‘some- thing funny,” and they usually find it, too. Like the other members of her family, Mrs Roosgevelt is a devotee of outdoor ex- ercise. Every morning she takes a walk at 11:30 and again In the afternoon from 2 to 4 and she covers distances entirely out of the range of the average society woman. “I prefer walking to driving,” she said to o friend the other day. *“I like to take some place about two miles distant for my objective point so that by the time I return I shall have bad a sufficiently long walk." Love of outdoor exercise is only one of the many tastes Mrs. Roosevelt has in common with the president, who seems to take entire satisfaction in his wife's every action. He is Jike a big boy with her, and his delight cannot be concealed from the most casual observer. In fact, everyone finds in Mrs. Roosevelt a vivacity unusually pleasing. In general appearance Mrs. Roosevelt is frail. Her clear complexion is very white, at times looking almost llke s'marble, She is about medium height and her slenderness is accentuated by her gowna, which are always cut on long, easy lines. In the matter of dress, as in everything else, the “‘first lady" has verr decided ideas which might be expected of a descendant of that hard-headed old English contro- versalist, Jonathan Fdwards, to whom, it is said, she traces a direct ancestry. “Why, she doesn't even wear her hair prettily!” exclaimed a woman of the fash- fon plate type the other day, on seeing the mistress of the White House for the first time. Mrs. Roosevelt, however, is the kind of woman who sees more beauty in smooth hair brushed well off the forehead than in the most up-to-date intricacies of French hair dressers, and she does not believe in changing once she has found a style to suit her. Mrs. Roosevelt is very emphatic in her dislike of being photographed. It is re- lated of her when she came into the White House she had not had a picture taken for years, and since she has been there it has been a very difficult matter to get her to sit for any. Before the close of the present season, however, she arranged with Miss Johnston, who had succeeded so well with Miss Alice and the children, for some special sittings, with the aocompanying gratifying results, PORTIA WYNNE. the Ancient Arab Kings mostly unknown for more than 1,300 years; and what was known of it before that time was in the form of scattered and vague historical tradition and story rather than Listory. Austrian scientists became eager to search out the story, past and present, of this unknown land some years ago, and be- fore long generous sums were subscribed in many quarters to aid in the work. The leading explorer to go into the field was .a professor of theology, Dr. Alois Musil. In the past thrce years he has had adventures enough to satisfy half a dozen men for life; and he is going to dive into the deserts aguin to get some more. His leading achievement has been the dis- covery of the ancient palace of Amara, which was built by the great kings of Yemen in the days of the Old Testament and which was old when Christ was born. When Ma- homet swept upon the old governments, Amra was abandoned, and for 1,300 years it has been only a name, full of mystery and allurement. Wonderful tales have been told of it by the desert dwellers, and they reached the ears of the world through the wanderers who met Bedouins in the coast strip cities of Aden, Bassorah and Muscat, The “Ghost Palace” they called it; they spoke in one breath of its splendors, its mighty paintings on the walls, and its tere rors, that killed him who dared go near it (Continued on Fifth Page.) A )