The Personalities and the People Who Coinhabit With Great Men

"I wonder if I dare," begins Anonymous, setting out to defy grammar and the social amenities. She has no need to say that she is a woman--he clams are in evidence from the beginning and, like a woman, she apologizes for them. Her anonymity must be respected, but it is quite evident that she has more than a passing familiarity with both society and journalism. Her book* has all the faults of good journalism: flippancy, occasional vulgarity, cleverness, false sophistication, interest.

What is this book? Gossip. Gossip about the wives, homes and eccentricities of officials and statesmen. It is eminently a book for serious-minded people. To the trifler and the gossip it is merely a few hours' diversion, such as they can manufacture less cleverly and without so "big" names in their own drawing-rooms. To the truly serious-minded man it is a treasury in which he can dig for nuggets of personality and little keys that unlock great doors of understanding.

Nicholas Longworth recently became Republican Floor Leader of the House. The personality of his wife, Alice Roosevelt (who never pays calls) may not explain this event, but does explain a great deal about "Nick." Similarly, what secrets of the personality of Borah, the thunderer, are not suggested by the knowledge that he has a shy golden-haired wife, "Little Borah," and lives in an apartment with Chinese decorations and three canaries flitting at large?

Some extracts:

Alice Roosevelt Longworth. "Alice was one of the pioneers in smoking and left a trail of ashes and smoldering disgust through conservative circles. . . . She came and went like a merry flash and skated skillfully over very thin ice. . . . Any day you may see Alice Longworth come into the Senate. . . . Her hat, no matter how becoming, is flung instantly aside. . . . She hasn't much hair, but it is pretty and there is scarcely a gray streak in it. ... Not long after her marriage, I think it was, she was giving a big luncheon party. In the middle of it, someone called her up to say that an important issue had suddenly developed in the Senate. Grabbing a hat and hurling an abrupt apology at her guests, Alice left the astonished crowd to finish the party without a hostess."

Edith Galt Wilson. " 'She's handsome in a heavy way but her face sags.' . . . Democrats, no doubt, see her comeliness and Republicans note the sag. ... If Mrs. Wilson doesn't exactly speak the Woodrow Wilson language, she at least seems to understand it. ... Have you ever noticed how Mrs. Wilson always managed to draw into the background a little and so give the impression that the President is perceptibly taller, which, of course, is not the case. . . . She was proud to be Mrs. Woodrow Wilson but she didn't want to wear the dome of the Capitol for a tiara."

Florence Kling Harding. "Mrs. Harding was never content to be on the fringe of things. ... If she had ambition, certainly it was not for herself. The limelight always made her wince a little. ... As long as she was in the White House she took a very personal interest in the housekeeping affairs of the establishment. . . . Mrs. Harding was always proud of being a small-town woman. She never wanted to be anything else. She remembered when she didn't have things. . . . 'Wouldn't you like to go up and see the other rooms in the White House?' she asked a Middle Western woman one day. 'I know how curious I used to be about it all.'"

Grace Goodhue Coolidge. "Mrs. Coolidge believes that the wives of public men, like children, should be seen and not heard. . . . She has certainly helped sweeten the social souffle of official Washington. She has graced parties big and late, small and early. . . . Her motto is 'One church, one club, one husband, one political party.' . . . She even stays in Washington in August, when anyone is in danger of being mired in the melting asphalt, believing that she can add to her husband's comfort, Devotion could go no further!"

Mrs. Charles E. Hughes. "Mrs. Hughes always reminds me of a Sunday afternoon--quiet, peaceful, serene. . . . Her entertainments are a duty faithfully discharged. . . . The larger functions are held at the Pan-American Building among the parrots and the palms. Less formal parties are staged in the big house, called home, with its 30 rooms, two libraries, and a ballroom."

Mrs. Henry Wallace (wife of the secretary of agriculture). "Some years ago, a friend met Mrs. Wallace with her latest baby. 'Why, Mrs. Wallace, I didn't know you had a baby that age.' Smiling rather proudly, Mrs. Wallace replied: 'I always have a baby that age.'"

Ruth Hanna McCormick (wife of

the Senator from Illinois, daughter of

the late Mark A. Hanna). . . . She

would stand alone, if she were not

propped up by a Senator husband on

one side and the Hanna millions on

the other."

Frau Wiedfelt (wife of the German Ambassador). "The German Embassy wasn't the center of gaiety last season and a woolen unionsuit was the first necessity when calling. . . . Frau Wiedfelt was warmly clad. A comment on the chilliness brought the reply: 'We are used to it. The French have taken all our coal.' "

The occasional comments on the menfolk of Washington are equally intriguing: "Nearby came a hearty laugh. 'Ha! ha! ha! How do I keep thin?' and Chief Justice Taft patted his waistcoat. 'Oranges and discipline, that's the recipe.'"

"Did you know that Senator Capper was learning to dance? Yes, he is. He owns a string of papers and has the Form Bloc in leash, but he doesn't dress the part."

Perhaps the most felicitous bit of writing in the whole book is a single sentence describing Secretary Hughes: "With age, Mr. Hughes grows more genial and having abandoned the clerical cut of his whiskers, his face foliage now assumes more international proportions--it savors of diplomacy, a fringed setting for peaceful policies."

*BOUDOIR MIRRORS OF WASHINGTON--Anonymous--Winston ($2.50).