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(X.

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

MRS. WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT

l^uMtttxotiB of

BY '>

MRS. WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT

'.■It 'f-'i .-;e-rTe>i '^ff^'f'

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW YORK

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T>LCcS Fv . • A". '-Sfc

• •

• • •

• •

• -•

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.•• • • •

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• • •

.•• •

• • •

• • •
• • ••

/ :

FOREWORD

I wish to express my grateful acknowledgment to
Eleanor Franklin Egan and my daughter for their valued
assistance in the preparation for publication of these Recol-
lections.

Helen Herron Taft.

" ' ^ ' - :

■' ■• ^ ' . .

• • •

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• •• •

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•

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

Iktroductort 1

Cindnnati— Cir^ of Birth and Early Memoriet. Educa-
tional and Musical Advantages. Childhood in Lar^e
Family on Moderate Income. Meeting Mr. Taft — Politi-
cal Turmoil. First trip to Washington to visit President
and Mrs. Hayes. Social Gaieties and Serious Under-
takings. Engagement— -Summer in the Adirondacks.
Marriage— Trip Abroad. Mr. Taff s Father and Mother.
First home — ''Satisfactory though Mortgaged."

CHAPTER n

ClKCINNATI AND WASHINGTON 21

The Superior Court — First Doubt as to Desirability of
Judicial Career. Mr. Taft's Embarrassing Truthfulness.
My son Robert Solicitor General — Move to Washington.
Mr. William M. Evarts. Washington Society Twenty-
five Years Ago. Mj Daughter Helen. The Federal
Bench. Youngest Child. Tranquil Years. The Cincin-
nati Orchestra. Spanish-American War— Results to the
Taft Family,

CHAPTER ni
To THE Philippines 39

The Second Philippine Commission. Army Transport
Hancock. Honolulu. "Aloha OeT* Yokohama. Mr.
Taft in a Jinriklsha. His Size Interests the Japanese.
Audience with the Emperor and Empress of Japan — ^A
Question of Clothes. I Decide to Remain in Japan for
the summer. The Hancock to Manila.

CHAPTER IV
In Japan 65

Keeping House in Yokohama — In Quarantine with
Measles. A Japanese Menage. Fascinating Oriental
Sounds — ^Alluring Shops. First Letter from Mr. Taft. A
bit of Philippine History. Miyanoshita — ^Japanese Inns-*
The Darkest Night. A Refugee from China — ^Boxer In-
surrection. Joseph did not Commit Suicide; He was
only Learning to Sing. More Letters. Mr. Bryan's Com-
plicating Poliqr. To Manila.

vii

CONTENTS

CHAPTER V

First Impressions of Manila 91

The China Sea. Manila Bay — Strange Scenes and
Strange Peoples. First Home in Manila — ^''Getting Used"
to my Environment. Seventy Thousand American Troops.
Genera] Arthur MacArthur — Social Coolness. Intrigue —
Assassinations— Problems. Progress of Pacification. A
Typhoon. American Presidential Campaign. Civil and
Military Rule. September first — The Commission begins
to Exercise Authority.

CHAPTER VI
A Strange Environment 118

El cosiumbres del pais — ^Employes and Parientes. A
Pair of Black Ponies — ^A Runaway — Filipino Coachmen.
Charlie's Playmates. Shopping— Saloons. Manila Society.
"He may be a brother of William H. Taft, but he ain't
no friend of minel" A Filipino Call. Presents. Amer-
ican Patriotism. Friars and Friars' Lands. A Mo-
mentous Decision.

CHAPTER VII
'*Day8 of the Empire 142

Unrest and Uncertainty — Guerilla Warfare. Re-elec-
tion of Mr. McKinley. Optimistic in the Face of Chaos.
Christmas — ^Eighty in the Shade. A New Year's Recep-
tion— Silk Hats and Frock Coats. The Federal Party and
the Peace Movement — Washington's Birthday. First
Visit to a Provincial Town. Establishment of Civil Gov-
ernment. Mr. Taft First Civil Governor.

CHAPTER VIII
An Historic Trip 156

Through the Southern Islands. Establishing Pro-
vincial Governments. A Test of Endurance — Filipino
Bandi-^Banquetes and Bailes — the Rigodon. Moroland.
Aguinaldo— <^olonel Frederick Funston of "the Suicide
Squad." Zamboanga — Cottabato— the Gulf of Davao-—
Surigao— A Perilous Journey. Cebu. Sorsogon — ^A Riot
of Hospitality. "The Sacred Torch of Liberty/

t»

CHAPTER IX

The Wild Men's Country 182

Into Northern Luzon — the Wild Men's Countiy. A
Spanish Steamer. General and Mrs. J. Franklin Bell. A
Side Trip. Impedimenta and Military Discipline. An
Amazing Summit. Where no White Woman ever was
before Igorrotes — Human Skulls as House Decorations —
Rice Teraces. Down a Long Trail. Baguio— Our $2|-
500,000 Road. Necessity for Haste.

yiii

CONTENTS

CHAPTER X
Governor Taft 206

The Inauguration of Gorernor Taft. Two Thousand
Guests. Moving to Malacafian Palace — Social Activities.
The Governor's Working Day. General Chaffee — Con-
tinued Differences of Opinion. General Corbin. The
Assassination of President McKinley — Dark Days. Mr.
Taft and President Roosevelt. Balangiga. A Trip to
China— Mr. Taft 111— Hurried Return. Ordered Home
on Leave— An Earthquake. We Sail on Christmas Eve.

CHAPTER XI
A Trip to Rome 233

Some Unhappy Memories. Business in Washington—
The Friar Lands Question. A Mission to Rome. Left
Behind but Follow Shortly. Position and Character of
Commission — Complications and Embarrassments. Cardi-
nal Rampolla. Pope Leo XIIL A Brilliant Society.
Vatican Politics. An Audience with the Pope. Vallom- .
brosa. Gifts from the Pope. Unfinished Negotiations-
Mr. Taft to Manila. Switzerland.

CHAPTER XII
Last Days in the Philippines 251

A Great Demonstration. Cholera— 'Rinderpest — Fam-
ine—Turmoil. The Church Schism — ^Aglipay. Arch-
bishop Guidi. Ladrones and Assassins. Taft declines
the Supreme Bench — ^Mr. Roosevelt Insists— Popular Pro-
test. A Letter from Mr. Roosevelt. Called to Washing-
ton as Secretary of War. A Farewell Fete— The Doge
of Venice and his Lady — ^Regretful Good-byes.

CHAPTER XIII
Secretary of War 274

Contrasted Attitudes — Guests of a Nation and ''Just
Nobody." Settling down in Washington — Difficulties in
living up to an Exalted Office— Life of a "Cabinet
Lady." The Panama Canal — Trip to Panama. Mr.
Taft, a Congressional Party and Miss AHce Roosevelt.
Summer in England. Intervention in Cuba — ^''Those Aw-
ful Twenty Days."

CHAPTER XIV
Busy Years 302

••The Three Musketeers." A Political Campaign— the
•Rush of Life. The Supreme Bench again. A Presiden-
tial "Boom." Mr. Taft not Interested. I misunderstand
Mr. Roosevelt. Athos and Porthos. '^Sitting on the Lid."
Agitated Days. Growing Enthusiasm. Murray Bay.
Starting Around the World — Yellowstone Park — ^A Sun-
day game of Bridge. A Taste of Campaign Work.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XV
A Hurried Trip Around the World • 313

Japan — Shanghai — Manila. Opening of the first Phil-
ippine Assembly. Trips and Entertainments. Vladivo-
stok. Across Siberia. Moscow — St. Petersburg — ^Berlin.
A Shopping Expedition and a Perilous Night. The
Steamsiup President Grant, Return to the United States.
Nomination for the Presidenqr — ^Political Campaign^
Election.

CHAPTER XVI
President of the United States • • 324

The Evening of March Third, 1909. A Dinner Party
at the White House. A Stormy Night Washington
Ice-bound and Isolated. "I always said it would be a
cold day when I got to be President of the United States.*'
The Inauguration. At Home in the White House — A
Brief Inspection — ^The McKim Restoration. The In«
augural Ball— A Brilliant Scene. "Aunt Delia." The
End of the Greatest Day.

CHAPTER XVn
The White House • 347

Mistress of the White House— Domestic Responsibilities
— Some Innovations. The White House staff — ^Furniture
and Porcelains. The President's Hospitality. A Diplo-
matic Tea. Forms and Precedents. My First Dinner
Party. Various Entertainments. Potomac Drive. De-
lightful Spring Evenings. The Charm of the Home of
Presidents. A Passing Glimpse of Mental Pictures.

CHAPTER XVni
Some White House Formalities 365

A Long Illness. Garden Parties — The First Disappoint-
ment— Subsequent Success. The Nation's Sununer Capi-
tal— ^A Question of Privaqr — ^The Secret Service Men.
The Washington Social Season. State Dinners and Re-
ceptions. First Cabinet Dinner. The New Year's Re-
ception. ''Behind the line." Cutting down die Lists.
The Diplomatic Reception and Dinner. Serving Re-
freshments. Various Demands.

CHAPTER XIX
Conclusion 382

Mr. Roosevelt Returns from Africa — Calls at Beverly
—An Agreeable Meeting. A Cruise on the Mayflower.
The President of Chili. A "Whirlwind" Existence. A
Cabinet House Party. Fitting Charlie out in Long Trous-
ers. Helen's D^but/ Our Silver Wedding. Renomi-
nation. Plans for a Quiet Future. An Expression from
Mr. Taft

ILLUSTRATIONS

Mrs. William Howard Taft Frontispiece

VACXNO
TAOK

Mrs. Taft's childliood home on Pike Street, in Cindumati • 4

Mr. and Mrs. John Williamson Herron, Mrs. Taft's father

and mother 8

Members of the salon. Mr. Taft in the centre with the au-
thor at his right .12

Mr. and Mrs. William Howard Taft at the time of their

marriage 16

Mrs. Taft with Robert and Helen, when Mr. Taft was
Solicitor-General • ... 26

Charlie Taft when he went to the Philippines 36

Nikko. An ancient cryptomeria avenue and a glimpse of the

famous temples 52

Entrance to the Imperial Palace gardens in Tokyo ... 56

The State IXning-Room of the White House, showing tapestry
presented to Mrs. Taft by the Empress of Japan • • • 62

Helen Taft in Japanese costume 76

Mrs. Taft in formal Filipina costume 90

A carved Nora or Philippine mahogany bed, now in Mr. Taft's
room at New Haven 98

A typical Philippine river scene and some Filipino laundry
work 104

(Left to right) General Wright, Mr. Taft and Judge Ide, as
Philippine G>mmissioners 118

A typical Filipino menu and place card . • 148

Triumphal arch at Bataan 152

Filipino members of the organising party enjoying afternoon

repose on the deck of the Sumner 158

The Sultan of Sulu boarding the Sumner^ followed by Mr.
Arthur Fergusson, Spanish secretary to the Commission . 166

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING
PAGE

A Moro datu with his retinue, and the favourite wife of a datu

with her maids-in-waiting 170

Picturesque bead bedecked Bogobos of the Davao country . .176

Philippine non-Christians : A Bontoc Igorrote {top left) ; a

Moro and two Kalinga chiefs {with shields) .... 182

On the long trail in Northern Luzon. Mrs. Taft second from

the left 186

Mr. Taft and Charlie enjoying their favourite exercise . . . 186

An Igorrote Head Dance and a company of cargodores with

their dogs which are to be killed for food 190

Views of the extraordinary Igorrote rice terraces. Practically

all of the wild men's country is cultivated in this manner . 192

Igorrote chief proudly displaying his house decorations of hu-
man skulls and carabao horns 196

Bontoc Igorrotes with ganzas showing handles made of human

jaw bones • 196

Benguet Road before and after completion. Not the most

thrilling curve on this spectacular highway 100

The Zigzag. How the Benguet Road climbs to an altitude of

over 5,000 feet in six miles 204

Mr. Taft taking the oath of office as first American Grovernor

of the Philippine Islands 208

Two views of Malacaiian Palace. The first picture shows the

wide, roofless veranda over the Pasig River . ... .214

Scenes attending Governor Taft's arrival in Manila after his

first absence 250

Arch erected by the Partido Federal representing Filipina offer-
ing another star to the American flag 258

Mr. and Mrs. Taft with members of their family and staff in-
cluding Major Noble, aide {at left)^ and Mr. Fred C.
Carpenter, private secretary {right) ^ in costumes worn at
the Venetian Carnival 270

Mr. Taft and Colonel Goethals, in Panama 290

{From left to right) Mrs. Jaime de Veyra, Mrs. Taft, Gov-
ernor Smith, Mrs. Smith, Mr. Taft, Mr. Sergio Osmefla,
Speaker of the Philippine Assembly, and members of the
Assembly in the Ayuntamiento, Manila 312

The White House as it looked on the evening of the Fourth
^ of March, 1909 . . . . 324

ILLUSTRATIONS

TACINQ

PAaa

Mr. and Mrs. Taft returning to the White House after Mr.

Taft's inauguration 330

The private dining-room of the White House, and the family

sitting-room at the end of the long upstairs corridor . • 334

Two White House bedrooms showing fine old colonial beds . 338

Two comers of the White House kitchen 350

The East Room 356

Mrs. Taft on the Potomac Drive ... .... 360

The south Portico from the end of the garden 364

The White House garden and Waal^ngton's Monument from

the south Portico 368

The Taft cottage at Beverly, Massachusetts 372

The crescent table in the State Dining-Room arranged for the

Diplomatic Dinner 376

Mrs. Taft's own picture of the White House 380

The long eastern corridor through which guests arrive for

state functions 388

The main stairway leading to the President's private apart-
ments 388

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Cincinnati, the city of my birth and early memories,
was, in the 'sixties, about as begrimed and noisy and alto-
gether unattractive as any place well could be; yet it pos-
sessed certain attributes which really entitled it to the proud
designation of "The Queen City of the West."

It was prosperous; it had hardly yet been surpassed in
prosperity by Chicago; Cleveland was not even spoken of
as a rival; and in many ways it was the most important
centre west of New York and east of the Mississippi.

It owed its early development principally to its advan-
tageous location. It lay on the great central route from
the East to the West, which runs from Baltimore and Wash-
ington to Cumberland and over the AUeghenies to Pitts-
burg, thence by the Ohio River to Cincinnati and on west to
St. Louis and south to New Orleans. It had an important
trade with New Orleans and drew commerce from a large
territory to the north. But whatever else may be said of
it, its most devoted citizen could not claim that Cincinnati
was beautiful. Its buildings were unlovely; its streets
were badly paved and as badly kept; and it lay under a
pall of soft coal smoke which left its sooty mark upon every-
thing— inhabitants included.

Yet, ugly as it was, the city boasted an unusual society.
During the first half of the nineteenth century many young
men of good stock and great ability, drawn by the pranise
of rapid advancement, had moved to Cincinnati from all
parts of the East and South; New Jersey, New England,
Virjginia and Kentucky contributing, perhaps, the greatest
number. There were many families of wealth and cul-
ture which, without parade or display, maintained fine
homes and dispensed a generous hospitality. The suburbs,

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

East Walnut Hills, Mt. Auburn and Clifton, on the heists
to the north and east, were famous for their beautiful coun-
try places.

Then there was a large population of the best class of
Germans, many of whom were university men who left
their own country after the Revolution of 1848 and came
to Cincinnati to settle. Of these, Frederick Hassaurek,
General Willich and Judge Stallo, who came to Cincinnati
when Carl Schurz went to St. Louis, are perhaps the most
prominent. The German influence upon the community
was marked. It made for a more liberal Sunday ; it brought
the study of German into the public schools; and it devel-
oped a strong taste for good music. Indeed, the musical
advantages of Cincinnati in my girlhood were better than
those of any city in the United States, with the ex-
ception of New York or Boston. Theodore Thomas was
president of the Conservatory of Music and he organised
a symphony orchestra which he continued to direct until
he went to Chicago along about 1890.

Cincinnati in those days, with her educated, wealthy
and public-spirited society, was much in advance of any
other city in the Mississippi Valley in culture and refine-
ment. There was great interest in schools of all sorts and
in every kind of intellectual activity. Away back in 1848
the Literary Club of Cincinnati was formed by a company
of men among whom were both Mr. Taf t's father and mine,
as well as Rutherford B. Hayes, Stanley Matthews, Man-
ning F. Force and Mr. Spofford, later Librarian of Con-
gress. This club continues to be a cherished institution and
in my girlhood it was the centre of all interest in literature
and intellectual pursuits.

My father, John Williamson Herron, was a graduate of
Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, and was in college with
Benjamin Harrison. He was for fifty years a trustee of

that institution and was devoted to its interests. My hus-

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

band's father. Judge Alphonso Taf t, was one of the Yale
class of 1833, was for many years a member of the Yale
Corporation, and had five sons who graduated at that uni-
versity. My mother's brother. Judge Isaac Clinton Collins,
and one of my two brothers also graduated at Yale, while
my other brotiher graduated at Harvard, so it will be seen
that both my husband and I grew up in the midst of strong
collegiate traditions.

To write about one's childhood is not easy. Memories
by the score come flocking up, but, dear as diey are, upon
examination they tum out to be quite commonplace and
hardly worth relating. My memories are not sufficiently
"early" to have any special value. The first thing that I
dimly remember is sitting on the front steps of my home
watching some sort of parade in which there were many
soldiers, but I was too young then to know that it was a
peace celebration I was witnessing at the close of the Civil
War.

My father was a lawyer who came to the bar of Ohio
in the 'forties. He was United States Attomey under Presi-
dent Harrison, was a State Senator, and twice declined
appointments to the Bench because the salary attached to
these positions was not enough to support his large family.
I was the fourth in a family of eleven, eight girls and three
boys. One boy and two girls died before I can remember.

Our house was one of a block of grey brick houses in
Pike Street, at the east end of Cincinnati, which, at that
time, was the fashionable residence section of the city.
Pike Street runs down to the river on a rather steep incline
and, as it was paved with cobblestones, my early memories
are somewhat marred by an impression of the frequent
clatter and clang of heavy wagcms pulling their way up
the hill from the river landing.

While our house was not particularly distinguished, being
much like those on either side of it, across the street from

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

us there were two very striking and imposing residences
which lent distinction to the neighbourhood, and in which,
as I grew up, were formed the pleasantest associaticms of
my life. The one directly opposite was a large, square,
red brick house which had an air of great dignity. It was
the home of Mr. Larz Anderson. There were ten boys in
the Anderson family and, though they were all much older
than I and most of them had gone away before I grew up,
I remember that it was a very lively household always. In
my later girlhood we were specially linked to this family
by the marriage of one of the boys, Charles, to my sister
Jennie.

The house next to Mr. Anderson's, on the north, I knew
as the Sinton home. A low, colonial structure, well set
in a garden of green lawns and finely kept shrubbery, it is
still one of the most beautiful residences in Cincinnati, and,
indeed, in the whole country. Its architecture suggests that
of the White House and it was, as a matter of fact, de-
signed by the same architect, an Irishman named Hoban.
The Sinton house is lower than the White House, being
only one story high with a basement, but it has the same
classic outlines and it bears, moreover, the stamp of time,
which gives it a character all its own.

It was built about 1800 by a Mr. Martin Baum, but was
purchased by the first Nicholas Longworth in the early part
of the century and was the home of the Longworth family
for a generation. Long before I can remember, it was
bought by Mr. David Sinton, one of the most successful
business men in Ohio, and to me it was always the Sinton
home. When I was about twelve years old, Mr. Sinton's
daughter Annie married my husband's brother, Charles P.
Taft, and as they have always lived in this old house it has
come to be known, since Mr. Sin ton's death in 1901, as the
Taft house. It is the only Taft house in Cincinnati now,
the house where my husband was bom having been sold

MRS. TAFTS CHILDHOOD HOME OX PIKH STBKKT. IN CINCIV

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

*■*!

after his fathers death, and it has been the scene of many
of the most important events of my life. It was there that
my husband received the announcement of his nomination
for the Presidency; it was there, in front of the house, that
he made his speech of acceptance; and it was there that
Charles Taf t gathered a large party of friends on the night
of November 6, 1908, to receive with us the election re-
turns. And it is now to this house, where my husband's
brother Charles and his wife dispense a generous hospitality,
that we always go when we retum to Cincinnati.

My girlhood days were spent quite placidly in Miss
Nourse's school, which was known in Cincinnati as "The
Nursery," and where all the girls of the Herron family,
as well as Mr. Taft's only sister, Fanny, received their
education. Miss Nourse was a Maine woman with a thor-
ough New England education and with a thoroughly New
England idea of imparting it She insisted, especially,
upon languages and literature. Much of my time, outside
of that takep up in regular school work, I devoted to the
study of music, and I practised my scales on the family
piano with such persistence that I wonder the whole neigh-
bourhood did not rebel. Music was the absorbing interest
of my life in those days, the inspiration of all my dreams
and ambitions.

Our house was none too large for the family, but as there
was a wide difference in our ages it happened that my oldest
sister was married while my youngest sister was still a baby
in long clothes. Then, the boys went away to college and
were gone the better part of each year, so it was not often
that we were all at home together. Nevertheless, we had
our share of the happy-go-lucky and somewhat crowded
existence of a large family on a moderate income.

My mother was Harriet Collins, and when she was seven-
teen years old she came with her mother to Cincinnati, from
Lowville, New York, to live with her brother. Judge Collins,

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

who was my father's law partner and continued to be so for
more than forty years. Her father, Eli Collins, was a
Member of Congress frcxn the Lowville district of New
.York. My mother was in many ways a remarkable, as
well as a most attractive, woman. She had an exceedingly
keen wit and a mind alert to the humour in every situation.
With so many children to nurse, to scold, to sew for and,
sometimes, to cook for — ^in a word, to bring up on a small
income — she would seem to have had little time for out-
side interests; but she was very popular in society and I
remember that in her busiest years she went out a great
deal. She had a stimulating pers(Hiality and I do know
that she made her family circle a very amusing and interest-
ing one in which to grow up.

The only incident of my ^rlhood which was in any way
unusual was my first visit to the White House as a guest
of President and Mrs. Hayes. Mr. and Mrs. Hayes and my
father and mother had been lifelong friends. Mr. Hayes
was, at one time, a partner in my father's law firm. They
had been closely associated for a great many years and had a
very warm regard for each other. My youngest sister was
bom shortly after the election of Mr. Hayes, was named
Lucy Hayes Herron, after Mrs. Hayes, and was taken to the
White House to be christened. My mother paid several
visits to the White House and after my sister Jennie was
married Mrs. Hayes invited her and Mr. Anderson to stay a
week with her and, to my intense excitement, she added that
she would like to have me accompany them. I was seventeen
years old ; I had never been to Washington and to me it was a
very important event. I was not "out," so I couldn't spend
my time in the White House as I would have liked, in going
to brilliant parties and meeting all manner of charming
people, but, fortunately for my peace of mind, the Hayes
lived very quietly, so it was not so trying to have to devote

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

myself to seeing the sights of the Capital like any other
tourist*

I didn't meet my husband until I was eighteen years old.
We had been bom and brought up in the same town; our
fathers were warm friends and had practised law at the same
bar for more than forty years ; during that time our mothers
had exchanged visits, and my sister Maria and Fanny Taft
were schoolmates and close companions at Miss Nourse's,
but the Taf ts lived at Mt. Auburn, a hill suburb of Cincin-
nati, and after Will finished Woodward High School he
went for four years to Yale, so it is not at all surprising that
we did not meet.

Judge Alphonso Taft was Secretary of War, and later
Attorney-General, in Grant's Cabinet while his son Will was
at college, but before the latter graduated, the family had
returned to Cincinnati, so he came straight home and entered
at once upon a law course in the Cincinnati Law School. It
was at that time, when he was still a student and working
as a law reporter on the Cincinnati Commercial^ that I met
him. It was at a coasting party one winter's night, I re-
member very well, when I went with a party of young
people, including the Charles Tafts, to coast down
a fine steep hill in Mt- Aubum. Will Taft was there, and
after being introduced to me he took me down the hill on his
big bobsled. After that we met very frequently.

A small circle of us went in for amateur theatricals
with much enthusiasm and great earnestness. We launched
ourselves in our histrionic careers in "She Stoops to Conquer"
which we gave at the ^ house of one of the company.
Then came "A Scrap of Paper" in Mrs. Charles Taft's
drawing-room, in which both Will and I took part. We
had become very ambidous by this time and sent all the way
to New York for a professional stage-manager to help us
with the production. But it turned out a most nervous oc-

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

casion. We were all overtrained, I suppose. One thing
after another went wrong until at the crisis of the play,
where the hero is supposed to find in the barrel of a gun the
scrap of paper upon which the whole plot hinges, the ama-
teur hero looked pretty foolish when he discovered there
wasn't any gun. Another one of the company, in a fit of
absentmindedness, no doubt due to overwrought nerves, had
carried it off the stage, and just when the situation was get-
ting tragic for the hero the culprit came creeping back with
it and carefully put it where it belonged, for all the world
as if he thought he were making himself invisible to the au-
dience.

But our ardour was not dampened. I remember Mr. Taf t
especially in a burlesque of "The Sleeping Beauty," which,
in its legitimate form, had been produced for charity at
Pike's Opera House. The Unity Club, a most respectable
organization of the young men of the Unitarian Church,
decided to give their version of the same story, and it was a
huge success. Mr. Taf t played the title role and his brother
Horace, who is six feet four in his stocking feet, shared with
the Beauty the honours of the evening as a most enchanting
Puck.

Then we had parties in the country, too. Many of our

friends had country places that spread along the Madison

Road and the Grandin Road on East Walnut Hills, and

two of my closest friends lived out there in a great house,

looking down over the majestic but tawny Ohio River, above

the point where the sweeping curve begins that carries it by

the amphitheatre in which the business part of the city is

built. It was a long distance to East Walnut Hills and in

my girlhood we had to go the greater part of the way in a

clumsy old omnibus that clumped along over the unpaved

roads at the rate of about three miles an hour. But such

little inconveniences didn't trouble us, and many were the

vaudeville and charade parties that we had, there being

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

enough "talent" among us to get up an amusing perform-
ance at a moment's notice.

But in spite of all this gaiety, Mr. Taf t was making very
satisfactory progress in his career. As a law reporter he
showed his growing interest in the public welfare by meet-
ing certain elements in Cincinnati politics with vigorous de-
nunciation. There was a man named Tom Campbell, a
clever criminal lawyer, who had something more than a sus-
picion against him of bribery and corruption of both wit-
nesses and juries, and he had succeeded in organising a
political machine that was running the town according to
his directions.

Campbell was counsel for the defence in what was known
as the Ho&nan case and was strongly suspected of tamper-
ing with the jury, and Mr. Taft in reporting the case, took
special pains to bring out all the fine points in the lawyer's
character and methods, telling the truth as he saw it.

This brought him into association with Mr. Miller Out-
calt, the Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, who represented
the State in the Hoffman case, and when Mr. Outcalt suc-
ceeded by election to the position of prosecuting attorney
he offered the place of assistant to Mr. Taft, although he
had been at the bar not more than seven months. Mr. Taft
served in this office for fourteen months and the experience
he had in the rough-and-ready practice in criminal trials, in
preparing cases for trial, in examining witnesses, in making
arguments to the court and in summing up to the jury, was
the most valuable experience he could possibly have in fit-
ting him for trial work at the bar.

But this experience was shortened by a circumstance not
of his seeking. Major Benjamin Butter worth was the Con-
gressman from one of the Cincinnati districts in President
Arthur's administration, and the President being anxious
to relieve the Collector of Internal Revenue, called on
Major Butterworth to suggest the name of another man.

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Major Butterworth had been for a long time a warm friend
of Mr. Taf t, thought he had a good family name and was
too young in politics to have many political enemies, so he
suggested him and wrote to urge him to accept the appoint-
ment which the President immediately offered to him. He
accepted the place and held it for a year, but it proved a
serious interruption in his legal career. He resigned as
soon as it was possible and began practice with Major H. P.
Lloyd who had been his father's partner before he went to
Vienna.

Mr. Taft went abroad in the summer of 1883 to visit
Judge and Mrs. Taft in Vienna, and it was about this time,
when we had all spent several years in frivolities, that several
of us became very serious-minded and decided that we must
have something by way of occupation more satisfying than
dancing and amateur theatricals. I secured a position as
school teacher and taught for two years, first at Madame
Fredin's and then at White and Sykes, both private schools
out on Walnut Hills. Then, with two of my intimate
friends, I decided to start a "salon." We called it a "salon"
because we planned to receive a company who were to engage
in what we considered brilliant discussion of topics intel-
lectual and economic, and we decided that our gathering
should include only specially invited guests. Among these
were the two Taft brothers. Will and Horace, and other
men common friends of us all.

In view of the fact that two marriages resulted from this
salon, Mr. Taft has suggested ulterior motives on the part
of those who got it up, but there was no truth in the charge.
We were simply bent on "improving our minds" in the most
congenial atmosphere we could create, and if our discussions
at the salon usually turned upon subjects of immediate per-
sonal interest, to the neglect of the abstruse topics we had
selected for debate, it was because those subjects were just
then claiming the attention of the whole community.

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Cincinnati, thanks to the activities of Tom Campbell and
his followers, was then in a tangle of political mismanage-
ment of a particularly vicious character, and our little circle
developed a civic spirit which kept us alive to local interests
to the exclusion, for the time being, of everything else,
Mr. Taft was intimately connected with the reform move-
ment, and in all its phases, through comedy and tragedy,
disappointment and elation, we fought it out at our salon
meetings with such high feeling and enthusiasm that its
history became the history of our lives during that
period.

Then came the famous Bemer case. This was in 1884.
Bemer had committed a deliberate murder of an unusually
appalling nature and with robbery as the motive, and there
was great excitement about it. Campbell became his coun-
sel and, in a trial which held the attention of the community
while it lasted, he succeeded in getting the man off for
manslaughter when the unanimous opinion was that he
should have been hanged. Nobody could see how an hon-
est jury could have rendered any other verdict. There was
intense indignation throughout the city and a meeting was
called to denounce Campbell as an embracer of juries and a
suborner of perjury.

On the evening when the meeting to denounce Campbell
was called we were having a session of the salon and our
whole discussion was of the possible developments which
might grow out of the infamous Bemer trial. We were
greatly excited about it. I remember the evening distinctly
because of the terrible things that happened. We were dis-
turbed by a great commotion in the street and we sallied
forth in a body to see what it was all about.

The mass meeting was held at Music Hall and was pre-
sided over by Dr. Kemper, a very effective speaker. The
crowd was angry and quickly passed the condemnatory reso-
lutions which weje framed. But with all the indignation

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

and resentment everything might have been carried out quite
calmly had not the match been applied to the powder.
Just as the meeting was breaking up somebody shouted:

"Let's go down to the jail and take Bemer out !"

It was an appeal to the mob spirit which responds so
readily in an angry crowd; they went; and of course the
worst elements immediately came to the top. They at-
tacked the jail, which was in the rear of the court house, but
were held back until the militia, which had been instantly
summoned, arrived. Then they went around to the front
and set fire to the court house. With the streets packed
with raging humanity it was not possible to fi^t the fire
and the building was completely destroyed.

The militia charged the mob and this inspired somebody
with the idea of raiding a gun store and seizing arms and
ammunition with which to make a resistance. The idea
caught on and spread rapidly. One place attacked was
Powell's gun shop near Fourth and Main. But Powell,
either forewamed or foreseeing some such development,
had quietly made preparations to meet it. He lighted
up the front of the store as brightly as he could, then, with
two or three other men who were expert shots, he put him-
self behind a barricade in the rear. The mob came on and
as the ringleaders broke into the shop they were picked oflf
by the men behind the barricade and killed in their tracks.
Four or five of them went down in a heap and the crowd
behind them, not expecting such a reception, instantly was
brought to its senses. This was in April, 1884.

Such an outbreak was a disgrace to the city of Cincinnati,
but it had the effect of bringing the Campbell controversy
to a head. A bar committee of ten men, of which both my
father and Mr. Taf t were members, was formed to sec what
could be done to rid the community of the evil reputation it
had acquired. This committee made a thorough investiga-
tion of Campbell's character and record, prepared charges

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

against him and, with my father as chaimian, presented
them, in June, 1884, ^^ ^^ district court of three judges,
and asked a hearing and Campbell's disbarment if the
charges were proved.

Campbell had been indicted on a criminal charge of at-
tempting to bribe a man called on the Bemer jury and the
prosecutor in this case was our intimate friend and associate^
Mr. Rufus Smith, who had been in Europe with Mr. Taf t
the year before. The jury hung, eight to four, although
the evidence was strong against the defendant. This fanned
the flames of popular resentment and I don't suppose our
little salon was the only place in Cincinnati where Campbell
was carefully retried and convicted. In this criminal case
Mr. Foraker, who shortly afterward became Governor of
Ohio, was coimsel for Campbell.

The disbarment hearing was set for the following Novem-
ber and some six months was thus given for taking the dep-
ositions of non-resident witnesses. Mr. Kittredge and Mr.
Ramsey, leaders of the bar, were retained as senior coimsel
for the committee, and Mr. Taft and Mr. John Holmes,
a warm friend of ours, were junior counsel and were
directed to prepare the evidence. In this work Mr. Taft
and Mr. Holmes went all over the country taking deposi-
tions and we kept in constant touch with them. All the
members of the committee expected to have their reputations
assailed, being perfectly certain that Campbell would not
hesitate at any measure he might be able to take to discredit
them, but they went ahead nevertheless.

When the trial came on Mr. Ramsey, of the senior coun-
sel, expected to open the case, but he became quite seriously
ill and was confined to his house for days. Through his
unexpected absence, the duty of making the opening state-
ment fell to Mr. Taft. He was taken completely by sur-
prise, but he rose to the opportunity, which was certainly a
splendid one for a man so young. He had then been at the

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

bar only four years, but having assisted throughout in the
preparation of the evidence he knew the case from beginning
to end and he made a speech which lasted four hours and
a half. Mr. Taf t thinks this was an opportunity improved
which had an important influence on his career. The
special part it played in his subsequent promotion I shall
speak of.

The result in the Campbell case was at first disappoint-
ing because the Court which heard the disbarment charges
found Campbell guilty only on minor charges and, by a vote
of two to one acquitted him on those which would have
required his disbarment. But the public disapproval of the
Court's decision and the moral ejffect of the proceedings
drove Campbell from the city and the State and accom-
plished the purpose of the bar association.

The Campbell trial was finished in December, 1884, and
in January, 1885, Mr. Rufus Smith, an old and intimate
friend, entered die office of County Solicitor and tendered
to Mr. Taft the place of Assistant County Solicitor. The
advantage of this ofiice was that it paid $2500 a year and
that, while he acted as counsel for the county, he still was
able to continue the general practice of law with his part-
ner. Major Lloyd.

Mr. Taft and I were engaged in May, 1885, ^^^ ^^^^
married in June of the following year.

In the summer of 1885 ^Y niother, moved I think by
some sentimental attachment to the scenes of her childhood,
decided that she would take us all up into the Adirondack^,
to a little camp near Lowville. My two older sisters were
married so there were only six of us left in the family, but
we were still something of a handful to move in a body.
However, my mother was equal to it. We packed almost a
van load of trunks and set out, and oat evening we arrived,
over the worst corduroy road that was ever laid down, at a
little cottage beside a beautiful lake in a setting of pine-clad

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

hills. The scenery indeed was most satisfactory, but the
cottage was so small that the family more than strained its
capacity. Then we took our meals at a sort of boarding
house called Fenton's, where the only thing on the bill of
fare was fresh beef. I like what is known as "roughing it**
as well as anybody, but even the superlative appetite pro-
duced by outdoor living demands some variety ; and variety
we did not get.

Mr. Taft had elected to remain in Cincinnati all summer
and save money. It was a Spartan resolution and we all
applauded it, but he probably found Lowville a long way
from Pike Street; and I certainly thought Mother was sac-
rificing a good deal for the sake of renewing the memories of
her youth. However, the days went on, while the fresh
beef grew less and less tempting.

I had written Mr. Taft something about the Fenton fare
and he, wanting very much to join us, but having no
excuse for breaking his admirable resolution to remain in
Cincinnati, hit upon the only plan for escaping axnment
on his lack of fortitude. He went down to Peeble's, a
fancy grocer, and selecting a box as big as a Saratoga tnmk,
ordered it filled with every kind of delicacy he could think
of or have pointed out to him and brought it with him to
Lowville.

We went rowing on the lake about sundown the evening
he arrived, and right in the middle of a fine long stroke
he suddenly dropped his oars, reached in his pocket and
drew out a letter. He laughed a little when he handed it
to me, then picking up his oars he rowed on without a word.
The letter was from his father.

Judge Taft was at this time Minister to St. Petersburg,
having been transferred from Vienna. Will had written
him about his engagement and about his plan to remain in
town all summer and devote himself strictly to business and
the accumulation of funds; and this was the answer.

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

•

There were a lot of nice complimentary things about me,
with the wamiest congratulations and good wishes ; then the
letter closed by saying: "I am very much pleased with
your decision to remain in Cincinnati this summer. I my-
self have found it not at all bad if you take care of yourself,
and there is no doubt that during the quiet months one can
make and save considerable money by staying at home. I
congratulate you on your strength of character." We
really had a delightful summer at Fenton's after that.

My father had given me a very nice lot at the end of
McMillan Street on the site of an old quarry, which com-
manded a fine view of the Ohio River and the surrounding
country, and Mr. Taf t and I determined to build a house on
it which should be ready for us when we got back from our
wedding trip. So the winter before our marriage was filled
with architects' plans, contractors' estimates and all the
other fascinating details of building, and we thought that
we had finally settled upon a design that met with every
requirement of good taste and modem comforL

For our wedding trip, we went abroad, and I had my first

taste of the foreign travel of which I had always dreamed.

We crossed on the City of Chester which was the oldest, and

therefore the cheapest ship of the Inman line. We chose

her for the simple reason that her rates accorded with our

means, but we found, much to our astonishment, that we

were the only people on board who had deliberately selected

her. Everybody else had been forced to take her bcause

of some emergency or some mishap. One man had to miss

the Germanic in order to ^ve his dentist time to relieve a

very troublesome tooth. Another man was called to court

just as he was about to board the Britannic. Those were

the proud ships of the Atlantic in those days and it was not

at all difficult to understand why anybody should prefer

them to the City of Chester^ but it amused us greatly to hear

the shamefaced excuses of our fellow passengers. My hus-

3 n

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

band and I were not ashamed, nor were we so particular
about our comforts that we did not thoroughly enjoy our-
selves. Besides, we had the gratifying consciousness of the
money which the low rates had left in our pockets to be spent
much more profitably abroad.

The trip was full of interest to us botfi. We spent the
greater part of the summer in Ejigland and saw the sights of
London and the cathedral towns in great detail. Our only
trip on the Continent was through Holland to Paris. I re-
member that in Amsterdam I bought some old and rather
large Delft plates. They wouldn't go into any trunk we
had, so I had them carefully packed in a wicker hamper and
this article became thereafter a part of our hand luggage, and
was the occasion for a decided disagreement between my hus-
band and me as to what the tru^ object of travel was. He
used to say that he ''toted that blamed thing all around
Europe and after all it arrived in Cincinnati witfi its con-
tents in small pieces." Which was true. He had "toted"
it all around Europe, but when we arrived in New York I
entrusted it to an express company with the result tiiat when
we opened it we foimd its contents in such a condition that
only an accomplished porcelain mender could put a suffi-
cient number of pieces together to make what my husband
always afterward referred to as "the memento of our first
unpleasantness."

Our trip from Cincinnati to Cincinnati took just one hun-
dred days and cost us just one thousand dollars, or five dol-
lars a day each. I venture to say that could not be done
nowadays, even by as prudent a pair as we were.

During a subsequent trip abroad, two years later, I was
able to indulge my desire to hear music. We went to
Beyreuth, to the Wagner festival, and heard Parsifal and
The Meistersingers gloriously rendered ; after which we went
to Mimich and attended operas and concerts until Mr. Taf t
rebelled. He said that he enjoyed a certain amount of

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

music just as much as anybody,^but that he did want to get
something more out of European travel than a nightly opera
and a daily symphony.

So — ^we went to Italy and saw Rome and Florence in true
Baedecker style. When we arrived in Rome we opened our
Baedecker and read that there was almost no f oimdation for
Rome^s awful reputation as an imhealthy place. "Rome
is a very healthy place," said Baedecker, "at all times of
the year except the first two weeks in August, when a visit
there is attended with risk." We had arrived for the first
two weeks in August !

When we came home from our wedding trip we found
that our house was not yet completed, so we went to stay
with Judge and Mrs. Taft for a month at the old house in
Mt. Auburn. It was a nice old place, with about three
acres of ground, but the air around it was just about as sooty
as if it had been located down under the factory chimneys.
Mt. Aubum is on a sort of promontory which juts out into
the city; it is on a level with the tops of the smoke stacks
and it catches all the soot that the air can carry that far.

Judge and Mrs. Taft had come home from their Euro-
pean mission in time for our wedding. Judge Taft had
been ill in St. Petersburg and had given his family a great
deal of anxiety, but he was now settled down to the busi-
ness of quiet recuperation and the enjoyment of well-earned
resL

My husband's father was "gentle" beyond anything I
ever knew. He was a man of tremendous firamess of pur-
pose and just as set in his views as any one well could be,
but he was one of the most lovable men that ever lived be-
cause he had a wide tolerance and a strangely "understand-
ing sjonpathy" for^ everybody. He had a great many
friends, and to know him was to know why this was so.

Mr. Taft's mother, though more formal, was also very

kindly and made my visit to her home as a bride full of

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

pleasure. The two, the father and mother, had created a
family atmosphere in which the children breathed in the
highest ideals, and were stimulated to sustained and strenu-
ous intellectual and moral effort in order to conform to the
family standard. There was marked serenity in the circle
of which Judge and Mrs. Taft were the heads. They had
an abiding confidence in the future of their children which
strongly influenced the latter to justify it. They both had
strong minds, intellectual tastes, wide culture and catholic
sympathies.

Not long after we arrived my husband came to me one
day with an air of great seriousness, not to say of concilia-
tion, and said:

"Nellie, Father has got himself into rather a difficulty
and I hope I can rely on you to help him out — ^not make it
too hard for him, you know, — ^make him feel as comfortable
about it as you can. The truth is he used to have a mes-
senger at the War Department in Washington whom he was
very fond of. He was a bright man — colored, of course —
and he was very devoted to Father. Now this man called
on Father down town to-day. He's here on a private car
and Father says he's made a great success as a porter.
Father got to talking to him, and there were lots of things
they wanted to talk about, and besides the man said he
would like very much to see Mother, — and Father,
who was just about ready to come home to lunch said —
right on the spur of the moment — ^you understand he
didn't think an)rthing about it — ^he said to this man, 'Come
on home and have lunch with us.* He's downstairs now.
Father came to me and said he had just realised that it was
something of a difficulty and that he was sorry. He said
that he could take care of Mother if I could take care of
you. So I hope you won't mind."

As soon as I could control my merriment caused by this
halting and very careful explanation, I went down to lunch-

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

eon. I didn't mind and WilPs mother didn't mind, but the
expression on the face of Jackson, the negro butler, was al-
most too much for my gravity. I will say that the porter
had excellent manners and the luncheon passed off without
excitement.

We made a short visit at my mother's on Pike Street be-
fore we moved into our new house on McMillan Street; but
we began the year of 1887 under our own roof which, though
it was mortgaged, was to us, for the time being, most satis-
factory.

CHAPTER II

CINCINNATI AND WASHINGTON

One day after we had been married less than a year my hus^
band came home looking so studiously unconcerned that I
knew at once he had something to tell me.

"Nellie, what would you think," he began casually, "if
I should be appointed a Judge of the Superior Court?"

"Oh, don't try to be funny," I exclaimed. "That's per-
fectly impossible."

But it was not impossible, as he soon convinced me.
My father had just refused the same appointment and
it was difficult to believe that it could now be offered
to my husband who was only twenty-nine years old. It
was a position made vacant by the retirement from the
Bench of Judge Judson Harmon who was my husband's
senior by more than a decade.

One of the most prominent and prosperous law firms in
Cincinnati was that of Hoadley, Johnston and Colston, and
both Mr. Hoadley and Mr. Johnston had been invited to
go to New York and become partners of Mr. Exiward
Lauterbach who was then doing an enormous business.

They went, and the old firm in Cincinnati being broken
up, Mr. Colston asked Judge Harmon, who was then on the
Superior Court, to take Mr. Hoadley's place. Mr. Har-
mon decided to do so, but he was anxious to resign his judge-
ship in such a way as to leave a long enough vacancy to at-
tract a good man. It was an elective office and the law pro-
vided that a vacancy occurring within thirty days before
election could not be filled by an election until the follow-
ing year. Judge Harmon resigned so as to make the ap-
pointment for a period of fourteen months. After my father
declined it, the choice lay between Mr. Taft and Mr. Bel-
lamy Storer. Mr. Taft always thought that but for his

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

opportunity in the Campbell case Judge Harmon would not
have recommended him and Grovemor Foraker would not
have appointed him. That is why he says he traces all his
success back to that occasion. Mr. Foraker was opposing
counsel in the Campbell case, but he had a lawyer's appre-
ciation for a lawyer's effort.

After the first pleased surprise at the honour which came
to us so imexpectedly I began to think; and my thinking
led me to decide that my husband's appointment on the
Bench was not a matter for such warm congratulation after
all. I saw him in close association with men not one of
whom was less than fifteen years older than he, and most of
whom were much more than that. He seemed to me
suddenly to take on a maturity and sedateness quite out of
keeping with his actual years and I dreaded to see him set-
tled for good in the judiciary and missing all the youthful
enthusiasms and exhilarating difficulties which a more gen-
eral contact with the world would have given him. In other
words, I began even then to fear the narrowing effects of
the Bench and to prefer for him a diverse experience which
would give him an all-round professional development.

He did not share this feeling in any way. His appoint-
ment on the Superior Court was to him the welcome begin-
ning of just the career he wanted. After serving the interim
of fourteen months he became a candidate for the office and
was elected for a term of five years. This was the only
elective office Mr. Taf t ever held until he became President.

My own time and interest during that winter was largely
spent on my house. We had been very particular about the
plans for it and had fully intended that it should c(»nbine
outward impressiveness with iaward roominess and comfort.
It was a frame structure, shingled all over, and with certain
bay window effects which pleased me exceedingly. In fact,
with our assistance, the architect had made a special effort
to produce something original and, while I don't claim that

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

the result was a conspicuous architectural success, to my
mind it was anything but a failure. And our view of the
Ohio River and the surroimding country was really superb.

But I was not destined to enjoy my satisfaction with my
surroundings very long. The section had been at one time
a stone quarry, and the man who had levelled off the land
and filled in the gulches made by the quarry operations, took
as a part of his compensation two building lots which hap-
pened to be just across the street from ours. He forthwith
proceeded to put up a sort of double house which looked
more like a gigantic dry-goods box than anything else, and I
felt that it quite robbed the neighbourhood of the "tone"
which I had confidently hoped our house would give it.
The double house had just one quality and that was size.

I think the owner, whose name was Jerry something, lived
in one side of it, and he had a tenant in the other who hung
clothes out of the front windows. But tastes in architec-
ture differ, as we soon found out.

We were paying taxes on our house at an assessed value
of $40CXD and the undervaluation had been troubling my
husband's conscience for a long time, in spite of my assuring
him that tax collectors ought to know their own business.
Some men from the board of equalization were to call one
day to make a new appraisement and I had very much
hoped that my husband would not be at home. But he was ;
he was there to welcome them and give them every possible
assistance. Without waiting for an examination of the
premises, he addressed one of them, an Irishman named
Ryan.

"See here, Mr. Ryan," he said, **I understand that Jerry,

my neighbour across the street, has his property assessed at

$5000. Now I don't think tfiat's fair. Tm assessed at

only $4000 and I'm sure my house cost a good deal more

than his. As a matter of fact it cost over $6ocxd. Now Fm

a Judge of the Superior Court; I get my income out of taxes

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

and I certainly have no disposition to pay any less than my
share."

"Well, Judge, your Honour," said Mr. Ryan, "that is a
sentiment very befitting your Honour. Now I'll just be after
goin' over and lookin' at those houses of Jerry's, and then
I'll come back and look at yours."

I watched them as they went over to the other houses;
then I saw them go up the street a way and down the street
a way, looking us carefully over from every possible view-
point. When they came in they wore a very judicial aspect
and I expected to see taxes go up with one wild leap.

"Well, Judge, your Honour," began Mr. Ryan, "I think
you're givin' yourself unnecessary concern. We assess
houses for what they're worth and not for what they cost.
While your house no doubt suits your taste, it has a peculiar
architectural style that wouldn't please very many people,
and certainly it ain't to compare with those houses of Jerry's.
There's a modem polish about those houses that will rent.
Judge, your Honour."

My son Robert was bom in this house on McMillan
Street in September, 1889. In the following February an
interruption occurred in our peaceful existence which was
welcome at least to me. President Harrison offered the
appointment of Solicitor CJeneral of the United States to
Mr. Taft and he, with a few regretful glances at his beloved
Bench, accepted it. I think that once again it was Major
Butterworth who suggested my husband's name to the ap-
pointing power. I was very glad because it gave Mr. Taft
an opportunity for exactly the kind of work I wished him to
do; work in which his own initiative and originality would
be exercised and developed. I looked forward with inter-
est, moreover, to a few years in Washington.

Mr. Taft made his first official arrival in Washington

alone. My baby, Robert, was only six months old and I

concluded to remain in Cincinnati imtil my husband could

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

make arrangements for our comfortable reception. His de-
scription of his first day in Washington is, in the light of
later events, rather amusing.

He arrived at six o'clock on a cold, gloomy February
moming at the old dirty Pennsylvania station. He wan-
dered out on the street with a heavy bag in his hand look-
ing for a porter, but there were no porters. Then he
stood for a few moments looking up at the Capitol and feel-
ing dismally unimportant in the midst of what seemed to
him to be very formidable surroundings. He wondered to
himself why on earth he had come. He was sure he had
made a fatal mistake in exchan^ng a good position and a
pleasant circle at home, where everybody knew him, for
a place in a strange and forbidding city where he knew prac-
tically nobody and where, he felt sure, nobody wanted to
know him. He lugged his bag up to the old Ebbitt House
and, after eating a lonesome breakfast, he went to the De-
partment of Justice to be sworn in. After that ceremony
was over and he had shaken hands with the Attorney Gen-
eral, he went up to inspect the Solicitor General's Office, and
there he met the most dismal sight of the whole dismal day.
His "quarters" consisted of a single room, three flights up,
and bearing not the slightest resemblance to his mental pic-
ture of what the Solicitor General's offices would be like.
The Solicitor General's stenographer, it seemed, was a tele-
grapher in the chief clerk's office and had to be sent for when
his services were required. Altogether it must have been a
very disheartening outlook.

As Mr. Taf t sat looking over briefs and other papers, and
trying to get some definite idea about his new work, a mes-
senger brought in a card.

"Mr. Evarts, New York," it read.

Evarts was a well-known name, of course, but it was hard
for Mr. Taf t to believe that the William M. Evarts, leader
of the American Bar and then Senator from New York,

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

could be calling on the Solicitor General of less than a day.
He knew that Wm, M. Evarts had known his father.

Mr. Evarts entered.

"Mr. Taft," he said, as he gave my husband's hand a
cordial grasp, "I knew your father. I was in the class of
'37 at Yale and he had graduated before I entered; but he
was there as a tutor in my time and I valyed his friendship
very highly."

Then the visitor came straight to the point.

"Mrs. Evarts and I are giving a dinner to-night for my
former partner and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Choate.
Mr. Choate is in Washington for a short time to argue a
case before the Supreme Court. Now, unfortunately, one
of our guests has sent word that he can't come and I thought,
perhaps, considering my long-standing friendship with your
father, you might consent to waive ceremony and fill the
place at our table at this short notice."

My husband accepted the invitation with almost undue
alacrity, and when his guest left started in on his new duties
feeling that, after all, Washington might aflFord just as
friendly an atmosphere as Cincinnati, once he becaine accus-
tomed to it.

There is just one incident in connection with the dinner
party which Mr. Taf t adds to his accoubt of that day. As
he sat down to dinner the ladies on either side of him leaned
hastily forward to see what was written on his place-card.
"The Solicitor General" — ^that was all. Of course neither
of them knew who the new Solicitor General was and it
didn't occur to him to enlighten thc;pi until it was too late
to do it gracefully. So he allowed them to go on addressing
him as "Mr. Solicitor Greneral" while he, having them at an
advantage, addressed them by the names which he had sur-
reptitiously read on their place-cards. They were Mrs.
Henry Cabot Lodge and Mrs. John Hay.

When my husband had been in Washington two weeks

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

I joined him and we took a small house on Dupont Circle
where for two years we lived a life, sometimes amusing,
sometimes quite exciting, but, on the whole, of quiet routine.

Washington society was much simpler then than it is
now. Since that time a great many people of very large
means have gone to Washington to live because of its un-
usual attractions and its innumerable advantages as a resi-
dential city. They have changed Washington, by their
generous hospitality, into one of the most brilliant social
centres in the world, where large dinner parties, balls, recep-
tions, musicals and other entertainments are of daily and
nightly occurrence throughout the season. The very char-
acter of the streets has changed. The small, red brick
houses, closely grouped together and neighbouring, even in
fashionable quarters, on negro shacks and cheap tenements,
are being everywhere replaced by marble and granite resi-
dences of great beauty and luxury.

In 1890 Society in Washington still consisted, chiefly, of
the 'Ijest families" of the old city, the Diplomatic Corps
and the hi^est among the government officials. A dinner
party of twelve was still considered large, and only a few
people had weekly evenings At Home. There were occa-
sional big receptions, but for nobody was society the mad
rush that it is to-day. We ourselves lived very simply even
for those simple days.

My daughter Helen was bom in 1891, so for the last year
in Washingtcxi I had two small babies to care for. In order
that he might get a little much needed exercise Mr. Taft
bought a horse and, fortunately, for us, he secured a most
adaptable creature. He was supposed to be a riding horse,
but he didn't mind making himself generally useful. The
Attomey General lent us a carriage which he was not then
using — SL surrey, I think it was called — ^and we hitched him
to that; and the whole Taft family drove out of a Sunday
afternoon to the Old Soldiers' Hcxne, which was the fashion-

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

able drive in those days, or up the aqueduct road to Cabin
John's bridge. My sister Maria who visited us used always
to speak of our steed as "G*up,*' a name suggested by Bobby's
interpretation of his father's invocations to the good-natured
and leisurely beast. Poor old "G'up" ! I suppose with his
"horse sense" he finally realised that he was leading such a
double life as no respectable horse should lead; he gave up
and died before we left Washington.

The Justices of the Supreme Court and the Attorney
General, the men with whom Mr. Taft came most in con-
tact, were, with their wives, very kind and attentive to us,
including us in many of their delightful parties. Chief Jus-
tice Fuller was then the head of the court and I have the
pleasantest memories of his and Mrs. Fuller's hospitality.
Justice Grey had married a Miss Matthews, a daughter of
Mr. Justice Matthews. I had known Mrs. Grey in Cincin-
nati before her marriage.

( During the course of my first weeks in Washington Mr.
Taft had taken special pains to impress on me many times
the necessity for my calling on Mrs. Grey without any delay.
Much importance attached to the formality of first calls and
I was the newest of newcomers who had to call on the wives
of all my husband's official superiors before they noticed
me. Still, it was a full month before I had time to go to
Mrs. Grey's and I was considerably worried about it. But
when, finally, I did go and had been most kindly received,
I explained at once that the settling of myself and my small
baby in a new house had, imtil then, kept me too busy for
any calls. Mrs. Grey hastened to assure me that she under-
stood my position perfectly and had not thought of blaming
me.

"Indeed, my dear," she said, "I knew that you had a small
baby in the house and that you must be kept constantly oc-
cupied. As a matter of fact I should have waived ceremony

and come myself to welcome you to Washington except for

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

one thing which I could not very well overlook, and that
is — ^that Mr. Taft has not yet called on Mr. Justice Grey."

I think I have rarely seen anything more satisfactorily
amusing than the expression on my husband's face when I
told him this.

But, in spite of the friendliness of the Justices and others,
we really went out very little. On one occasion when my
sister Maria had been visiting us for several weeks we went
for a Sunday night supper to the house of a lady whom
Maria had known very well in Cincinnati. She was living
that winter in Washington and seemed to be rather well
pleased with her social success. She talked loftily through-
out supper, and during a good part of the evening, about
the dinner parties she had attended and the grand people
she had met. Then just as we were about to start home she
turned to my sister and said :

"And have you been much entertained, my dear Maria?"

"Oh, I've been enjoying myself tremendously," was the
answer.

"Well, with whom have you dined, dear?" persisted our
hostess.

"Why, we've dined with the Andersons, with the German
Ambassador, with the Chief Justice, and with the Maurys,
and with the French Ambassador, — ^and with, oh, a number
of other people."

Our hostess was visibly impressed.

**Why ! you really have been very gay, haven't you,'dear !"
she exclaimed.

When we got into our cab to go home Maria turned to my
husband and said :

"I had my eye on you all the time I was talking, Will
Taft. I was perfectly certain that your terrible sense of
fact would overcome you and that you would blurt out that
I dined with all those people on the same evening at the
same dinner party!"

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

President Harrison, in March, 1892, appointed my
husband on the Federal Circuit Bench, so once more I
saw him a colleague of men almost twice his age and, I
feared, fixed in a groove for the rest of his life. However,
he was greatly pleased and very proud to hold such a dig-
nified and responsible position at the age of thirty-four. I
think he enjoyed the work of the following eight years more
than any he has ever undertaken.

We moved back to Cincinnati. Mr. Taft's circuit in-
cluded parts of Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Michigan —
reached in fact, from Lookout Mountain to Marquette, and
he was much away from home. My own life during those
years in Cincinnati was very busy, for, in addition to my
occupation with family and friends, I became interested in
a number of civic movements.

My principal work was the organisation and management
of the Cincinnati Orchestra Association. I found, at last,
a practical method for expressing and making use of my love
and knowledge of music.

We had not had a good symphony orchestra in the city
since Theodore Thomas left, but with our music-loving popu-
lation it was only necessary that somebody should take the
initiative and arouse definite enthusiasm and keep it going,
in order to establish and maintain such an institution.
There were many public-spirited citizens, some of them true
music-loving Germans, and I saw no reason why I should
not get strong popular support for my project. I was not
disappointed. From the first the response was general and
generous and we did not have much difficulty in raising the
necessary funds for financing the orchestra, although in addi-
tion to our box-office receipts, we had to secure $30,000 a
year for six consecutive years. It could not have been done
had it not been for such liberal friends as my brother and sis-
ter, Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Taf t, Mr. Charles Krippendorf,

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Mr. M. E. Ingalls, Mr. and Mrs. L. A. Ault, Mrs. Charles
Fleishmann, Mr. J. G. Schmidlapp and others.

For the first year we had three different directors, Mr.
Seidl, Mr. Schradick and Mr. Van der Stiicken, who came
to Cincinnati and led two concerts each. Then we secured
Mr. Van der Stucken as a permanent leader and he remained
with the orchestra ten years.

I think I regretted the Cincinnati Orchestra Association
more than anything else when we left for the Philippines,
but I left it in good and well-trained hands. Mrs. C. R.
Holmes, who succeeded me as President of the Association,
had taken a great part in the original work of organisation
and management, as had my sister-in-law, Mrs. Charles P.
Taft, and others. Through their efforts the orchestra has
been enlarged and improved and it is still a source of great
pride and satisfaction to the city of Cincinnati. Mrs.
Charles Taft is now the President and through her interest,
activity and generosity it has been enabled to grow in ex-
cellence.

Except for the orchestra, our life was tranquil; quite too
settled, I thought, and filled with the usual homely incidents
connected with housekeeping and the entertaining develop-
ment of small children. My youngest child, Charles, was
bom in 1897, and my family was thus complete.

I come now to the years which we gave to the Philippine
Islands and I must say that I wonder yet how our lot hap-
pened to be so cast.

There had never been any unusual interest in our family
as to the results of the Spanish-American W^ar. Like most
patriotic Americans we had been greatly excited while the
war was in progress and had discussed its every phase and
event with a warmth of approval, or disapproval, as the case
might be, but it did not touch us directly, except as citizens,
any more than it touched the vast majority of the people of

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

the United States. And yet, it came to mean more to us
personally, than any other event in our times. The whole
course of my husband's career was destined to be changed
and influenced by its results.

Mr. Taf t was strongly opposed to taking the Philippines.
He was not an anti-imperialist in the sense that he believed
the Constitution required us to keep the boundaries of the
United States within their continental limits, but he thought
the Antipodes rather a far stretch for the controlling hand,
and he thought the taking of the Philippines would only
add to our problems and responsibilities without increasing,
in any way, the effectiveness and usefulness of our govern-
ment.

Oddly enough, he had expressed himself to that effect
when he happened, during the Spanish War, to be dining
with a number of judges including Justice Harlan who,
although later an anti-imperialist, was at that time strongly
upholding the policy of taking over Spanish territory in
both oceans.

Mr. Taft knew just about as much about the Filipino
people as the average American knew in those days. What
he definitely knew was that they had been for more than
three centuries under Spanish dominion and that they now
wanted political independence. He was heartily in favour
of giving it to them.

It was one day in January, 1900, that he came home
greatly excited and placed before me a telegram.

"What do you suppose that means?" said he.

"I would like to see you in Washington on important
business within the next few days. On Thursday if pos-
sible," it read. And it was signed — ^William McKinley.

We didn't know and we couldn't think what possible busi-
ness the President could have with him. I began to conjure
up visions of Supreme Court appointments ; though I knew
well enough that Supreme Court appointments were not

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

tendered in that fashion and besides there was no vacancy.

Mr. Taft lost no time in responding to the President's
summons and I awaited his return with as much patience
as I could muster. In three days he came home with an
expression so grave that I thought he must be facing impeach-
ment. But when he broke his news to me it gave me noth-
ing but pleasure.

"The President wants me to go to the Riilippine Islands,"
he said, in a tone he might have used in saying: "The
President wants me to go out and jump off the court house
done." "Want to go?" he added.

"Yes, of course," I answered without a moment's hesi-
tation. I wasn't sure what it meant, but I knew instantly
that I didn't want to miss a big and novel experience. I
have never shrunk before any obstacles when I had an op-
portunity to see a new country and I must say I have never
regretted any adventure.

"The President and Mr. Root want to establish a civil
government in the Philippines," said Mr. Taft, "and they
want me to go out at the head of a commission to do it." It
was only after I had accepted the invitation to go ten thou-
sand miles away that I asked for an explanation.

In answer to the President's proposal, Mr. Taft said that
he didn't approve of the acquisition of the Philippines in the
first place, and that in the second place he knew nothing
about colonial government and had had really no experience
in executive work of any kind. But Mr. McKinley did not
accept these objections as final. He called in Mr. Root,
who was then Secretary of War, and who would be Mr.
Taft's chief in the proposed mission to the Philippines, and
tc^ether they presented the case so strongly that my hus-
band could not help but waver in his decision. Neither
Mr. McKinley nor Mr. Root had rejoiced in the taking over
of the Philippines for that matter, but that was beside the
question; the Philippines were taken, and it behooved the

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

United States to govern them until such time as their people
had learned the difficult art of governing themselves.

Mr. Root said :

"The work to be done in the Philippines is as great as the
work Livingston had to do in Louisiana. It is an oppor-
tunity for you to do your country a great service and achieve
for yourself a reputation for the finest kind of constructive
work. You have had a very fortunate career. While you
are only slightly over forty you have had eight years on the
Federal Bench, three years on the State Bench and two years
as Solicitor General. These places you have filled well,
but they have been places which involved no sacrifice on your
part. Here is a field which calls for risk and sacrifice.
Your country is confronted with one of the greatest problems
in its history, and you. Judge Taft, are asked to take imme-
diate charge of the solution of that problem 7,000 miles away
from home. You are at the parting of the ways. Will you
take the easier course, the way of least resistance, with the
thought that you had an opportunity to serve your country
and declined it because of its possible sacrifice, or will you
take the more courageous course and, risking much, achieve
much? This work in the Philippines will give you an in-
valuable experience in building up a government and in the
study of laws needed to govern a people, and such experience
cannot but make you a broader, better judge should you be
called upon again to serve your country in that capacity."

My husband promised to consult with me and with his
brother Charles and give his answer in a few days. He
didn't know whether or not I would be willing to go^ but
that was a question soon settled.

His resignation of his judgeship was the greatest difficulty.
The President told him he did not think it would be at all
necessary for him to resign since the work in the Philippines
would take only about six months — ^nine months at the long-
est— ^and that he could absent himself from his duties for

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

that length of time, and for such a purpose, without fear
of any kind of unfortunate consequences. Mr. Taft's in-
vestigation and study of the situation immediately convinced
him that Mr. McKinley was wrong in his expectation that
the work could be done so quickly. Nor did Mr. Root have
any such idea. Even with the meagre information which
was then available, my husband at once saw that it would be
years before the Philippine problem would begin to solve
itself. So he resigned fr(»n the Bench; the hardest thing
he ever did.

After sending in his acceptance he went immediately to
Washington to discuss with Mr. McKinley and Mr. Root
the whole situation and, especially, the names of four other
men who were to be chosen to serve with him on the Com-
mission. He had met Mr. Worcester, a member of the first
Commission, and had got from him a great deal of valuable
data. If Professor Shurman, the chairman of the first Com-
mission, had become a member of the second, he probably
would have been at its head, but he did not, and this position
fell to Mr. Taf L He was thereafter known as President of
the Commission, imtil civil government was organised in the
Philippines and be became governor.

After he had gone to Washington I began at once to make
hasty, and I may say, happy preparations for my adventure
into a new sphere. That it was alluring to me I did not
deny to anybody. I had no premonition as to what it would
lead to; I did not see beyond the present attraction of a new
and wholly unexplored field of work which would involve
travel in far away and very interesting countries. I read
with engrossing interest everything I could find on the sub-
ject of the Philippines, but a delightful vagueness with re-
gard to them, a vagueness which was general in the United
States at that time, and has not, even yet, been entirely dis-
pelled, continued in my mind. There were few books to be
found, and those I did find were not specially illuminating.

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

I gave up my house in Cincinnati and stored my belong-
ings, packing for shipment to the Orient only such things
as I thought would be absolutely necessary. We were to
leave almost immediately and I had very little time in which
to do a great many things. Mr. Taf t came back to Cincin-
nati for a short period and we entered upon a busy season of
good-bye hospitality. Everybody we knew, and we knew
nearly everybody, wanted to give us a farewell dinner or
entertainment of some sort. Mr. Taf t, especially, was feted
in a way which proved to him how much more widely he was
valued in his native town than he had ever realised. In the
opinions of people then we were going, sure enough, to the
ends of the earth, and many of our friends were as mournful
about it as if they had private foreknowledge that it was to
be a fatal adventure.

When the banquets and dinners and luncheons and recep-
tions and teas had all been given ; when the speeches had all
been made, and the good-byes had all been said, Mr. Taft
hastened off to Washington once more to meet his colleagues
and make final arrangements, and I was not to see him again
until we met in San Francisco a week before the date set
for sailing.

I asked my sister Maria to go with me for the first year,
and she accepted with delight. So, one morning in early
April, with our world waving at us from the platform of the
station, we started south to join the Southern Pacific rail-
road at New Orleans and to make our way from there to
Los Angeles and so to San Francisco.

I had with me my three children, Robert, Helen and Char-
lie. Robert was ten years old, Helen eight, while Charlie,
my baby, was just a little over two. It did not occur to me
that it was a task to take them on such a long journey, or
that they would be exposed to any danger through the ex-
perience. They were normal, healthy and very self-reliant
little people and I made preparations for their going with-

CHARLIE TAFT WHEN HE WENT T(» THE

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

out giving the matter a moment's unhappy consideration.
But I was to receive a few shocks in this connection later on.
One of these came when I leamed that some members of the
party had left their children at home for fear of the Philip-
pine climate. Then one day, at the old Palace Hotel in San
Francisco, I was sitting on guard over Charlie as he played
up and down a wide corridor, and reading a book at inter-
vals, when along came an odd-looking elderly gentleman
who stopped to regard the boy with a smile of the kindliest
amusement. Charlie was an attractive child. Even I
couldn't help but see that, and I was used to having people
stop to watch hioi. He had big, dark eyes, soft, brown
curls, very deep dimples, and a charming smile that was
always in evidence. The elderly gentleman stood watching
him for some little time, his face growing gradually very
grave, and I wondered what he was thinking about. He
didn't keep me wondering long. After a few moments he
stepped deliberately up to me and said :

"Madam, I understand you are going to the Philippine
Islands. Now I want to know if you are going to take that
great, big, beautiful boy out to that pest-ridden hole and
expose him to certain destruction."

I grabbed my great, big, beautiful boy and rushed off to
my room, and it was a relief eventually to leam that the
awful Philippine climate, at least so far as children were
concerned, existed, largely, in people's minds.

We foimd intense interest in our mission in Califomia and
San Francisco. If there were any anti-imperialists there,
they successfully concealed themselves. The East was un-
comfortably crowded with them in those days, but the evi-
dent interest and profit that the West coast would derive
from a large Philippine trade may have been responsible
for the favourable attitude of the Califoraians. However,
we most not impeach their patriotism, and we ought to at-
tribute some of their enthusiasm in reference to the Philip-

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

pines, and our assuming control over them, to the natural
enterprise of a people who had themselves gone so far in a
land of development and hope.

Everything that could be done to make smooth the path
of the new Commission was done. At their own request the
powers of the Commissioners were carefully defined so that
complications with the military government then in force in
the islands, might be avoided. They were given equal rank
with ministers plenipotentiary in the matter of naval cour-
tesies and precedence ; and Mr. Root drafted a letter of in-
structions, which the President signed, outlining their duties
in such precise and correct detail that it was afterward
adopted and ratified in its entirety in the act of Congress by
which the Philippine govemment was established.

So — ^I believed we were going to have "smooth sailing*'
in every sense, when we started on the long voyage with
which began this interesting experience.

cHAirrER m

TO THE PHILIPPINES

The United States Army Transport Hancock had been as-
signed to the Gnnmission for the trip from San Francisco
to Manila and it was at noon on a pleasant day in mid-April
— the seventeenth — that she pulled away from the crowded
dock and headed straight for the Grolden Gate and the long
path across the Pacific that leads to the other side of the
world. There were forty-five people in our party and, al-
though most of us had met for the first time in San Francisco,
we soon became well acquainted, as people do on shipboard,
and proceeded at once to prove ourselves to be a most har-
mcHiious company.

The Hancock was the old Arizona, a one-time greyhound
of the Atlantic, which the Government had purchased and
remodelled for service as an army transport A consider-
able fleet of such vessels plied the Pacific at that time, carry-
ing large consignments of troops to and from the Philippines
and, though there are not so many now, I still read with
interest of the comings and goings of ships whose old,
friendly sounding names became so familiar to us ia^ the
couise of our residence in the East. The Grant, the Sher^
man, the Sheridan, the Thomas, and others, all named
for great American generals, awaken memories of interesting
days. The Hancock was later given up by the Army and
turned over to the Navy on account of her heavy consiunp-
tion of coal. She is now used as a recruiting ship at the
Brooklyn Navy Yard.

We f oimd her very comfortable. There were few people
aboard besides the members of our party, and, as she was
equipped to carry the officers and men of an entire regiment,
we found ourselves commodiously* quartered. Moreover,
the commissary of the transport service had received instruc-

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

tions to give us excellent fare; this, I believe, through the
thoughtful kindness of Mr. McKinley himself.

Mr. McKinley never failed to take a personal interest
in the everyday welfare of all those in his administration
who came imder his own observation and we were made to
feel this throughout our experience on the Philippine Com-
mission, while he lived. On every appropriate occasion
we were certain to receive from him smne kindly compli-
ment, a cablegram or other communication, and it made
everybody who came within range of his influence anxious
to serve him well and to make the work which was being
done satisfactory and pleasing to him. I owe to our con-
nection with President McKinley's administration some of
my happiest recollections.

The men who made up the second Philippine Commission
were Mr. Taft, General Luke E. Wright of Memphis, Ten-
nessee; Judge Henry C. Ide of Vermont, Professor Dean
C. Worcester of the University of Michigan, and Professor
Bernard Moses of the University of Califomia. A short
introduction of my husband's colleagues and the members
of their families who went with them to the Philippines will
be necessary at this point, because I was destined to be con-
stantly associated with them during four of the most interest-
ing years of my life. Our co-operation, social and govern-
mental, was based upon a common purpose, and our attach-
ment to this purpose, as well as the bonds of friendship
which united us, were greatly strengthened by the oppo-
sition we had to meet for some months after we reached
Manila, not only from the Filipinos, but also from the
military government which the Commission was sent out
gradually to replace.

The men of the Commission, coming, as they did, from
diflFerent parts of the United States, were widely contrasted,
no less in associations than in their varied accents and family
traditions.

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

General Wright was, and is, one of the ablest lawyers in
Tennessee, and enjoyed, at the time of his appointment on
the Commission, the finest practice in Memphis. He is a
Democrat; and old enough to have been a lieutenant in the
Civil War on the Confederate side. But perhaps his finest
laurels for bravery and devotion to duty were won at the
time when he exerted himself to save Memphis in the
days when she was in the grip of a terrible epidemic of
yellow fever. I don't know the exact year, but the epi-
demic was so out of control that all who could, left the
city, while Greneral Wright remained to organise such
resistance as could be made to the spread of the dread dis-
ease.

Mrs. Wri^t was a daughter of the famous Admiral
Semmes of the Confederate Navy and for some time after
the war she travelled with her father in Mexico and abroad,
thereby acquiring at an early age a very cosmopolitan
outlook. Admiral Semmes was a great linguist and Mrs.
Wright inherited his gift. She had learned to speak Span-
ish in her girlhood, so when she arrived in Manila she had
only to renew her knowledge of the language. Greneral
and Mrs. Wright had with them their daughter Katrina,
who was then about fourteen years old, but their two sons,
one a naval officer, did not join them in the Philippines until
later.

General Wright had, on the whole, the most delightful
social qualities of anybody on the Commission. He had a
keen sense of humour and could recount a great number of
interesting personal experiences with a manner and wit
which made him, always, a delightful companion. He was
a devotee of pinochle and he instructed the entire party
in the game until it was played from one end of the ship
to the other. He was slow to anger, very deliberate and
kindly in his judgments, and offered at times a decided con-
trast to his wife who was a little more hasty and not inf re-

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

quendy founded judgments on what he would jocosely
criticise as "a wcxnan's reason."

Judge Ide was bom and bred a Veraionter and had many
of the rugged characteristics of the Green Mountain State,
not the least among which is a certain indefinable, but
peculiarly New England caution. In addition to a large
and active law practice in both New Hampshire and Ver-
mont, he had banking connections through which he had
gained a better knowledge of business and finance than is
possessed by the average lawyer. Moreover, a long term as
Chief Justice of Samoa had given him diplomatic experience
and a knowledge of the Polynesian races which were to serve
him well in his work in the Philippines, As Chief Justice
he exercised diplomatic and consular as well as judicial
functions, and his position brought him in close relations
with the English and German officials of the joint protec-
torate of the Samoan islands and in constant social contact
with the naval officers of many countries whose ships very
frequently called at Apia. He was a widower with two
young daughters.

These daughters, Anne and Marjorie, or "the two Ide
girls" as they were then popularly known, displayed no sign
of Puritan ancestry or upbringing. They were just remark-
ably beautiful and altogether charming and delightful. A
large part of their girlhood had been spent in Samoa; they
were the product of an intermittent, but very picturesque
education, and there was ingrained in them some of that
happy-go-lucky attitude toward life, and that freedom from
useless convention which the Occidental is not unlikely to
acquire in the Orient.

These girls had, in Samoa, been great friends of Robert
Louis Stevenson. Anne, the elder, was the especial favourite
of the beauty-loving invalid and he willed to her his birth-
day, as can be leamed from his Samoan letters. She was
bom near Christmas time and had never known what it was

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

to have her birthday celebrated, a great deprivation in child-
hood. But she now celebrates as her own the birthday of
Robert Louis Stevenson and it is, I believe, her most cher-
ished possession.

Marjorie, whose career, ever since our first trip together, I
have followed with the greatest aflfection and interest, had
even more of the care-free attitude than Anne. She used
to convulse us with cruelly funny accounts of her adventures
with admirers, of whom there were many, and with descrip-
tions of some of the strange acquaintances she made during
her travels with her father.

Among the passengers on the Hancock was Dr. Kneedler,
an army surgeon, with his wife and two little girls. These
little girls were exceedingly bright and inquisitive. Young
ladies and gentlemen had particular and irresistible attrac-
tions for them and the Ide young ladies kept them very
much occupied. The Ide young ladies didn't encourage
their attentions and this fact engendered their hostility.
They therefore referred to the Misses Ide as **them there
Ides." With their delightful sense of humour the Ides, of
course, rejoiced in the designation and in all the thirteen
years since then they have never met Mr. Taf t or me with-
out presenting themselves as "them there Ides."

The Misses Ide were destined to be the unrivalled belles
of Manila society for six years and then to move on to
broader social spheres. Anne was married to Mr. Bourke
Cochran shortly after her father left the Philippines, but
Marjorie continued to be her father's companion for several
years, going with him to Madrid when he was appointed
Minister to Spain and presiding over the American Legation
there until she married Mr. Shane Leslie and went to Lon-
don to live.

General Wright, Judge Ide and Mr. Taft were the law-
yers on the Commission and it was felt that their familiarity
with law and governmental matters greatly enhanced the

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

strength and preparedness of the Commission for the work
they had to do.

Mn Worcester was an assistant professor at the University
of Michigan. He too was a Vermonter, with quite as much
fortiter in re^ but with somewhat less of the suaviter in tnodo
than Judge Ide inherently had, or had acquired in his Samoan
experience.

Mr. Worcester was the only member of the party who had
ever been to the Philippines before. I think he had been
there twice with scientific expeditions before the Battle of
Manila Bay had thrust the guardianship of the Filipinos
upon our country, and in the course of his trips, with his flu-
ency in Spanish as it is spoken in the Philippines, he had
acquired a very intimate knowledge of the people and their
customs, as well as of the flora and fauna of the islands. He
had written a book on the Philippines which came out at a
most fortunate time, just when Dewey's victory had turned
the eyes of the country upon that never-before-thought-of
comer of the world. This book led to his appointment on
the first Commission and his useful, loyal, courageous and
effective labours with that body led Mr. McKinley to ap-
point him on the second.

He is a large, forceful man with rather abrupt manners
and very decided opinions and perhaps no greater contrast
could be imagined than exists between him and Mrs. Worces-
ter, who, in outward seeming, is the frailest kind of little
woman, with a sweet face and engagingly gentle manners
which suggest timidity. Mrs. Worcester has proved herself
to possess the frailty of flexible steel. At that time we were
quite concerned about her, I remember, thinking she would
not be able to endure the Philippine climate even for a short
period. But she has lived there from that day to this. She
has been with her husband throu^ many experiences from
which the strongest woman would shrink, toiling with him
over hundreds of miles of motmtain and jungle trail on his

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

frequent expeditions into the countries of the wild tribes
and, meeting every difficulty without comment. She
is in excellent health and is a living refutation of the familiar
exaggerations as to the effect of the climate. They had with
them two little white haired children, one of them quite del-
icate, who have grown up in the Philippines strong and
healthy and have received most of their education in the
schools established there under American government.

The last member of the Commission was Professor Ber-
nard Moses of the political and historical department of the
University of California. He was a man of profound learn-
ing, a Connecticut Yankee, combining a very excellent
knowledge of business with his unusual qualifications as an
historian, economist and student of politics. He was espe-
cially familiar with all Spanish-American countries, had
travelled extensively in the South American republics and
had written a leamed book on the constitution of Colombia.
My husband always says that he thinks Mr. McKinley exer-
cised the wisest discretion in the selection of all the members
of this Commission since they possessed, among them, qualifi-
cations for every line of work in practical government and
original research.

Mrs. Moses, a graduate from the University of California,
was a very attractive woman. She had a gift for vivid de-
scription and for seeing the funny side of every situation.
Her book, "Unofficial Letters of an Official's Wife," gives an
interesting and accurate picture of social life in the early days
of military rule, which are known in Manila history as "the
days of the Empire" and of that period when American civil
government was in the process of organisation. Her wit
sometimes had a suggestion of the caustic in it, but she never
failed to contribute her quota to the day's amusement.

There were many other interesting members of the party,
including Mr. Arthur Fergusson, the Spanish secretary, and
Mrs. Fergusson, Mr. Frank A. Branagan, the disbursing

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

officer, and Mrs. Branagan, and several private secretaries
with their families.

The voyage from San Francisco to Honolulu was quite
perfect. As we sailed toward the tropics the weather grad-
ually grew warmer and the sheltered decks became the most
attractive part of the ship. The promenade deck of the
Hancock reaches from bow to stem. I believe there is a
regular term to describe such ship constructicxi, — "decked
over all" is it? — but to me it was just a very long deck which
served unusually well for exercise. The Commission held
regular business sessions in a cabin which had been fitted up
for the purpose, but when work was over they would start
on a long march around and around the deck, covering many
miles each day. My husband was especially industrious and
walked one man after another "off his feet" until, finally, he
was obliged to finish his long tramp alone. He set himself
the task of so many miles a day, so many times around the
deck being a mile, and to keep count of laps requires some
concentration. His quiet persistence in this kind of exercise
was calculated to make the lazy onlooker intensely nervous,
and when I had done my modest little tum I was always glad
to indulge in a sort of counter-concentration at a whist table,
or at General Wright's ever constant pinochle.

Altogether the days passed very pleasantly and we were a
very merry and friendly party by the time we reached Hon-
olulu.

At Honolulu I got my first glimpse of real tropics, and I
was enchanted. It was a glorious sensation for me that
April moming when I saw these mid-Pacific islands, for the
first time, rise before me out of a white-capped sea; clear-
cut in an atmosphere which seems never to be blurred by
mist.

American energy, ambition and initiative have wrou^t

great material changes in the islands and these, which were

even then important, were brought to our admiring attention

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

later on, I shall always think of Hawaii, — of the island
of Oahu, rather, — as it appeared to me then when our ship
steamed past Diamond Head, skirted the high breakers of
Waikiki and made its way up through the bright waters of
the bay into the harbour of Honolulu. Honolulu is a little,
modem city lying, all in sight, against the green of a narrow,
gently-sloping, peak-encircled valley.

The Pimchbowl, a spent and emptied volcano, outlined in
perfect form against the higher hills behind it, plainly tells
the story of the spectacular construction of the islands and
makes it almost possible to visualise their sudden rise from
the sea. They are not very old, according to scientific meas-
urements of time, but they are old enough, at any rate, to
have clothed themselves in the most brilliant luxuriance,
which is the first thing to impress the traveller as his ship sails
into the harbour.

The brilliance from the ship*s deck is the brilliance of
every imaginable shade of green, massed against the tower-
ing, pointed hills and picked into contrasts of high-light and
shadow by a sun and atmosphere peculiar to the tropics.
Once ashore, the green foliage becomes the background for
a wealth of blooming flowers, flowers everywhere, of un-
numbered different varieties, with the flaming hibiscus in
every garden, striking the high note of colour. Until we left
Honolulu laden with "leis** — ^long festoons of flower petals
which are thrown upon the shoulders of departing friends
and visitors — ^there were always flowers.

And with the flowers and the foliage and the tall palm
trees and the warm tropic sunlight, there is music, the music
of the native which greets one in welcome at the dock and
contributes constantly to the spirit of festivity until the
departing ship gets too far from shore to catch the strains of
the farewell song "Aloha" whose closing words : "Until we
meet, until we meet again," linger long in the mind of the
grateful recipient of Hawaiian hospitality.

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

The first thing we were to leam when our ship came up
into the harbour was that the bubonic plague had been epi-
demic in Honolulu for a long time. It was our first en-
counter with this terror of the East. There had been
seventy-one cases in all, and sixty-one deaths. Six
Europeans had contracted the disease and of these four
had died. When we dropped anchor we were at once
boarded by the local healdi officer, Dr. Carmichael of
the Marine Hospital Service, who was accompanied by
United States Minister Sewell and Consul General Hay-
ward. They wanted us to land, of course, and we were
very anxious to do so, but as the quarantine was not yet
raised they could not answer for the attitude of the Japanese
health officers when we got to Yokohama. Our going ashore
might result in a long detention in quarantine for ourselves
and, aside from the discomfort of this, we could not aflFord
the delay. There was no particular danger for us per-
sonally, since no new cases had been reported for twenty-
four days, but it was all a question of being able to land later
in Japan. It was really too much of a disappointment;
there was not a dissenting voice on that score, and Honolulu
kept getting more and more attractive as the possibility
dawned on us that we might not see it at all. But it was
arranged. We sent for die Japanese vice-Consul and ex-
plained matters to him and he finally agreed to hold himself
responsible for our breaking the quarantine, in so far as it
concerned Japan, if we would keep our ship out in the stream
instead of tying up at the dock, and permit no member of
the crew to go ashore during our stay. This we readily
agreed to do and made our plans accordingly. We, too,
were to live on board the Hancock^ but there were any num-
ber of harbour launches put at our disposal.

We were received by the Americans in Honolulu with the

utmost cordiality and immediately found ourselves sharing

the exhilarating suspense with which the people were then

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

awaiting the passage of the bill in Congress which was to
make the Hawaiian Islands a part of the United States.
The first thing the Commission did was to call on President
Dole, of the provisional republican government, and with
him they met the Ministers of the Treasury and the Interior,
Mr. Damon and Mr. Young. Indeed, we met all the people
who had the affairs of the islands in hand and were most
delightfully entertained by them. We found them of one
mind, just anxiously waiting to be annexed to the United
States. The men, who realised the importance of our mis-
sion to the Philippines, were eager to foregather with the
Commission and discuss with them, long and earnestly, this
broad American venture and its possible effect upon the fu-
ture prosperity of the Hawaiian Islands, but in so far as I
was concerned, nothing in the way of state problems was
allowed to intrude itself upon their purely social hospitality.
There were diimers and luncheons and teas and receptions,
and, in the intervals, sight-seeing.

There are a number of entertaining things to do in Hon-
olulu and while I do not wish to make this, in any way, a
book of travel, I must record my impressions of the world as
they came to me.

The Hawaiian Islands have a background of romantic
history which makes the museums, the public buildings and
even the cemeteries of the capital extremely interesting. Be-
sides all of which there are some wonderful views which
every one must see.

The trip to Nuuani Pali is the first thing to be undertaken
in Honolulu, perhaps because it is the greatest thing on the
island of Oahu. We didn't know what the Pali was, — ^had
no idea. It was just the place to go, so we went, — ^the very
first day. We drove up the valley over a perfect road which
wound in and out past beautiful, palm-shaded country
homes, and along the bank of a noisy, crystal-clear little
mountain stream, until we came to a point which looked to

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

mc like the "jiunping off place." And it is; the "jumping
off place" is the Pali. The road turns sharp around the solid
rock wall of the cliff and winds its way on down into the val-
ley on the other side, but it is a distinct surprise to find that
it doesn't end right there. The Pali is the Pass of the
Winds ; the meeting place of all the young hurricanes of the
Pacific. They say the winds in the Pali are never still.
We were flattened out against the wall of the cliff, our hats
were torn from our heads and we had to hold onto our coats
for dear life, but before us lay one of the grandest spectacles
in the whole world. Coral-tinted, purple, rose and bright-
blue sea; beetling, pointed, terrible cliffs, and a broad, green
plain running down to a surf -washed ribbon of beach; a pan-
orama as wide as the compass of vision. I have been back
since then thinking that, on first sight, I might have over-
estimated the grandeur of the Pali. But I didn't. It is
one of the world's great views. And it has its touch of sav-
age history too. It was up these hills and over the cliffs of
the Pali that King Kamehameha drove to certain death the
offending hordes in arms against his sovereignty. There was
no escape for them. Once in this pass they had either to go
over the precipice or back against the spears of the enemy.
This being history, and not myth, it adds much to the thrill
of the spectacle.

After a visit to the indescribable "aquarium of the painted
fishes" — ^painted, I suppose, by the bright sun-rays in the
coral shallows of the tropic seas — ^we went, as guests of Mr.
Carter, a prominent member of the American colony, who
afterward became governor of the islands, out to Waikiki
Beach for surf -bathing, — or, surf-riding, as it is more aptly
called.

Surf-riding at Waikiki Beach is a great game. In the first
place the surf there doesn't look as if any human being would
dare venture into it; but when you see a beautiful, slim,
brown native, naked save for short swimming tnmks, come

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

gliding down a high white breaker, poised like a Mercury,
erect on a single narrow plank — ^it looks delightfully exhil-
arating. It took me some time to make up my mind, but
after sufficient persuasion I finally decided to risk my life
with the others. Dressed in bathing suits, we were taken
out beyond the line of breakers in long canoes with outriggers
and, with a native at prow and stem armed with broad
paddles to guide the craft, we rode in on the crest of the
waves. Even this modified version of the natives' foolhardy
performance is dangerous enough. There is every likelihood
of an upset and not any of us could be said to swim expertly,
so there was great excitement when one member of the party
after another was plimged, out of depth, into the foaming
and seething water. Two members of our party, indeed, had
a narrow escape, though we didn't know it at the time. Gen-
eral Wright and Judge Ide were capsized in a particularly
vicious breaker and Judge Ide at once began to make frantic
eflForts to attract attention and secure aid, but in the confu-
sion his signs of distress were taken for indications of vast
enjoyment and he would have been left to drown if he hadn't
been washed ashore by the force of the surf. General
Wright, though much the better swimmer, had no less diffi-
culty, and they were both quite white and shaken when they
crawled up on the beach.

We stayed four days in this "Paradise of the Pacific," dur-
ing which we made many interesting trips, were introduced
to many strange Hawaiian customs and were regaled with
many feasts, not always, I may say, particularly appetizing.
I have had in my time, for politeness' sake, to cat various
queer messes in all sorts of odd comers of the earth, but to
me "poi" will always be "poi" — in a class by itself. It is
the true Hawaiian dish and is offered to guests by the natives
in the same spirit of compliment with which we offer to
*1>reak bread" with our friends. It is the custom for Amer-
icans residing in Honolulu to introduce visitors to this dish,

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

and the native viands which go with it, in entertainments
which are called "poi dinners," and we were treated to as
many of these as our time would pemiit. "Poi" bears an
impleasant outward resemblance to cockroach paste and, try
as I would, I was never able to cultivate a taste for it. But
foreigners do learn to like it, for I found Americans in Hon-
olulu eating it with the greatest relish and dipping it up
with their fingers in true Hawaiian style.

On our last evening in Honolulu, after a morning of sight-
seeing, a luncheon, an hour in the buffeting surf, and a large
tea-party, we were given a particularly elaborate "poi din-
ner" where we all sat on the floor and at which all the guests
appeared in native costume with "leis" around their necks
and in their hair. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr.
Mott Smith, sent the Hawaiian Band, whose leader came out
from old Einperor William to King Kalakaua, and they sere-
naded us with most wonderful Hawaiian music, interspersed,
for their own pride's sake, with well rendered selections from
the finest operas. The girls came in flaming bright "Mother-
Hubbard" dresses, crowned and covered with "leis," to dance
for us the curious folk-lore dances of the old-time. It was
a delightful whirl of music and lights and colour — added to
fish and poi and a cramped position — but I was tired enou^
not to be sorry when the time came for the singing of "Aloha
Oe" and our departure for the ship which lay out in the
harbour ready to up-anchor at daybreak and start on its way
to Japan.

On the evening of the tenth of May we reached the estuary
near the head of which is Yokohama and further on is Tokio.
For at least two hours we steamed past a low-lying shore line
before we came in sight of the sweep of steep cliff to the
southward which forms the great outer harbour.

There was just one thing that we could really look at;
one insistent, dominant point in the landscape which cau^t
us and held us fascinated, — ^Fujiyama. I had seen Fuji-

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

yama on screens and fans and porcelains all my life, but I
had no conception of it. For one half hour this "Queen of
Mountains'* — ^rightly called — rising thirteen thousand feet
out of sheer sea-level, perfect in form, snow-capped, majestic,
blazed for us against the western sky. Then a cloud curtain
fell, — and the sun went down.

As we steamed up close to the breakwater in the grey light
of late evening we could see nothing but the dark outlines of
many ships and a long row of substantial looking buildings,
under hi^ arc lights, stretching along a wide, water-front
street which I was afterward to know as The Bund.

We wanted to go ashore, but it was not possible. We had
to lie outside the breakwater and wait for the doctors to come
aboard. **Wait for the doctors to come aboard;" how fa-
miliar that proceeding becomes to the traveller among the
ports of the East, and especially, of Japan. You arrive at
Yokohama and are examined there; you go just around the
bend of the coast line and arrive at Kobe and you are exam-
med there; you go on through the Inland Sea to Nagasaki
and again you are examined. Wherever you arrive in this
land of much caution you must "wait for the doctors to come
aboard."

But our doctors didn't keep us waiting long. About eight
o'clock half a dozen of them, important little men with much
gold-lace, came smiling up the gangway. We worried,
rather, about the plague we had braved, — and we did hope
none of our crew would develop symptoms, — ^but, having
faith in the Japanese Vice-Consul in Honolulu, we hoped for
special leniency. We were not disappointed. They exam-
ined the ship's company with great care, but our examination
was a mere formality, a sort of apologetic enumeration as a
matter of fact, and after giving us a clean bill of health the
doctors bowed themselves most courteously away. But we
had a narrow escape. Charlie's nurse developed a suspicious
sore throat the very next afternoon and gave us many days

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

of anxiety for the baby and the other children. And, as
I shall make plain further on, our anxiety was not without
cause.

In reading over my own and my husband's letters, written
on that trip to various members of the family, I find that
Charlie was very much in evidence at all times. I suppose
he was spoiled because, certainly, everybody took a hand in
his misguidance, but the spoiling process at least kept him in
high good humour, unless it happened to take the form of
secret indulgence in prohibited sweets; then I had to meet the
consequences. I find my husband writing to his brother
Charles: "Charlie continues to be as full of spirits and as
determined to have his own way as ever. We call him
'the tornado' ; he creates such a sensation when he lands in
the midst of the children on board the ship. He is very
badly in need of discipline and I long for the time to come
when he will be better able to appreciate it. Maria has be-
come quite as much a slave to him as Nellie and you may tell
his Aunt Annie that I am still the only hope the boy has of
moral training." This sounds so much like the average
father that I thought I ought to quote it.

When Bessie, Charlie's nurse, was taken away from him
and quarantined we got for him a Japanese "amah" who
filled him at first with indignation, not immixed with fear.
But she was so patient, and followed him around so much
like a faithful watchdog, that he grew to be exceedingly fond
of her and straightway proceeded to exchange his small
English vocabulary for, to him, more useful Japanese words.

The first thing to claim our attention in Yokohama Har-
bour was the American cruiser Newark^ the Admiral's flag-
ship of the Asiatic fleet, with Admiral Kempff aboard. As
soon as we came inside the breakwater she fired a salute of
seventeen guns, and we wondered what it was all about, until
suddenly we remembered that the Commissioners had the
rank of ministers plenipotentiary and decided that it was

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL .YEARS

meant for us. It was the first time in my husband's life that
he had ever been saluted. In his later career he reached a
point where he would have been almost willing to assume a
disguise in order to escape the thimder of the twenty-one
guns that roared at him whenever he approached a naval ves-
sel of any kind, but I think he was rather elated by this first
tribute to his official standing.

We found later that an old friend, Captain McCalla, was
in command of the Newark. We had known Captain
McCalla in Washington when my husband was Solicitor
General. He had been court-martialed and suspended from
the Navy for a year for striking an unruly and insubordinate
sailor and at his request Mr. Taft read the record of the
court-martial. Mr. Choate had been his counsel, but the
case was given a great deal of impleasant publicity. He dis-
played such bravery at the Battle of Guantanamo, in Cuba,
that the files he had lost were restored to him. He also
rendered distinguished service in the Philippines, taking over
the surrender of one of Aguinaldo's generals at Caygayan ;
and later on, in China, he was in the van of the allied troops
that relieved Peking and was severely wounded. Being a
man of broad intelligence and great enterprise he appreciated
the importance of die Philippine Commission and lost no
time in extending to them all the courtesies at his command.

Shortly after we landed and got ourselves comfortably
settled at the Grand Hotel, an ensign from the Newark came
to ask when the Commission would receive the Admiral.
The hour was set for this formality and when it had been
duly disposed of. Captain McCalla called on us unofficially,
with much news for our hungry ears from the big world that
we had known nothing about for eleven long. days. That
was before the wireless era when going to sea was really going
to sea, and seldom has the world known a more exciting year
than 1900. Grim talk about the terrible Boxer insurrection
was on every tongue and Captain McCalla told us that the

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Newark was lying in readiness to proceed to China at an in-
stant's notice. The British were just then pressing the Boers
northward in South Africa, and our own troubles in the Phil-
ippines were by no means over. We had nearly seventy
thousand troops in the field, and we heard of decisive en-
gagements between the division under General Young and
some religious fanatic insurrectos in northern Luzon. We
found ourselves feeling very much in touch with big
events.

The Commission went out to the Newark to return the Ad-
miral's call and when they got back to the hotel they were
full of valuable information and advice about sightseeing
in Japan, housekeeping in the Orient and other important
things. Among other bits of news they had to tell their
wives was that we would all probably be received at the
Japanese Court, — which was quite exciting.

My experience is that the most formal branch of the gov-
ernment service is the naval branch. The state department
may be as formal, but I doubt it. The ceremony on board
naval vessels is constant, and the severity of the penalties
for any failure to follow the regulations impresses itself upon
every naval officer. Therefore, every naval officer must
have diplomatic training and must be alert in finding out
and in carrying out the duties of polite intercourse which
prevail in every country.

Captain McCalla regarded the Commissioners as pro-con-
suls going to an important province, quite equal to the fore-
most diplomatic representatives of the United States
anywhere, and he thought it was incumbent upon them to
make the fact of their presence in Japan known at the Im-
perial CoMj^jiXid to apply for an audience with the Emperor.
It hadn't Occurred to them. Their minds were so full of
the weighty problems confronting them at Manila that they
had given no consideration to any possible intervening for-
malities, and, anyhow, Mr. Taf t said he thought the Eknperor

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wouldn't lose much sleep if he did miss seeing them. But
this was not the proper attitude at all, and Captain McCalla,
expostulating with them for their too casual conduct, finally
prevailed upon them to communicate with the American
Minister in Tokyo and ask to have application made for
the audience. They were immediately informed that their
arrival had been expected and that the matter had already
been attended to.

The Commission had only a week in Japan and, although
their purpose in stopping had been to coal ship and get some
clothing suitable for the tropic heat they were going into,
they naturally were anxious to see something of the country
during their stay, so the days were filled with expeditions
around Yokohama and Tokyo and to points of interest
nearby. My sister Maria and I did not accompany them
on nnany of these trips because we were planning to remain
in Japan for the summer and wanted to view its attractions
at our leisure.

The trip to Nikko was made memorable by Mr. Taft's
most triiunphal progress. On account of his unusual pro-
portions he had already been an object of tremendous in-
terest to the Japanese.

Nikko is nearly a day's ride from Tokyo, up in the hills
to the north, and when you get there you find that
the railway station is a long way from the hotel and that
much of the distance is a steep incline. The only kind of
conveyance available is a j inricksha, and when my husband
climbed into one of these little perambulators the unfortu-
nate coolie to whom it belonged began to utter strange
sounds. He rolled his eyes and gesticulated frantically un-
til he prevailed upon a second man to help him in propelling
his unaccustomed burden. But even then his excitement did
not abate. As they approached the first rise in the road
some of the villagers along the way, attracted, no doubt, by
the coolie's weird cries, came out to stare and, as usual, re-

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mained to laugh. The little 'ricksha man began chattering
and grimacmg at all of them and kept it up until he had en-
listed the services of at least half the population of the vil-
lage to help him in attaining the crest of the hill.

Two days before the Hancock was to start on her way
toward Manila the great event of our visit to Japan tran-
spired. We had our audience with the Emperor and Em-
press.

The first thing the ladies all asked, of course, was, **What
shall we wear?" It was a most important question. I sup-
posed we should have to wear evening gowns and was con-
gratulating myself that I had a very nice new one that would
do beautifully. But only on the afternoon before the day
appointed, it was decreed that we should appear in high-
necked frocks with trains. That was more difficult,— es-
pecially the trains. I didn't own an afternoon frock that
I considered good enough. I was going to the tropics and
had got a supply of thin white muslins and linens, but I
had nothing that would do for a cold May day in Japan.
Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Worcester and Mrs. Moses were as
greatly concemed as I, but we finally managed. I solved
the problem by having a Chinese dressmaker in Yokohama
make me, overnight, a lace guimpe which I wore with my
perfectly acceptable evening gown.

Judge Ide had been particularly interested in the audience
and in the fact that the ladies would also be received and he
was very much chagrined when he found that "the ladies"
meant only the wives of the Commissioners and that he could
not take with him his two beautiful daughters. He quite
lost interest in the whole proceeding, and we didn't blame
him in the least.

The Palace in Tokyo is not a "Forbidden City" literally,
as the old palace in Peking used to be, but it looks from the
outside just as "forbidden," or more so. It is surrounded
by a wide, deep moat which is crossed at intervals by curved

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and gracefully balustraded bridges. On the other side of
the moat is a high stone wall. There is nothing of the pal-
ace to be seen except a few low, tiled roofs which peep out
from the midst of many trees. The Imperial gardens are
vastly more impressive than the palaces, — there are several
within the walled enclosure, — ^and I would have wanted to
linger and really look at things if I had not been so keenly
interested in the experience which awaited us. Our carriage
hurried on over the beautiful drives, through the most en-
trancing little artificial landscapes, past lakes full of little
rock islands on which were perched tiny pavilions with up-
tilted roofs and the most beautiful polished wood and snow-
white paper windows. It was all most fascinating and much
too wonderful to be merely glanced at, but it was only
a few moments before we approached a low, grey building
and drew up before the door. It didn't look at all like a
palace, but it seemed that we had arrived.

We were ushered into a large reception room which was
neither Japanese nor European, but a curious mixture of
both. The walls were of gold leaf and were decorated
with beautiful Japanese paintings in exquisitely soft colour-
ings, but the furniture was mostly of the heavy foreign type.
It was unexpected to say the least and I thou^t what a pity
it was that the Japanese had not met the European invasion
in their own original and picturesquely beautiful style, in-
stead of trying to conform to western customs, or rather, to
engraft western customs upon their own unique orientalism.
But so it is. They either like our ugly heaviness, or think
they confer a polite compliment on us by adopting it.

We were not kept waiting long. We were separated from
the men of our party and were led into another room, much
like the first, where the Empress awaited us attended by
three or four ladies of her court. We curtseyed very low,
not without difficulty on the part of most of us in spite of
much practice, and after receiving a gracious smile and bow

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

from Her Majesty, we were able to stand erect and observe
her at our leisure. Both she and her ladies-in-waiting were
dressed in European costume which made them look much
smaller than they would have looked in their own beautiful
kimonos. Her Majesty's face was sweet and almost timid
looking, and her voice was peculiarly gentle. Our conver-
sation, carried on through an interpreter, was commonplace
in the extreme, but her manner was pleasant and cordial.
I was tremendously interested because I had been reading
Japanese history and was duly impressed with the hoary an-
tiquity of this court of the Son of Heaven. The Empress
addressed a few remarks to each of us, after which we curt-
seyed again and retired. That was all.

Our husbands were received in a similar manner by the
Emperor, thou^ His Majesty granted a separate interview
to each of them. Mr. Taft entered first with the Minister
of the Household in charge of the ceremony. He bowed
when he entered the door, bowed again half way up the long
room, and yet again when he arrived before the Elmperor.
The others, also bowing, followed close behind but remained
just outside of the audience chamber while my husband's
audience was in progress. Mr. Nagasaki, who acted as in-
terpreter, said that His Majesty was very much pleased to
see the Commission in Japan. Mr. Taft expressed his ap-
preciation of the audience. The Emperor asked if he had
ever been in Japan before. He said he had not. The Em-
peror asked when he was going to leave Japan. He replied,
"In two days. Your Majesty." After which this, his first
audience with the Mikado, was at an end and he left the
chamber while the rest of the Commissioners, each in his
turn, went through the same ceremony.

After our husbands had been received by the Empress also,

they rejoined us and we were conducted through some other

rooms in the palace which interested us greatly. They all

showed a curious mingling of Japanese and European ob-

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jects of art and nobody could see them without deciding that,
in that particular setting at least, the Japanese objects were
far the more beautiful.

The Japanese Court is much inclined to imitate things
European and the results are sometimes astonishing. Years
later, when my husband was in Japan without me, the Em-
press presented him with a tapestry for me which had been
copied from a Gobelin piece. It represented the meeting
of Columbus and Isabella, and, it shows the most exquisite
workmanship, but the faces have a curiously Oriental cast-
There is a story in connection with this tapestry which I
think I must telL My husband was Secretary of War when
it was presented to me; and I say me with emphasis, because
thereby hangs the story. He brought it home and displayed
it with great pride and satisfaction, but it was so enormous
and, from my standpoint, so useless, that I rather protested
and wondered why, as long as he was getting such a gorgeous
present he couldn't have managed in some way to make its
size correspond with my circumstances.

"Oh, well," said he, "never mind. I'm going to present
it to the Smithsonian Institute anyway, because you know,
my dear, it is against the Constitution for an official in the
United States government to accept any kind of favours from
foreign courts."

This was not the first time in my life that I had met the
Constitution face to face, but theretofore I had been able to
accept its decrees with what I had hoped was patriotic resig-
nation. But now that tapestry suddenly became to me a
most desirable thing. It had been sent to me by the Empress
of Japan and I wanted to enjoy the mere possession of it, —
at least for awhile. So, as my husband would say, I took
the question up with him. I tried to convince him that I
was not an official of the United States government and that
he, as an official, had nothing whatever to do with my present

from the Einpress of Japan. He stood firmly by the Con-

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

stitution, as usual, and eventually I had to submit the ques-
tion for arbitration to President Roosevelt, who agreed with
me that I was a private citizen and had a perfect right to
accept the gift. I afterward himg it in one of the big wall
spaces in the state dining-room of the White House and had
the pleasure of watching many a guest vainly endeavouring
to locate its origin and figure out its meaning.

We concluded our first audience at the court of Japan
by signing our names in the Imperial album, after which we
went to the American Legation to a beautiful luncheon which
the Minister had arranged in our honour. Our Minister in
Tokyo then — ^it was some years before the Legation was
raised to an Embassy — was Mr. Buck of Georgia, a most
affable and agreeable gentleman. He had invited a number
of his diplomatic collegues to meet us and, among others, we
met for the first time Baron and Baroness Rosen, of the Rus-
sian Legation, who were afterward with us in Washington.

I sat on the right of the Minister and next to Baron Sano-
miya, the Court Chamberlain, who had conducted our audi-
ence. I was greatly interested in Baron Sanomiya's wife.
She was an Englishwoman at least twice his size.

At Mr. Taft's request the Minister had invited an old
classmate of his. Baron Tajiri Inajiro. At Yale he was
known as Tajiri, and the first two letters of both their
names being "Ta" he and my husband had been brought
together in the classroom, seated alphabetically, and had
enjoyed a pleasant association. So Mr. Taft looked for-
ward with great pleasure to renewing the acquaintance in
Japan. Baron Tajiri, like most Japanese, was a little man,
and his teeth were so formed that he was never able to
master the pronunciation of English in such' a way as to
enable one to understand him easily. But he seems to have
acquired at Yale a sound knowledge of business and
finance since he became Assistant Minister of Finance xm-

der Yamagata and had taken an active part in the change

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

of the Japanese currency from the silver to the gold
standard, which was a great step in Japan's progress toward
a place among the world's powers. He had been made a
life peer and sat in the Upper House. At the luncheon he
wore a frock coat which Mr. Taft felt confident he recog-
nised as an old college friend of the 'seventies. In those
days the Japanese wore their "foreign clothes'* only on "for-
eign occasions'* or at court. They kept them carefully
folded up and put away, and they had not yet come to rec-
ognise the desirability of pressing them when they took them
out for use. Also a silk hat once was a silk hat always;
vintages didn't trouble them, and they didn't mind in the
least which way the nap was brushed.

Baron Tajiri wanted to be appointed Minister of Fi-
nance when Yamagata retired, but he was put, instead, at
the head of the Board of Audits, a life position. Mar-
chioness, now Princess Oyama, wife of the Field Marshal,
told my husband this on the occasion of his second visit to
Japan, and said that the disappointment had made Tajiri
very much of a recluse. In any case, Mr. Taft has never
seen him again, although he has tried to seek him out and
has made inquiry about him every time he has been in
Japan.

We were very much interested in our Legation at Tokyo.
It was the first one we had ever seen that the American gov-
ernment owned. The house was not what it ought to have
been, but it was surrounded by spacious and beautifully kept
grounds and was so much better than the nothing that we
have in other countries that we liked to dwell upon it as an
honourable exception to the disgraceful and miserly policy
pursued by Congress in dealing with our representatives to
foreign capitals.

Mrs. Wright, with her daughter Katrina, had decided to
remain with us in Yokohama for the summer, so we took a
cottage together on The Bluff, a high foreign residence sec-

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

tion of ifie city, and prepared to make ourselves most com-
fortable.

Two days later the Commissioners and the rest of the
party went aboard the Hancock and we waved them good-
bye from a harbour launch as they steamed away toward
Manila.

CHAPTER IV

IN JAPAN

To be quarantined in a house too small for the number of
its occupants, behind closed doors, each one of which bears
aloft a sinister yellow placard across which is printed in
large, black letters : "Diphtheria," is no way to begin a
visit to a strange and interesting country.

No sooner had Bessie, Charlie's nurse, been released from
quarantine by the doctors in Yokohama than our older boy,
Robert, developed suspicious symptCMiis which, upon diagno-
sis, were pronounced to be diphtheritic. The sore throat
began before Mr. Taft left for Manila, and he was loathe to
go, but as the new serum treatment for diphtheria had robbed
the disease of much of its terror, and as we were in the hands
of an excellent American physician. Dr. Eldridge, I felt con-
fident there was no cause for serious apprehension.

We sent Helen and the baby to be taken care of at the
Grand Hotel, while Mrs. Wright, Maria and I resigned our-
selves to a long and tedious period of isolation. Robert's
diphtheria did not develop to a dangerous stage, but the sore
throat persisted and it was three weeks before we were re-
leased upon a none-too-welcoming world. Our long quar-
antine had marked us as objects to be avoided — ^in a social
sense— even after the doctors had pronounced us safe.

Mrs. Wright and my sister and I spent that entire three
weeks only wishing that we were in our own land where
some friendly voice might at least shout an inquiry about us
from a distance, and not in this far-away place where only
strange and very foreign sounds came floating in to us from
curious and crowded streets whose every nook and comer
we were aching to explore.

Our house was charming. All the "foreign" houses in
Japan seem to me to be charming. The solidity of Occi-

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

dental construction, with the light touch of Japanese interior
decoration, make a fascinating combination, especially in
that environment. The Japanese landscape is — ^well, pe-
culiarly Japanese, and the gardens, however "foreign" they
may be, have an air quite unique and unmistakably oriental.

The Foreign Setdement in Yokohama consists of a broad
business section, solidly built, on the low lands fronting the
harbour, and The Bluff. The Bluff is a garden of beautiful
homes. At one end it rises high above the bay and com-
mands a wide view of harbour, town and Pacific Ocean, while
the other end rims inland to meet the higher hills beyond
and forms a deep valley in which has been built up a teem-
ing native quarter full of colour, of picturesque outline and
of never-ending oriental clamour. Around this village are
terraced, bright-green rice paddies and high hills covered
with dark, Japanese pines which grow at curious angles.

Our house, a spreading bungalow in a large and well-
kept garden, was on the inland side and overlooked this
vdley. From a Buddhist temple on the opposite hill, a
quaint structure with uptilted roof and great stone torii
gateway, came the ceaseless drone of a priest repeating over
and over an endless invocation to the constant, measured
timi-tum accompaniment of little wooden drums, while from
the narrow streets below rose the strange cries of itinerant
food venders. Throughout the whole long evening sounded
the long wail of the blind masseurs who, with their thump-
ing bamboo sticks, tramp from door to door seeking patron-
age. At intervals the single low tong of a great temple bell
set the hills to vibrating.

We rented the house from an Englishman who was "going

home** on vacation, and with it we rented a complete menage^

including a most efficient litde Japanese woman named

Matsu who served us both as waitress and housekeeper and

answered to the call of "Amah !" — ^meaning either nurse or

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

maid. Besides the Amah, there was only a cook, an ex-
cellent one, but the two contrived to run the house with a
smoothness and an economy which I have never seen
equalled. They were so economical, in fact, that we had dif-
ficulty in getting them to serve to us enough of their well-
prepared food. There were six of us in family, not includ-
ing Charlie, or Baby San as he was called, and at each meal
Matsu would bring in just six portions of whatever there
was, six chops, six croquettes, six little fishes, always six —
no more. We resorted to strategy sometimes and an-
nounced, well in advance, that there would be guests.

"How many, O Ku San?" says Matsu cautiously.

**Well, maybe two," says we.

Whereupon we would get eight little chops, or eight little
croquettes, or whatever it might be. But we couldn't play
this game very often because we were afraid that if too
many guests failed to materialise the time would come when
we really would be giving a party and be forced to act out
the '*Wolf ! Wolf !" story to our own very great embarrass-
ment. Tm glad to say this never occurred; Matsu always
obeyed orders ; but when an unexpected guest dropped in we
had to exercise the principle of "family hold back" in real
earnest.

However, while Matsu was in command none of us had
any cause for complaint. She had plenty of native shrewd-
ness and didn't neglect her own interests to any appreciable
extent, but she displayed none of the traditional oriental
duplicity which we had been warned to look out for in all
Japanese servants. She relieved us of all the responsi-
bilities of housekeeping and left us free to wander around
among the fascinating shops and to go off on long sight-
seeing expeditions at our pleasure.

While we were still in the midst of the miseries of quar-
antine I got my first letter from my husband, and as he had

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

sailed away into what to me then was a very far distant and
somewhat unreal world, I was exceedingly glad to hear from
him.

The Hancock had stopped at Kobe and had then gone on
to Nagasaki where it had to lie for two days taking on coal.
The Commissioners seem to have begun by that time to chafe
at delays and to long for their settled, definite employment.
But they had to go to Hongkong on some business matters
and it was from Hongkong that my first long letter came.
They were received by the British authorities with the usual
foraiality; pompous calls to be returned as pompously; din-
ners, luncheons, club privileges, launch parties and much en-
tertaining gossip; but they were interested, principally, in
meeting for the first time the genus Filipino irreconcilable.

The Filipinos, after three centuries of Christian educa-
tion, which had taken the form of religious instruction only,
had, with reason, risen in revolt against the Spanish system
of friar domination and had demanded some measure of
freedom and a voice in the control of their own affairs.
This is a long and complicated story which can only be
touched upon here.

They were engaged in a hopeless struggle with Spanish
authority when the Spanish-American War, unexpected, un-
dreamed of, suddenly tumed the tables and placed them in
an entirely new situation. They saw Spain defeated and
turned from the islands she had held since Magellan's first
voyage, while another flag quickly rose above their ancient
forts and strongholds. Then it was that the handful of am-
bitious "illustrados," or well-to-do and educated ones, began
freely to preach independence and were encouraged by not a
few Americans, including some in official relation to the sit-
uation, who, in complete ignorance of real conditions,
approved the so-called aspiration and gave hope of its early
fulfilment.

The idea of these Americans was that our forefathers had

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

fought for independence and that it was against our most
cherished principles to hold any people against their will.
But they didn't take into consideration the fact that the
Filipinos were Malajrs, not ten per cent, of them with even
a primary education, used only to a theocratic and absolute
government and without any experience in the rule of the
people. Nor did they consider that our forefathers had, for
a century and a half before the revolution, been carrying on
what was really self-government and were better fitted by
training and tradition to make self-government work than
any people in the world. They indulged in sentiment to
the exclusion of thought; and so the situation was created.

The idea of complete independence was never shouted
from the housetops in Spanish times, but the new flag repre-
sented free speech, a free press, and such freedom generally
as the Filipinos had never dreamed of in their wildest aspira-
tions and the "illustrados" and the men who had tasted
power in the insurrection against Spain were not slow to take
advantage of it. An alluring conception of independence,
freedom from all restraint and the enjoyment of luxurious
ease, really, was sent abroad among the densely ignorant
masses by the handful who had education, with the result
that by the time the American government was free really to
face the issue, the demand for our immediate withdrawal
was imanimous, or nearly so.

But it couldn't be done. Aguinaldo tried his hand at a
government for six months and failed miserably. Corrup-
tion was rife. Chaos reigned; the country was impover-
ished and absolutely unprotected; and it didn't take the
Americans long to recognise the fact that "independence"
meant nothing more nor less than the merciless exploitation
of the many by the few and the establishment of worse con-
ditions than any the people had ever known.

So we stayed; there was nothing else to do; and the insur-
rection against constituted authority was taken up where it

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left off when Admiral Dewey steamed up Manila Bay. It
was hopeless from the start, and one after another of the
leading insurrectos^ as the months went by, abandoned the
struggle in favour of prosperous peace and came in to Manila
to take the oath of allegiance to the United States. But as
pacification progressed a few of the leaders declared them-
selves to be "irreconcilable" and either took to the hills with
marauding bands of ladrones^ or went over to Hongkong
and joined the little Filipino colony there. This colony in
Hongkong — which still exists, by the way — was known as
the "junta" and its business in life was to hatch schemes for
murderous uprisings, smuggle arais and incendiary literature
into the islands, raise money for carrying on hostilities and
make itself useful generally.

The methods employed by these "irreconcilables" were
peculiarly their own. They consisted, mainly, of coercion
and threats of assassination among Filipino people who were
staying at home and endeavouring to keep out of trouble.
Then, too, they were reported to have made a great deal of
money by compelling Filipino hemp and tobacco planters to
sell to them these valuable products at prices fixed by them-
selves, and later disposing of them in Hongkong at the reg-
ular market price which gave them a tremendous margin of
profit.

These were the conditions — merely sketched — ^which ex-
isted in the Philippine Islands when the second Commission
was sent out, and the first Filpinos Mr. Taf t ever met, he
met in Hongkong. They were not members of the "junta"
but were high-class, wealthy, non-combatant refugees named
Cortez, who lived under a threat of assassination, who had
had all their property confiscated because of their sympathy
with the insurrection against Spain, had secured restitution
through the government at Washington, and who came now

to beg the Commission for protection against their own

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

people and for the speedy establishment of peaceful Amer-
ican rule m the islands.

Then came Artacho. Artacho had been Aguinaldo's rival
in the insurrection against Spain and he very much resented
the selection, by the Americans in command, of Aguinaldo
as the leader of the Filipino forces when Dewey went into
Manila. He was sufficiently annoyed to leave the country
and take refuge in Hongkong. He professed entire igno-
rance of the activities of the "jimta" and unqualified loyalty
to the government of the United States, but, as he had with
him a "secretary** who very carefully listened to all he had
to say, and as he seemed to be very cautious in all his expres-
sions, Mr. Taf t decided that he was being watched and was,
if not actively connected with the "junta," at least "on the
fence" and in his call only "casting an anchor to windward"
in case the Americans should succeed in pacifying the Islands
and establishing a govenunent there with which it would be
very nice indeed to be connected. It must have been a very
diplomatic, a very soft-spoken and a most amusing meeting.

Among other things the Commission had to do in Hong-
kong was to secure Chinese servants. They had been told
that this was absolutely necessary because the unsettled state
of affairs in Manila made Filipino servants entirely imde-
pendable.

Captain McCalla, of the Newark^ had given to my hus-
band in Yokohama, a letter to one L. Charles, a Chinese who
ran a sort of employment agency in Hongkong, but when L.
Charles came out to the Hancock^ in response to a message
. from Mr. Taft, he brought with him the surprising news
that the servants had already arrived from Shanghai and
had been waiting for several days. Mr. Taft was greatly
astonished, as he was unconscious of having made any ar-
rangements at all, but L. Charles smilingly explained to him
that Admiral Dewey had attended to it. Then Mr. Taft

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

remembered that, sure enough. Admiral Dewey had, several
months before in Washington, offered to secure servants
through his own Chinaman, Ah Man, but he, himself, had
forgotten all about it.

However, he sent for the men and when they came aboard
one of them proudly produced a note from the flag officer
of the Brooklyn^ enclosing a note to Ah Sing, the steward of
the Brooklyn^ from Ah Man, Admiral Dewey's servant. It
read:

My dear Ah Sing:

It is a new Grovernor General coming up to Manila City. His
name is Mr. Wm. H. Taft and he is going to sail from here first of
April. The Admiral asked me to write to you and ask if you please
find him some good Chinese servants for Mr. Taft. He like to
have a very good cook just like myself the Admiral said and two
men to wait on table a butler and second man just like you. Now
would you be so kind as to try to find some very nice people that
will take good care and will understand their business. The Ad-
miral will be very much oblige to you I am

Your truly friend.

Ah Man.

This is an example of what is known in the East as "flen-
pidgin," which may be literally translated as "friend-work."
It is a Chinese system, but it has been adopted by the repre-
sentatives of every country in the world to be met out there
and it is by no means the least of the elements which enter
into the charm of the Orient.

One of the objects for stopping in Japan was to enable
the Commissioners to get white duck and linen clothes for
the tropics and Mr. Taft had the worst of luck in getting
anything to fit him. In the beginning we had some rather
heated discussions as to the style of dress that he should
adopt. He had been assured that the most comfortably
dressed men were those who wore "straight button ups" as
they are called. These are coats which have a high, round

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

collar and button straight down from the chin — ^plain mil-
itary jackets, in facL They are worn without shirts, col-
lars, ties or anything except underwear and trousers and are,
no doubt, very nice for the tropic heat But I did not con-
sider that such a severe style would bring out the lines of my
husband's figure to the best advantage, so I prevailed upon
him to have all his clothes made with sack coats which should
be worn with the usual accessories. It was a sad experi-
ence in Yokohama, but he left for Hongkong full of hope,
having been told that the tailors there were much better.
He wrote in utter disgust. The tailors were not good;
he had been to every shop in town looking for wearing
apparel of all kinds and could find nothing large enough for
him. He said he had imagined that Englishmen were, as a
rule, large enough to demand men's sizes, — ^but evidently
not. He had to have everything, shoes, stockings, under-
wear, shirts, collars and hats made to order — and then they
didn't fit.

My husband's letter, full of strange names, of assassina-
tion, of smuggled arms, of dark intrigue and unrest gen-
erally, left a vague impression in my mind that he was going
into a country where he would be subjected to murderous
attacks every few minutes. Then I reflected that he
was not quite alone; that General MacArthur and about
seventy thousand American troops were down there too, and
that they could probably be depended upon to do everything
in their power to protect him.

Our life in Yokohama was very placid. It was some time
after our yellow placards were removed before our neigh-
bours began to call on us, and we didn't blame them. No
doubt they felt that it would be foolish to risk getting diph-
theria just for the sake of being formally polite. We were
delightfully entertained, both before and after the Commis-
sion sailed, by Mr. and Mrs. T. Williams Mclvor, who are
among the old American residents of Yokohama. Mr.

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Mclvor had been American Consul General, but when we
met him he was engaged in a private law practice, repre-
senting the American Tobacco Company and other large
foreign concems. As Consul General he had taken care of
the Qiinese during the Japan-China War and had sent about
eight thousand of them out of the country. He was now
representing the foreign business community in its dispute
with the Japanese government as to whether or not the prop-
erty known as the Foreign Concession, or The Settlement,
was taxable. This area had been granted by the Japanese
government on perpetual lease at the time die first treaties
with Japan were made, and the holding of it by foreigners
was conditioned on the payment of a ground rent to the gov-
ernment which, it was provided, should never be increased
beyond a certain amount. But now Japan was greatly in
need of money, was taxing its own people in every way pos-
sible, and eventually decided to levy a tax on the houses and
improvements upon this land, on the theory that improve-
ments on land are not a part of the land itself. But by the
Civil Law and the Common Law the provision in the treaties
that no tax should be paid on the property greater than that
fixed in ground rent would have prevented the levying of
any tax on the buildings because, by such laws, improve-
ments are considered to be a part of the land. But in Jap-
anese law it was said they were not so regarded and the ques-
tion was whether the treaties were to be construed accord-
ing to Japanese law or according to the laws of foreign gov-
ernments. The subject was one of endless discussion while
we were there, and Minister Buck had already referred the
question to the State Department at Washington.

We also dined with Mrs. Scidmore, whom I was to meet
many times in after years. Mrs. Scidmore is the mother of
Eliza Ramaha Scidmore, the well known writer about Far
Eastem countries, and is, I suppose, the most notable foreign
figure in the Orient. She had lived in Japan since the early

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

days, not so long after the country's doors were opened to
the world. Her son was in the Legation service when I met
her and she had a charming house on the Bund, in which was
gathered a remarkable collection of Japanese curios and
objects of art. Mrs. Scidmore was then nearly eighty years
of age I think, but she was as bright and young as a
woman of fifty. The last time I saw her she was nearly
ninety and she entertained us at luncheon in Nagasaki, where
her son was American Consul. She dresses with as much
care and is as interested in fashions and fabrics as any girl,
and it is a rare pleasure to see her, with her snowy hair piled
up on her head and a white silk gown spread out about her,
sitting in the centre of a group of people discussing, with
great animation and entire comprehension, general topics of
current interest. She afterward went to "keep house" for
her son in Seoul, Korea, where he became Consul General,
and she continues to be a sort of uncrowned queen of foreign
society.

Leaving our children at the bungalow with their nurses,
Mrs. Wright, Maria and I went about, to Nikko, to Kama-
kura, to Kyoto and other interesting places, and we spent
the intervals, indeed all our time, in restraining our intense
desire to purchase everything we saw in the extraordinarily
attractive little shops.

About the last of July, when the heat began to be rather
more than we could stand, we left Yokohama and went up
into the Hakone Mountains to Miyanoshita. The trip to
Miyanoshita includes a two hours* climb in ^rickshas up a
steep incline from a village on the railway, where there was
then no sort of accommodation for "Europeans," — only
Japanese inns which, though they may have been excellent
from a Japanese standpoint, did not seem to us to have been
built for inn purposes. When we got out of the train it was
seven o'clock in the evening. There were Mrs. Wright and
her maid, her daughter Katrina, my sister Maria, the three

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

children, Bessie the nurse, and I. We wanted din-
ner above all things else and we decided to get it. It all
had to be prepared "European style" at one of the little
inns, so by the time it was served and disposed of the
night was upon us, and, I may say, the blackest night I
ever remember seeing. We debated at length the
possibility of taking the two hours' 'ricksha ride in such
darkness, but the chattering coolies, mainly by gesture and
facial expression, succeeded in convincing us that it was
the most desirable thing in the world to do. Incidentally,
and aside from our objection to the bedless inns, we were
most anxious to reach our joumey's end. So — we set out,
in eight 'rickshas, six for us and two piled high with hand
luggage. I put Helen and Robert together in one and took
Charlie in with me, and each of us had an extra man behind
to push, also two men each for the baggage 'rickshas, which
made sixteen men in all. We made quite a cavalcade and
I felt fairly satisfied, not to say mildly festive, until we got
away from the lights of the town and discovered, to our
amazement, that for some reason or other, the 'ricksha men
had failed to bring lights. I believe the idea was that they
could keep the road better without them. We went along
for a short distance in the Stygian darkness, then Maria de-
cided that she wouldn't have it. Whatever we might do,
she was going back for a lantern. We were not in an argu-
mentative mood, so we let her go without a word, while we
plunged on.

By that time the wind was tearing down through what
seemed to be a very deep, and what certainly was a very
dark, canyon, and it was raining steadily. My coolies
lagged behind and the first thing I knew I found mjrself
entirely alone. The others had gone so far ahead that I
couldn't even hear the sound of their 'ricksha wheels, though
the 'ricksha of those days was a very noisy little vehicle. I

had been nearly two months in Japan, had had plenty of

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

.experience with 'ricksha coolies and I knew them to be the
most inoffensive little men in the worid, but the darkness
and the wind-driven rain and the discomfort generally, must
have got on my nerves because I began to be perfectly sure
^that my two men were nothing less than brigands and that
the separation from my party was a prearranged plan for
murder and robbery. I didn't know how wide the road was,
but I knew that on one side there was a very deep chasm
because I could hear the roar of a moimtain torrent far down
and directly below me. Then the coolies chattered and
grunted incessantly, as Japanese coolies always do, and I
was convinced that they were arguing about which should
take the initiative in violence. But I sat tight and said
nothing, which was the only thing I could do, of course —
except to soothe Charlie who was crying with discomfort and
fright — and after awhile — ages it seemed to me — I came
upon the rest of my party where they had halted in the road
to give their men a breathing spell. I couldn't see them ; I
couldn't even make out the outlines of a 'ricksha, but I could
hear Helen sobbing and stammering something about having
lost her mother for good and all.

The coolies were chattering at each other at a terrific rate
and I judged, from their tones, that they liked the night
no better than we. While we were standing close together
in the road, all talking at once and trying to tell each other
what horrible experiences we had had, we saw a faint
glimmer away in the distance, growing more and more
distinct as it came up the long hill. It was the dauntless
Maria with a light. We fell upon her with the warmest
welcome she probably ever received in her life, and every-
body at once cheered up. Even the coolies got happier and
seemed to chatter less angrily in the lantern's dim but com-
forting yellow glow. Nor did we separate again. Every-
body wanted to keep close to that light. It revealed to us
the reassuring fact that the road was, at least, wide enough

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

for safety, and so we rolled soggily along, with no other
sound but the rattle of many wheels and the splash of mud,
until we arrived at the Fujiya Hotel, sometime after ten
o'clock, in a state of utter exhaustion.

I am not going to describe Miyanoshita because it has been
very well done by scores of writers, but I will say that the
Fujiya Hotel, away up in the mountains, at the head of a
glorious canyon, is one of the most splendidly situated, finely
managed and wholly delightful places I ever saw.

And there are plenty of things to do. We were carried
in chairs over a high mountain pass to Lake Hakone, which,
still and bri^t as a plate-glass mirror, lies ri^t at the base
of Fujiyama and reflects that startlingly beautiful mountain
in perfect colour and form.

Then there are temples and wayside shrines, and tea-
houses— tea-houses ever3rwhere. We were coming back from
a tramp one day and stopped at a tea-house not far from our
hotel where we encountered an Englishwoman who gave us
our first conception of what the terrible Boxer Insurrec-
tion was like. She entered into talk with us at once and told
us a most tragic story. She was a missionary from the in-
terior of China and had been forced to flee before the Boxers
and make her way out of the country in hourly peril and
through scenes of the utmost horror. Her husband had
elected to remain at his post and she didn't then know but
that he might already have died under the worst imaginable
torture. She made our blood run cold and we were tre-
mendously sorry for her, though she did tell her harrowing
story calmly enough. It seems she had with her a young
Chinese refugee who was a convert to Christianity and, be-
cause of that fact, in even more danger in China than she.

We expressed our sympathy and good wishes and con-
tinued on our way. But we hadn't gone far when we heard
a frantic shouting behind us :

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

'"Have you seen my Chinaman! Have you seen my
Chinaman anywhere on the way !''

It was the missionary, distracted and running violently
after us; and, we had not seen her Chinaman. She rushed
past and up into the woods faster than cxie would have
thought she could run, and all the time she kept calling,
"Joseph! Joseph!" at the top of her voice. We decided
that Joseph was the Chinaman's new Christian name since we
had heard that they all get Biblical names at baptism. We
hastened along, thinking she might have gone suddenly mad
and we wondered what in the world we should do. But as
we came around a bend in the road we saw her coming
toward us with a grinning little queued heathen marching
meekly before her. She was looking very much relieved and
stopped to explain her rather extraordinary conducL

"I was perfectly certain that boy had committed suicide,"
she began.

"Why, what made you think that?" I asked.

*Well, he wrote that, and I found it!" And she thrust
into my hand a piece of paper on which was scrawled in
printed characters :

Just as I am, without one pkk.
Save that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bid'st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

She explained that Joseph had had a great deal of trouble ;
was away from his people; that Chinamen didn't care any-
thing about their lives anyhow ; and that she had been afraid
for some time that he would grow despondent and do some-
thing desperate.

But there stood Joseph, broadly smiling and looking for all
the world like an oriental cherub who would have liked very
much to know what all the commotion was about. Poor

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

chap, he didn't understand a word of English and had been
merely trying to learn the words of an English hymn by
copying them, in carefully imitated letters, on bits of paper.

In the meantime my husband had arrived in Manila and
had already sent me several letters through which I came
gradually to know something of the situation he was facing.

The principal impression I received was that between the
Commission and the military government, in the person of
General Arthur MacArthur, there did not exist that har-
mony and agreement which was considered to be essential to
the amicable adjustment of Philippine aflFairs, In other
words, General MacArthur seemed to resent the advent of
the Commission and to be determined to place himself in
opposition to every step which was taken by them or con-
templated. It was not very easy for the Commissioners,
but as far as I can see now, after a careful reading of all
the records, they exercised the most rigid diplomacy at times
when it would have been only human to have risen up and
exercised whatever may be diplomacy's antithesis.

The description of the arrival of the Commission made
me rather wish I had accompanied them; — except for the
heat. It was June and my husband said the sim beat down
upon and came right through the heavy canvas awnings on
the decks of the Hancock. The men had, by this time, be-
come accustomed to their ill-fitting white linens, but they
had not yet mastered the art of keeping them from looking
messy, and they must have been a wilted company during
their first few days in Manila.

They came up into the harbour on Sunday and during the
course of the day received many interesting visitors. Gen-
eral MacArthur was not among them, but he sent a member
of his staff. Colonel Crowder, to present his compliments and
make arrangements for the going ashore ceremony the next
day. Then came the Americanistas^ as the Filipinos who

sympathised with American control were called. These had

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

been recognised by General Otis before General MacArthur
had arrived and many of them have always been promi-
nently associated with the American government in the
Islands. Among others were Chief Justice Arellano, Mr.
Benito Legarda and Mr. Pardo de Tavera. The Commis-
sioners talked about the situation with these gentlemen,
through Mr. Arthur Fergusson, the Spanish Secretary of the
Commission, and found them not altogether despondent, but
certainly not optimistic about the outcome. They thought
the Commissioners were facing very grave problems indeed,
if not insurmountable difficulties.

The next day — "just when the sim got the hottest," wrote
Mr. Taft — all the launches in the harbour gathered around
the Hancock^ many whistles blew, many flags and pennants
fluttered, and the Commission was escorted to the shore.
They entered the city with great pomp and circumstance,
through files of artillerymen reaching all the way from the
landing at the mouth of the Pasig River, up a long drive-
way, across a wide moat, through an old gateway in the city
wall and up to the Palace of the Ayuntamiento where Gen-
eral MacArthur, the Military Govemor, had his offices.
But it was not a joyous welcome for all thaL All the show
was merely perfunctory; a sort of system that had to be
observed. Their reception was so cool that Mr. Taft said
he almost stopped perspiring. There weje few Filipinos to
be seen, and as Greneral MacArthur's reception to the Com-
mission was anything but cordial or enthusiastic they began
to feel a discomforting sense of being decidedly n9t wanted.

If they had any doubts on this point General MacArthur

soon cleared them up. He frankly assured them that he

regarded nothing that had ever happened in his whole career

as casting so much reflection on his position and his ability

as their appointment under the direction of the President.

They suggested that he could still rejoice in considerable

honour and prestige as a man at the head of a division of

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

more troops than any general had commanded since the
Civil War and that he was, moreover, still enjoying the
great power of Chief Executive of the Islands.

"Yes," said he, "that would be all right if I hadn't been
exercising so much more power than that before you came."

Whereupon Mr. Taft gently reminded him that he had
been exercising that power for about three weeks only and
said he hoped he had not become, in that time, so habituated
to the situation as to prevent his appreciating the rather
exalted position in which he would still be left. They
afterward exchanged some correspondence as to what powers
each did have, but they seemed to have disagreed from the
first.

Greneral MacArthur succeeded Greneral Otis in command
of the United States Army in the Philippines and he had
fallen heir to a policy with which he was entirely out of
sympathy. General Otis had scattered the troops in small
divisions and detachments all over the Islands, and Greneral
MacArthur found himself in command of about seventy
thousand men, but with only a few regiments where he could
lay his hands on them for action in his own immediate vicin-
ity. He believed that the only way to get rid of the preda-
tory bands and bring order out of a chaotic state, was to
concentrate the army on the island of Luzon where most
of the active insurrectos operated. And he thought it would
be many years before the Filipinos would be ready for any-
thing but the strictest military government. But the trouble
was that thousands of Filipinos all over the Islands had
already swom fealty to the United States, or had gone
quietly back to work, and it was known that the lives of
many of these would not be worth a moment's purchase if
the protection of the American troops was withdrawn from
them. That was the situation.

The last engagement between real insurgents and Ameri-
can troops had taken place in February before the Commis-

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

sion arrived. There had been men of some ability and real
patriotism in Aguinaldo's cabinet and among his followers
at Malolos, but by this time the best of them had come in
and taken the oath of allegiance to the United States, others
were in prison slowly making up their minds as to whether
they would or would not follow this course, while still others
had gone over to Hongkong to join in the activities of the
'"junta." Aguinaldo was still roaming around the mountain
fastnesses of Luzon, posing as a dictator and issuing regular
instructions to his lieutenants for the annihilation of Ameri-
can regiments; but the insurrection had degenerated.

The companies of men who still kept the field did so, for
the most part, because they found that the easiest way to
make a living. Money was getting scarce and the people
were steadily refusing to contribute to the cause. A letter
from one of Aguinaldo's lieutenants was intercepted in
which he said that he had found a certain town obdurate and
that he thought it would be necessary to take four or five
lives before the people could be induced to give money.
Murder and rapine, torture and robbery; these were the
methods employed, and very little of the money realised
ever found its way into the general revolutionary coffers.
Most of the remaining "patriots" had become ladrones and
were harrying their own people much more than they were
opposing the American forces.

These conditions led the Commission to think the time had
come to organise a native constabulary, under American
officers, with which thoroughly to police the Islands. But
General MacArthur did not agree with them; thought it
would be folly to trust any Filipino with arms and cited
instances of where those who had been armed as scouts had
proved entirely untrustworthy. But the suggestion was
received by many of his own officers with the utmost ap-
proval and one man, in the Ilocos country in northern Luzon,
said he had only to issue a call and he could have five thou-

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

sand as loyal men as ever wore uniform enlisted in twenty-
four hours. I may say here that the Filipino people are
divided into a number of distinct tribes and that some of
these never did take much, if any, part in the insurrection*
The insurrection is to-day referred to as the Tagalog rebel-
lion, the Tagalogs being one of the principal tribes, though
not the largest.

There had always been a great number, a majority in fact,
of Filipinos who did not like the awful conditions created
by the insurrection and who easily could be persuaded to an
attitude of loyalty toward any decent and peaceful gov-
ernment; and it was from this number that the Commission
wanted to recruit a native constabulary. But no. The
Commission would not begin to exercise such powers as it
had until September and in the meantime General Mac-
Arthur was absolute and in answer to this proposition he
merely reiterated his belief that the only way to meet the
situation was with additional American troops.

In my husband's earliest letters he characterised the
Filipino people much as he did after years of experience
with them. He wrote me that of the six or seven millions
of Christian Filipinos about two per cent, were fairly well
educated, while all the rest were ignorant, quiet, polite
people, ordinarily inoffensive and light-hearted, of an artistic
temperament, easily subject to immoral influences, quite
superstitious and inclined, under the direction of others, to
great cruelty. He thought them quite capable of becOTCi-
ing educated and that they could be trained to self-govem-
ment. He was inclined to think that they had, because of
their environment and experience under Spanish rule, capac-
ity for duplicity, but he did not think they had the Machia-
vellian natures which people attributed to them. Some of
those who call themselves 'Hllustrados'^ — ^the higher class-
took to political intrigue with great gusto.

Almost the first experience which the Commission had

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

with Filipino Machiavellian methods involved them in a
complication which might have proved quite serious. If
there is one thing in the world that the Filipino people, as
<Mie man, love, it is a fiesta. A fiesta is a holiday, a celebra-
tion with music, marching, many flags, best clothes and
plenty of high-flown speechmaking. Now there was one
Pedro A, Patemo, an unctuous gentleman, who, while he
had taken the oath of allegiance and had fairly put himself
in the pocket of American authority, was still supposed to
be more or less in sympathy with Aguinaldo. ' He made
himself the mediator between Greneral MacArthur and
Aguinaldo and occasionally promised x\guinaldo's surrender.
Nobody ever knew what he promised ^uinaldo, but it was
known to a certainty that he was "carrying water on both
shoulders'* and doing his best to keep in well with both sides.
He had played the same role in Spanish times. He made
what is known in history as "The Peace of Biacnabato,'*
between the insurrectos and the Spanish government, by the
simple means of "interpreting" to each the demands of the
other in perfectly satisfactory terms. He did all the trans-
lating, on both sides, himself and the "Peace" was signed.
Then before its irregularities were made clear he asked of the
Spanish government, as his reward, a dukedom and a mil-
lion dollars upon which to live up to the title. His letter to
the Spanish govemor is still extant.

This gentleman one day, out of a clear sky, proposed what
he called an Amnesty Fiesta ; a grand banquet in honour of
General MacArthur to follow a day of celebration and all-
round relaxation from the strain of hostilities. Greneral
MacArthur didn't see that it would do any harm, but said he
would not attend the banquet in his honour and that all the
speeches that were- to be made would have to be carefully
censored. To this Pedro readily agreed and went imme-
diately to work to make elaborate preparations for the occa-
sion. He got a committee together and sent them to wait

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

on the Commission with an invitation to the banquet. Only-
three of the Commissioners were in town, but these, after
making careful inquiry as to the nature of the entertainment
and discovering that no incendiary speech-making was to be
allowed, decided to accept the invitation. Patemo was in
high feather and nothing but the fiesta and the banquete
was talked about for days. But gradually information
began to reach the ears of Mr. Taft that all was not as it
should be. He learned that arches were being erected
across certain streets bearing inscriptions that were insulting
to the American flag. One arch, in front of Malacaiian
Palace, where General MacArthur lived, had a picture of
President McKinley on one side and a picture of Aguinaldo
on the other, and it was said that General MacArthur had
ridden imder this arch without noticing it. That would be
taken for sanction by an ignorant Filipino. But as soon as
notice was called to them all the objectionable features of
the arches were removed and preparations went on. But
rumours kept coming in about the speeches until Mr. Taft
became curious. He went to General MacArthur and asked
who was doing the censoring.

'Why, Pedro Patemo," said the Greneral; as much as to
say, 'What more could you aski"

Mr. Taft went back to the office and straightway set about
to get copies of those speeches. And, he got them. Some
of them were already in type at a local newspaper office and
were to be printed in full the next morning. This was the
day of the fiesta and it was proving a very quiet aflFair.
There was little enthusiasm on the streets, but there was
plenty of interest in the coming banquete. The Commis-
sioners looked over all the speeches and found them, without
exception, seditious in the extreme. So, of course, they could
not go to the banquet. They could not sit by and listen to
misrepresentations without getting up immediately and mak-
ing vigorous denial and protest and they could not lend the

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

sanction of their presence to an entertainment that had been
so arranged. The banquete was in General MacArthur's
honour and the speeches glowingly promised everything
short of immediate evacuation and complete independence.

The Commissioners wrote a polite little note to Senor
Patemo and said they were very sorry to find that it was not
possible, under the circumstances, for them to be present that
evening.

Mr. Taft and Greneral Wrighf were living together in the
house that my husband had secured for us, and they went
home and had a comfortable dinner in their everyday white
linens and were enjoying post-prandial talk on the cool
verandah when Pedro Patemo came rushing in and, figura-
tively, threw himself on his knees before them. He begged
them to come with him to the banquete; the crowd had as-
sembled; it was past nine o'clock; and he would be placed
in a terrible situation if the gentlemen of the Commission
did not reconsider their cruel decision. The gentlemen of
the Commission asked how about the carefully censored
speeches. Patemo vowed that no speeches at all should be
delivered, that no word of any kind should be said, but that
they must show themselves to the people, if only for a little
while. All right. They quickly got iuto their hot evening
clothes and went down to the banquet hall. They sat
through a couple of silent, weary hours, took a few sips of
wine, smiled a few smiles, shook a few hands, and then went
home. That was all there was to it. But Pedro was dis-
credited in both camps. His purpose had been to have the
speeches made before the Commissioners, claim all the credit
with his own people for getting the Commissioners there and
then to deny to the Commissioners all responsibility for the
occasion.

The forms of military government were being strictly
observed; there was a nine o'clock curfew and nobody was
allowed on the street after that hour without a pass. Mr.

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Taf t wrote of several trying experiences when he went out in
the evening and forgot his pass and, starting home about
half past ten, was held up by one sentry after another who
demanded an explanation at the point of a gun.

Mr. Bryan was nmning for President at this time and
he was making a good deal of political capital out of the
Philippine situation. He had promised to call a special
session of Congress, if he were elected, to consider means
for settling the Filipinos in immediate self-government,
and he had a large following of mistakenly altruistic anti-
imperialists supporting him. Mr. Taft was inclined to
think that the whole anti-American demonstration, which
was to culminate in the Amnesty Fiesta banquet, was
planned by a Mr. Pratt, an American politician then visit-
ing Manila, who wanted the "grandly patriotic" speeches
to publish in American newspapers. They probably would
have been perfect material for the anti-imperialists to grow
sentimental over.

In the meantime Mr. Bryan's promises and the possi-
bility of his being placed in a position to redeem them, were
retarding pacification. All that was needed to discourage
the last of the insurrectos was Mr. McKinley's election,
and the Presidential campaign of 1900 was probably not
watched anywhere with more breathless interest than it
was in the Philippine Islands.

Such were the lessons in letters that I got from my hus-
band, and my imagination was fired. He had great pro-
jects in hand. The Commission proposed to establish
mimicipal governments wherever conditions made it pos-
sible and among the first things they undertook was the
framing of a municipal code upon which to base such gov-
ernments. They sent this to General MacArthur for his
comments, but his comments consisted in a rather pointed
intimation that military rule was still in force and that

he thought they were several years ahead of possibilities,

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but that they might go on and amuse themselves since their
municipal code would not deter him in any action he found
it necessary to take at any point where it was in operation.
AH this was couched in most excellent diplomatic language,
of course, but it amounted to just that. An equally dip-
lomatic reply seems to have brought the Greneral to a reali-
sation that the powers of the Commission were well de-
fined, that their object was peaceful pacification wher-
ever it was possible and that they would probably be sup-
ported by Washington in any reasonable measures they might
take to that end.

They had many plans already; a big general school sys-
tem for the organisation of which they had engaged a
superintendent from Massachusetts; good roads to open up
the country for commerce; harbour improvements; health
measures; a reliable judiciary; a mountain resort where
American soldiers and civilians might recuperate from tropic
disease, thereby saving many lives to say nothing of mil-
lions of dollars to the government in troop transportation
charges; and they were already attacking the vexed friar
question that had caused all the trouble in the first place.

The letters made me anxious to finish my visit in Japan
and get down to Manila where so much of vital and en-
grossing interest was going on. My husband wrote rather
discouragingly about the house he had taken, but he was
having some improvements made and, though I did not
expect to find comfort, I was sure I should manage to get
along. I had purchased in Japan a number of bright and
artistic objects in the way of house decorations and I
thought that, with these, I should be able to make almost
any place look inviting.

The Boxer rebellion was troubling us more than any-
thing else at the moment. We wanted very much to go to
Shanghai, but were told that it would be absolutely unsafe
for us to go anywhere in China except to Hongkong.

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

I didn't know much about the East at that time and was
ready to believe anything that was told me. However,
I remembered that there were thousands of foreign resi-
dents in Shanghai who were going on about their daily
affairs much as if there were no such thing as a Boxer. So
we, too, decided to go on our usual tranquil way and we
set sail for Manila, via Shanghai and Hongkong, on the
Japanese steamer, Kasuga Maru^ on the tenth day of August.

MRS. TAFT IN' FORMAL FILIPINA COSTCME

CHAPTER V

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF MANILA

The Gilna Sea has an evil reputation. On its shores one
hears much about the typhoon season and the changing mon-
soons, and bad sailors would, no doubt, like to have their
sailing dates determined by the Weather Bureau; but this
is not always possible.

The Kasuga Maru^ on which we made the voyage from
Yokohama to Manila, lay in Hongkong Harbour while
one of the great mid-August storms tore up from the south
and set skippers and seamen agog with fears of dreadful
conditions we would have to meet on the trip across to
Manila. In the China Sea there are cross-currents which
make for bad going at the best of times, and when they
are piled up by a typhoon into great, warring waves the
result is likely to be extraordinary.

My husband cabled me to take a larger vessel, a United
States army transport which left Hongkong about the same
time we did, but I was comfortably located with my fam-
ily on the little Kasuga Maru; the transfer of baggage was
a troublesome task; and I figured that as long as the Kasuga
Maru had been afloat in south seas for a good many years,
she might be trusted to keep afloat for a few days longer.

We caught the calm between two storms. The sea had
been beaten down by torrential rains; and while great,
smooth waves rose under us and sent us rolling in a sick-
ening zigzag all the way across, there was in them no threat
of destruction, and I really began to feel that the China
Sea had been maligned.

A feeling of intense curiosity got me out of my state-
room bright and early on the moming of our arrival in
Manila.

To the northward lay a stretch of unbroken, moimtain-

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

ous shoreline; while we were headed for a narrow channel
guarded by rock islands against which the surf broke in
clouds of spray.

"Corregidor," S2ud the skipper, pointing to a high, green
hill behind the rocks. Corregidor, — ^it was the first time I
had ever heard the name which since has become synonym-
ous, in so many minds, with Gibraltar. On the other side of
the entrance to Manila Bay stood Meriveles, a beautiful
mountain, sloping gently back from the sea and up into
soft, white clouds. But Manila, — ^where was Manila?
Cavite, — ^where was Cavite? And where did the Spanish
ships lie, when Dewey sailed in past Corregidor not knowing
what he would find? Questions, these, which everybody
asked in those da3rs. Manila was twenty miles ahead at
the far end of the Bay, while Cavite, across on the south
shore, in the nearer distance, lay flat and almost invisible
under low-spreading trees.

Flat; that is the word which occurs to everybody who
sails for the first time into Manila Bay. The city is built
on the low-lands; low, as I afterward leamed, to the point
of being below sea-level in certain places, and subject to
sudden floods in the big typhoons. But far behind the flats
are towering ranges of blue and purple hills, with here and
there a softly rounded mountain standing, seemingly, alone.

The hot sim beat down on the glassy surface of the Bay
and sent back a blinding glare which brought an ache into
eyes and nerves, but we were all too interested to seek shel-
ter in the darkened cabin.

While our ship was still miles from shore we could see

long lines of low, red roofs and the white gleam of many

domes and spires; and off to the right we had pointed out

to us the eloquent wrecks of some of the Spanish fleet whose

masts and battered hulks rose high out of the shallow water

in which they were simk.

But for ourselves, for me, for Mrs. Wright, for Maria

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

and the children, the most important thing in sight was a
little fleet of harbour launches which came hurrying down
the Bay to meet us. I saw my husband and General
Wright standing in the bow of one of these long before
they could pick us out in the crowd of passengers lining the
rails of the Kasuga Maru.

Then came the happy welcomings which make absences
worth while; excited children; everybody talking at once;
explanations begun and never finished; interruptions by
cust(xns officials — American soldiers in those days; com-
ments on the heat and the bright white light, and laughing
assurances that it wasn't hot at all and that the climate was
perfect; transferring baggage to the launch; glimpsing, oc-
casionally, strange scenes and strange peoples; asking and
answering a thousand questions ; busy, bustling, delightfully
confusing hours of landing in the farthest orient.

Our husbands tumed themselves into willing "Baede-
kers" and instructed us on the way. We steamed up in
our little launch to the mouth of the Pasig River, wide and
deep and swift, and covered with what looked to me like
millions of small, green cabbages.

"Carabao lettuce; the river*s full of it," explained Mr.
Taft, but I was much too occupied just then to stop and ask
what "carabao lettuce" might be.

We came up past a bristling fort at the comer of a great,
grey, many-bastioned and mediaeval wall which stretched
as far as I could see down the bay shore on one side and up
the river on the other*

"The Old Walled City," said General Wright, and I
knew at once that I should love the old Walled City.

"The oldest parts of the walls were built in the sev-
enteenth century," continued our animated guide-book, "and
the fort on the comer is Santiago. The big dome is the
Cathedral and all the red tile roofs are convents and mon-
asteries. The twentieth century hasn't reached here yet.

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

To all intents and purposes the Walled City is still in the
Middle Ages." The truth is that only part of the walls are
really very old — ^some parts have been built within seventy
years.

The river was full of strange craft; long, high-prowed,
cumbersome looking boats, with rounded deck-houses roofed
with straw matting and painted in every conceivable colour
and pattern, which, we were told, were cascoes — cargo
boats which ply the length of the Pasig and bring down the
cocoanuts and sugar-cane and other products from the mid-
dle provinces. The only visible propelling power on these
cascoes — and the only power they have — are natives,
naked to the waist, armed with long bamboo poles upon
which, having fixed them firmly in the mud at the bottom
of the river, they push steadily as they walk the length
of the narrow running board along the outer edge of the
deck. I should say they might make a mile in about two
hours.

Then there were the curious little hancas; narrow canoes,
hewn out of single logs and kept on an even keel, usually,
by graceful outriggers of bamboo.

Across the river from the Walled City is the Custom
House, and there, in a few moments, we drew up at a
slippery, low, stone landing and climbed ashore. My feet,
at last, were on Philippine soil.

If I had, for the time being, forgotten that a war was
going on I was immediately reminded of it. The Custom
House was in the hands of the Military Government and it
was surrounded by khaki-clad guards who all stood stiffly
at attention as my husband and Generel Wright passed.
All our necessary luggage had been released and put into
the hands of orderlies to be delivered, so we were free to
start at once for home.

My husband had written me that the Philippine horses
and the Philippine cockroaches were just about the same

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

size, but I was hardly prepared for the diminutive turnout
to which he proudly escorted me. Two little brown ponies,
no higher than my shoulder, and with very shaggy manes
and foretops, were hitched to a Victoria which had been
built to fit them. When I stepped in and sat down, with
Charlie on my lap, I felt twice my natural size and it
seemed inipossible to me that there was still ample room for
Mr. Taft.

On the box were two stolid little men, dignified by the
titles of coachman and footman. They each wore white
linen trousers and thin shirts which hung outside, making
them look as if they had forgotten a most important act in
the process of dressing. Their bare feet were thrust into
heelless red carpet-slippers, while on their heads were wide,
flopping, shapeless straw hats which they did not trouble to
take off at our approach.

The streets were full of such conveyances as ours, and
others of varieties even more astonishing. Maria, with
Robert and Helen, followed in a quilez — a miniature, one-
horse omnibus affair into which the passengers climbed from
the rear. Then there were calesasy caromatas^ carretelas
and carabao carts.

The carabao carts interested me particularly, and there
seemed to be more of them than of anything else. The
cart itself was nothing, — ^just a few planks nailed together
and balanced upon a pair of heavy, broad, wooden wheels,
— ^but the beast attached to it was really extraordinary.
The first carabao I saw had horns at least six feet across.
Indeed, they all have very long homs, and how they keep
from obstructing traffic in the narrow streets I never did
understand. They do obstruct traffic, as matter of fact,
but not with their horns; only with their slow motions.
Nobody can possibly know just what the word slow signi-
fies until he has seen a carabao move. Great, grey, thick-
skinned, hairless beast; his hide is always caked with mud,

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

and he chews and walks at exactly the same pace while the
half-naked, sleepy driver on the cart behind him gives an
occasional jerk on the thin rope attached to the ring in his
nose.

It was sometime before I came to know calesas^ carotnatas
and carretelas apart, though their only likeness lies in the
fact that each has two wheels and to each is attached one
busy little bit of a horse. The calesa and caromata are
the better class vehicles, while the carretela is a plebeian pub-
lic carryall in which there always seems to be "room for one
more." I saw dozens of these packed with Filipinos; the
driver — always and inevitably smoking — sitting close up
behind his horse and lashing it continually while it strug-
gled sturdily along and looked every minute as if it would
be lifted off its feet by the overbalancing weight behind
it. It was something of a shock to see many women, in
carretelas and on the street, smoking huge black cigars;
while I noticed, immediately, that the men, as a rule, smoke
only cigarettes.

I didn't look for speed from our little brown creatures,
but I was yet to become acquainted with the Philippine
pony. We started off over the rough cobblestones at a
pace that was truly terrifying, and everybody else seemed
to be going at about the same rate. I expected a collision
every moment. Wheels passed wheels without an inch to
spare, and without an instant's slackening of speed. My
heart was in my mouth until we got through the maze of
narrow streets in the wholesale district near the Custom
House and came out into a wide plaza which my husband
informed me was the end of the Escolta, the principal busi-
ness street of the city. I was very glad we didn't have to
drive through that; it was just about wide enough for
two carriages to pass, but it had a street-car track right

down the middle, and it was thronged. On the track was

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

a jingling little horse-car which seemed to get very much
tangled up with the rest of the traffic.

I got an impression of a great variety of colour in which
red and yellow seemed to predominate. The soldiers were
in khaki, the officers and civilians were in immaculate
white linen, while the Filipino men and women of the or-
dinary class looked as if they had made a heavy draft on
the world's supply of red and yellow muslin, to say nothing
of many calicoes of extravagant hues and patterns.

We hurried on aroimd the comer and came again to the
banks of the river and the Bridge of Spain. Mr. Taft
wanted me to know all about everything right away, so he
kept on busily explaining things to me, but using so many
unfamiliar words that I got only a hazy impression after all.

But here was the Bridge of Spain, originally built in six-
teen himdred and something, the oldest monument to Span-
ish enterprise in the Islands. And across on the other side
we came abreast of the inner wall of the city and whirled
along awhile beside a wide, stagnant moat. From the inner
side I got a better idea of what the Walled City was like,
and I promised myself an early inspection of its mysteries.
I wanted to walk across the old drawbridges and through the
beautiful gateways which looked so ancient and were so
suggestive of piratical and warlike history.

"Those are the Botanical Gardens,'* said Mr. Taft —
"the man from Cook's'* — ^making a general sort of gesture
toward the other side of the street. What I saw was a
small gravelled park with some avenues of fine palms, some
other kinds of trees, and a few clumps of shrubbery. We
were driving under the low-hanging branches of some mag-
nificent old acacias, but everything looked neglected and
run down, and there didn't seem to be a bit of grass any-
where; just scorching sand and clay. It was really a relief
to rest one's eyes on the awful green scum on the surface

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

of the moat. Manila in those days was not the beautiful,
park-like, well-kept city that it has since become. There
were soldiers everywhere, and it seemed to me we were being
constantly saluted.

"And now we come to the far-famed Luneta," said Mr.
Taft, quite proudly.

"Where?" I asked. I had heard much of the Luneta
and expected it to be a beautiful spot.

"Why, here. You're on it now," he replied.

An oval drive, with a bandstand inside at either end, —
not unlike a half-mile race track, — ^in an open space on the
bay shore ; glaringly open. Not a tree ; not a sprig of any-
thing except a few patches of imhappy looking grass.
There were a few dusty benches around the bandstands,
nothing else; — and all burning in the white glare of the
noonday sun.

"Why far-famed?" I asked.

Then he explained in a way which made me understand
that the Luneta is not what it is, but rather what it stands
for in the life of the community. He said that in the cool
of the evening there were bands in the bandstands and that
everybody in the world came and drove around and around
the oval, exchanging greetings and gossip, while the chil-
dren with their nurses played in the sand on the narrow
beach. It didn't soimd exciting to me, but I was afterward
to learn that the Luneta is a imique and very delightful in-
stitution.

We tore on at a terrific rate and came, at last, into a nar-
row residence street where the rapid clatter of our ponies'
feet awoke echoes from closely set houses which looked as
if all their inhabitants were asleep. And they were, of
course, it being the siesta hour.

The houses were nearly all built in the Spanish style with
high stone basements— covered with mouldy whitewash —
and frame superstructures overhanging the street, and

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

screened from the heat and glare with finely woven, green
bamboo curtains. Here and there the "nipa shack" of the
low class native had elbowed its way into this fashionable
neighbourhood, and through open spaces I caught glimpses
of wide stretches of thatch roofs in the near distance, where
himdreds of these inflammable huts were huddled together
in "native quarters."

When the end of the street came in sight I began to won-
der. It seemed to me we had driven many miles.

'Well, where do we live?'* I asked. "Have you taken a
house in the country?"

"Not quite," said Mr. Taft, 'T>ut nearly."

It was the last house in the street, surroimded by a very
formidable looking, high stone wall. The first thing I
knew we had whirled through a gateway and were driving
past a row of soldiers who stood at attention, with their
guns held stiffly in front of them. I knew our house had
to be guarded, but it was something of a shock for a mo-
ment, just the same, to see the guardhouse and the trim
soldiers with their business-like equipment.

If I had expected anything very fine or beautiful in the
way of a tropical garden, I was disappointed. I don't
know whether I did or not. The wonder to me now is how
Americans ever did succeed in getting parks and gardens
made. It only means that the Filipino has learned, or is
learning how to work. He always was willing to work, a
certain amount, but he didn't know how. My husband's
description of how he got a bit of grading done is typical.
The first conclusion he reached in Manila was that the
people knew nothing about the value of time, and it must
have been a strain on his temperate-zone nervous system
to watch a squad of men at work in his garden.

They deposited the material — as usual — as far as they
could from the spot where it was to be used; then, one
after another, barelegged, bare bodied, incessantly smok-

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

ing, they would take up small shovels full of earth, carry
them all the way across the garden, restmg once or twice on
the way, dimip the material somewhere in the vicinity of the
place where it belonged, then drag slowly back and repeat
the operation. This was the sort of thing which made
Americans, in the early days, dance with impatience; the
sort of thing which made Mr. Bryan's campaign talk about
"cheap" Filipino labour invading the United States seem
to us so utterly ridiculous. We knew that Filipino labour
was the most expensive labour in the world; since it took
ten men to do one American's work.

My husband had written me about the difficulty he had
had in securing a suitable house, and had also explained
that he was having a number of repairs and changes made
which, he hoped, would put the place in good order by the
time I arrived. The garden was large, but it boasted
neither lawns nor flowers of any kind. A few patches of
grass struggling with the hard white gravel and clay, and
looking pretty hopeless, nothing else. Aroxmd a curving
drive we swimg up under a porte-cochere, over which hung
a magnificent rubber tree, and, stepping from the under-
sized Victoria onto the finest of white marble steps, I foimd
myself at home.

Our house was really the best that my husband could
secure. When he first looked at it he was certain it
wouldn't do at all. It belonged to Chief Justice Arellano,
and the army officer who went with him to look for
quarters assured him that it was the only thing in town
that he could possibly live in; but he didn't believe iL
It had been occupied by army officers and had been greatly
abused. Its furniture was broken and piled in heaps;
its walls were ragged; and its floors were scarred and
dirty.

"I'll just have a look at some others," said Mr. Taft.

And he did. He went all over town, and he says that

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

every house he looked at added some new, desirable aspect to
the Arellano house, until, finally, it became in his eyes a sort
of palace which needed only a touch here and there to make
it quite perfect.

It backed directly on the Bay, and among the first things
he did was to have a sea-wall built which he thought added
safety to the top-heavy structure, but which, during the
typhoon season, really cost him Aiore than it was worth.
Every time a big wind came and roughed up the Bay a little,
a part of his wall went out. His first complaint to me was
that he had been *Tiolding that wall down'* all summer, and
that part of it was always sure to try to get away every
time he found himself particularly occupied with harassing
governmental difficulties.

He had had sod laid down between the house and the
sea-wall, and had watched it for awhile with a faith which
should have been rewarded, but the salt spray came dashing
over it and he had to have it carefully taken up and moved
around to the sheltered side of the house. Grood sod was
scarce in Manila in those days.

My husband was certainly glad to see me, and I don't
doubt that General Wright was just as glad to see his
wife. The two of them had been "keeping house" together
for three months under conditions wholly new to them, and
I gathered that they found a bachelor existence rather com-
plicated and, in certain details, annoying. In some ways,
after the manner of men, they had permitted the house to
run itself and I did not find it easy to break up the system
which had been inaugurated.

The house was not perfect, by any means, but it was big
and roomy and had what a woman knows as "great possi-
bilities"; possibilities which I found had to be slowly de-
veloped with the assistance of a somewhat taciturn and not
altogether willing menage.

Coming in from the grand marble steps one passed up a

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

short, but spacious hardwood stairway into a wide central
hall which opened out on a tile floored verandah, overlook-
ing the Bay and running the entire width of the house.
This verandah was enclosed by sliding windows divided
into panes about six inches square, not any two of which
were the same colour. All the other windows in the house
were made of beautiful, translucent pearl-shell in four inch
sections — more like screens than windows — ^which let in the
light and kept out the glare, but on the verandah the archi-
tect had tried to surpass himself, with the result that royal
purple, orange, pink, bright blue and green glass disclosed
to one a multi-coloured and distracting stretch of other-
wise beautiful bay. The hard white light was a thousand
times more bearable than such a kaleidoscope, and after I
got home those windows were seldom closed.

On either side of the broad central hall were two large
rooms; one the dining-room, the others commodious bed-
rooms; while over the porte-cochere was a small drawing-
room. Downstairs were the baths and three large rooms
and a duplicate of the upstairs verandah. This part of the
house, which was dry and well-built, I forthwith turned over
to the children.

Some of the furniture was very fine ; big hardwood tables
and old Spanish pieces made from the beautiful woods of
the Islands, but everj^ing was greatly in need of the
polisher's brush and chamois. The floors, alternating,
broad, hand hewn planks of nara and ipil^ were as fine as
any I ever saw, though they, too, needed long and pains-
taking attention. In the bedrooms were high canopied and
mosquito-netted beds with cane bottoms, exactly like cane-
bottomed chairs, and without mattresses. Everything else
was wicker.

The thing which caught my attention first, however, were
the fans. My husband had written me, with great pride
and satisfaction^ that he had put in electric fans, and that

102

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL .YEARS

they had "saved his life." I had some sentimental at-
tachment for them on this account — until I saw them. But
when I saw them I felt at once that everything else, to be
in keeping, ought surely to be swathed in fly-specked pink
gauze. The electric fans were of the variety associated in
one's mind with ice-cream "parlours"; two broad blades
attached to the ceiling in the middle of the room. They
had been installed in both the dining-room and sala — or
sitting-room — ^and it was not possible in either room to see
anything else. These fans were the subject of endless con-
tention between Mr. Taft and me, but I gave in and left
them to continue their mission of saving his life. He says
yet that I often acknowledged on hot nights that he was
right about them, but I never did.

My husband had secured his house staff in Hongkong,
through the kind offices of Admiral Dewey's servant, Ah
Man, as I have already written, but being new to the ways
of the Oriental, he was destined very quickly to gather some
unique experience., There were four of them: the cook,
the number one boy, the number two boy and the laundry-
man. The laimdryman was Mr. Taft's own inspiration.
The Filipino laundr3rman, he had heard, takes the linen
of his master's household down to some stream, preferably
the shallows of the Pasig, and hammers it into ribbons on
smooth rocks which he uses for washboard purposes. Then
he spreads the articles on the grass to dry, and the conse-
quences were found, not infrequently, to be a bad outbreak
on the master's skin of what is known as "adobe itch," a
troublesome disease. So Mr. Taft had engaged a Chinese
laundryman and had sent back to San Francisco for tubs
and washboards and wringers and all the necessary para-
phernalia, and had installed an up-to-date laundry in his
own house, where the orders were to boil the clothes and
hang them on a line. It worked perfectly, though it did

take the Chinaman from the wilds of Shanghai some

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

time to leam the uses of the various modem implements.

In Manila the marketing is usually done by the cook, but
in our household this duty was delegated to die nimiber one
boy. One day the cook and the number two boy came to
Mr. Taft with the announcement that they could not re-
main in the house with number one boy; that number one
boy was a thief; that he smoked opium all the time he was
supposed to be marketing; and that he was a bad Chinaman
generally. Mr. Taft had always given number cMie boy
the money with which to pay the other boys' salaries and
the cash market charges, so he said to the cook :

"Has number one always paid your wages?"

"Yes," said the cook, with an eloquent shrug of his shoul-
ders, "just my wages and nothing more."

This meant, of course, that number one boy was commit-
ting the unforgivable sin of not dividing the "squeeze."

There is no use going into what "squeeze" means in the
Orient. It may come partly out of the master's pocket
and partly out of the pockets of the tradesmen; nobody
knows. But the housekeeper soon leams that she gains
nothing by trying to circumvent the system in doing the
marketing herself. The "squeeze" works, no matter who
does the buying, and it soon comes to be recognised as a
legitimate part of household expenses. The only thing
that one can do is to make a complaint when it becomes
too heavy.

It seems to have been very heavy in my husband's es-
tablishment, and investigation proved to him that it was
necessary to let number one go, so when I arrived there were
just the two upstairs servants, the cook and number two,
who had been promoted to the proud position of nimiber
one.

I went immediately to work to order my household as I

always had been used to doing, and there's where I began

to get my experience of the Oriental character. My cook

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

was a wrinkled old Chinaman who looked as if he had con-
cealed behind his beady little eyes a full knowledge of all
the mysteries of the E^t, to say nothing of its vague phi-
losophies and opium visions. He called me "Missy** and
was most polite, but in all the essentials he was a graven
image. He was an unusually good cook, though he did
exactly as he pleased, and seemed to look upon my feeble
efforts at the direction of affairs with a tolerant sort of in-
difference. He would listen to my instructions most re-
spectfully, carefully repeat after me the nice menus I de-
vised, say, '^es. Missy," then return to his kitchen and cook
whatever suited his fancy.

It took me sometime to get used to this, but I came to
value him hi^ly, especially when I learned that he had,
finely developed, one glorious characteristic of his kind.
He could make something out of nothing. If Mr. Taft
sent word at six o'clock, or even as late as seven, that he
had invited four or five of his associates to dinner to con-
tinue a discussion begun earlier in the day, or for some other
reason, I had only to tell Ah Sing that there would be seven
or eight instead of three at dinner, and a perfect dinner
would be served. Where he got his supplies with which to
meet these sudden demands I never knew. I learned to ac-
cept the gifts of the gods without comment, which is the only
thing to do in the East.

Ah Sing was particularly proud of his sweets. He loved
to make puddings and pies with lavish decorations upon
them, though none of the family cared much for such deli-
cacies. One evening, shortly after my arrival, I was giving
quite a formal dinner party; I had, as usual, given the
cook a menu well thought out and, I believed, wholly ap-
propriate to the occasion and the climate. For a sweet
I had ordered an ice with some small cakes, and I was
pleasantly surprised to see them duly served. But just

as the party was about to rise from the table and go out

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on the verandah for coffee, in came Mr. Number One Boy
with a ponderous, steaming bread-pudding, all covered with
coloured ornaments, which he smilingly displayed for the
benefit of the astonished party. It had to be served, of
course, and I felt that my explanations regarding Ah Singes
eccentricities didn't make much of an impression.

Over none of the servants did I exercise the control I
thought to be necessary, but this was due to the fact that
for three months they had been obeying the master; the
master had paid them their wages, and to the master they
looked for all orders. It took me scxnetime to discover this,
but when I did I began to handle household accounts with-
out assistance.

It was about the end of the typhoon season and the pre-
dictions were that there would be no more heavy storms.
But it began to rain and blow one day with rather more
force than I had ever seen before, and I was told that we
were in the midst of a typhoon. "Oh, well," I thought,
"if this is all I don't see why there is so much talk about
it." It 'was just a very hard and very persistent stomi.
When I began to think it was about time for it to have
blown itself out I was awakened one night by what seemed
to me to be the bombardment of heavy artillery. My bed
was shaking under me, the house was swaying, and the noise
was terrifying. I jumped up with an instant idea of in-
surrectos^ and a feeling that I must meet the situation on
my feet; then I realised, at once, that it was the typhoon.
It was as if all the winds that had blown for two da}rs had
gathered themselves together and were hurling themselves
in one blast upon us. I reached for the electric switch, but
there were no lights; I turned the button time and again;
nothing happened. I fumbled for matches all over my
room and could find none. My nerves were just at the cry-
ing out point when my door was thrown open and in rushed

Maria, holding aloft a glimmering candle.

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

She was shaking with fright.

"Nellie," she exclaimed, "I just can't stand it any longer !
Do let's find everjrthing there is to light and call Will and
sit out in the sola. Heaven only knows what's going to
happen !"

We searched around and found some more candles; then
I went to call my husband. He was sleeping as soundly as
if nothing at all were happening. I shook him and called
him and shook him again. I thought he never would wake
up, but finally he did, and just then I heard the crash of a
tree blowing down in the garden, while the floor seemed to
heave under my feet.

'What's the matter?" asked my sleepy husband.

**Will, there's an awful storm. Please come out in the
sala and sit with Maria and me."

"All right," he said, and slowly got himself into an all-
enveloping dressing gown.

We huddled ourselves in chairs in the big hallway and sat
listening. Rain always comes with the wind in typhoons
and the dash of water against the windows and the sides of
the house was deafening. But the noise was suddenly
punctuated by a gentle snore. Mr. Taft had settled him-
self back in his chair and gone quietly to sleep. Maria's
nerves were on edge; without a word she jumped up and
shook her tired-out brother-in-law most vigorously, crying
above the roar of the storm :

'*Will Taft, what do you think we waked you up for?
You can't go back to sleep. We want you to stay awake
and comfort us !"

"All right, Maria," said he, with the utmost good nature ;
whereupon he sat up, changed his position to one more com-
fortable, and proceeded to lapse again into peaceful slum-
ber.

The next moming Maria and I drove down through the

town to see the effects of the typhoon. Three trees were

107

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

uprooted in our own garden, and across the street a house
was flattened out. Groups of Filipinos stood here and
there talking and gesticulating in their usual manner, but
nobody seemed unduly excited. We saw many houses un-
roofed, and once in a while we met a native with a piece
of nipa or tin roofing balanced on his head, quietly carry-
ing it back where it belonged.

We drove down through the Escolta and into the crowded
Tondo district beyond, and there we suddenly found our-
selves hub-deep in a flood. The below-the-sea-level quar-
ters were under several feet of water, and we got a sudden
revelation as to why all the nipa houses are built on such
high and unsightly stilts. Crowds of Filipinos were pad-
dling through the flood, most of them carrying some part
of a house, or other belonging, and nearly all of them play-
ing and splashing like pleased children. Bancas — ^long
canoes from the river — ^were plying from house to house as
if it were an everyday affair and conditions were quite nor-
mal.

I had heard a great deal about the severity of t3^hoons,
but as I had passed a whole season in the East and had
crossed the China Sea during the typhoon season without
encountering one, I began rather to scoflf at the general fear
of them. But I never did after that; when anybody said
typhoon I knew exactly what it meant. The water sub-
sided rapidly and in a day or two Manila showed few signs
of the fury which had passed, but for several days the Com-
mission continueci to receive reports of the damage done
and the lives lost throughout the surrounding coimtry. It
was the worst and the last storm of that year.

When we arrived in Manila we found the social atmos-
phere somewhat peculiar. Members of our own party, who
had crossed the Pacific on the Hancock^ welcomed us at
once with dinners and teas and other kinds of parties; also

a number of Army ladies called without delay, and our cir-

108

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

cle broadened rapidly. But General MacArthur, who was
the Military Grovemor and lived at Malacaiian Palace, did
not entertain anybody except a select military circle. He
sent an aide with cards, of course, and he accepted our in-
vitations to dinner, but that was all. Not that we minded,
except that it made it rather awkward and added something
to the "feeling** that all was not well between the Army
and the new civil government.

The Commission had been for three months busily en-
gaged in investigating conditions, as directed by the Presi-
dent, before they assumed any authority, and then they
acted with no haste. We were impatiently awaiting news
from America with regard to the Presidential election. It
was thought to be futile to take any definite steps toward
the establishment of local governments and the inaugura-
tion of far-reaching reforms imtil the status of Ameri-
can control should be settled. Mr. Bryan had promised
political independence, and if Mr. Bryan were elected all
the Commission's plans would go for naught.

The provincial and mimicipal codes were completed;
certain important questions between the Church and the
people were being considered, and many open sessions were
held for discussion, with the purpose of advising the people
that they would be listened to by a civil government. In
the meantime the insurrectos were keeping things lively in
a guerilla warfare with small squads of greatly harassed
and very much disgusted American soldiers. There were
occasional rumours about uprisings in Manila — when the
guard at our gate would be doubled — ^but Mr. Taf t assured
us that Manila was as safe as New York or Chicago and
we really had few fears.

General MacArthur continued to resent the coming of the

Commission and to consider himself personally humiliated

by their being appointed to divide his power. He was

still in command of about seventy thousand men and had

109

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

the general executive control of a large civil force, but this,
apparently, was not enough. The tone he adopted in his
correspondence vt^ith the Commission kept them in a con-
stant state of controlled anger. They were very careful
in return to observe every courtesy and to manifest an ear-
nest desire for harmony and co-operation. They were
tremendously interested in their problems and wanted much
to succeed, but their efforts at conciliation did little good.
The General objected to almost every suggestion put for-
ward by them and did not hesitate to tell them in plain
words that he did not welcome advice from them concerning
military or any other matters. It was really a very difficult
situation.

The Commission thought Greneral MacArthur took an
entirely erroneous view of the attitude of the Philippine
people in general, and that in everything he did he moved
with an exasperating slowness. They wanted a large na-
tive constabulary which they knew could successfully be
organised and relied upon to render great assistance in the
pacification of the Islands. He did not agree with them
and held the matter up for many months. He was not
in sympathy with any move they made, and his greatest
cross was that he had no power to veto their legislation.
He saw military dangers in all manner of things without
being able to state just what they were, and he was always
calling for more troops, while the Commission was enter-
taining hopes that it would not be a great length of time
before a large part of the troops already there could be re-
called. I find my husband writing at this time:

"Greneral MacArthur, knowing that we differ from him
as to the condition of things in the Islands, makes it a point
to send me an account of each disaster as if it vindicated
his view. This is not the spirit of a man who is likely to
succeed in giving energy to a campaign which will bring
about successful results, but the matters will solve them-

110

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

selves in spite of his slowness of movement and lack of en-
thusiasm. • • •

"The minute the policy with respect to these Islands is
settled by Bryan's defeat and the election of McKinley, the
leniency which has been almost too great towards ladrones
and these murdering generals will have to be changed.
They must be given an opportunity to come in and if diey
do not come in in a short time, they ought to be deported
from the country and sent to Guam. This will have an
effect so healthy that a short time will see accomplished
what we desire. There will be a great awakening for some
of these men who have come to rely on the supineness of
the Americans, and who do not understand that we can be
severe when we choose. . . .

"It was General Otis who inaugurated the plan of laugh-
ing at the insurrection, of capturing men and letting them
go, and the result is that they have laughed at us, but with
a little tightening of the reins their laugh will cease. . . .

"They dread deportation more than anything else and
I have written to Secretary Root and asked him to have a
prison constructed at Guam to which we may send those
whom we think worthy of a less punishment than hanging.
The insurrection must be suppressed for the benefit of the
United States and, still more, for the benefit of the Fili-
pino people. The lenient methods, having been tried for
two years, must be changed to those more severe. . . .

"The insurrection, such as it is now, is nothing more
than a conspiracy against the sovereignty of the United
States sustained by murder and assassination of Filipinos
by Filipinos. . . .

"MacArthur is drawing the reins a little tighter, though
not as tight as we think he ought to draw them, and he
has now imprisoned about fifteen hundred insurgents.
There have been a great many arrests made in Manila,
which has been the head centre of the insurrection in the

111

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

way of raising money. I should think there have been fifty
or sixty insurgent officers arrested in the city. . . .

"I sent a telegram to the Secretary of War on Sunday
night which was signed by Buencamino and other prominent
Filipinos, about a dozen of them, in which they spoke out
with emphasis about the continuation of the insurrection.
They propose to organise what they call a counter-revolu-
tion ; that is, they mean they will organise a military move-
ment among the Filipinos against Filipinos. They are get-
ting very tired and weary of this murder and assassination
policy without which the insurrection could not last a

WCClk. • • •

"You could hardly believe the closeness with which the
Presidential matters are being watched by the Filipinos, and
how they follow the speeches made against the Republican
cause. General Smith, away down on the island of Negros,
told me he had found speeches by Hoar and Bryan, and
other anti-expansionists and anti-imperialists, in the most
remote moimtains of his district. • . •

"Every one is waiting and it is not impossible that should
Bryan be elected there might be some riotous demonstra-
tion among the natives. The Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court, Senor Arellano, has made arrangements, should
Bryan be elected, to leave the islands three days after the
announcement. He is the ablest Filipino in the islands, by
far the best lawyer and a man of the highest probity. He
says that much as he is interested in the success and pros-
perity of his fellow-citizens, he knows that they are utterly
incapable of self-government and should the guiding hand
of the United States be withdrawn, chaos, conscription and
corruption would follow inevitably. . . ."

I have taken these excerpts at random from my husband's

letters to his brother during the months of September and

October, 1900, and they serve to show the situation which

existed and will illustrate the fact that we were living in

112

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL. YEARS

interesting times. But they deal only with the insurrec-
tion, while the main body of his correspondence shows that
the Commissioners were engaged upon legislative matters of
the gravest import which would be rendered entirely super-
fluous should Mr. Bryan be elected and his annoimced poli-
cies be carried into effect. In that event they proposed
immediately to turn matters back to the military govern-
ment and withdraw, leaving Mr. Bryan to face the prob-
lems which they knew he would soon discover had to be
dealt with from the standpoint of constructive statesman-
ship.

In the meantime the peace movement was rapidly gain-
ing adherents among the people in spite of the still active
insurrectos^ or rather, because of them and their methods;
while everybody seemed to welcome the change from a
strictly military to a partially civil government.

The popularity of the Commission, as offering a change
from the strictness of military rule, was becoming every
day more marked. Juan de Juan, a Spaniard, and editor
of the lively organ £/ Progreso^ which was always in oppo-
sition to anything American, said that on the first of Sep-
tember when the Commission began to exercise its author-
ity, he intended to devote the whole front page of his paper
to just three words: "Gracias a Dios," — ^Thanks to God!
Juan de Juan was a good deal of a Bohemian and really
cared little what happened so long as he got a sensation out
of it. September first came and went, and I don't remem-
ber whether he made good this extravagant threat or not.
I presume he didn't for, though I had been in Manila less
than a week, I surely would have remembered.

After the Commission had been in power for just a month,
and while the excited interest in events in the United States
was at its height, Juan de Juan broke out in a characteristic
Spanish editorial, a translation of which has been preserved.
We had entertained Juan de Juan at dinner, and he evi-

113

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

dently was impressed. We made it a rule from the begin-
ning that neither politics nor race should influence our hos-
pitality in any way, and we came thus to have a very wide
and diverse acquaintance. The editorial in El Progresa
gives such a curious picture of attitude and conditions in
general, as well as of my husband, my family and my home,
that I think I must quote it, — at least in part. It is headed
simply :

SEf^OR TAFT

The most uncompromising jingoes; the rabid partisans of mili*
tarism, as well as the men of democratic sentiments who consider
the occupation of -the Philippines as an odious Caesarism, respect
and venerate the President of the Civil Commission, whose sur-
name serves as the caption of these lines. Uprightness and bon*
hommie always demand recognition.

Before iht Hancock^ bearing this statesman, had anchored in
Manila Bay, the echo of his reputation and the radiations of the
brilliant aureole which lus success in the judiciary of his country
had imposed upon him — and we underline the word imposed be-
cause the characteristic trait of Mr. Taft is his modesty — ^had
reached the Philippines. The Filipinos awaited him with the same
pleasing curiosity with which a child opens a toy with a concealed
surprise, and the foreigners as the incarnation of those American
patriarchal, democratic ideas with which Castelar portrayed to his
followers the country of Lincoln.

Behind that spacious brow of the thinker, between his liberal
tendencies and the incomparable exactions of the enormous bur-
dens which his country imdertook in Paris, fierce struggles are
wa^ng. The President of the American Civil Commission has
broad shoulders, but the weight of a people whom patriotism en-
dows with the strength of a colossus is very great.

We must concede to all the leading authorities whom America
has sent to the Philippines' the trait of being industrious. We
know that General Otis worked more than twelve hours a day;
MacArthur, that Daban of the American Army through the ra-
pidity of his advancement, follows the same course as his prede-
cessor, and Mr. Taft leaves his house every morning at eight and,
as unostentatiously as a clerk, proceeds to become a part of his chair
in the Ayuntamiento. There his first occupation is glancing over

114

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

the American press* and what is of interest in the Spanish papers.

Then the show begins. Paterno, Macabulos, Montenegro,
some envoy from Cebu, for example, who come to sound him, as the
slang saying goes, arrive. Mr. Taft has the same respectful smile
for all, the same courtesy, and addresses them all in the same terms,
which his athletic Secretary, Mr. Fergusson, repeats in Spanish
with the gravity of a Sphinx and the fidelity of a phonograph.
When the matter warrants it, Mr. Pepperman, the chief stenog-
rapher of the Commission, enters the office and proceeds to take
notes of the interview.

In this way the Americans are forming a luminous record which,
united to what were our archives, which they preserve through the
terms of the Treaty of Parb, will guide them well in the ad-
ministration of the Philippines.

Later Mr. Taft becomes engulfed in the examination of the bills
which the other members of the Commission present for him to
study; he discusses their text with his colleagues, listens to all
their observations, and judging them by a standard most favorable
to the interests of the Philippines, the most liberal within the in-
structions from Washington — it is proper to say that Mr. Taft is
the most democratic element of the Commbsion — ^he expresses his
opinion, generous, calm and noble, which assuredly, in view of
his personal prestige, must carry great weight in the framing of
the bills, whose execution is entrusted to the Military governor.

To dissipate the gloomy smoke of the conflagration, to still the
groans of those who fall in this immense expoliarium into which
fatality has converted the Philippine fields, b the mission which
the men composing the American Commission desire to bring to a
successful issue. To make peace. For this they came, and if
fortune does not reserve for them the happy chance of accomplish-
ing so beautiful an ideal, they will retire, and the factor they
represent in the problem to be solved, with its distinguishing traits
of civil moderation, will be substituted as a system that has failed,
by another, wherein the martial power will prevail over political
wisdom.

As Greneral MacArthur undoubtedly spends many hours over
maps of the Philippines, Mr. Taft also often rests his gaze on a
map covering one of the walls of his office, tracing, in mente^ a
railroad which, crossing the island, shall drown with the cheery
whistle of the locomotive the moans of the victims of wan Thus
would Mr. Taft like to pacify the Philippines.

115

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

It 18 now one o'clock p. m. and Mr. Taf t is at home, where this
personage stands out more boldly before us, since the trials through
which the country is passing do not permit us yet to judge him
politically.

The President of the Conunission, in his private life, has many
points of similarity with Count de Caspe, that stainless gentleman
the Filipinos still recall with yeneration* Ezcepdng the brilli-
ancy of those splendid entertainments with which he endeavoured
to blot out all racial di£Ferences by mingling in fraternal embrace
Filipinos and Spaniards at the Malacanan villa, there ordinarily
reigned in the governor's mansion the placid silence of the home
of a well-to-do retired merchant. The Countess, who on Thurs-
days did the honours of her salon with ezqmsite tact, was during
the other days of the week a housekeeper who did not disdain to
go to a grocery store to make purchases, or to look over the laun-
dry list.

The same thing happens in the elegant chalet at Malate where
Mr. Taft lives. This is a qmet and peaceful home, a temple
erected to the affections, under whose roof. Mr* Taft rests some
hours after the efforts which hb political work demands.

His table reflects hb modest character. Four courses, two kinds
of fruit, a dessert and sauteme compose the menu of the luncheon
where Mr. Taft is always accompanied by some guest, either lUi-
pino, American or Spanish. During the meal politics are ban-
ished; if the guest is a Filipino who speaks French Mrs. Taft
interrogates him on the customs of the archipelago; if he is Span-
ish, as to the toilettes worn in Manila by die ladies at the most
brilliant receptions held here; as to the favourite musical composer
of the Hispano-Filipino society; and this conversation increases in
attraction when Miss Herron, sbter-in-law of Mr. Taft and the
incarnation of the modern woman's education, takes part therein.
Miss Herron speaks French correctly, has travelled much, and
journeyed through Spain like an intelligent tourist. The archi-
tectural lace-work of the Alhambra charmed her, and she went into
ecstasies over the orange blossoms growing along the banks of the
Guadalquivir. With what Mbs Herron was not in harmony, and
she berates them like an unsubsidbed joumalbt, were the Spanish
railroads. Miss Herron b right.

The children, Robert, about eleven years old; Helen, a girl of
nine, and Charles, a baby of three, who is the king of the house-
hold:— the McKinley, as it were, of this patriarchal republic — do
not come to the table; they eat with the governess.

116

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

After the meal, in the fine gallery overlooking the sea, sipping
the coffee, Mr. Taft talks of the education of his children, of the
difficulties met in the Philippines in the solution of so interesting
a problem; and his wife converses of the charitable work she ex-
pects to undertake when she shall have assumed a more permanent
place in the Archipelago, which Magellan discovered for Spain,
and which, through a horrible fatality, b no longer ours. Politics
are also eschewed on the gallery.

Needless to say this extraordinary editorial afforded us
all boundless amusement; we began to caution Mr. Taft
frequently about the careful preservation of his "aureole"
and Maria and I decided that we would have to walk warily
indeed, if we were destined to be so minutely reported.

117

CHAPTER VI

A STRANGE ENVIRONMENT

In the Far East one meets certain expressions the significance
of which may be described as adamantine. Each represents
a racial attitude against which it is useless to contend. In
Japan it is the equivalent of it cannot be helped; a verbal
shrug of the shoulders with which the Japanese tosses off all
minor and many grave annoyances. ^ Masqui^^ down the
China coast, has the same import, but with the added mean-
ing of "what difference does it make." In the Philippines
the phrase which must be met and which cannot be overcome
by any system of reform is 'W costumbre del paif* — the cus-
tom of the country.

If it is el costumbre del pais it has to be done and there is
nothing more to be said about it. The manana habit —
putting everything off until to-morrow — ^is, perhaps, to
Americans, the most annoying of all the costumbres del pais
in the Philippines, but it yields to pressure much more
readily than do many others, among which is the custom of
accumulating parientes; that is, giving shelter on a master's
premises to every kind and degree of relative who has no
other place to live. This is, I suppose, a survival of an old
patriarchal arrangement whereby everybody with the re-
motest or vaguest claim upon a master of a household gath-
ered upon that master's doorstep, so to speak, and camped
there for life.

In my first encounter with this peculiarity of my environ-
ment I thought there was a large party going on in my
cochero^s quarters; and an indiscriminate sort of party it
seemed to be. There were old men and old women, young
men and yoimg women, many small children and a few babes
in arms. We had only Chinese servants in the house, but
the stables were in charge of Filipinos and, as I soon discov-

118

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL .YEARS

cred, the "party" was made up entirely of our stablemen's
parientes.

I had a pair of ponies and a Victoria; Mr. Taft had his
two little brown horses and a Victoria; besides which there
was an extra horse to be used in case of accident to one of
the others, as well as a pony and calesa for the children.
This rather formidable array was necessary because we found
it impossible to take a horse out more than twice a day, and
usually not more than once, on accoimt of the sun. My
ponies were taken out only in the early morning or the late
evening, and those of Mr. Taft had all they could do to take
him to the office and bring him home twice a day. Dis-
tances were long and there were no street-cars which ran
where anybody wanted to go.

This niraiber of conveyances made a good many stable-
men necessary and all of them, with their families, lived in
quarters attached to the stables. These families consisted
of fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, uncles, aimts, cousins
near and far removed, wives, children, grandchildren, and a
few intimate and needy friends with their family ramifica-
tions. Besides our three cockeros and the stable boys, there
was a gardener with his farientes^ so it is no wonder that on
my first inspection of the lower premises I should have
thought that some sort of festivity was in progress. I might
have lived in Manila twenty years without being able to
straighten out the relationships in this servant colony; it
was not possible to leam who had and who had not a right
to live on the place; and my protest was met with the simple
statement that it was el costumbre del fais^ so I, perforce,
accepted the situation.

Filipino servants never live in the master's residence ; they

never want to; they want the freedom of a house of their

own, and these houses are, as a rule, built on the outer edges

of the garden, or compound. I believe Americans now are

leaming to meet the pariente habit by having room for just

119

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

as many people as they need, and no more. But those who
live in the old places, with their ample quarters, still gather
the clans and are permitted to enjoy a most expansive and
patriarchal sensation. ^" - v^

My horses, when I first saw them, were a source of the
greatest pride. A beautifully matched pair of coal-black,
stylishly-paced and glossy litde stallions, hardly larger than
Shetland ponies, they looked as if they had been washed in
scxne sort of shrinking soap and had come out in perfect
condition except that they were several sizes smaller than
they ought to have been. These Philippine ponies are
doubtless descendants of the Arabian horses brought over by
the Spaniards and have been reduced to their present size
by the change of climate and the difference in food and
environment, but they still have the fine lines and the gen-
eral characteristics of their progenitors.

Mr. Taft secured mine from Batangas, where all the best
ponies come from, through the kindness of Mr. Benito
Legarda, the staunchest of Americanistas. Batangas was a
most unquiet province, the last, in fact, to become pacified,
and Mr. Legarda had to pay an insurrecto for bringing the
horses through the insurgent lines and delivering them at
Calamba, near Manila. Although he did not know their
exact origin when he bought them, Mr. Taft said that if the
facts became known he would be accused, in certain quarters,
of giving indirect aid to the revolutionists; but he wanted
the ponies so he did not return them.

When they were hitched to the shining little Victoria
which had been built for them, they were as pretty as a pic-
ture and, as I did not propose to have such a tum-out ruined
by a couple of Filipinos on the box in untidy catnisas hang-
ing outside of as imtidy white trousers, I had made for my
cochero and boy, or coachman and footman, a livery of white
and green in which they took such inordinate pride that they
seemed to grow in stature and dignity.

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Maria and I felt a sense of the utmost satisfaction the
first time we stepped into this carriage for a drive down to
the Luneta where we were sure to see everybody we knew
and hundreds of people besides; but our vanity was destined
to be brought to a sudden termination.

As we were driving along with much satisfaction, a bit
of paper floated down alongside the blinkers of the little
ebony steed on the right and he made one wild leap into the
air. His companion gave him an angry nip, and then the
fight was on. Maria and I jumped out, which was not diffi-
cult in a low-built Victoria, and no sooner had we done so
than we saw the complete wreck of all our grandeur. With
all the leaping and plunging and biting and kicking, in the
vicinity of a handy lamp-post, the smash-up was fairly com-
plete. Neither of the ponies was hurt, except by the lash of
the whip, and I must say the little wretches looked rather
funny; like very pretty and very bad children, sorry for
what they had done. But their characters were established
and they proceeded after that to live up to them. We
never could have any confidence in them and my coachman
was the only person who could do anything with them.
He was a most imsatisfactory man in many ways and used
often to call for us at dinner parties in a state of gay in-
ebriety, but we didn't dare discharge him because everybody
else in the stables stood in awe of the blacks while he
seemed greatly to enjoy his constant and spectacular
struggles with them.

The Filipinos are a most temperate people ; there is no such
thing as drunkenness among them; but coachmen seem to
be an exception in that they allow themselves a sufficient
stimulation of the fiery vino to make them drive with cour-
age and dash, sometimes minus all care and discretion.
The drivers of public vehicles seem to love their little horses
in a way; they are inordinately proud of a fast paced or
stylish-looking pony; yet they are, as a rule, quite harsh to

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

them. They overload them and overdrive them, and under
all conditions they lash them continuously.

No Filipino cochero likes to have another cochero pass
him, and the result is constant, indiscriminate racing, on
any kind of street, under any circumstances, — and never
mind the horse.

My children were driving with their governess to the
Luneta one evening, when two caromatas came tearing
down behind them, each driver hurling imprecations at
the other and paying no attention to what was ahead of
him. The result was a violent collision. The two caro^
matas went plunging on, the cocheros not stopping to see
what damage they might have done — which was very
characteristic — ^and the children narrowly escaped a serious
accident. Charlie was hurled out and fell under the chil-
dren's calesa and Robert and Helen both declare they felt
a sickening jolt as a wheel passed over him. The baby,
too, vowed that the calesa "went wight over me, wight
dere,'* indicating a vital spot ; but upon the closest examina-
tion we could discover nothing more serious than a few
bruises. However, it made us very much afraid to trust
the children out alone.

The gardener had two little boys, Jose and Capito, who
were a few years older than Charlie, but about his size, and
he took a tremendous fancy to them. They were clad,
simply, in thin gauze — or jusi — shirts which came down a
little below their waists, and I think Charlie envied them
this informal attire. He used to order them around in a
strange mixture of Spanish, Tagalog and English which
made me wonder at my wholly American child; but it was
an effective combination since he seemed to have them com-
pletely under his thumb and, as he revelled in his sense of
power, he never tired of playing with them.

Maria and I soon adopted the universal habit of driving
down to the Escolta in the early morning to do such shop-

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

ping as was necessary. Wc found a variety of interesting
; shops, but with very little in them to meet the ordinary de-

I mands of an American woman. There were delightful

Indian bazaars and Chinese tiendas where all manner of
gaudy fabrics and strange oriental articles were on sale,
while the Spanish shops upon which everybody had to de-
pend in those days, and which had such grandly European
names as Paris-Manila and La Puerta del Sol, catered
largely to the Filipino taste for bright colours.

The Escolta at that time was full of saloons, established
by the inevitable followers of a large army, and the street
being very narrow and the old, rickety, wooden buildings
being very wide open, the ''beery'* odour which pervaded
the atmosphere at all hours was really dreadful. Mr. Taft
decided that as long as this was the only street in town
where women could go shopping, the saloons would have
to be removed. There was opposition on the OMnmission
to the bill which provided for their banishment, and it was
fought from the outside with great vigour and bitterness,
but a majority were in favour of it, so it passed, and the
saloons had to move. There has not been a saloon on the
Escolta from that day to this and, indeed, they have ever
since been under such satisfactory regulation that there is
little evidence left of their existence in the city.

I am afraid it is going to be very difficult to convey an
adequate picture of Manila society during the first years of
American occupation. There had been, in the old days, a
really fine Spanish and rich mestizo society, but all, or
nearly all, of the Spaniards had left the Islands, and the
mestizos had not yet decided just which way to "lean," or
just how to meet the American control of the situation. I
may say here that most of the educated, high-class Filipinos
are mestizo; that is, of mixed blood. They may be Span-
ish mestizo or Chinese mestizo, but they have in them a
strong strain of foreign blood. Besides the Spanish- and

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Chinese-Filipinos, there are a number of British mestizos
who are very interesting people. Mr. Legarda, Chief Jus-
tice Arellano, Dr. Pardo de Tavera and Mr. Quezcm, the
Filipino delegate to the United States Congress, are Span-
ish mestizos, while Mr. Araneta, the Secretary of Finance
and Justice, as well as the Speaker of the Philippine As-
sembly and many able lawyers and successful business men
are of Chinese descent. The mestizos control practically
all the wealth of the Philippines, and their education, in-
telligence and social standing are unquesticmed. It is the
only country in the world that I know about — certainly the
only country in the Orient — ^where the man or woman of
mixed blood seems to be regarded as superior to the pure
blooded native.

Dating back also to the Spanish days was quite a numer-
ous foreign society consisting of a few consuls, some profes-
sional men, the managers of banks and large British and
European mercantile firms, and their families. The
leaders of the British colony were Mr. and Mrs. Jones —
Mr. Jones being the manager of the Manila branch of the
Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Mrs.
Jones, a very beautiful and charming woman, gave some
very elaborate parties during that first winter. Bank
House, the residence maintained by the bank for its man-
ager in Manila, is a beautiful place in Uli-Uli, a district
on the picturesque banks of the upper Pasig, and it is finely
adapted for balls and large receptions. Then there were
several German families who also entertained quite lav-
ishly, and I remember, especially, one Austrian exile; in-
deed, I shall never be able to forget him because my hus-
band took such joy in pronoimcing his name. He was
Baron von Bosch.

This was the "set'* which entertained the Commission

most cordially during our first season in Manila, while the

Army officers, following the lead of their Commanding

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

General, held themselves somewhat aloof • I kept up a con-
stant round of parties of different kinds in my house, and
gave a dinner at least once a week at which were gathered
companies of a most interestingly cosmopolitan character.
And we did not fail to observe all the desirable forms.
Both Filipinos and Europeans expect a certain amount of
ceremony from the representatives of government and are
not at all impressed by "democratic simplicity** ; so believ-
ing in the adage about Rome and the Romans, we did what
we could. Beside the spic and span guard at the outer
gate of the illuminated garden, we always, on dinner party
nights, stationed coachmen, or other stable boys disguised
as liveried footmen, on either side of the entrance, to re-
ceive guests and conduct them to the dressing-rooms, and
up the stairs to the reception room.

Our house was nicely adapted for a dinner of twelve and
I usually tried to confine mjrself to that number. We al-
ways had an orchestra, orchestras being very plentiful in
Manila where nearly every native plajrs some sort of in-
strument, and the music added greatly to the festive air of
things, which was enhanced, too, by a certain oriental at-
mosphere, with many Japanese lanterns and a profusion of
potted plants and great, hanging, natural ferneries and
orchids which were brought in from the forests by the Fili-
pinos and sold on the streets.

My husband is supposed to be the author of the phrase :
"our little brown brothers" — and perhaps he is. It did not
meet the approval of the army, and the soldiers used to have
a song which they sang with great gusto and frequency and
which ended with the conciliating sentiment : "He may be
a brother of William H. Taft, but he ain't no friend of
mine !"

We insisted upon complete racial equality for the Fili-

pmos, and from the beginning there were a great many of

them among our callers and guests. Their manners are

125

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

models of real courtesy, and, while their customs are not
always like ours, wherever they are able they manifest a
great willingness to be conforme^ — ^to adapt themselves, —
and their hospitality is unbounded.

I shall never forget my first call from a Filipino family.
They arrived shortly after six in the evening: el senor, la
sefiora and four senoritas. We went through a solemn
and ceremonious handshaking all around. I received them
first, then passed them on to my husband who, in turn,
passed them on with a genial introduction to my sister
Maria. We had been sitting on the verandah, and when a
semi-circle of chairs had been arranged, the six of them sat
down; el seiior noisily cleared his throat a couple of times
while the ladies calmly folded their little hands in their
laps and assumed an air of great repose. It was as if they
had no intention of taking any part whatever in the con-
versation.

El seiior explained in Spanish that they were our near
neighbours and that they had called merely to pay their
respects. Mr. Taft had been studying Spanish diligently
ever since he left the United States, but he is not conspicu-
ously gifted as a linguist, and he had not yet waked up —
as he so often expressed a wish that he might — to find him-
self a true Castilian. However, his ready laugh and the
cordiality of his manners have alwajrs had a peculiar charm
for the Filipinos, and he was able on this occasion, as he
was on many future ones, to carry off the situation very
well. We all nodded and smiled and said, "Si Seiior*' and
"Si Seiiora," to long and no telling what kind of speeches
from our guests; then Maria and I complimented the ladies
on their beautifully embroidered camisas^ which started
things off properly. They praised everything in si^t, and
what we didn't get through the little Spanish we knew, we
got from gesture and facial expression. They got up and

wandered all around, feeling of my Japanese tapestries and

126

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

embroideries, breathing long "ahs !" of admiration over my
gold screens and pictures and curios, and acting generally
like callers who were being very well entertained. Then
the children came in and they broke out afresh in voluble
praise of them. I assumed the proper deprecatory mien in
response to their laudation of my children, and altogether I
felt that we were acquitting ourselves rather well in this
first inter-racial social experience.

But at the end of half an hour the strain was getting a
little severe and I was wondering what to do next, when
our six callers arose and said they must be going. I
breathed an inward sigh of relief and was making ready to
escort them to the top of the stairs, when my husband cor-
dially exclaimed:

'"Why, no! Torque? Tenemos bastante tiempo. Why
hurry ?" And — ^they — ^all — sat — down !

I regretted then even the little Spanish Mr. Taft had
learned, though, of course, he didn't expect them to heed
his polite protest. He knew nothing at all about Filipino
manners; he didn't know they expected to receive some
sign from him when it was time to go and that they would
consider it discourteous to go while he was urging them to
stay. He kept up, without much assistance, a brave if
laboured conversation, and the minutes slowly passed.
Our dinner hour approached and I darted warning glances
at him, for I had a horrible fear that he just might ask
them to remain and dine. But at the end of another hour
a strained expression began to spread itself over even his
face, and there was not a word of protest from him when,
at a quarter past eight, our little brown neighbours once
more indicated an intention of going home. We enter-
tained Filipino callers nearly every day after that, but never
again did we urge them to reconsider their sometimes tardy
decision to depart.

With regard to Filipino manners and customs; I am re-

127

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

minded that we were nonplussed, though greatly amused
by the costumbre del pais which decreed that some return
be made by a Filipino for any and all favours bestowed
upon him. We grew accustomed to this before we left
the Islands, and came to expect a few offerings of sorts
almost any day in the week, but in the beginning it was
usually most embarrassing.

One time, soon after our arrival, a very loyal American-
ista was shot down in the street, during the peaceful dis-
charge of his duty, by an insurrecto. His widow, with her
children, came into Manila in a state of utter destitution,
to secure some recompense from the government for her
husband's services, and while her case was pending Mr*
Taft, in great pity for her, sent her money enough to live
on. The next day the whole family, from the wide-eyed
boy to the babe carried astride the mother's hip, came to
call on their benefactor, bringing with them as a gift a
basket containing a few eggs, some strange Philippine
fruits and a lot of sea-shells. Mr. Taft was deeply touched,
and with the brusqueness of a man who is touched, he told
her he had given her the money to buy food for herself and
her children and not for him, and he refused her offering.
I know, by the light of a fuller knowledge of the character
of the lowly Filipino, that she went away feeling very
much cast down.

But in connection with such gifts there were always more
laughs than sighs. We invited to limcheon one day a
dashing Filipino named Tomaso del Rosario. Seiior
Rosario, a man of wealth and prominence who had a fine
Spanish education and was well dressed in the high-col-
lared, patent-leathered and immaculate-linened Spanish
style, was quite self-confident and enjoyed himself very
much. He seemed attracted to Maria and she, being lin-
guistic, was able to talk to him in a mixture of many lan-
guages. The next day she received from Sefior Rosario,

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

not a floral offering, but a basket filled with nuts, a canned
plum-pudding, some canned chocolates and preserved fruits.
This attention did not seem so remarkable, however, when
we learned, to our amusement, that he had sent exactly the
same present to Alice Worcester, then five years old.

Our life, on the whole, was intensely interesting in its
unusual atmosphere and curious complications, but through-
out everything we were made to feel the deep significance
of our presence in the Islands; and the work of the Com-
mission was first, last and alwa3rs to us the subject of the
greatest moment. Even in our daily round of social af-
fairs we dealt with tremendous problems whpse correct solu-
tion meant the restoration of peace and prosperity to what
then should have been, and what we knew could be made,
a great country. That for which the American flag had
alwaj^ stood began to assume, for many of us, a broader and
a finer meaning; and being so much a part of our flag's
mission in a strange field a certain zest was added to our
patriotism which we had never felt before. I believe, and
I think all those who know the truth believe, that Ameri-
canism, in its highest conception, has never been more finely
demonstrated than in the work done by the United States
in the Philippine Islands; work, the broad foundation for
which the Commission was engaged in constructing during
the period of which I write.

So many were the problems to be met and dealt with that
in the beginning the Commissioners were each given a set
of subjects for investigation and study, their findings being
submitted for debate and consideration in the general meet-
ings.

Taxation, civil service, provincial and mimicipal organi-
sation, currency and finance, police, harbour improvements,
roads and railways, customs, postal service, education,
health, public lands, an honest judiciary and the revision

of the code of laws ; these were some of the vital problems,

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

but underlying them all was the immediate necessity for
the establishment of tranquillity and confidence through-
out the archipelago.

In order to make clear, in any degree, the Philippine
situation as we foimd it, it is essential that, briefly, the
position of the Catholic Church and its representatives, the
Friars, be explained. For the first time in its history the
American government found itself compelled to adjust a
seemingly insurmountable difficulty between a church and
its people.

With us the Church is so completely separate from the
State that it is difficult to imagine cases in which the policy
of a church in the selection of its ministers, and the assign-
ment of them to duty could be regarded as of political mo-
ment, or as a proper subject of comment in the report of a
public officer, but in the first reports of the Philippine Com-
mission to Washington this subject had to be introduced
with emphasis.

The Spanish government of the Philippine Islands was
a government by the Church through its monastic orders,
nothing less. In the words of the Provincial of the Augus-
tinians, the Friars were the "pedestal or foundation of the
sovereignty of Spain" which being removed "the whole
structure would topple over." The Philippine people, with
the exception of the Mohammedan Moros and the non-
Christian tribes, belonged, during the Spanish dominion,
to the Roman Catholic Church, and the Church registry of
1898 showed a total membership of 6,559,998. The
parishes and missions, with few exceptions, were adminis-
tered by Spanish Friars of the Dominican, Augustinian and
Franciscan orders, and it was to the nature of this adminis-
tration that Spain owed the insurrections of 1896 and 1898,
the latter of which terminated only upon our assuming con-
trol of the islands.

In 1896 there were in the Philippines 1,124 monks of the

130

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Augustinian, Dominican and Franciscan orders, which body
included a company of RecoUetos, who are merely an off-
shoot of the order of Sl Augustine and differ from the
Augustinians only in that they are unshod. In addition to
these there were a few Jesuits, Capuchins, Benedictines and
Paulists, but they engaged in mission and educational work
only and did not share with the other orders the resentment
and hatred of the people. Filipinos were not admitted to
any of the orders, but they were made friar curates and
served as parish priests in some of the smaller places.

When a Spanish Friar curate was once settled in a parish
he remained there for life, or until he was too old for serv-
ice, and because of this fact he was able to establish and
maintain an absolutism which is difficult to explain in a
few words. He was simply everything in his parish. As
a rule he was the only man of education who knew both
Spanish and the native dialect of his district, and in many
parishes he was the only Spanish representative of the gov-
ernment. In the beginning, through his position as spirit-
ual guide, he acted as intermediary in secular matters
between his people and the rest of the world, and eventu-
ally, by law, he came to discharge many civil functions and
to supervise, correct or veto everything which was done,
or was sought to be done in his pueblo.

He was Inspector of Primary Schools, President of the
Board of Health and the Board of Charities, President of
the Board of Urban Taxation, Inspector of Taxation,
President of the Board of Public Works, Member of the
Provincial Coimcil, Member of the Board for Partitioniag
Crown Landg, Censor of Municipal Budgets, and Censor of
plays, comedies or dramas in the dialect of his parish, de-
ciding whether or not these were against the public peace
or morals. In a word, he was the government of his par-
ish; and in addition to all things else, it was he who,
once a year, went to the parish register, wrote on slips of

131

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

paper the names of all boys who had reached the age of
twenty, and putting these into a receptacle, drew them out
one by one and called every fifth man for military service.
So hateful was this forced duty to the Filipino youths that
many of them would run away into the mountains and hide,
become outlaws in order to escape it. But the civil guard
would go after them and when they were captured they
would be put in jail and watched until they could be sent
to their capital.

The monastic orders had behind them a powerful church
organisation the heads of which took an active and official
part in the administration of government. The Archbishop
and the Bishops formed part of what was known in Manila
as the Board of Authorities ; and they, with the Provincials
of the orders, belonged to the Council of Administration,
a body analogous to the Council of State in Spain or France,
charged with advising the Grovemor Greneral on matters
of urgent moment, or in times of crises. The Friars,
Priests and Bishops constituted a solid, permanent and well-
organised political force which dominated all insular pol-
icies, and the stay in the islands of the civil or military
officer who attempted to pursue a course at variance with
that deemed wise by the orders, was invariably shortened
by monastic influence. Each order had in Madrid a repre-
sentative through whom the Court of Spain easily could be
reached without the intervention of any authority.

Upon the morals of the Friars I can only touch. That
some of them brought up families of sons and dau^ters
is beyond question. Such were guilty of violating their vows
of celibacy rather than of debauchery. On this point the
moral standard of the Filipino people was not rigid, and
women were rather proud than otherwise of the parentage of
their Friar-fathered children who were often brighter, better
looking and more successful than the average Filipino. The
truth is that this charge was urged with more eagerness and

13^

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

emphasis after the Filipinos began to appeal to the American
government than during Spanish times, and when the stand-
ard of morality in the Filipino priesthood of the period
was considered, it seemed as if the accusers thought the
charge would have more weight with those they sought to
influence than it did with themselves.

The three great orders of St. Francis, St. Augustine and
Sl Dominic owned, in different parts of the Islands, more
than 400,000 acres of the best agricultural land, and this
they rented out in small parcels to the people. Their in-
come from these immense holdings was not what a prudent
and energetic landlord would have realised, but they paid
no taxes, while the Filipino was taxed in every possible
way.

In the province of Cavite alone the Friar estates
amoimted to 131,747 acres, and it was in the province of
Cavite, which is just across the bay from Manila, that the
two insurrections against Spain, or rather against Friar
domination, began.

When we arrived in Manila all but 472 of the 1,124
Friars had either been killed or had fled the country. In
each of the uprisings many of them lost their lives, and
many more were taken prisoners. Indeed, the last of them
were not released until the rapid advance of the American
troops in our own encounter with the insurrectos made it
necessary for the insurgent army to abandon all unneces-
sary impedimenta. All the Friars remaining in the Is-
lands had taken refuge in Manila.

Strange to say, this resentment against the Friars inter-
fered in no way with the Filipino's love for the Church.
With a strong and real emotion he loves the religion which
has been given him ; and the elaborate and beautiful forms
of the Roman Catholic Church are calculated, especially,
to make a powerful appeal to his mind. It is really an as-
tonishing commentary on the character of these people that

133

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

they should be able to rise against the men who administered
the sacraments which they so deeply loved and revered.
Or, is it more of a commentary on the conditions which
caused the uprisings?

Without exception the Spanish Friars had been driven
from their parishes, and the most burning of all the bum-
ing political questions which the Commission met and had
to settle, was whether or not they should be permitted to
return. It was impossible to make the people imderstand
that the government of the United States and the govem-
ment of Spain were two different matters, and that if the
Friars were returned to their parishes they would exercise
no secular functions of any kind. The people had the pro-
verbial dread of the "burnt child'' and no amount or kind
of reasoning could move them from the position they had
taken, nor could any of them, from the highest to the low-
est, talk calmly and rationally about the subject. The one
point upon which the Filipinos were united was that the
Friars should never be reinstated.

Universal agitation, uneasiness, fear, hatred, a memory
of wrongs too recently resented and resented at too great a
cost ; these were the factors which made necessary the stand
which the Commission finally adopted. The question with
the Friars became one, largely, of getting value for their
property, their title to which was never seriously disputed,
and it was decided that on condition of their leaving the
Islands, the insular government would undertake the pur-
chase of their vast estates. The intention was then to make
some arrangement whereby the lands might be sold back
to the people in homestead tracts, and on terms which the
poorest man might be able, in time, to meet.

It was to negotiate this transaction, involving the expen-
diture of $7,ocx),ooo that my husband was sent to Rome
the following year as an emissary of the United States
government to the Vatican. This was in the time of Pope

134

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Leo, and it made a most interesting experience which I shall
detail in another chapter.

The first thing, really, that the Commission imdertook
when they arrived in Manila, was the settlement of a defi-
nite dispute between the Church and the People as to which
had the right to administer the aflfairs of the Medical Col-
lege of San Jose. Their manner of procedure in this case
instituted in the Islands a new and never-before-thought-of
system of evenly balanced justice, and made a tremendous
sensation.

The case was called: "T. H. Pardo de Tavera, and
others, for themselves and other inhabitants of the Philip-
pine Islands — against — ^The Rector of the University of
Santo Tomas, a Dominican monk, and the Holy Roman
Apostolic Catholic Church, represented by the Most Rever-
end, the Archbishop of Manila, and the Most Reverend, the
Archbishop of New Orleans, Apostolic Delegate." Its im-
portance, under the conditions then existing, can hardly
be exaggerated.

San Jose was one of the oldest institutions in the Islands ;
it was founded, as a matter of fact, in 1601, by virtue of a
legacy left by a Spanish Provincial Governor named Figu-
eroa who provided ihat it should always be managed by
the head of the Jesuits in the Islands. It was originally a
college for the education of Spanish boys, but through va-
rious vicissitudes, including the expulsion of the Jesuits in
1766, it had changed from one thing to another until,
finally, it had become a college of physicians and pharmacists
and was made a department of the University of Santo
Tomas, the Rector of which was a Dominican Friar. One
of the Philips had granted to the college a Royal charter,
and within the last hundred years the Crown had asserted
its right of control. So when the American government
took over all the public property in the Philippines, Gren-
eral Otis closed San Jose, but he did not issue an order as

135

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

to its management. The Church was petitioning for a resti-
tution of what it regarded as its rights in the property, and
the Commission was called upon to settle the controversy.

They conducted their examinations in open meetings so
that all might see the full and free workings of a wholly
equitable system, and the Filipinos were enabled to behold,
for the first time, the, to them, astonishing spectacle of high
ecclesiastics presenting in open court the arguments upon
which they based their claims.

The first hearing Mr. Taft describes as "an historic
scene."

"There were the two Archbishops in their archiepiscopal
cassocks," he writes, "with purple girdles and diamond
crosses, accompanied by a Secretary of the Dominican order
robed in white; while opposed was a Filipino lawyer, Don
Felipe Calderon, who derived his education in the Univer-
sity of Santo Tomas. Accompanying him were a lot of
young Filipino students and others of the Medical Associa-
tion interested in wresting San Jose from the University.
The Archbishop of Manila made a speech in which he was
unable to restrain the feeling of evident pain that he had in
finding the rights of the Church challenged in this Catholic
country. He made a very dignified appearance."

And at the second hearing:

"Both Archbishops were again present, and the same
scene was re-enacted except that we had rather more of a
formal hearing. We had them seated on opposite sides of
a table, just as we do in court at home, and had seats for the
spectators.

"Seiior Don Felipe Calderon, who represents the Philip-
pine people, was given an opportunity to make the first
speech. He had printed his argument and read it, having
given us translated copies with which we followed him.
His argument was a very strong one, lawyer-like and well-
conceived, but he weakened it by some vicious remarks about

136

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

the Dominican order. The Archbishop of Manila, once or
twice, felt so much outraged at what he said that he at-
tempted to rise, but Archbishop Chapelle prevented him from
doing so. At the close of the argument Monsignor Chapelle
asked for ten days in which to prepare an answer and we
granted him two weeks. The scene was one I shall always
carry with me as marking an interesting period in my Phil-
ippine experience."

The Commission did not settle the question. After care-
ful consideration and many hearings, they left the property
in the hands of the Dominicans, but appointed a Board of
Trustees to prepare and present an appeal to the Supreme
Court of the Islands, appropriating at the same time, five
thousand dollars to pay the expenses of the litigation.

Archbishop Chapelle did not like this decision and tele-
graphed to Secretary Root asking him to withhold his
approval. Then he asked the Commission to modify the
law and give him an opportunity, in case the decision in the
Supreme Court should go against the Church, to appeal to
the Congress of the United States. This the Commission
refused to do on good and sufficient grounds, whereupon
the Archbishop cabled to the President, declaring that the
decision as it stood would retard pacification. Although he
had always been strongly opposed to the continuation of mil-
itary government, we were much amused to learn that in his
cable to the President he took occasion to remark, signifi-
cantly, that "Greneral MacArthur is doing splendidly."

But if Archbishop Chapelle was displeased with the ac-
tion of the Ccxiunission, the Filipino press was delighted,
and the editorial encomiums heaped upon them can only
be described as brilliant. The Diario de Manila^ the next
morning, was absolutely unable to express itself, and it
concluded a more or less incoherently eulogistic editorial
with the words: "The decision satisfies everybody; it
raises a question which threatened to drag itself over the

137

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

hot sands we tread, cleanses it of all impurities, and makes
it the beginning and the end of a most transcendental prin-
ciple of sovereignty and law." The Filipino or Spanish
editor is nothing if he is not hyperbolic.

When we arrived in Manila it was a source of great worry
to us that we could not send our children, eight and ten
years old, to school. The Jesuits had a school for boys in
the Walled City, and Mr. Taf t considered for awhile the
possibility of sending Robert there, where he might, at
least, leam Spanish; but so strong was the feeling against
the Friars that this would have been taken by the people
as a certain indication that the President of the Commission
was leaning toward the Church in his deliberations on the
vital t>iibject. As I have said, they could not look upon
this question, in any of its bearings, in a reasonable li^t.

We eventually settled Helen in a convent where she made
an effort to leam Spanish, and Robert we tumed over to
Mrs. LeRoy, the wife of Mr. Worcester's Secretary, who
was a graduate from the University of Michigan and a
most excellent teacher.

Mr. and Mrs. LeRoy went to the Philippines as bride
and groom. They were classmates, graduated together,
and this was their first big venture into the world. They
were a valued part of our litde pioneer circle, and it was
with the greatest dismay that we leamed, after about two
years in the Islands, that Mr. LeRoy had developed tuber-
culosis. He had either brought the germs with him from
the United States or had contracted the disease there,
where, indeed, it is most prevalent. He continued to act
as Secretary for Mr. Worcester beyond the time when he
should have gone to another climate to devote himself to
a cure, but finally, when he realised that the sentence was
upon him, he decided to leave the Islands, and my husband
was able to secure for him, because of his splendid efficiency,
a position in the Consular service under Mr. Hay, at Dur-

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

ango, Mexico. This post was chosen because it is in a dry,
mountainous region where the ravages of tuberculosis are
supposed to be checked.

Mr. LeRoy was an exceedingly well-informed and stu-
dious man. He was a natural linguist, spoke Spanish with
ease, and soon was able to acquire enough Tagalog to en-
able him to go among the people and get their point of view
at first hand. He immediately became interested in writ-
ing a history of the Islands and wanted much to go to Spain
to examine Spanish-Philippine documents at Seville and
other places, but he was never able to do so.

In the days when de^th faced him in New Mexico,
whither he had gone after leaving Durango, he wrote, as
Grant wrote, on a book which he hoped might furnish some
means to his wife after his death. He died before he was
able to complete what Mr. Taft says is a very accurate,
comprehensive and interesting history of the Archipelago
from the beginning down to, and including, Dewey's vic-
tory, the taking of Manila and the work of the first Com-
mission. He had planned to give a full account of the
work of the second Commission, with which he was so
intimately connected, but his pen dropped before his pur-
pose was fulfilled. His history has been only recently
published.

Mrs. LeRoy later went to Washington, and Mr. Taft
appointed her to one of the few clerical positions not covered
by the Civil Service law. This is in the Land Office where
she signs the President's name to land patents. She is the
only person in the government who has the right and power,
^ven by special act of Congress, to sign the President's
name to a document

Throughout the autumn of 1900 the insurrection dragged
itself along; behind any bush the American soldiers were
likely to find a lurking "patriot"; and the uncensored re-
ports of the *1>rave stand" of the Filipinos were being sent

139

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

out daily by Democratic reporters, to help along the anti-
expansi(Miist cause, represented by Mr, Bryan, in the United
States.

The insurrectos were being assured by their incitants to
violence that the eyes of the world were upon them. They
were being told that they were winning undying renown
throughout the civilised universe; and they believed it.
They read with avidity all the anti-imperialistic newspapers
which came out to the Islands and accepted as a true esti-
mate of themselves the laudations therein contained. Be-
sides, the promoters of the insurrection pretended to trans-
late from other languages still more extravagant praises,
and they certainly were enjoying a most exalted opinion of
themselves.

We understood that Aguinaldo was trying to concentrate
for one spectacular move shortly before election, in order
to add to the chances of a Democratic victory ; and there was
some cause for alarm. The Filipinos are bom politicians
and many of them knew much more about the campaign
between Bryan and McKinley than the Americans in the
Islands knew.

Apropos of this: Archbishop Chapelle told Mr. Taft
that Aguinaldo had, through Archbishop Nozaleda, re-
quested an interview with him. Monsignor Chapelle went
to General MacArthur and asked that Aguinaldo be al-
lowed to enter Manila. The General readily gave his con-
sent, and even offered the revolutionary Dictator the hospi-
tality of his own roof. Aguinaldo, in due military form, ac-
knowledged this courtesy and fixed the time for his arrival in
Manila. He clearly indicated that he was discouraged and
had decided to solicit permission, through Archbishop
Chapelle, to leave the Islands. But just then the news of
Bryants plan for calling an extra session of Congress to
settle Philippine independence came out, so the insurgent

general sent word that he had decided not to come. No

140

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

American knew just where he was, but he probably got
the papers and telegrams just as soon as any of us.

I remember the sixth of November as a very nervous day.
We had received all manner of reports from home ; we were
so far away that mail and newspapers were a month old
when they reached us; and the cable reports had been con-
tradictory in the extreme. We really were on our tiptoes
with excitement. And the worst of it was that because of
the thirteen hours* diflFerence in time between Washington
and Manila, we lived through the day knowing that the
United States was asleep, and went to bed just about the
time voters began to go to the polls. We kept getting all
manner of doubtful telegrams throughout the next morn-
ing— ^when it was night in the United States and the votes
were being counted — ^but just at one o'clock, as we went to
lunch, Mr. Taft received a despatch from General Corbin
in accordance with his previous agreement. It read:
"Taft Manila McKinley Corbin." It had been sent from
the War Department in Washington at eleven o'clock the
night of the election and had taken just forty-five minutes
in transmission. This was record time for a cablegram
then between Washington and Manila, despatches having
to be sent by numerous relays.

H»

CHAPTER VII

''days of the empire"

There was a trying period of unrest and uncertainty in our
early experience in the Philippines, during which we lived
in a state of suspense which can hardly be described ; a state
of suspense which included among its various elements the
excitement of an intermittent guerilla warfare and frequent
threats of native uprisings in Manila. Established order
and a fixed governmental policy, so necessary to the tran-
quillity of the normal citizen, were non-existent, and one
experienced a sense of complete detachment which made
plans for even the immediate future seem entirely futile.
To unpack all one's things; to establish a satisfactory home
and give one's attention to its omamentation ; to supply
one's self with the necessities of a long residence in the
tropics; in other words, to settle down to the pursuit of a
usual mode of existence; all these things had to be done,
but, needless to say, they were not done with the enthusiasm
incident to a feeling of permanence, nor did such enthusi-
asm begin to manifest itself in the local atmosphere until
after the re-election of Mr. McKinley in 1900 when it be-
came certain that the American flag was in the islands to
stay as long as its presence there should be deemed requisite
to the peaceful development of the country and the fitting
of the people for self government.

There were those who saw long years ahead, — ^not all
Americans, by any means, — ^and soon the American spirit
began to make itself felt in business, in schemes of civic
progress, in social life, in everything. We were there for
a purpose which was at last defined, so we cheerfully canr
fronted chaos and went to work.

We were sorry to note that the election of Mr. McKinley

and the consequent establishment of the American status

142

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

in the Philippines did not change the military attitude to-
ward the manner of solving the governmental problems.
The Conunission was definitely pledged to the rapid adjust-
ment of affairs on a civil and generally representative basis,
but the military authorities still maintained that military
rule would continue to be a necessity for an indefinite period.

However, the Civil Commission went on its way map-
ping out a programme of peaceful pacification and carrying
it into effect as promptly as possible, while its activities
engaged universal attention and formed the chief topic
of conversation wherever two or more people were met to-
gether. Society became frivolous enough, but nobody ever
got very far away from the questions of absorbing interest
with which many of us were so closely associated.

Our first Christmas surely would have saddened us in
our peculiar exile had we been able to realise its approach,
but this was not possible. The "Christmas spirit" does not
thrive in a temperature of eighty-odd degrees, and I think
I would have taken little interest in preparations for the
holidays had not my children been there to remind me that
Christmas is Christmas no matter what the thermometer
may say about it. It was still the most important day in
the year for them and it was almost pathetic to see diem
trying to defeat the climate through sheer force of their
imaginations. It was a "green Christmas" with a ven-
geance, and very hot.

Our friends at home had not forgotten that we were more
than a month's joumey away and letters began to arrive as
early as November in each of which some mention was made
of a box which would be sent from Cincinnati in time to
reach us before Christmas and, naturally, we began at once
to imagine its contents. For weeks our children's favourite
amusement was exchanging guesses as to what sort of gifts
their affectionate relatives had sent them. Nor were their
Aimt Maria and I any less excited. There were transports

143

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

every two weeks in those days and we were not at all dis*
appointed not to receive our box on the early December
ship. There would be another one in on Christmas day and
it would be much nicer, we thought, to get it then, and
never a doubt did we have that it would come. Mr. Taft
had a messenger ready to get it and bring it to the house
as soon as it could be landed.

From our balcony we watched the transport steam up the
bay; we felt the interest that only a Christmas box from
home, ten thousand miles away, could excite; we forgot
that it was eighty in the shade; it was really Christmas.
We waited as patiently as we could for our messenger, but
when he arrived he had only sympathy to offer us. The
box had not come. It was a most depressing disappoint-
ment, and the children were inconsolable. However, every-
body cheered up about dinner time. I had done what I
could with red ribbons and greenery, with cotton wool and
diamond dust to create the proper atmosphere ; then we had
invited a number of homeless yoimg secretaries and others to
take Christmas cheer with us, and though the cold storage
turkey was tough and the cranberry sauce and plum-pudding
were from Commissary cans, we managed a near approach
to a Yuletide air, and little Charlie went to bed with his
Escolta toys quite as happy as he would have been had he
been at home in his own country. I assured the three chil-
dren that the box from home would come in on the next
transport and promised that we would then have Christmas
all over again. But I reckoned without knowledge of the
shipping methods of the transport service. Transports
came and transports went; our hopes were dashed to earth
any number of times and it was endless weeks before our
carefully prepared and holly-decked presents finally arrived.

On New Year's morning General MacArthur gave a

reception at Malacanan Palace. It was such an affair as is

spoken of in social circles everywhere as "the event of the

144

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

season/' It was a very special event to all the members of
the Commission and their families, because not one of us had
ever been invited to the Palace before.

There was much discussion of the serious subject as to
what the civil government officials should wear at the New
Year's reception and, if gossip can be relied upon, it came
very near causing several family riots. The men naturally
inclined toward the comfort of their white linens, but they
were overcome by argument and it was eventually decreed
that they should present themselves in frock coats and silk
hats. This may sound reasonable, but it wasn't. It was
intensely funny, however, and that helped some. A silk
hat which has reposed in a box throughout a rainy season in
the Philippines is a curious object. It is not the glossy, well
turned and dignified article which a silk hat should be. Its
rim is warped, its nap is dulled and roughed beyond repair ;
it is very sticky, and it has an odour all its own. In Judge
Ide's hat some mice had made a nest and had eaten a small
hole through its one-time shiny crown, but it was the only
one he had and, as silk hats are not carried in Philippine
shops, he had, perforce, to wear it.

My husband communed with himself during the process
of getting into his heavy frock coat with all its stiff and its
woollen accessories, — for the first time in seven months and
in the bright white heat of a tropic morning, — but we were
finally ready and on the way, in our diminutive Victoria
behind the prancing black stallion ponies of uncertain dis-
position.

When we arrived at Malacaiian, quite early as we thought,
we found ourselves in a long block of carriages which moved
up slowly and, one by one, discharged their occupants under
the porte-cochere of the Palace. Considerations pf rank and
precedence had escaped our minds for the moment and this
was evidently a very important matter. However, we
found a capable staff of military aides who knew just where

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

everybody belonged, and they adopted the method of mar-
shalling the crowds mto a room on the first floor and letting
them out in the proper order of precedence. In consequence
we found a more or less annoyed throng awaiting our arrival.
We had plenty of rank, my husband being the ranking civil
ofBcer in the Islands, but as everybody in Manila had been
invited, the process of forming the line was a long and
laborious one and many were the caustic comments of the
delayed and rankless' multitude. It reminded one forcibly
of similar receptions at the White House, except that in
Washington everybody knows the rules of precedence gov-
erning diplomatic circles and recognises the necessity for
following them, while in Manila it was a departure which
did not meet with full and general approval.

Greneral MacArthur and his staff were receiving at the
head of the grand staircase on the second floor, and, as the
spacious rooms became filled with military men in dress uni-
forms, with gaily attired women and black-coated civilians,
the scene was sufficiently dignified to make one feel that a
brilliant local society was an established fact. But there
was no denying that it was hot and that the Army officers
in trim white duck had the frock-coated, camphor-ball-
scented and profusely perspiring civil government officials
at a disadvantage.

Nowdays — and always after that first experiment — the

man in a temperate-zone costume is a sadly conspicuous

figure at a social gathering in Manila. The accepted formal

evening dress is white linen with either a short mess jacket

or a dinner coat of the usual pattern, while for moming or

af temoon affairs a man may wear anything his laundryman

can turn out for him. As a matter of fact, in the early days

in Manila women, as well as men, enjoyed emancipation

from the tyranny of clothes. It was a case of discovering

how unnecessary many supposed necessities are. There

were no fashionable gowns to be had, therefore sim-

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

plicity, or a more or less mndownedness of one-time respect-
ability, became the fashion. There were no hat shops,
so women ceased to wear hats. We went shopping on
the Escolta in the early morning hatless; we went to
Imicheon parties hatless, and in the later aftemoon we
made our calls and drove on the Luneta minus the mil-
linery which is considered so dear to a woman's heart. I do
not say that the women liked it; there were many plaintive
protests ; but it was one of the crosses of their environment
which saved them numerous jealous pangs as well as much
expense. It is different now. The importer of fashionable
millinery and sumptuous garments has invaded the field
and the women in Manila to-day are about as finely gowned
and hatted as they are anywhere, but I doubt if they are as
care-free and comfortable as we were in "the days of the
Empire."

It was expected that the New Yearns reception at Mala-
cafian was intended to inaugurate a gay season of hospitality
at the Palace, as General MacArthur announced a dinner
and reception to follow early in January. But they were
unquiet times ; for various reasons there were many postpone-
ments; then came the death of Queen Victoria, whereupon
the British community went into mourning, and, as it was
deemed courteous to observe a period, of social inactivity, it
was many weeks before we again went to Malacaiian.

The campaign of pacification, due to the election of
McKinley, the activity of the army, and the actual legisla-
tion and organisation work of the Commission, was making
great progress throughout the Islands and hardly a day
passed that did not bring news of the capture or surrender of
insurgent officers and forces in the provinces, while in Manila
they were being arrested and imprisoned by the hundreds.
They were given an opportunity to take the oath of allegi-
ance and those who persisted in their refusal to do so were
banished to Guam. This vigorous policy was having a

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

marked effect upon the spirit of the insurrection and it was
rapidly approaching total collapse.

The peace movement was greatly assisted, too, by the ac-
tivities of the Federal party, a strong political organisation,
pledged to the acceptance of American control and American
principles, which numbered among its leaders and adherents
many of the best men in the Philippines. In its directory
were Chief Justice Arellano, Don Benito Legarda, Dr. Pardo
de Tavera and (Jeneral Ambrosio Flores, a one-time leader
of the insurrection.

Perhaps the most extraordinary demonstration any of us
ever saw in Manila took place on Washington's birthday
in 1901. The Commission had already begun its long task
of instituting provincial and municipal governments and its
members had just retumed from a trip into the country north
of Manila where they had been received with great enthusi-
asm, and where the people had shown every indication of a
glad determination to stop all hostilities and settle down to
peaceful pursuits under the representative and democratic
system which the Commission was inaugurating.

On the evening of February 20, General MacArthur gave
a splendid reception at Malacaflan, where Americans and
Filipinos mingled together in perfect amity, the Filipinos
being in the majority. They seemed greatly pleased with
the spirit of the occasion which served to demonstrate in a
particular manner the fact that America was in the Philip-
pines as a friend rather than as an arbitrary ruler; that there
was to be none of the familiar colour or race prejudice, so far
as we were concerned, in the association of the two peoples ;
that the best thing to do was to acknowledge a mutud as-
piration and strive for its fulfilment in friendly co-opera-
tion; and there was a heart-lift for us all, Americans and
Filipinos alike, in the whole tone of the evening. On the
night of the 21st, the Partido Federal gave a famous dinner

at a new hotel where a French chef prepared the menu.

148

FB.VJ.tf;fS,,.„.„, „

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Before this my husband had jokingly written to Secretary
Root that he thought some sort of pension should be pro-
vided for the widows and orphans of the men who fell in
action before the fearful onslaughts of native hospitality,
but at the banquet of the Federal party there were none of
those mysterious viands to which the Commissioners had
been trying to accustom themselves in the provinces, and in
consequence the quality of mutual enjoyment was not
strained, the Filipino, imlike the Japanese, being as fond of
foreign cookery as he is of his own. The speeches were all
of the friendliest character and the "dove of peace," verily,
seemed to be hovering near.

The next morning, the 22nd of February, the Federal
party, many thousands strong, marched through a flag-
decked city to the Luneta where a speakers* stand had been
erected for the celebration of the day. There were scores of
bands, each, as usual, playing its own tune in its own way
regardless of what the others were doing; the populace,
in its gayest attire, crowded in the wake of the procession;
the spirit of festivity was rampant; and altogether it was a
most interesting scene.

As close as ten thousand people could get to a speakers'
stand ten thousand people massed themselves, and they
listened in respectful silence to the words of both the Ameri-
can and Filipino speakers, each one of whom made a spirited
appeal for peaceful co-operation in the solution of the prob-
lem which America had acquired through no fault or desire
of her own and which she could not, in honour, abandon.
General Wright was the American speaker of the day and the
frank friendliness of his speech was translated, paragraph by
paragraph as he delivered it, by Mr. Arthur Fergusson, the
Secretary-interpreter for the Commission, whose extraordi-
nary command of Spanish made it possible for him not only
to translate the words themselves, but to infuse into them
the poetic fervour of the Spanish tongue. Never was Wash-

149

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

ington's birthday so celebrated, and it marked a new era of
mutual toleration which was to grow into sympathetic
understanding disturbed only by the agitation of the few
whose aspirations were in no way in those days shared or
condoned by the many.

The method adopted by the Commission for organising
provincial govenunents was extremely simple. The people
were instructed to send delegates from all the towns in a
province to meet the Commission on a given date at the
provincial capital. Having gathered this popular assembly
in the largest available hall Mr. Taf t, or some other member
of the Commission, would proceed to read and explain the
new Provincial Code which covered every governmental
function and which provided for the appointment by the
Commission of a provincial governor, a treasurer and a sec-
retary. It was the intention of the Commission to name a
Filipino for governor in each province, thereby giving them
an immediate opportunity for the exercise of self-govern-
ment, but in several instances they were almost unanimously
petitioned by the people to appoint to this ofRce the Ameri-
can Army officer who had been in command in the district.
Considering the attitude of the Filipinos toward military
rule and their eagemess to substitute a purely civil form of
government, it was really astonishing that they should have
wished to retain any representative of the hated regime, but
personality counts for a great deal with the Filipinos, and
the Army officer who displayed tact and kindly justice in his
dealings with them was sure to win for himself a peculiar
popularity.

For treasurer an American was almost invariably chosen.
During Spanish times the Filipinos had not learned much
about the proper use of public f imds and they have had to
be very painstakingly taught that government money is for
government purposes only. To our poignant and everlast-
ing shame object lessons had to be given them by the drastic

150

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

punishment meted out to certain American treasurers who
were unable to resist temptation. The penalty prescribed
in Philippine law for the misuse of public funds or the falsi-
fication of a public document is terribly severe, and there is
a little band of white men ia Bilibid prison in Manila to-day
because of their venality and breach of trust. Our mission
in the Philippines is based upon the highest principles and
we have always striven to maintain a high moral tone in the
government personnel, so it is particularly painful to the
small American commimity when, as happened too often at
first, an American went wrong.

Though the Commission proceeded with the establishment
of civil government in a conspicuously simple manner as
much cannot be said of the Filipinos. They were bent upon
making the most of a rare opportunity for the enjoyment
of great and ceremonious festivity.

On the 23d of February, following the extraordinary
celebration of Washington's birthday, the Commission,
accompanied by a considerable number of prominent Fili-
pinos and by several of the ladies, took a government launch
and steamed across the Bay to the town of Ralanga, the
capital of the province of Bataan which lies directly opposite
Manila where the sun goes down in tropic splendour behind
the Meriveles Mountains. This trip was a new experience
for me and was the beginning of my long acquaintance with
Filipino hospitality.

As we approached the Bataan shore there were splashes
of brilliant colour all over the surface of the Bay, which, on
nearer view, tumed out to be the decorations of a great fleet
of hancas coming out to meet us. There must have been a
hundred or more and, while they were of all sizes, some of
them were large enough to hold twenty and thirty rowers.
The banca is a long, narrow dugout which usually looks as if
it were just about to sink. Some of these had outriggers,
some had not, but each and every one of them was loaded to

151

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

capacity, and each was covered with the most gorgeous deco-
rations. Bunting and paper flowers of every hue were mixed
with long pahn leaves and branches of bamboo and every-
thing in the nature of an omament that could possibly be
used, while from every angle and at every pouit fluttered
small American flags, some of them home-made and only ap-
proximately correct. Then there were two huge flat affairs
with decorated awnings over them which we found were
nothing less than rafts prepared for our own use, the water in
the little harbour being too shallow for our big steam launch.
These rafts were made of split bamboo flooring lashed to the
tops of large buncos and, though they looked exceedingly
imsafe, we found they would hold as many as could stand
upon them without being pushed over the edge.

In ten minutes this gay and imusual fleet had surrounded
us; the rafts came alongside and over our rails clambered
the reception committee, a half dozen Filipinos in more or
less nondescript, heavy black clothes with silk hats ! Where
these garments came from I have no idea. Most of the hats
looked like heirlooms, just as the silk hats of our own hus-
bands looked, but the chief concem of their owners seemed
to be their protection. Never have I seen silk hats so
cautiously handled.

Having got safely aboard the launch each man went
through a deliberate process of straightening himself out and
carefully adjusting his attire before he advanced to the stem
of the launch where we waited to receive him. Then there
were some set speeches of welcome in which the chief senti-
ment seemed to be that never had the province of Bataan
been so highly honoured and that, therefore, it and all it con-
tained was, with feelings inexpressible, laid at the feet of the
honourable Commission. Mr. Fergusson translated the flow-
ers and figures of oratory and all the soaring flights of senti-
mental generosity into literal Ejiglish, then, with equal

solemnity and impressiveness, he rendered Mr. Taft's mat-

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

ter-of-f act, though cordial, replies into a marvellous flow of
Spanish eloquence.

This formality disposed of, the reception committee
invited us to step upon the pavilioned raft and be wafted
ashore. It sounds like a dignified proceeding, but of course
it was not. We had to climb over the rails of the laimch
and, more or less, slide to a secure footing on the frail floor
of the curious craft. Contrary to my secret expectations it
kept afloat and we were soon landed at a little fishing
village down on the beach, where Army ambulances waited
to take us to the town of Balanga, a mile inland. Just out-
side of Balanga we passed under a great bamboo arch, the
sort of thing the Filipinos erect and ornament with great
skill and ingenuity. This one was so thickly decorated,
however, with small American flags that little of its intricate
frame-work was visible. A piece of white bunting stretched
across the top of it bore, in large letters, the inscription:
"Glory Honor to the Commission."

We drove into the town and found the place en fete. I
never saw so many American flags in one place in my life.
Four thousand of them had been bought in Manila for the
occasion ; and four thousand flags go a long way in decorat-
ing a small provincial town. There was not much of the
town left xmcovered.

When we got to the provincial building where the meet-
ing was to be held, we found all the delegates gathered from
the different villages a-tiptoe in an atmosphere of intense
excitement. Bataan had never been a rich province and
we discovered that few of the Filipinos understood Spanish.
They spoke only Tagalog. This was due to the fact that
the province had been for generations under the control of
the Dominican Friars who did not believe in encouraging the
natives to leam Spanish. In consequence, all the speeches
had to be translated from English to Spanish, from Spanish
to Tagalog, and vice versa. Felipe Calderon, the Manila

153

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

lawyer who handled the San Jose College case for the
People, acted as Tagalog interpreter, and I have often won-
dered just how much of the familiar Spanish hyperbole was
convertible into the phrases of that primitive language. It
made the proceedings very long and tedious, but we sat
through them and they finally came to an end with much
cheering for the newly appointed officials.

The Filipinos were greatly pleased at having the Commis-
sioners bring their wives and daughters along. It was
new to them and they were not slow to grasp its significance.
Much to the disgust of the military authorities present, we
all shook hands with everybody and assumed the friendliest
kind of attitude. That the Army officers did not ap-
prove of our cordiality toward the Filipinos can hardly be
wondered at. They had been subjected to the risks of a
campaign of ambush and assassination for many months,
and even then they were trying to bring in a band of about
one hundred and fifty insurrectos, with as many rifles, who
were hiding in the Meriveles Mountains and preying upon
the people ; so, it was natural for them to think that a policy
of disdain and severity was the only one suited to the appar-
ent unreliability and deceitfulness of the native. However,
these same officers very shortly admitted to us, though rather
unwillingly, that our mode of dealing with the people had
had an extraordinary effect on the general tone in Bataan.

It was about this time that President McKinley communi-
cated through Secretary Root the intention of the Adminis-
tration to abolish the military govemorship and to install a
civil Govemor under the power of the President as Com-
mander-in-Chief, and to create civil departments also.
When Mr. Taf t received a cable from Secretary Root advis-
ing him of this fact, he went to see Greneral MacArthur for
the purpose of discussing with him the mode of procedure
and to get his ideas as to how and when the transfer of
power should be made.

154

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

The General had begun to look upon the work of the Com-
mission from a somewhat less prejudiced angle and was by
this time freely admitting that the establishment of pro-
vincial and municipal governments was having a good effect.
He, of course, did not wish to surrender his power as military
governor and remain in the Islands in a less important po-
sition, but he thought somebody would soon be named to suc-
ceed him and that the proper time for the transfer was after
his successor arrived. Mr. Taft was going, with the other
members of the Coounission, on a long organising trip
through the southem islands, and he thought he could not
be ready for the adjustment of affairs before the end of
June, so it was decided that the civil Grovemor should be
inaugurated on the 4th of July, and my husband soon re-
ceived assurances that he would be asked to serve in that
capacity.

^55

CHAPTER VIII

AN HISTORIC TRIP

The Philippine Islands as mere territory do not seem to
have impressed themselves very forcibly upon the general
American mind, and the average person one talks with
really has but a vague concepti(Mi of their importance as re-
gards number and area. There are enthusiasts who do not
hesitate to declare for the edification of wondering friends
that there are more than three thousand islands in the
group, but it is necessary to explain that a vast majority of
these are mere dots upon the map not to be considered in
the sum total of habitable area. And yet the archipelago
is one of the finest on earth and not much smaller in point
of arable land than the whole Japanese island empire with
its fifty-odd millions of inhabitants.

It is a rather widely distributed territory and its popula-
tion, some seven millions six hundred thousand in number,
comprises a variety of peoples, each of which has its own
language and its own traditions, though all Christian Fil-
ipinos are much alike in general characteristics.

Personally to superintend the establishment of civil gov-
ernment throughout the Islands at a time when many of the
people were still in sympathy with armed resistance to our
authority was a tremendous task for the Commission to \m-
dertake, but it was thought that only through direct contact
could anything like sympathetic understanding be obtained.
Tranquillity had, as speedily as possible, to be restored, and
while the ungentle persuasion of armed force continued for
some time to be a necessity, the methods adopted by the civil
officials never failed to make a visible and lasting impres-
sion.

It was decided in the beginning that the ladies should

accompany the Commissioners on their long organising trip

156

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

through the southern islands and the success of our visit to
Bataan proved to us that as members of the govemmental
party we could make ourselves distinctly useful.

We wanted to get away much earlier than we did but the
exigencies of the still active military operations made it im-
possible for the Commanding General to supply us with a
transport, so it was not until the tenth of March that we
started out on what proved to be one of the most unique
expeditions of my life.

It begins to get very hot in the Philippines in March and
this being our first "hot season" in the Islands we felt it
particularly. It is always warm enough but there is a
variety in the temperature which one soon begins to appreci-
ate. From November to February it is almost always
delightful, just warm enough; and sometimes, in the even-
ings, cool enough for light wraps. But in March the heat
becomes intense and not imtil the rains begin in June or
July can anything pleasant truthfully be said about the
climate.

However, this southem island trip was not a pleasure
jaunt and it was of such historic interest that none of us
was willing, out of consideration for personal comfort, to
forego the privilege of making it.

General MacArthur assigned to the Commission for the
southem trip the transport Sumner^ which contained suf-
ficient cabin space to accommodate in comfort a large party.
Besides all the ladies in the civil government, the Commis-
sion had invited some newspaper men and a number of
prominent Filipinos who were pledged to the restoration of
peace under American control. Among them were represent-
atives of all the peoples in the southem islands to be visited.
Then, too, we all took our children. We had to; and it was
fortunate for us that they were such experienced and adapt-
able little people else they might have proved a great
nuisance in such a mixed party and on a trip where we were

157

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

to stop at twenty-odd different towns and attend innumer-
able meetings, hanquetes and hailes. But, as it was, they
gave us little trouble. Mrs. Moses' little daughter, who
had just come out from San Francisco, my daughter Helen
and my son Robert, Mr. Fergusson*s scm Arthur and young
Jack Branagan, were all about the same age, and they never
tired of devising games that could be played around such
parts of the decks as were not infested with grown-ups.
Then, to while away the hours when their elders were at-
tending ceremonies on shore, they explored bays and rivers
in a sailboat which was rigged out for them by Captain
Lyman, of the Sumner^ a most fatherly man who seemed to
enjoy this imusual opportunity to indulge his love for chil-
dren. On the beaches they collected an infinite variety of
shells, corals and malodorous marine curiosities, but these
they kept on the lower decks where they could enjoy them
in peace. Charlie was, of course, the ship's baby. He was
younger than either of the Worcester children and, I am
afraid, somewhat less well behaved. He scorned their
rather quiet amusements and led a strenuous and indepen-
dent existence which gave me some uneasiness. He rushed
around over the ship with the utmost carelessness, deliver-
ing orders in a strange jargon to his little Filipino nurse,
who was always rushing after him just far enough behind to
be utterly useless in case anjrthing should happen to him.
It was a certainty that should he fall overboard she would
reach the rail just in time to see him sink. Some of the
deck rails were low, but strange to say he came through
without accident. I think Charlie must have acquired
some of the surefootedness of a cat. He had been twice
around the world before he was eight years old, and that he
managed to grow up into an unscarred and quite decorous
young man was certainly not due to natural caution on his
part nor to over-restraint on ours.

It was an interesting party gathered on the Sumner.

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Among others were the Atkinsons. Mr. Atkinson was the
Superintendent of Public Instruction who had recently come
out from Springfield, Massachusetts, and who was mak-
ing this trip for the purpose of seeing what steps should or
could be taken to introduce a system of public instruction in
a practically schoolless land. The Commission had appro-
priated just as much for the establishment of public schools
as the treasury could spare, this being the natural American
thing to do under the circimistances, and no time was to be
lost in getting down to practical work. And, I should like to
note, that in no enterprise which America has imdertaken in
the Philippines have we received such enthusiastic support
and co-operation from the Filipinos as in this. That they
were tremendously alive to the value of the educational
privileges offered to them is proved by the phenomenal suc-
cess attained by the public school system which was intro-
duced. District schools, village and town schools, the high
school and the normal school are to-day as much a cherished
part of Philippine life as such institutions are a part of the
great "American idea" in the United States. And in addi-
tion to these a University has been founded which promises
to become one of the finest institutions of learning in the
whole East. Whatever may be said about the American
Constitution there can be no dispute about the fact that edu-
cation follows the flag.

The Filipinos in our party, who were invited to go in
order that they might give the Commission information and
advice and also, in some measure, explain to their own com-
patriots the intentions of the American Govemment, in-
cluded Chief Justice Arellano, the two Supreme Court
Judges, Llorente and Araneta, and the originators of the
Federal Party, Don Benito Legarda, Doctor Pardo de
Tavera and General Flores. The Federal Party expected
to organise in the far provinces and it was hoped this would
have a healthy effect on insular politics. There were about

159

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

sixty of us In all and I think we must have seemed rather
a formidable host to some of the nervous reception c(xmnit-
tees that were forced to encounter us.

It was all wonderfully interesting. Our first stop was at
Lucena in the Province of Tayabas. We arrived there in
the late aftemoon so we had to lie at anchor until next
moming, but while the daylight lasted we gazed eagerly at
the shore through our field glasses and were astonished to see
the crowds of Filipinos not only lining the beach but wading
in throngs out into the Bay, as far as they safely could. It
was as if they had decided to walk out to meet us. And
the town was decorated, decorated magnificently. There
were bamboo arches a-flutter with flags and flags flying
everywhere, to say nothing of bunting and palm leaves and
myriads of gay paper streamers.

Bright and early the next moming the reception commit-
tee came out in a steam launch, accompanied by Colonel
Gardiner, the American Army officer in command of the
garrison. The Filipinos, immaculate little ex-insurrectos to
a man, proudly climbed the gangway, stopped to adjust their
attire, then proceeded to bid us welcome with the utmost
grace. Their spokesman made the usual cordial speech,
which Mr. Fergusson solemnly interpreted. He laid at our
feet everything to which he or the town of Lucena had any
claim, and assured us that the honour of our visit was most
deeply appreciated by the entire community; then he and
his companions stood smiling before us while Mr. Fergusson
turned my husband's simple words of thanks and apprecia-
tion into Spanish metaphor and hjrperbole.

I have often thought that America never could have won

the friendship of the Filipinos if it hadn't been for Mr.

Arthur Fergusson's clever tongue. My husband's smile and

frank geniality accomplished much, but his interpreter's

suavity struck a deeper and more familiar chord and together

they created harmony. They were a remarkable pair as

160

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

they stood side by side. Neither of them weired less than
three hundred pounds, but Mr. Taft was blond and ruddy,
Anglo-Saxon no less in appearance than in manner and
speech, while Mr. Fergusson was dark and rather dashing
and seemed naturally to assume the lofty mien of a Spaniard
when he spoke the beautiful Spanish tongue. Mr. Fergus-
son became Executive Secretary of the Islands when Civil
Grovemment was established and continued in that office
imtil his death about six years ago. His loss to the men
who were then doing America's work in the Philippines was
incalculable and the whole commimity, Filipinos and Amer-
icans alike, joined in the warmest tributes to his memory that
have ever been paid to an American in the Islands. \

When we arrived at the landing in Lucena we found a
motley throng of vehicles awaiting us, and were greeted by a
roar of vociferous speech from the cocheros which sounded
like imprecations, but which turned out to be the Filipino
equivalent for the deafening "Cab, lady! Cab, sir!" with
which travellers are welcomed at so many American railway
stations.

Mr. Taft and I, who seemed, in the opinions of our hosts,
to be the only persons of real importance present, were cere-
moniously escorted to a diminutive Victoria decorated with
flowers, while the rest of the party indiscriminately clam-
bered into the nearest conveyances. Then started a mad
race down an execrable road, where the holes and ruts were *
so filled with dust that there was no way of foreseeing or
preparing for the bumps. Our carriage, being a sedate
"flower parade" all by itself, was soon left far behind by
the sportier two wheel vehicles, and when we arrived at the
Municipal Building, where the meeting was to be held,
confusion reigned. I have no doubt that several private
secretaries had been greeted as the honourable "Presidente
del Commission," but if so, their fleeting honours detracted

nothing from the welcome we received.

161

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

The streets were crowded with men, women and diildren
waving flags and shrilly cheering, and just in frmt of the
hall were drawn up two Filipino bands dressed in gpigeous,
heavy uniforms decorated with such scraps of gold lace as
they had been able to procure. Together they struck up the
"Star Spangled Banner," but they kept together for just
about two bars, each leader having his own fixed idea as to
the proper tempo. One band finished several bars ahead of
the other, and inunediately, without so much as a lowering of
instruments, it hurled itself into "A Hot Time in the Old
Town To-night," whereupon the uplift of "Don't you hear
those bells go ding-a-ling" collided merrily with the solemn
sentiment of "Long may it wave !" Yet nobody lauded.
We were cultivating a sobriety of demeanour because we
knew we were dealing with a people whose ears heard not
and whose eyes saw not as we hear and see.

The meeting which followed our spectacular recepticMi was
exceedingly interesting. The questions of the Ccxnmis-
sioners elicited the information that Tayabas had been com-
pletely pacified for more than a year, althou^ the sur-
rounding provinces, Cavite, Laguna and Batangas, were
among the most imruly in the Archipelago. This happy
state of affairs seems to have been produced by Colonel
Gardiner, in command of the garrison, who had displayed
great tact in dealing with the peacefully inclined Filipinos
and absolute military rigidity in his attitude toward the in-
surrectos. That his methods had gained popular approval
was evidenced by the fact that every town in the province
petitioned the Commission to make him Governor. The
requisite permission to do this having been obtained from
General MacArthur, who, as Military Grovemor, had spe-
cially to detail army officers for such service, it was done
amid general rejoicing made violent by brassy discords f r<Mn
the jubilant bands which nearly drove me out of the

building.

162

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

There were many speeches and Mr. Taf t, as usual, read
and explained the Provincial Code to the assembly. After
I had listened almost daily for more than six weeks to that
dry-as-dust document I was sure that I could repeat it back-
ward if I tried. Mr. Taft finished his speech with a neat
little simiming up of conditions in general, — mellifluously
embellished by Mr. Fergusson, — then he introduced Chief
Justice Arellano as the ablest lawyer in the Islands and a
man whom any country would be proud to own ; which was
literally true. The Chief Justice spoke for some time,
earnestly, appealingly, and with great dignity, and he was
listened to with reverence. I had hoped that his speech
would end the proceedings, but this was only the beginning
of my experience with the Filipino love of oratory and I
never thereafter entertained any optimistic ideas with regard
to time limits.

But, as all things must, the meeting came to an end and,
stretching our weary bodies, we accepted an invitation to
view the town. Our progress was triumphal. In our
flower-decked Victoria, with the municipal presidente on
the little seat in front of us, Mr. Taft and I moved slowly
along, one band in front of us blaring out "A Hot Time in
the Old Town" with all the force of its lungs, and the other
behind us doing its best to make itself heard and appre-
ciated in a wholly original rendition of "Ta-ra-ra-ra-boom-
de-ay.'* Then came the other members of our party in
nondescript vehicles which jolted and creaked.

Speaking of Filipino bands, it may be thought that my

partial description of those in Lucena is exaggerated. Not

at all. There are more bands in the Philippines, perhaps,

than any other one thing. The Filipinos as a people are

extremely musical and, in many instances, have proved

themselves capable of reaching a high point of musical

proficiency, but in the early days of American occupation

a vast majority of the musicians were the rankest amateurs

163

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

who played *1>y car" only. They had never hcen tau^t,
but they could play, after a fashion, anything that any-
body could whistle, sing or pick out for them on any instru-
ment. They had listened to the American regimental
bands and they had made selection for their own repertoires
of such pieces as were easiest to play, hence the popularity
of "A Hot Time in the Old Town," "Ta-ra-ra-ra-boom-de-
ay," 'Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey" and things of
like character. They did not know the words, or the "senti-
ment" of the songs; they knew only the tunes, and these
they played at all times, for occasions either solemn or gay.
Of my own experience I can testify that "A Hot Time in
the Old Town" makes a perfectly good funeral march when
reduced to a measure suflBciently lugubrious.

It didn't take us long to see the town and when my ears
could endure the discords no longer I explained to the
pleasant little presidente that I thought it was necessary
for the ladies to return to the transport for a rest before it
was time to dress for the evening festivities. He protested
that the town was ours, that his house and everything in it
belonged solely to us, but I was backed up by my husband
and tiie ladies finally were permitted to go out to the
Sumner for a short respite. No such luck for the men.
They had to attend a prodigious luncheon, an aftemoon
hanquete really, and then continue, for the rest of the day,
their interviews with Lucena citizens and American Army
officers. And, be it remembered, it was insufferably hot.

The hanquete and hcdle that evening were typical Fili-
pino entertainments, novelties to me then and intensely
interesting. It was a procession, a meeting, a hanquete and
a haile every day for nearly seven weeks unless by a happy
turn of events it became necessary for us to sail for our
next port in the aftemoon instead of at midnight as we gen-
erally did. Under such circumstances, if any special enter-
tainments had been prepared for the evening, such as torch-

164

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

light processions, illuminations, or fireworks, they were duly
produced in broad daylight, thereby losing much in general
effect no doubt, but nothing in their proof of friendly in-
tentions.

Processions and meetings may be just processions and
meetings, but banquetes and hailes are not just banquets
and balls, and that is why I always refer to them by their
Spanish names.

We arrived at the hanquete in Lucena at seven o'clock
and found, in a great open room in a public building of
some sort, a long table laden with mysteries. In the centre
was a tremendous ornament, made entirely of toothpicks,
built up to represent a flower garden. Whoever made it
was a genius with both imagination and delicacy of touch.
All along both sides of the table were strange, highly or-
namental and formidable looking dishes which were evi-
dently meant to be eaten. I didn't know what they were,
but having acquired a cosmopolitan attitude toward food
I was not at all dismayed. My chief concem related to
the fact that a Filipino host expects one to eat at least a
little of everything that is served and through endless
courses of elaborately prepared meats one's appetite natur-
ally becomes jaded.

The most important and distinguished Filipinos did not
sit down at table with us. It is el costumhre del pais for
the Filipino host to wait on his guests, to hover about and
see that he enjoys what is given him, and until one gets used
to it it is most disconcerting. The presidentes and fiscals
and generals and other illustrados were not as skilful as
trained servants and I found myself leaning this way and
that in momentary expectation that one of them, in his
excitement, would accidentally slip some sticky mixture
down my back. There were speeches of course; there al-
ways are ; and then more speeches, but we had to get to the
baile, so they were not too long drawn out.

165

REOOLLECnOXS OF FULL YI1\RS

The bjzle was giTcn in tfac Municipal BoildLng wbric die
meeting of the moming was held, and when we aniTed
we found the hall quite filled with guests. The Filipino
women didn't display so many jewels and fine gannents in
those days as now because, in certain quaiteis, the insur-
rectos were still leyying tribute, but the ^Is and women,
many of them quite pretty, were yctj gay in long, trailing
calico skirts and jusi^ sinamaj or fina camisas^ while the
men were attired in all nfiannpr of gamients f nxn calico
and white linen to black clodi.

The men are nearly all excellent dancers, but the women
are hampered somewhat in the ordinary "round dances"
by their foot gear. They don't wear shoes, — nor stock-
ings either. At least, they didn't in those days. They
thrust their bare toes into little slippers called chinelas and
cuchos^ which look for all the world like fancy bed-slippers.
There arc two kinds : cuchos being considered very "dressy"
and having heels which clatter on the floor, while chinelas
are heelless and make a scuiBng, shuffling noise.

The first dance of the evening at any baile is the rigodon
which is really the national dance of the Philippines. I
am not going to try to describe it because I know I can't,
thou^ I have danced it hundreds of times. It is the real
ceremony on such an occasion. It can be likened to an old-
fashioned quadrille, but the square is made up of as many
couples opposite each other as there is space and there are
couples. There arc a number of graceful and somewhat in-
tricate but stately figures. It is a dance unique and, as far as
I know, confined to the Philippine Islands. I'm afraid we
made but a poor display in our first attempts at the rigodon^
but by dint of watching others night after night both my
husband and I became most proficient at it I alwajrs had
for my partner the most conspicuous illustrado in any com-
munity, while Mr. Taf t conferred the honour of his attend-

166

^^r

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

ance upon the lady of highest rank. This was important
as a recognition of the established formalities.

We left Lucena pretty much exhausted and slightly
aghast at the prospect of sixty consecutive days of such
strenuous festivities. Our route on the map lay like a
tangled thread throughout the archipelago, and its imme-
diate trend was toward the E/juator, further and further
south. Every point marked as a stopping place meant a
full progranune of business and festivities, but, hot as it
was, not one of us willingly would have turned back.
There was strong fascination in the very names of the
places we were bound for.

First came Boak on the island of Marinduque. Who
wouldn^t endure a little discomfort for the sake of seeing
Boak? This province could not yet be organised because it
was not sufficiently peaceful for the successful introduction
of civil government. The Commissioners, after endless
interviews with Army officers and with leading Filipinos
who were eager for the restoration of normal conditions,
promised to return to the province on the way back to
Manila and complete its organisation if, by that time, cer-
tain stipulations should have been complied with. This
meant the bringing in of a couple of hundred insurrecto
rifles and the gathering together of properly accredited rep-
resentatives of the people from all parts of the island. We
left behind us a disappointed but a determined town, and
when we returned nearly seven weeks later we found such
a diflFerence as proved the wisdom of delay.

The Commissioners were really walking in the dark.
Only through personal investigation could they leam the
exact conditions in any town or province and this investi-
gation had always to precede any definite action on their
part. This made the proceedings long and arduous for
them and drew the days out endlessly for the rest of us.

167

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Romblon, Masbate, Dollo, Bacolod; each with its distinct
problem, each with its own impassioned orators, and each
offering boundless hospitality; we left them all in better
condition, we hoped, than we found them and,' certainly,
we carried away from each in turn a feeling of great friend-
liness and gratitude for the courtesies they so enthusiastic-
ally extended.

From Bacolod, in oriental Negros, we set our course
straight south to Jolo, to the Sulu Islands, to the realm of
the comic opera sultan, and we woke up one brilliant mom-
ing to find ourselves in the prettiest harbour imaginable and
in the midst of scenes which we could not believe belonged
to the Philippine world. We were in Moroland. Straight
before us, in the curve of the beautiful bay, lay a little white
city, surrounded by bastioned walls which looked age-old,
and backed by soft green hills and groves of tall cocoanut
palms. A high white watch tower at the end of a long pier
reminded one of piratical days and of Spain's never-end-
ing troubles with her Mohammedan subjects. Off to the
right, against the farthest shore, was the strangest collection
of habitations I had ever seen. To be told that the Moros
live on the water is to imagine them living in boats, but
these were houses built far out in the water, perched up
on frail wooden stilts and joined together by crooked and
rickety bamboo bridges.

The harbour was full of curious small craft; high prowed
and beautifully carved war junks, long, graceful praos and
slender canoes with bamboo outriggers, nearly all carrying
sails of fantastic design and brilliant hues. Indeed, there
was colour everywhere. Everything afloat was decorated
in gaudy silks and pennants, the American flag predom-
inating, while all the Moros who wore anything except a
loin cloth were attired in costumes which were lively and

strikingly original. These were made, for the most part,

168

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

of rich silks of native weave in stripes or plaids of vivid,
crude greens, reds and yellows, and from neck to ankle the
more elegant ones were so tight that one wondered how
they stood the strain. Around his waist each man wore a
bright silk sash under which was thrust a long cruel look-
ing knife in an ornamental and curiously shaped scabbard.

The picturesque fleet quickly surrounded the Sumner and
while we watched the lithe, naked boys diving into the clear
depths of the bay for coins that were thrown overboard
for the purpose of testing their prowess, the American Army
officers came aboard to bid us welcome to Jolo.

They explained that the Sultan of Sulu had given them
some diplomatic difficulties which, they were glad to say,
they had been able to overcome. He had at first decided
to play the haughty monarch and to extend a royal invita-
tion to the American officials to pay their respects to him
at his "palace/' But a little reasoning had convinced him
that the Commissioners were the accredited representatives
of the President of the United States whose sovereignty
he acknowledged and that it was therefore his duty to call
on them, so, it was announced, he was on his way to the
landing where the officers' launch waited to bring him out
to the Sumner.

Several large war junks carrying different chiefs, or
dattos^ preceded the imperial visitor and these men came
aboard without waiting for His Majesty. We found them
extremely entertaining. They were by far the most pic-
turesque figures we had seen, and utterly unlike Filipinos.
They were of a different build, lithe, active and graceful,
with a free and defiant gaze which offered a strong contrast
to the soft-eyed modesty of the Christian tribes. In their
sashes they all carried long knives called barongs^ campildns
and hrises^ which Mr. Worcester induced some of them to

exhibit to our delighted eyes. They were of the most

169

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

exquisite workmanship and design, inlaid, some of them»
with gold and silver, and with hilts of hardwood beautifully
carved.

Finally the officers' launch put out from the dock and
we knew that the Sultan was approaching. As he came
alongside the Sumner he received a salute of seventeen
guns while we all stood by holding our ears and stiffening
our nerves against the deafening shock. We were expect-
ing some one similar in appearance to our friends the dattosy
except that we were sure he would be accoutred in three
times as much barbaric splendour. Fancy our disappoint-
ment then, when there emerged from the low awning of
the launch a figure quite commonplace; a very short, very
black little man in a heavy uniform of black cloth embroi-
dered in gold braid, not unlike the uniform of a British
Consul. He was awkward and homely and he had shiny
black teeth; that is how I remember him. He had two
attendants who served only to accentuate his own insignifi-
cance. The Commission got nothing out of him either.
He had none of the polish and gentlemanly manners of the
Filipino leaders, and conversation of any kind with him
was found to be extremely difficult. Almost the only inter-
esting remark he made was to invite the ladies of our party
to call on his many wives, a thing I should have greatly
enjoyed, but which was impossible because the Sultan's
"palace" was back over the hills, on the other side of the
island, a long way from Jolo.

The problem of the government of the territory in-
habited by the Moros in a measure adjusted itself. These
Mohammedans have al'ways been unruly and independent
and were never wholly conquered by the Spaniards, and
they absolutely refused, as they have since continued to do,
to be placed under Filipino control. So it was decided to
detach them frcxn the general organisation and to place

them under a semi-military system with an American Army

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

officer of high rank in charge in the dual capacity of Gov-
ernor and Commanding General of Troops in the Moro
Province. This S5rstem was developed to a point where a
high state of efficiency obtained in the government to the
complete satisfaction of nearly everybody. To solve the
problem of juramentado^ or religious fanatic outbreaks, a
general order for the disarmament of Moros had to be
enforced, but only a comparatively small number of natives
took part in the armed resistance. For all of them it was
hard, no doubt, to have to surrender their beloved and time-
honoured weapons, but the wisest among them recognised
the necessity of obedience for the sake of the general good.
If this had not been so it would have been vastly more dif-
ficult to make the order effective. These wise ones are
to-day everywhere busy upholding the American policy of
establishing markets and schools and honest trade relations,
and in preaching to their people that, for the first time in
their history, they are being fairly and justly dealt with.
They cling to American protection with determined faith,
telling us in plain words that if we leave them they will
fight their neighbours. So, whatever we may do with the
Philippine Islands we cannot abandon the Moros, and this
adds a grave complication to our Philippine problem.

At Jolo we received the news of the capture of Aguinaldo
and his reception by General MacArthur at Malacaiian
Palace. General Funston, then a Colonel of Volunteers,
was a conspicuous member of a small company of Army
officers known locally as "the suicide squad," who risked
their lives in one exploit after another with the utmost un-
concern, not to say glee, so we were not surprised at any-
thing he might do. But there was a real thrill in the story
of his daring venture into the remote and isolated camp of
the insurrecto general and Dictator, and we cheered his per-
formance with heartfelt enthusiasm, though our ardour was

somewhat dampened by doubts as to what the arch-con-

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

spirator would do in Manila. General MacArthur was not
a politician ; he was a soldier, — an officer and a gentleman,
— and in his treatment of his captured enemy he was not
likely to take into consideration the nature of the people
with whom he was dealing.

However, that story has been told, well and often. We
know that General Aguinaldo also was "an officer and a
gentleman," proving himself worthy of all the courtesy
extended to him and accepting defeat with great dignity.
He is the most striking figure in the Philippines even to-
day, though one only hears of him as a peaceful and imam-
bitious farmer in his native province of Cavite whence he
emerges only on rare occasions to be present at some impor-
tant social event in Manila where, among Americans in
particular, he is most highly regarded. But, it must be
remembered that at the time of his capture the Islands were
still in a state far from satisfactory ; that he had lieutenants
in all parts of the archipelago endeavouring, imder his
ordersi and by methods not counted as "civilised," to keep
alive the spirit of rebellion, and that he had an extraordi-
nary genius for conspiracy and organisation. So it cannot
be wondered at that my husband was deeply concerned and
that he wished he were back in Manila where he could keep
his large but gentle hand upon the delicate situation.

From tJolo we sailed to Zamboanga, capital of the Moro
province, and thence to Cottabato. At Zamboanga we met
an entirely different class of Moros, more refined, better
educated and less spectacular than those in the Sulu
Islands, and were entertained by the American Army
officers in the ancient Fortress del Pilar, which still
bears the marks of many a conflict between the Moros
and the Spaniards. We met here two very interest-
ing men, Datto Mandi, a Moro, and Midel, a leading Fili-
pino. Mandi was said to be, and looked, part Spaniard,
though he denied the Spanish blood. He was the chief of a

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

tribe of many thousands of people and wielded a wide influ-
ence which the American Groverament never sought to cur-
tail. He was a good business man and intensely loyal to the
Americans, giving substantial demonstrations of his loyalty
whenever opportimity offered. He told the Commission
what has since proved to be the truth about Moro customs
relative to slavery, the administration of justice and other
matters, and displayed, altogether, a genuinely friendly and
helpful attitude. Midel, the Filipino, was himself made
a datto by Mandi and seemed inordinately proud of his
rank. He was an odd individual with a doubtful record
behind him. Sometime before we met him he had sent his
son to be educated at the University of California, and it
was he who delivered the province over to the American
troops as soon as they arrived, having previously disposed
of a couple of insurgent rivals of his own race who at-
tempted to keep it out of American hands.

At Cottabato, a long day's sailing from Zamboanga
across Illana Bay, we met the Moros who inhabit the
valley of the Rio Grande del Mindanao, a large and sin-
ister looking river. We communicated with these people
through their dattos^ Piang and Ali. Piang is the most-
powerful datto in the province. He is the son of a Chinese
carpenter and a common Moro woman, and he won his
position through shrewdness, generosity to his people and
native ability. Ordinarily a peaceful conservative he was
not always at peace with Ali, who is inherently warlike and
a datto of royal descent, but a couple of American Army
officers. Colonel Brett and Major MacMahon, in charge
of the post at Cottabato, not only adjusted their differences
but induced the royal Ali to marry the commoner Piang's
daughter. Colonel Brett was Ali's "best man," while
Major MacMahon stood sponsor for the bride. There are
American Army officers who have seen strange service in
our Far Eastern possessions.

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

A few years after the time of which I write a daughter of
Datto Mandi was married at Iligan in northern Mindanao
and, to quote from Foreman's "History of the Philippines" :
"Several American officers were present on the occasion,
accompanied by a Spanish half caste who acted as their
interpreter. The assembled guests were having a merry
time when suddenly the festivities were interrupted by the
intrusion of a juramentado Moro fanatic, who sprang for-
ward with his campildn and at one blow almost severed the
interpreter's head from his body. Then he tumed his at-
tention to the other natives, mortally wounded two, and
cut gashes in several others before he fell dead before the
revolver shots fired by the American officers. After the
dead and wounded were carried away and the pools of blood
were mopped up, the wedding ceremony was proceeded with
and the h3nneneal festival was resumed without further
untoward incident."

We were very fortunate that, disturbed as conditions
were, no *\intoward incident" of this nature occurred to
mar the serenity of our first great trip through the Islands.

To illustrate Datto Piang's intense desire to establish his
status as a loyal friend of the United States Government I
think I must relate, in part, the conversation my husband
had with him in regard to the gutta percha industry. The
forests in the Rio Grande Valley and around Lake Lanao,
in the northern part of the island were thought to be almost
inexhaustible in their supply of gutta percha trees, and
Piang was found to be a large dealer in the product. But
inquiry elicited the information that the most primitive
methods were employed in gathering the gum and that every
year thousands of trees were destroyed, no idea of scientific
conservation ever having entered the heads of the Moros.
Mr. Taf t asked Piang whether if we sent him an expert who
knew how to have the trees treated he would imdertake to
enforce regulations which such an expert would frame. He

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

said he acknowledged the sovereignty of the United States
Grovemment and held himself subject to its orders, every
one of which he would obey. Moreover, he would make all
the other dattos obey the same orders whether they were
willing to do so or not. Then Mr. Taft explained that the
United States Government might desire to lay a cable from
San Francisco to the Philippines and that one of the great
items of expense in such an enterprise was the gutta percha.
He was merely trying to impress upon Piang's mind the
immense value of his product and the necessity for its
proper handling, but Piang immediately oflFered to make the
United States a present of all the gutta percha it needed for
a Pacific cable, declaring that all he wanted was a note from
the authorities indicating the amount required. He would
see that it was promptly gathered and delivered. Mr. Taft
then told him that the United States always paid for what-
ever it received from any person, whether subject to its
sovereignty or not, whereupon Piang declared that, anyway,
he preferred to sell his gutta percha to the United States,
and at a much lower price, too, than he was receiving from
the Chinese dealers. He is just a clever, crafty Chinaman
himself, is Datto Piang, but an interesting figure. After
a thorough investigation of Cottabato and a right royal
entertainment provided by a number of gorgeously attired
dattos and sultans, of greater or less degree, who had
gathered in the town to greet us, and gaze in wide-eyed curi-
osity upon us, we went on our way around the great island
of Mindanao.

At Davao we saw thousands of acres of the highest hemp
in the world, and a number of beautiful bead-bedecked hill
tribes who had come down into coast civilisation for the
purpose, no doubt, of seeing what we looked like.

These hill tribes are very interesting people. They are,
perhaps, more picturesque than any of the other non-
Christians, and they have developed to a fine point the art

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

of making bead embroidered clothing. So beautiful and so
unusual are these garments that the ladies in the party, for-
getting everjrthing else, made a grand rush to purchase some
of them from the various tribesmen. Our eagerness, in-
deed, had finally to be restrained in order that attention
might be given to the efforts of the Commission to enlighten
the people as to our mission, but having patiently awaited
the termination of business we returned to our search for
the bead-work, only to find that the finer specimens could
not by any process of cajolery be secured. Money meant
nothing to the hillmen and we had no substitutes in the way
of gewgaws to offer them. The only one of us who suc-
ceeded in getting a really good suit was Miss Anne Ide, and
her success was the result of a curious incident. She met a
chieftain gorgeously arrayed, and at a venture tried upon
him the Samoan greeting and a Samoan song which she had
leamed in her childhood when her father was Chief Justice
of the Samoan Islands. To her great surprise the Bc^obo
answered and seemed greatly pleased. He had already had
conveyed to him the fact that the only thing the ladies
wanted was bead clothing, so he indicated to Miss Ide that
he would present to her his coat and pants, and without
further ado, and much to her astonishment, he began to
divest himself of these garments which she accepted with
delight. The incident awakened natural curiosity on our
part as to the relation between the Polynesian language of
Samoa and the vernacular of the hill tribes aroimd the
Davao gulf.

From Davao we proceeded on our journey around
Mindanao, sailing out into the open Pacific and up to the
province of Surigao in the northeast comer of the island.

The town of Surigao lies six miles up a swamp-bound,

sluggish river and we experienced, as we so often did in the

whole course of the trip, a sense of being in uncharted

and therefore dangerous waters. We embarked in a launch

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I'lfTLRtSQLE I

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

when the tide was high and had no trouble in getting up to
the village, but we were earnestly entreated by the officer in
charge of the launch to hurry with our business in order that
we might start back before the tide went out. He assured
us that it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to cross
the bar at the mouth of the river at low tide. His entreaties
were in vain. The Commissioners were engaged in inter-
views with Surigao citizens which they could not or would
not cut short, so the ladies and children, having seen every-
thing and met everybody, went back to the landing and sat
in the laimch patiently waiting while the daylight slowly
disappeared. The launch captain was visibly agitated, and
told us time and again about what a hard time we were sure
to have getting back to the Sumner. And he was quite
right.

The laimch was not large enough to accommodate the
entire party so it towed a cutter which also was fairly well
loaded. When the men finally arrived, full of explanations
and good-natured apologies, it was pitch dark, but, being
optimists, we shoved off into the river, feeling sure that the
fears of our commanding officer were groundless.

After steaming merrily along for a few miles, becoming
more and more confident all the time, we suddenly got a
shaking bump and found ourselves fast in the mud. It
didn't take so long, however, to get afloat again, and we
were just congratulating ourselves that the captain's bug-
bear of a sandbar was behind us when we felt a violent
impact followed by a terrifying sensation as if the keel were
grinding over rocks.

The captain swore softly and said something about
striking "the ruins of that old Spanish bridge," then hurried
forward to see what damage had been done. The people
in the cutter, riding the short waves in our wake, were thor-
oughly alarmed and were clamouring to know what had hap-
pened to us. We couldn't tell them, but it sounded very

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

much as if we had torn the whole bottom out of the launch.
The engine had stopped; it was inky dark; the children all
began to cry; and, to add further discomfort to the situation,
it began to rain in torrents. The launch swayed sickeningly
this way and that, then the engine started again, whereupcMi
came a most furious clatter aft. There is no denying that
it made us blanch with fear, but it proved to be only a
blade of the propeller which had been bent and was striking
the boat with each revolution.

Three times more we slid into the mud ; the last time we
stuck and no effort that could be made would get us out, so
we were forced to abandon the launch and wedge ourselves
altogether into the little cutter. You may picture for your-
self the scene of men, women and children, in the rain and
with no light save the faint flicker of lanterns, dropping off
a big launch into a small rowboat over an inky stream sup-
posed to be filled with crocodiles.

When we reached the mouth of the river the captain
began to show signs of nervousness, though he had been
entirely self-controlled throughout the worst of our troubles.
We couldn't see where we were going, but we could dis-
tinctly feel that the open bay lay not far ahead of us.
What we wanted was to have the Sumner's searchlight
turned on our path, but the only thing we had with us with
which to convey this desire to the ship's officers were red
rockets, — ^the last resort of the sailor in distress. There was
nothing else to do ; the launch captain began firing them off,
and a weirder scene than was revealed by their momentary
glare can hardly be imagined. They produced the desired
effect, however, and in less than ten minutes a great shaft
of light, straight from the bridge of the Sumner^ was sweep-
ing the banks of the river and bay shore and affording us
just the kind of assistance we required.

But that was not the end. Less than half-way to the

Sumner we met a lifeboat, equipped with all the parapher-

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

nalia for rescuing us from a watery grave, and manned by
an excited crew in oilskins, who, under the sharp commands
of an almost frantic officer, were pulling in mad haste for
the river's mouth. When they saw us they lapsed into a
state of utter disgust. They turned and rowed sadly back
to the ship, and afterward I overheard them exchanging very
definite opinions as to the possible future of a sailor who
would bum red rockets when all he wanted was a search-
light.

After calling at Cagayan Misamis, Dapitan, Iloilo, San
Jose Antique and Capiz, we made straight for Cebu. Cebu
is, in rivalry with Iloilo and next to Manila, the most im-
portant town in the Philippine Islands. It is a receiving
station for exports from all parts of the southem islands and
is altogether what is known as a "live" town. It is the
capital of the province of the same name which consists of
a single long island some two thousand square miles in area
and with a population (at that time) of nearly seven hun-
dred thousand.

At Cebu we were rejoined by Chief Justice Arellano, who
had left us sometime before to go back to Manila. We
were greatly interested in his account of the effect of Agui-
naldo's capture and subsequent treatment. The erstwhile
insurgent leader was still in prison, but his prison was made
an honourable abode where he was permitted to be with his
family and to receive his friends. The mass of the people
would not, for a long time, believe he really had been cap-
tured. They thought the report was an American fabrica-
tion to delude them and to destroy their faith in Aguinaldo*s
anting-anting^—ox magic charm against defeat. The shat-
tering of that faith gave vast impetus to the general peace
movement and, though a few hundred rifles and several
insurrecto officers were still unaccounted for, and though
occasional outbreaks and the activities of marauding bands

of outlaws continued for a considerable length of time, the

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

actual organised insurrection had suffered a complete col-
lapse.

The Commission kept Cebu on tenterhooks for a time
as to whether the condition of order in the province was such
that they could go on with the establishment of government
there, and it was interesting to watch the effect of this un-
certainty. To be included in the general organisation
became at once the warmly expressed wish of a majority of
the people, and there was great excitement throughout the
town. Eventually Justice Llorente, of the Supreme Court
of Manila, a member of our party, and himself a Cebuano,
was appointed Governor of the province under the simple
American form, and because of his integrity and real patriot-
ism, because of the high regard in which he was held by the
people, and because of the enthusiasm and complete faith
with which he entered upon his duties, it was hoped that he
would be able soon to lead his province into the sensible
paths marked out for it.

With Cebu and the problems of Cebu behind us, we felt
that our long trip was nearly finished. Bohol, Leyte,
Samar, Albay, the Camarines and Sorsogon, each in its turn
brought us nearer to our comfortable homes in Manila and
to relaxation, for which we were beginning to long.

Each district expected us to give them at least a day for
business and an evening for festivity, but this was not
always possible. At Sorsogon we found a veritable riot of
decoration, with fine arches and many flags and every indi-
cation that the town had spared no effort to make our visit
there a memorable event. In the evening, beside the
hanquete and haile^ there was to have been a torchlight pro-
cession, with a triumphal car and a Filipino maiden as the
Goddess of Liberty. It was a great pity that we couldn't
stay, but we had to sail that afternoon for Boak, so the
programme had to be advanced several hours.

The extraordinary car, or float, which had imdoubtedly

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

cost weeks of skilled workmanship, came forth into the
blistering sunlight bearing the pretty brown girl in tinsel
and white muslin, her long, black hair almost wholly envel-
oping her as she held aloft the flickering sjrmbol of Enlight-
enment. It was a Filipino adaptation of the"sacred torch"
which we had ourselves been carrying throughout the
islands, and I felt that its production was a fitting climax to
our laborious progress.

Two days later when we landed in Manila, after organ-
ising Marinduque and Batangas, we were able to look back
upon a singular experience, an expedition perhaps unique
in history, with which was ushered in a new era, not to say a
new national existence, for the people of the Philippine
Islands.

181

CHAPTER IX

THE WILD men's COUNTRY

I SHOULD like to say here, by way of explanation, which
may or may not be necessary, that I am not trying in this
narrative to pose as a woman endowed with an especial com-
prehension of such problems of state as men alone have
been trained to deal with. I confess only to a lively interest
in my husband's work which I experienced from the begin-
ning of our association and which nothing in our long life
together, neither monotony, nor illness, nor misfortune, has
served to lessen; and it would be practically impossible for
me to write a record of memories in which he did not figure
very largely.

In the settlement of American control in the Philippine
Islands Mr. Taft, first as President of the first legislative
Commission and, later, as Civil Govemor, had to contend
with a varied and complex resistance which it would be
difficult for one not experienced in politics to comprehend.
If it had been Filipino resistance only it would have been
fairly easy to overcome, but Filipino resistance was indi-
rectly sanctioned and directly assisted by a strong oppo-
sition in the United States to what seemed to us who were
on the groimd to be the only sensible and really patriotic
measures possible under the circumstances.

For reasons which I have tried to convey, as clearly as I
am able, my husband was not in favour of a continuation of
military rule in the Islands beyond the time when military
activity was imperative, nor was he in favour of abandoning
a problem which grew daily more difficult and more compli-
cated. So he and his colleagues persisted in the tremendous
task of settling a whole people under a sane and sensible
form of government.

The trip through the southern islands was particularly

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

valuable to them in that it gave them first-hand, working
knowledge of existing conditions in every province. They
immediately set about revising their original Provincial
code in accordance with requirements which they were able
to discover only through personal investigation, and at the
same time they took up the grave business of establishing a
sound judiciary.

There was always something new to be talked over at our
family table, or during the long evening hours on the
verandah overlooking the Bay and, in spite of the fact that
much of our "news" presented itself in the form of fresh
delays and exasperating difficulties, life was very entertain-
ing.

Not long after we returned from our trip through the
South Mrs. J. Franklin Bell invited my sister Maria and me
to go with her on an expedition, on which she expected to
accompany her husband, through the moimtains of northern
Luzon which are inhabited by non-Christian tribes only.
General Bell was commander of troops in the North and
this was to be an inspection trip. It meant several
weeks on horseback, over dangerous trails where, in parts at
least, no white woman had ever been, but we were most
anxious to go. The trouble was that I had never ridden in
my life, so I looked with considerable trepidation to the
prospect of a long and necessarily intimate association with
a horse. I brought the proposition up in family council and
my husband advised me, by all means, to go. I should
probably have gone without this advice, but it was comfort-
ing to have it because if anything happened I could "blame
it all on him." In fact, I began to do this even before I left.
When my courage dwindled a little I promptly told him
that it was all his fault; that if he hadn't urged me to go I
never should have thought of such a thing ; but that as long
as I had promised I should have to see the adventure through,
though I knew I should never survive it. He only laughed

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

and assured me that we would have a glorious time and that
the trip would do us "all the good in the world."

Major Stevens, who expected to accompany us, brought
me an American horse, of formidable dimensions, and volun-
teered to superintend my first encounter with him. He was
as gentle as a lamb. I wouldn't let him go faster than a
walk the first evening and the fact that I was pretty stiff at
the end of my ride made me almost hopeless. The second
evening I let him out a little, and began, much to my sur-
prise to enjoy the exhilaration of the exercise. By the third
evening I had progressed so far that I decided for myself
that the poor old beast had no speed in him at all.

We took a Spanish steamer, the Salvadora^ from Manila
up to Vigan, where General Bell was stationed, and, though
I am glad to have had the experience, I shouldn't care to
repeat it. When we got on board we were shown at once
to a most promising-looking stateroom, quite spacious, and
with four berths in it. The trip to Vigan was to take from
Thursday to Saturday and we were glad to note that we
were going to be quite comfortable. But our self-congratu-
lations came to a sudden end. Upon inspection we found
the room was indescribably dirty, the beds were without
sheets, the pillows were like rocks, there were insects gklore,
and the thermometer stood at i lo degrees. Ventilation was
out of the question because the room opened into a sort of
public saloon where innimierable Filipinos, in various states
of undress, slept, stretched out on the floor, on the tables,
on chairs, on anything that could serve as a resting place.
The second night I got the Captain's permission to sleep on
the bridge, since the decks, too, were covered with a miscel-
laneous crowd and were rendered additionally uncomfort-
able by odoriferous strings of cabbages and other vegetables
which hung from the awnings.

The food on the ship was all Spanish ; indeed, I might say,

terribly Spanish; still, I was rather used to it and didn't

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

mind much as long as I could get into a wind-swept comer
of the deck to eat it. But there were some American
women on board who had just come out from the United
States and they complained violently.

We were put ashore early Saturday morning; much
earlier, in fact than we had been expected to arrive. We
had to drive three miles before we reached the Bells* house,
and when we did get there we were delighted to find that
they were just having breakfast. They were eating real,
human food and, however heroically we had adapted our-
selves to the peculiarities of Spanish cookery, there was
nothing we stood so much in need of. They were a most
homelike and comfortable-looking party. Besides the Gen-
eral and Mrs. Bell there were two young officers, Mr. Wil-
cox and Mr. Nolan, and a young lady whose name was Miss
Bubb, a daughter of Greneral Bubb, and whose general
characteristics had won for her the nickname of "Bubbles."

The first thing we learned was that Mrs. Bell would,
after all, be unable to go with us on the trip through the
moimtains. She was not at all well and the doctor had for-
bidden it. Wc were greatly disappointed. Mrs. Bell is so
jolly and full of fun that she is an addition to any party,
and on such an expedition as we were contemplating we were
sure to miss her tremendously. But, the party was all
made up. General Bell was to take command; "Bubbles"
was going; then, in addition to my sister and me, there were
Major Rice, Major Stevens, Captain Shearer and Captain
Haight — eight in all.

First let me say that the northern part of the island of
Luzon bears just about as much resemblance to the rest of
the archipelago as the Alps bear to the plains of Nebraska.
We began to notice the difference even at Vigan, though
Vigan is at sea-level and is as hot as a sea-level town is
supposed to be in that latitude. But it feels and looks like
a little foreign city; foreign, that is, to the Philippines* Its

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

houses are well built of ancient-looking stone, with heavy
red-tiled roofs ; its streets are narrow and crooked and it has
a fine plaza filled with fire-trees which, when I saw them
first, were in full bloom. There is no way to describe the
magnificence of a grove or avenue of fire-trees. They make
a veritable cloud of flame which, seen against a background
of blue hills, or overhanging the mouldy, old-world grace
of a Spanish church and convent, fairly "takes one's breath."
The world-famed cherry trees of Japan, wonderful as they
are, seem pale and soulless in comparison. I wonder the
Spaniards didn't line the streets of Manila with fire-trees
and make for themselves the reputation of having created
the most amazing city in the world.

While we were at Vigan, and before starting on the long
trip, we made an excursion to Bangued, in the province of
Abra. Mrs. Bell went with us. This town, a short time
before, could be reached only by raft up the Abra River, no
laimch ever having been built that could go through the
rapids, but the establishment of an Army post made neces-
sary the building of a piece of road which shortened the
joumey at the Bangued end. The first part of the trip,
however, had still to be made by water and all the supplies
for the soldiers were sent up on a fleet of twenty or more
rafts which started out together every morning. When
there was a breeze each of them would run up a sail of
bright, striped Igorote cloth.

We had a grand raft with a bamboo awning. And there
were comfortable rattan chairs, to say nothing of a picnic
luncheon and a carefully wrapped and jealously guarded
box of ice. Ice was the rarest of all luxuries in the pro-
vincial towns of the Philippines in those days.

We moved very slowly against the current of the swift-
flowing river, but we had no desire to hurry. It was really
enchanting. From narrow, pebbly beaches on either bank

rose rugged cliffs which seemed to tower moimtain high,

186

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

throwing deep shadows uito the canyon and leaving only a
narrow ribbon of sky above us. And these cliffs were hung
with a tangled undergrowth through which small, white
waterfalls rushed and rustled. Where the river broadened,
here and there, we came upon groups of bright-clad natives
who regarded us with great curiosity, and at one place we
saw half a dozen women starting up the steep bank with
graceful brown water-jars balanced on their heads. Each
one was carrying at least six, one on top of another, and all
of them full. How they managed it was beyond compre-
hension. We watched them until they were out of sight
and not one of them ever raised a hand to her head. As a
matter of fact, they were nonchalantly smoking and chat-
tering away as if they were quite unconscious of their bur-
dens, though the slightest unrhythmical motion would have
spelt disaster for them all.

At eleven o'clock we reached the village where the road
begins and the whole population gathered around in curious
groups and gazed at us. White women were still a novelty
in that region and I'm sure we looked much more peculiar to
them than they looked to us. There were crowds of school
children from the new American school, and one very much
embarrassed little girl, who had had her English book only
about four months, read some English for me very nicely.
Likely as not that same little girl has by this time won a
normal school certificate and is herself teaching English in
an "American" school. Such is the history of many of her
generation.

When we reached Bangued the yoimg men in the com-
mand of Major Bowen, who was our host, gave up their
house to the ladies, and we had three comfortable beds, with
mosquito nets, in a large, airy room. It was a fine after-
noon for a siesta because it rained in torrents for the rest of
the day and the patter of rain oh nipa thatch is a soothing
sound. The yoimg men's house was just across from the

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Major's and by evening the street was such a river that we
had to be carried over for dinner. But nobody minded;
and we enjoyed even the music of the native band which
stationed itself down under our windows and enlivened the
occasion with a wonderful medley of sound. When the
bandmen came upstairs for refreshments Mrs. Bell and two
of the young officers ran down and tried their powers on
the instruments, and I can only say that the result was joyful
pandemonium.

The next morning we left our hospitable hosts and,
escorted by Lieutenant Ingram, made the retum trip all the
way down the river. The water was high and, though it
had taken us an interminable time to go up, it took only
three hours and a half to go down ; and some of the rapids
were most exciting. We took our lunch basket and chairs
ashore on a lovely, green, shaded knoll and dallied there
for several hours. Only a month before nobody, who was
not compelled to, ever went over this route on accoimt of the
danger of being shot, but the last of the Abra insurgents
had surrendered, and so safe did we feel that we were ab-
solutely xmarmed.

If I should try to write a detailed account of this expedi-
tion I am afraid I could not avoid conveying the idea that we
encountered nothing but a c(mtinuous downpour. It was the
"rainy season" and we were wet most of the time, but Mr.
Taf t was right when he promised that we would have a glori-
ous time and that the trip would do us a "world of good."
Down in the heat and the political turmoil of Manila I was
takifig things much too seriously, while up in the far-away
north there was nothing to do but dismiss all worry and ac-
cept things as they came along. After we left Vigan on the
long trail the only way we could get even a letter through
was by messenger who had to travel hundreds of miles
through a most difficult country. So I enjoyed myself

thoroughly, as did every one else in the party, hardships and

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

physical discomforts seeming only to add to our gaiety.

At first I thought that my riding lessons in Manila were
not going to do me much good. We had had a most luxu-
riously easy time in the beginning. We left General Bell's
house in an Army ambulance, instead of on horses, for our
first day's journey on the "long trail.'* Greneral Bell was in
command and he knew what he was doing. All he had to
do was to issue orders; we obeyed. That is what it is
to go camping with a soldier. One learns what discipline
means.

We were permitted to take with us only such things as
were absolutely necessary. Even then, the "absolute neces-
sities" which we eventually discarded as useless impedimenta
would have made a long list. Everything was done up in
waterproof bundles and when we started out these were
stuffed so full that they would hardly fasten, but they grew
slinuner as time went on. The most important articles, we
found, were our slickers and wraps. It was wet and cold
and we had to have them, but all our toilet appurtenances
together went easily into Miss Bubb's saddle-bags.

The first day we forded a river — ^the same river — several

times, and, finally, we had to cross it on a raft which was so

small that it could carry only one thing, or one person at a

time. My sister. Miss Bubb and I sat on the bank above

the ford for more than two hours waiting for all our things

to get across. While we waited many natives came along

driving carabaos, and it was amusing to see the two-wheeled,

awkward carts hustled onto the swaying raft— one thing

after another falling into the river — while each poor old

carabao was forced to swim, dragged along by his master

who held fast to a string attached to a ring in the animal's

nose. If I had been able to speak the dialect I would have

said: "Your friend the Carabao, being a water-buffalo,

could probably swim the river much more easily without

your assistance." I have had to look on and suffer at many'

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

things in the Philippine Islands merely because I was unable
to speak a dozen-odd diflPerent dialects. In the provinces
Spanish was seldom of any use because the common tao
knows little or nothing of it, and it is with the common tao
that one wishes there to commimicate.

On our first day's journey we did thirty-seven miles in a
jolting Army wagon, but the air was so invigorating, and
we were having such a good time, that we were not ex-
hausted. We didn't even mumiur when we were told to be
ready to start at four the next morning.

This was at Candon and we were joined there by Major
Stevens, which made our party complete. The next even-
ing, at Concepcion, we camped in a lovely, new nipa-thatched
house which had been built by a man who was known gener-
ally as "Windy" Wilson, an Army captain. We were ex-
tremely thankful for the shelter, because it was raining as
it can rain only in northern Luzon and we had every reason
to believe that this would be the last house we would be per-
mitted to occupy for many a day. We were striking straight
into the mountains and our shelter-to-be was a small field
tent slung on the cargo saddle of a commissary mule.

Captain Wilson's house was quite spacious. It had two
rooms; one small and one large one. The ladies slept in
the smaller room on Army cots, while the four stalwart
officers of our military escort stretched themselves out on
blankets and slickers on the split bamboo floor of the larger
room. The walls and partitions were of woven nipa palm
leaves, known locally as suali^ while the two windows were
made of braided bamboo and were set in grooves so, when
we wanted to open them, all we had to do was to give them a
gentle shove. There were no "trappings of civilisation,"
but we managed to be perfectly comfortable.

The next day, before the sun was very high, we found our-
selves in the midst of mountain-tops, on a trail which rose in

great upward sweeps around the densely wooded slopes, to

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

an altitude of 5600 feet. By this time we were all on horse-
back with eight Igorrote boys behind us carrying a sedan
chair to be used in case of accident or a dangerous washout
on the trail. I wish I could describe the magnificence of the
scene which lay all about us when we reached that amazing
summit. General Bell, who had been all through the
Rocky Mountains, the Yellowstone, and the Yosemite Val-
ley, said there was nothing that he had ever seen which
could compare with it. And its grandeur is accentuated by
vivid colouring. The Igorrotes have, for hundreds of years,
been building extraordinary rice-terraces and these have
gradually climbed the mountains until, in some places, only
the rugged crests are left uncultivated. The terraces are as
symmetrical as honeycomb and are built in solid walls of
finely laid masonry out of which grow ferns and tangled
vines. The brilliant colour of the young rice fairly glows
against the dark greens of pine trees, of spreading mangoes,
and of tropic forest giants whose names I do not know.
And wherever one looks there are peaks, jagged sunlit peaks
which rise from sombre valleys upward into a strange light
whose every ray seems to shine in its own individual hue.
In the far distance we could see the ocean, with white
breakers dashing against the cliffs ; while in the valley below
the Santa Cruz River, though actually foaming and dashing
through its winding, rocky bed, seemed to us to be lying still,
without motion of any kind, or sound.

In my diary, which I kept on that trip, I find that at each
stopping place I have solemnly set down the observation
that: "the scenery to-day was the finest we have yet found";
and when we reached Sagada I took the trouble to record
for my own future reference that: "I shall not rest until
Will has seen it." He never has.

At Sagada we found ourselves quite far up in the Igorrote

country, where Filipinos as a rule, do not go. We had

come from Cervantes over a trail where the horses cautiously

191

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

kept to the inside, and where we were told to let go of our
inner stirrups so, in case a horse went over the edge of the
precipice its rider would have a chance of falling clear on
the terra'^firma side instead of being hurled out into open
space. There are a great many people who have to be taken
over such trails blind-folded, but there were no dizzy-heads
among us, and as each turn of the way revealed to us dif-
ferent and more wonderful views, we filled the day with ex-
clamation points.

Here and there we met bands of Igorrotes, marching "In-
dian file," carrying great bundles of rice up short-cut moun-
tain trails, which wound through the rice terraces and were
"as steep as the side of a house." All the men had long,
murderous-looking spears, while the women were evidently
the burden-bearers. Along the main trail we came, now and
then, upon a company of men leading home a whimpering
and pitiful little pack of very thin dogs. We knew these
were to be killed and eaten and, naturally, the thought was
sickening, but in the Igorrote country the dog-loving white
man has to get used to this. Some day, perhaps, it will be
different, but not until herds and flocks have been substi-
tuted and entirely new ideas have patiently been instilled
into the minds of these people. For die time being dog
flesh is their most cherished article of diet.

I wish it were known just where these curious wild tribes
came from; just what their race history is. They are as
unlike Filipinos as American Indians are imlike English-
men. They have but one thing in common with the Fili-
pinos, and that is their colour, which is a soft, dark brown.
There is hardly an American who has ever lived among them
for any length of time who has not a real admiration and
affection for them and yet, to all intents and purposes, they
are naked savages. They are most amenable to civilis-
ing influences. They take to education eagerly. They are,

in their physical development, beautiful to look upon — when

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

they are cleaned up— perfecdy formed, straight and mus-
cular, with features strongly marked and with wide, clear
eyes which inspire confidence. They are entirely fearless;
and they are loyal to the "last ditch." Also, it is these
same incomprehensible "naked savages'* who have built the
thousands of acres of rice terraces which are a marvel and a
mystery to every irrigation expert or technical engineer who
has ever seen them.

Bontoc, which we reached after a day's weary, wet riding
over slippery trails from Sagada, is the capital of what is now
known as the Mountain province. For the first time in their
known history the Igorrotes are united under one central
government, each tribe having its lieutenant governor — an
American always. There are the Benguets, the Bontocs, the
Ifugaos, the Ilongots, the Kalingas and others, and they
have been engaged in inter-tribal warfare since time began,
their chief pleasure being derived from the taking of each
other's heads. When I went into the Igorrote country head-
hunting was still in full force and houses were still decorated
with festoons of human skulls, while no man ever ventured
forth, even to his rice-fields, without his spear and shield and
head-axe. They all carry spears even yet, but head-hunt-
ing, having been made by the American government a capi-
tal offence, is not so popular. Mr. Dean C. Worcester, as
Secretary of the Interior, in direct charge of all wild tribes,
actually succeeded in introducing substitutes for the sport in
the form of baseball and other inter-tribal athletic contests
and peaceful, though rough and strenuous pastimes. For
fourteen years Mr. Worcester was to these children of the
hills a most highly respected Apo^apo^ — chief of chiefs.

Miss Bubb, my sister Maria and I were the first white
women who ever set foot in Bontoc and to say that we created
a sensation is to describe our reception too mildly. We
were the guests of three American miners who had a com-
fortable house and who, having lived among the Igorrotes

193

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

for a long time — one of them for more than a year without
visiting civilisation— could give us much interesting first-
hand infomiation. The people gathered around us in
hordes, but they kept at a respectful, not to say a reverential,
distance. I think they were afraid of us; especially the
women, not one of whom would let us look at her baby.
But we were used to that. Many Christian Filipinos believe
firmly in the "evil eye." There was one little dwarf who
was bolder thaa the rest and who followed us everjnvhere
we went. He was like a little, brown, toy-child, beautifully
formed, and looking not more than one year old, but we were
told that he was at least fourteen.

Everybody wanted to give us things. The evening I
arrived I received a present from one of the headmen, of
three live chickens, and the next day, as we were picking
our way through the native village, another man ran after
me and, very graciously and gracefully, presented me with
two fresh eggs. We leamed to say ^^mafud^^ which means
"good,*' and, in connection with smiles and gestures, found
it served us famously for all purposes of social intercourse.

Bontoc is in a deep valley, on the bank of a wide, swift
river and surrounded by close sheltering hills, so it is not as
cold as it is in Sagada and some other places we visited;
but it is cold enough, and I failed to understand how the
natives could live in a state of almost complete nakedness.
But they do and, in fact, all these people do, even in the
coldest regions. The Bontoc Igorrote wears a very bright-
coloured clout called a "Gr-string" with a heavy, brass chain
around his waist, while his long, black hair is tucked into a
little, flat, straw hat which is fastened, in some mysterious
way, on the back of his head. They nearly all wear heavy,
brass earrings which make their ears unsightly, and the Bon-
toc "dandy" usually has a long, black, homemade and half-
smoked cigar tucked behind one ear for all the world like

the pencil of an absentminded bookkeeper.

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Wc had canyaos^ or bonfires with *liead-dances," and all
the strange varieties of entertainment provided by the vil-
lage headmen. The musical instrument of the Igorrote is
called a ganza^ which is a round brass gong with a handle
made of a human jaw-bone, upon which the "musician"
beats a rhythmical measure with a soft, padded mallet as he
whirls and twists in his fantastic dance. These ganxas —
some of them very old, — are tribal rather than individual
property and it is very difRcult to induce their owners to
part with them. Their value is computed in carabaos in-
stead of in rice, or in dollars and cents. If you should ask
an Igorrote how much he would take for his ganza^ espe-
cially if it were one associated with tribal history, he would
very likely look smilingly solemn and say : "One hundred
carabao," or any other prohibitive number that might hap-
pen to occur to him. This is a form of racial pride and de-
serves respect.

We went from Bontoc back through Sagada to Cervantes,
and then started down the long, narrow trail straight through
the motintains to Baguio. At Cervantes we received our
first messages from Manila and, among other things, was an
order to Major Stevens to report for duty. His going gave
us an opportunity to send letters down and report ourselves
alive and not at all anxious to get home, but we didn't like
losing the Major. We had, by tlus time, become a very
well-acquainted, well-disciplined and congenial party and
we disliked seeing the beginning of the end of our expedi-
tion. General Bell directed everything and joined in our
sports and foolishness whenever he could do so without en-
dangering the dignity of the "corps," but, while he was kind-
ness itself, he was so strict with the young officers that we
had sometimes to steal our opportunities for relaxation.

A few hours^ riding south from Cervantes are some famous
copper mines which were owned by a Spanish syndicate.
We turned off in their direction and came into a most ex-

195

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

traordinary country. The whole face of the landscape
looks like corroded copper, and the great, scarred gulches
where the ore has been taken out make one think of chaos,
or dreams of an inferno. I don't know how to express an
idea of bigness in a mere touch of description as I pass on
through the story of this trip, but I want to convey an im-
pression of overwhelming size in everything. It is a great,
wild world where one sees miles in every direction and where
nature seems to have done everything on a gigantic scale.

A mile or so beyond the copper mines we came upon a
veritable mountain paradise, — from our point of view, at
least. It was the home of Don Jose Mills, a Spaniard who,
for some unknown reason, had banished himself to this out-
of-the-world spot and, with what labour and pains can only
be imagined, had made for himself a civilised abode. I
was shown to a room all by myself, which had in it a real
bed with springs and a mattress. It was the first one I had
seen for I don't know how long. I regarded it with great
curiosity at first, then I sat down on it most respectfully.
I lay down and stretched myself out; then I pulled up a
soft blanket and, though it was only midday, nothing short
of the gravest emergency could have induced me to move.
The emergency presented itself, finally, in the form of lunch-
eon and I discovered that Don Jose had returned hurriedly
from Candon in order to entertain us and that he had brought
with him everything in the form of food and liquid refresh-
ments that he could find. The result was a triumph, and
we decided that we should like to remain under his hospi-
table roof indefinitely.

That night, amid much merriment, we initiated our host
into the mysteries and secrets of a little society we had
formed and which we called the Earring Club. Our in-
signia was a big, brass Igorrote earring, and we had signs
and pass-words, to say nothing of a song which nobody but

ourselves could sing. We appropriated the Cavalry tune

196

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

of "For Seven Long Years I've Courted Nancy,*' but the
words were our own and it was not difficult to supply a new
verse to fit each incident or occasion as it came along. The
song began :

For twelve long days we've hiked through mountains.

Heigh ho! Cross roaring rivers!
For twelve long days we've hiked through mountains,

Ha! Ha! While on our way through wild Lepanto!

Up at Sagada we came upon the only bed of mint that
any of us had ever seen in the Philippines, and as General
Bell had almost an inspired knowledge as to what mint was
originally intended for, this gave us material for three new
verses :

One rainy day we reached Sagada,

Heigh ho! Among the rice fields!
One rainy day we reached Sagada,

Ha! Ha! As we toiled along o'er die hills of Bontoc!

A place most sweet with fragrant mint-beds.

Heigh ho! How did it get there f
A place most sweet with fragrant mint-beds.

Ha! Ha! 'Way high up in the hills of Bontoc!

We didn't do a thing but make a julep,

Heigh ho! Without the cracked ice!
We didn't do a thing but make a julep.

Ha! Ha! With the mint we found in the hills of Bontoc!

It was a free-for-all composition contest; anybody was
likely to produce a new verse, or even a whole new song with
a different time, at any moment, and we shortened many a
long mile with such nonsense.

At Don Jose's we not only sang all our songs for the bene-
fit of our host, but one of our number produced a harmon-
ica, on which he played very well indeed, and we had an

impromptu baile. Then we "dropped the handkerchief,"

197

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

"followed the leader/* gave some original renderings of
Greraian Grand Opera, played Puss-in-the-comer, and fin-
ished the evening with our feet on a fender before a great,
open fire, recounting, with much appreciated embellishments,
our interesting experiences.

We knew we should not find any place as delightful as
Don Jose's again, — ^not even in Manila, because Manila
would be hot, — so it was with great reluctance that we
obeyed orders to be ready to leave the next morning at six.
This meant getting out of our c(Mnfortable, civilised beds at
five o'clock, while the stars would still be out, and when
the ashes of our evening's fire would be cold and grey on the
hearth. It was a cheerless thou^t, but we had to "get to
Loo" said General Bell.

It was raining — of course — and there was not much
scenery visible except when the clouds would float upward,
now and then, like veils lifted oflF grand panoramas, but
by this time we had ceased to consider the weather. When
we got to Loo we found the "town'* consisted of just two
empty log huts, one with a plaited reed floor, the oAer with
no floor at all, and neither of them^ with any sort of partition.
We stretched a rope across the middle of the better one, hung
Igorrote blankets on it by way of a screen, and prepared to
make ourselves comfortable on the, fortimately flexible,
floor; ladies on one side, gentlemen on the other. But along
late in the afternoon a pack train of mules and Igorrotes and
orderlies arrived from the south bringing us the astonishing
news that the Commissioners were only a few miles behind
and expected to camp that night at Loo !

The rain had settled down into a dreary, soaking patter;
it was cold; we were all wet; there was no place for a fire;
and, altogether, we were fairly uncomfortable.

The Commissioners, Mr. Worcester and Mr. Moses, with

their private secretaries and a doctor — ^five in all— came

along about an hour behind their pack train. They

198

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

straggled in one by one, very grumpy, and wc decided right
away that they had not been tau^t, as we had been, to
make the best of everjrthing and to cultivate sociability on
the trail. They had had a much more difficult day's riding
than we because the trail up is much harder than the trail
down, but we were pretty certain, on the whole, that we were
much the better managed party.

With more Igorrote blankets we arranged another parti-
tion in the hut to make room for them, then we gave them a
good hot dinner — cooked in the tent which had been put up
for kitchen purposes — and immediately a social thaw set in.
We got all the news from Manila that we were so anxious
for, and all the latest gossip. The news was disquieting.
A cablegram had come announcing that the Supreme Court
had decided there should be no duties in Porto Rico against
United States imports, and instructing the Commission to
suspend all legislation in the Philippine Islands until fur-
ther notice. This might mean anything, but whatever else
it meant it certainly meant renewed uncertainty and the pos-
sibility that no change in the govemment would be made
until after Congress met.

The politics of the situation were extremely complicated
and seemed to revolve around a question which, because of a
rather pugnacious manner of expressing it, had become a
popular clamour. The question was: "Does the Consti-
tution follow the Flag?'* In other words, really, could
duties be collected on imports from one American port to
another? In any case, the question in respect to us was
one for Congress to answer and it seemed to me we were fac-
ing another long period of uneasiness and delay.

We knew the entire Commission had expected to make a
trip in June for the purpose of organising the Christian prov-
inces in the far north beyond the Mountain Province, but
they were halted by the order to suspend definite activities,

and Commissioners Worcester and Moses had taken advan-

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL .YEARS

tage of the *1)reathing spclP' to run up into the mountains
and inspect proposed routes for roads and railways. That
is how we happened to encounter them at Loo. We shared
their opinion that one of the greatest things that could be
done for the country was to make the mountains of central
Luzon, with their glorious climate, easily accessible. The
trails as we found them were mere paths worn by the feet
of Igorrotes and, besides being very narrow, were at such
grades as to make them in many places all but impassable.
The party, highly representative of American authority in
the Islands, as it was, sat aroimd on the bamboo floor, hud-
dled up in blankets, and talked long into the night about
hopes and fears and governmental problems of great diffi-
culty and importance.

We left Loo at six o'clock in the morning and after eight
straight hours of the hardest work we had yet been called
upon to do, we arrived at Cabayan. According to my own
diary: "I was completely tired. The greater part of the
way we rode through beautiful pine forests, but up and
down hills as steep as the side of a house ; across rivers, and
up a waterfall.'* This sounds like pretty heavy going, but
my account of it written at the time was, I am sure, only
slightly exaggerated. I remember distinctly that from Loo
to Baguio, five full days, we walked a great part of the way;
and not only did we walk, but we rendered necessary- assist-
ance to our horses which, giving out one by one, had to be
dragged up the steep grades and "eased" down the opposite
sides in a way that would have been highly ludicrous had
we been engaged in anything but a very serious business.
Only the steady old mules plodded along "without a word,"
and found their own way in safety around the dangerous
turns.

After leaving Bontoc we travelled down throu^ Nueva
Viscaya and into Benguet, the southermost division of the
Moimtain province. At Cabayan we had for camping quar-

200

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

tcrs a large presidencia and schoolhouse combined, while a
tent was put up and rudely equipped for bathing purposes.
This was luxury indeed, and we began to think that we had
left all hardship behind us ; but the next night, after a seven
hours' "hike" over a terrible trail, we found shelter in a
miserable hut with only one room which we all had to oc-
cupy, with Igorrote blankets for partitions^

The Igorrotes grew less and less interesting as we went
along and displayed few evidences of the industry and thrift
which characterise the more northern tribes. The moun-
tains are higher and the scenes are broader and more wonder-
ful at the southern end of the range, but the only cultivation
we came upon was in the villages and along the banks of the
little rushing streams. It was evident that we were ap-
proaching "civilisation." Here and there we went through
small groves of coffee trees, beautiful in a wealth of snow-
white blossoms, but evidently "deserted^ and wretchedly
ragged and unkempt.

Baguio, now the summer capital of the Philippine Islands,
the "Philippine Simla,"^ as it is so often called, lies at the
top of what has become justly celebrated as "the magnifi-
cent Benguet Road," the building of which has been the sub-
ject of more controversy than almost any other one thing
that American authority and enterprise has accomplished in
the Islands. The Benguet Road when I first saw it was
known as "Mead's Trail," so named in honour of the engi-
neer who made the original survey for it, and in some places
it was nothing more than a thin line drawn against perpen-
dicular cliffs to indicate where cutting was to be done.

Let somebody else argue the question as to whether or
not this road has justified the faith of the men who built it.
My husband and his colleagues were responsible for the be-
ginning of it and Mr. Taft authorised the payment of the
large sums of money which went into it, but he does not in
the least object to honest criticism of the project. His only

201

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

question is: "How else could we have accomplished what
we did?" For which there is no satisfactory answer. I
have ridden over it since it was completed and, in common
with a majority of those who have enjoyed this privilege, I
am strongly prejudiced in its favour. There are few, if any
roads in the world more spectacular, or which represent a
greater triumph of engineering skill. Fairly hewn out of
the almost solid, but too crumbling, walls of the Bued River
Canycm, it winds for about seventeen miles through con-
stantly changing scenes of extraordinary grandeur, then it
strikes the foothills of the mountains and rises in a succes-
sion of splendid upward sweeps to an altitude of more than
five thousand feet in less than six miles.

The Benguet Road was originally a railway project and
was to have been built by the British company which owns
the Manila and Dagupan Railway. But this syndicate
wanted a perpetual grant and a guarantee from the govern-
ment which could not then be given. It was necessary, in
any case, to build a wagon-road before railway construction
could be started and Captain Mead, who was sent out at the
head of a surveying party, reported that such a road would
cost at least $50,000, or $75,000. The Commission appro-
priated the $50,000 and issued orders to have the work be-
gun, fully expecting to have to add another $25,000 be-
fore the road was finished. Nobody knows what character
of road Captain Mead had in mind when he made his esti-
mate, but it transpired that nothing short of first-class con-
struction would last through even one heavy rain. Besides,
the Bued River Canyon had to be spanned six or eight times
with tremendous suspension bridges, and before the project
was completed an unwilling government had spent something
like $2,500,000 on it. This was spread over a period of
years, of course, and much of it went for necessary improve-
ments or for the replacement of storm-wrecked bridges and

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

graded secticms, but its enemies like to refer to it as our two
and a half million dollar road.

The Manila and Dagupan Railway company extended its
road up to the point where the Benguet Road begins and
thus a way was opened into the only region in the Philip-
pines where one may find really invigorating air. And
while the road was building Baguio development began. A
United States Army Camp was established on a ridge over-
looking a wide range of pine-covered hills, and a hospital
was erected for the accommodation of invalid soldiers who,
before these facilities for taking care of them were provided,
had alwaj^, at great expense to the government, to be sent
back to the United States. A civil hospital and tuberculosis
camp were opened; good hotels under private ownership
soon took the place of field tents and rough board shacks;
markets and stores were started, bringing in supplies in
wholesale lots, and fair-sized buildings soon began to go up
in a substantial business section; people began to build
houses as rapidly as builders could be found to do the work;
churches and schools began to appear where nothing was be-
fore; a summer camp for the recuperation of thousands of
public-school teachers was started in a high valley carpeted
with pine-needles, and lecture courses for vacation instruc-
tion were instituted ; a country club was organised with golf
links, a baseball diamond, polo grounds, tennis courts and
everything that goes to make a coimtry club successful. The
plan of the city was drawn by Architect Bumham of Chi-
cago, who visited Benguet for the purpose, and a great cen-
tral plaza was provided with artistic, but inexpensive build-
ings for the accommodation of the two branches of the gov-
ernment. Cottages in rows went up almost ovemi^t; rich
Filipinos and a few Americans built fine homes ; beautifully
metalled drives began to wind in and out and over and

around the hills, and a high-class government automobile

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

'bus line was put on the Benguet Road which is the delight
of every American or other foreigner in the Islands, as well
as of many hundreds of Filipinos who annually take advan-
tage of this wholly novel opportunity to reach a salubrious
climate in their own land, and by a route which in any
European country would attract scores of thrill-seeking tour-
ists.

And so the Philippine Simla was begun. Its friends, or,
in other words, most people have dreams of a great future
for it when it shall be a thriving, prosperous city and a health
resort for everybody "east of Suez" who needs to seek near
by a temperate and invigourating climate.

It is six years since I saw Baguio, for I visited it the last
time in 1907, but even then I could not believe that it was
built on the groimd that I had ridden over and found prac-
tically uninhabited only six years before. At that time a
provincial government had been organised, and an American,
Mr. Phelps Whitmarsh, who was a writer and had lived
among the Igorrotes a long time, was appointed governor.
But he was governor of a wild-tribe province which did not
then boast any greater signs of civilisation than winding
foot trails and a few groups of low-thatched huts which
were known as towns.

We rode in from Trinidad, not many miles from Baguio,
on the morning of the 23rd of Jime and went straight to the
governor's "mansion." We were welcomed by Mrs. Whit-
marsh into a nipa-roofed, suali house which, though it was
quite large, had no partitions except such as were made of.
bamboo screens and hangings of bright-coloured Igorrote
cloths. But it had a big, open fireplace and a fine blaze
from odorous pine boughs was crackling up the chimney.
This seemed particularly cosy and delightful to us because
we had just been camping in native huts in which the only

place for a fire was a square of earth in the middle of the

204

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

floor and we were not only quite frozen but we were thor-
oughly smoked.

At Baguio we got letters and telegrams from Manila and
one of the telegrams announced my husband's appointment
as Governor of the Islands, so I knew that an adjustment of
state affairs had been made and that I should reach Manila
to begin a new era in my Philippine experience. Mr. Taf t
wrote me that the plans for his inauguration were practically
complete and that he was issuing cards for a big reception in
honour of General MacArthur at our house on the evening of
the Fourth of July. This filled me with something like
panic, because I didn't expect to reach Manila until after
the first of July and I didn't see how I could get ready on
such short notice to entertain hundreds of people. How-
ever, it was not for me to enter a protest on such a score, so
it was decided that we would go down as soon as we possibly
could.

We spent two days enjoying the delightful hospitality of
our friends in Baguio and in exploring the country round
about, and I, after listening to builders' dreams of what was
to be and now is, proceeded to select a site for my own future
summer home.

We sat around a roaring fire of an evening and sang all
our songs, rather ruefully; we recoimted our many adven-
tures, and expressed our sincere regret that our holiday was
over; then on the morning of the 25th of June, at the dreary
hour of half past four, we mounted our refreshed and rested
horses and started down the long Naguilian trail to the coast.
I wish only to add that the heat in the lowlands, after our
long breath of white man's air in the mountains, was almost
more than we could stand, and I made the fatal mistake of
leaving Baguio in a heavy flannel riding shirt and with no
thin blouse handy to take its place.

205

CHAPTER X

GOVERNOR TAFT

There is no denjdng that the arrangements made, during
my absence in the north, for my participation in the events
attending my husband's induction into the office of Governor
of the Philippines were enough to fill me with dismay.

Mr. Taft had issued two thousand invitations for the re-
ception at our house in honour of Greneral MacArthur, and
on my way down from Baguio I had been spending my time
wondering how I should take care of the three or four him-
dred I imagined had been asked. I had received no informa-
tion more definite than the simple statement that invitations
had been sent out, and it was not until I reached Manila
that I learned the startling number. I thought my husband
knew something about the limitations of our house, but I
found that he had not taken this important matter into con-
sideration at all.

Fortunately we had a large garden in fairly good condi-
tion by this time, so I immediately went to work and had
it decorated with long lines and festoons of Japanese lan-
terns ; I ordered a large refreshment tent put up in the middle
of the wide lawn; then I sat down and prayed for fair
weather. It was the rainy season and I knew that only a
specially importuned Providence could keep the afternoon of
the Fourth of July clear.

The inauguration of the first American Governor was an
occasion of great dignity and interest. The ceremony took
place on a platform erected at one end of a large square in the
Walled City which is enclosed on one side by the Ayuntami-
ento, or Insular Capitol, and on another by the Cathedral.
The foimdations of the Inaugural stand were of historic
interest in that they were originally intended to support

206

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

a magnificent residence for Spanish Governors-General and
were on the site of the ancient gubernatorial mansion which
was destroyed by an earthquake in 1863. The rebuilding
had never prc^essed beyond the laying of the massive
granite base, and this still stands as a mute reminder to
progressive Americans of the dilatory and otherwise ques-
tionable methods which once obtained in the Philippine gov-
ernment.

The Cathedral Plaza — ^since renamed Plaza McKanley —
presented a memorable scene that Fourth of July morning.
The architectural grace and time-mellowed colours of the
old Spanish buildings blended with the rich luxuriance of
many-hued tropic plants and the green of spreading acacias.
American flags covered the canopied platforms and floated
from every possible point of vantage. Americans and Fili-
pinos, all in gala attire, were pressed close together in the
spectators' stands which extended on either side of the cen-
tral pavilion; the plaza below was thronged with Filipinos
of every rank and condition, in all manner of bright jusis
and calicos ; while above the crowd towered many American
soldiers and sailors in spic-and-span khaki or white duck.

The programme was much like other programmes. Gen-
eral MacArthur and his staflF occupied the centre of the plat-
form. A well trained and finely conducted Filipino band
played several numbers ; there was a prayer and an invoca-
tion; then my husband, looking larger even than his natural
size in his crisp white linen suit, stepped to the front of the
platform and stood gravely looking down upon the stocky
little Chief Justice of the Archipelago, Sefior Arellano, who
administered the oath of office. Afterward Mr. Taft and
Mr. Fergusson stood together and delivered, in English and
Spanish, paragraph by paragraph in translation, the Inau-
gural address.

I think only one unfortunate incident occurred to mar the

complete harmony of the occasion, and that was fumished

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

by a United States Congressman of the Military Committee
of the House, who was visiting Manila at the time.

Tickets of admission to the central pavilion had been sent
to him, but he had forgotten to bring them with him. How-
ever, when he arrived at the plaza he started, with several
ladies who were with him, to mount the steps of the Inau-
gural platfomi on which no ladies were allowed. He was
stopped, naturally, and a guard offered to conduct his guests
to seats on a side pavilion, telling him at the time that the
central stand had been reserved for government officials and
representatives, among whom he, of course, was included.
This separate seating of the ladies seemed to annoy him for
some reason, and he announced his intention of remaining
with his party. He was then shown to the best available
seats and the incident seemed to be closed. But he was by
no means satisfied with his position, especially when he found
that the wives of some of the Commissioners had seats in
front of him. I think the heat must have been affecting
him for he called the Naval Lieutenant, who was in charge
as usher, and made audible protest against "those wives of
clerks" being put before him and his wife. The young
naval officer was polite, but quite firm in his refusal to take
any steps to remedy matters.

"You don't seem to know who I am !" he exclaimed, with
manifest indignation.

"No, sir, I do not," mildly replied the Lieutenant.

* Well," said the angry man, "I'm a member of the Mili-
tary Committee of the House of Representatives. I helped
to make this Army out here and I've come out to see what
kind of work I did. I don't like it, and I'm going home and
unmake it. This treatment of me here is of a piece with the
treatment I've received ever since I've been in these islands."

This didn't sound quite fair. He had been treated with

marked courtesy by everybody and had accepted rather lavish

hospitality from both Army officers and civil officials. In

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

fact, he had received every possible attention in a most un-
usually hospitable community. The young Lieutenant
bristled up and said:

"Sorry, sir, but Pm obeying orders ; and Fd just like to tell
you that I consider your remarks exceedingly impolite."

Upon which the gentleman from Washington left the
pavilion and went down to stand in a place which the guards
had been ordered to keep clear.

The rest of the story I heard afterward. It seems that
both General Barry and General Davis saw him and took
pains to go down and ask him up into the central pavilion,
but he refused to go. Then one of the guards came up and
politely informed him: "Orders, sir, you'll have to stand
back." By this time he was infuriated and he turned on the
guard and, after identifying himself, repeated his remarks
about having made the Army and being determined to go
back to Washington and unmake it.

"Well," said the guard, "I guess you can't immake me.
I've just been mustered out of the United States Army and
am a plain American citizen. I don't understand that Con-
gress can do much about unmaking American citizens."
Which all goes to show that it doesn't do much good to lose
one's temper. The gentleman took his party and stalked
out of the plaza.

My hopes for the evening were blasted. About five
o'clock the heavens opened and such a sheet of water de-
scended upon my refreshment tent and my strings of gay
paper lanterns as one never sees in the Temperate Zone. It
was raining in torrents when our guests began to arrive, and
if many of those invited had not been kept at home by the
weather I don't know what I should have done with the
crowd. I had a wide hall, a small reception-room, a
dining-room and the verandah, but two thousand people are
a good many, and I'm sure a large majority of them came

in spite of the weather. It was a "crush," and a warm,

209

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

moist crush, but it was a gala occasion, everybody was in
good humour and the evening passed much more pleasantly
than I had any reason to expect. This was the first enter-
tainment of such proportions that I had undertaken in Ma-
nila, and I saw at once that, as the Governor's wife, I should
need all the spaciousness of Malacafian Palace.

I think Greneral MacArthur was pleased with our farewell
hospitality to him ; he seemed to be ; and I think his feelings
toward Mr. Taf t, when he left the Islands the next day, were
exceedingly friendly. But we heard later that letters had
come from companions of his on the ship which said that he
very keenly resented the fact that the new Govemor had not
seen fit to mention him with praise in his Inaugural address.
Mr. Taft said he was very sorry, but, in view of the rela-
tions which were known to exist between the Military gov-
ernment and the Commission, he thou^t it would have been
very difficult to find the tactful words which would have
satisfied the General, and in uttering which he would not
have stultified himself.

I am quite sure that Greneral MacArthur never disliked
my husband personally. His resentment was against the
Commissioners in their official capacity, whereby his own
authority was diminished. In later years, as Secretary of
War, Mr. Taft met him very often and their relations were
always perfectly cordial. After his death there was con-
siderable newspaper comment to the effect that he had been
very badly treated. There was no refutation of the charges,
but everybody familiar with the facts knew they had no
foundation. When Mr. Taft was Secretary of War, on his
recommendation General MacArthur was given the highest
rank in the United States Army, that of Lieutenant-Gcneral,
and at his own request was sent by Mr. Taft on a mission to
travel through China with his son, an Army officer, as his
aide, and to make a military report upon the country. On
his return, at his own request, he was not assigned to specific

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

command, but was ordered to his home at Milwaukee to
prepare the report on Qiina, and there he remained by his
own choice until his retirement.

On the morning of July 5, we moved to Malacaiian, and
General Chaffee, who succeeded General MacArthur, took
our house on the Bay. There was a great deal of conten-
tion with regard to this exchange of houses. Mn Taf t knew
that to the mind of the Filipinos the office of Governor,
without the accustomed "setting*' and general aspects of the
position, would lose a large part of its dignity and effective-
ness. He also knew that a Civil Government, imless it
were quartered in the Ayuntamiento, the recognised seat of
government, would inspire but little confidence or respecL
The outward semblance is all-important to the Filipino mind,
yet knowing this the Military authorities clung with dogged
tenacity to every visible evidence of supremacy, and it took
an order from Washington to get them to vacate the Ayun-
tamiento in which they had, in the beginning, refused the
Commission adequate office room. An official order also
turned the Governor's residence over to the new Governor
and, at the same time, relieved Mr. Taft of the necessity for
deciding what to do with our house in Malate. It was the
best available house in the city and every man on the Com-
mission wanted it, so if the War Department had not taken
it for the Commanding General somebody's feelings surely
would have suffered. Mr. Taft had about decided to toss a
coin in the presence of them all to see which one of his col-
leagues should have it.

In some ways we regretted that the move was necessary,
for we were very comfortable in our "chalet," as Seiior Juan
de Juan had editorially called it, and invigourating dips in
the high breakers of the Bay had become one of our pleas-
antest pastimes. But we knew that no amount of execu-
tive orders could turn our homely and unpalatial abode into

a gubernatorial mansion, so we needs must move for the ef-

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

feet on the native mind, if for nothing else. Not until we
did, would the Filipinos be convinced that Civil Government
was actually established

Not that I wasn't well pleased with the idea of living in a
palace, however unlike the popular conception of a palace
it might be. I had not been brought up with any such des-
tiny in view and I confess that it appealed to my imagina-
tion.

Malacafian is old and rather damp and, in my time, some
of it had not been fumished or finished according to modem
ideas, but in size and dignity it leaves nothing to be desired,
and it has historic associations which give it an atmosphere
that I foimd to be quite thrilling. It contains many fine,
old-world Spanish portraits, and there is one large canvas
of especial interest which hangs at the head of the main
stairway. It depicts the ceremony through which Magellan
made peace with the natives of Cebu when he landed on that
island in April, 1521. This consisted of drawing blood
from the breasts of the principal parties to the contract, the
one drinking that of the other. The Spaniards called it the
Vacto de Sangre^ or the Blood Pact, and so the picture is
named. In our own day the Katipunan League, the
strongest and most sinister of all the insurrectionary secret
societies, are said to have adopted this ceremony in their
rites of initiation, and members of the League could be iden-
tified by a peculiar scar on the breast.

The grounds at Malacafian contain, perhaps, twenty acres,
and in those days there were fields and swamps in the en-
closure as well as lawns and fountains, flower-beds and
kitchen gardens. There were five or six good-sized houses
in the grounds for the use of secretaries and aides, and the
stables were very large.

I would not care to hazard a guess as to the number of

parientes wt sheltered in the quarters of our employes. Mr.

Taft called these quarters our "Filipino tenement" and

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

"Calle Pariente," but screened with shrubbery and spread-
ing down the sides of a twenty-acre lot the colony did not
seem as conspicuous as our huddled tribe had been in Mal-

ate.

The Palace is architecturally Spanish, yet it lacks the
large patio, having two small courts instead. The lower
floor, on a level with the ground, is really nothing more than
a basement and has no usable spaces in it except some raised
offices and cloak rooms. Frequently during bad typhoons
I have seen water two and three feet deep in the entrance
hall, but it always receded very rapidly and seldom gave
us any inconvenience. The entrance, which is paved with
marble, is very broad, and there is a wide and imposing
staircase of polished hardwood leading to the reception hall
above. The great living-rooms open one into another, giv-
ing a fine perspective, and they lead, through a dozen dif-
ferent doorways, on to a splendid, white-tiled verandah
which runs out to the bank of the Pasig River. There is a
picturesque, moss-covered river landing on the verandah
below.

There are about twenty rooms on the one floor, all of them
good sized and some of them enormous, and it took a great
many servants to keep the place in order. The floors were
all of beautiful hardwoods and it required a permanent force
of six muchachos to keep them in a proper state of polish.
The Filipino method of polishing floors is interesting. Your
muchacho ties either banana leaves or some sort of bags on
his bare feet, then he skates up and down, up and down,
until the floors get so slick that he himself can hardly stand
up on them. It is easy to imagine that six boys skating to-
gether in the spaciousness of the Palace might cut fancy
figures and have a delightful time generally, if they thought
they were unobserved. Filipinos of the muchacho class al-
ways play like children, no matter what they are doing, and
they have to be treated like children.

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

The Palace furniture, wbidi must have been very fine
in Spanish days, was of red narrOj or Philippine mahogany,
handsomely carved and displaying on every piece die Span-
ish coat-of-arms. But during the changing Spanish r^mes
some one with a bizarre taste had covered all die beautiful
wood with a heavy coat of black paint. The effect was de-
pressingly sombre to me.

The porcelain, however, or what was left of it, was unusu-
ally gpod. The Spanish coat-of-arms in beautiful colours
was reproduced on each plate against a background of a dark
blue canopy. I must say there were quite as many re-
minders of Spanish audiority as I could wish for and I fre-
quently felt that some noble Don mi^t walk in at any
moment and catch me living in his house.

But, it didn't take us long to get settled down in our new
domain, and I soon ceased to regret the sea breezes and the
salt baths of Malate. Malacanan enjoyed a clean sweep of
air from the river and our open verandah was in many ways
an improvement on the gaudily glazed one that we had grad-
ually become accustomed to in the other house. The Malac-
aflan verandah, being much of it roofless, was of little use
in the daytime, but on clear evenings it was the most delight-
ful spot I have ever seen. I began to love the tropical
nights and to feel that I never before had known what nights
can be like. The stars were so large and hung so low that
they looked almost like raised silver figures on a dark blue
field. And when the moon shone — but why try to write
about tropical moonlight? The wonderful sunsets and
the moonlit nights have tied more American hearts to
Manila and the Philippines than all the countr)r's other
charms combined. And they are both indescribable.

When I lived in Malate and could look out across the
open, white-capped bay to far-away Ml Meriveles, I some-
times forgot I was in the Tropics. But at Malacanan when

we gazed down on the low-lapping Pasig, glinting in the

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

starli^t, and across the rice fields on the other side where
swaying lanterns twinkled from beneath the outline of
thatched roofs, there was little to remind ns that we were
Americans or that we had ever felt any air less soothing than
the soft breeze which rustled the bamboo plumes along the
bank.

Our household was in every way much enlarged on our
change of residence and circumstances. There were eight or
nine muchachos in the house, two extra Chinese helpers in
the kitchen, and the staff of coachmen and gardeners in-
creased on even a larger scale. Our stable of ponies multi-
plied to sixteen, and even then there were too few for our
various needs. It is difficult for the dweller in the Tem-
perate Zone to realise how small an amoimt of work the
native of the Tropics, either man or beast, is capable of.

We thought at first that the salary attached to the office
of Governor of the Philippines was quite splendid, but we
soon gave up any idea we might have had of saving a little
of it for a rainy day. Our rainy day was upon us. It
rained official obligations which we had to meet. The mere
cost of lighting Malacafian was enough to keep a modest
family in comfort. I don't know about conditions at the
Palace now, but I imagine they have not changed much, and
I do know that Manila is a more expensive place in which
to live than it was in my time. And yet there is serious talk
of reducing the salary of the Grovemor-General. It seems
a pity. TTiis would place the office in a class with Ambas-
sadorships which nobody but rich men can accept. The
present salary, with nice management and a not too am-
bitious programme, will just about cover expenses, but I
feel sorry for the wife of the Grovemor who must try to
do what is expected of her on less.

My cook, who had been quite independent of me at

Malate, became at Malacafian wholly unapproachable. I

don't know why, but so it was. He occupied quarters open-

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

ing on one of the courts below and connected with the dinmg-
room by an outside staircase up which I was never able to
inveigle him. I had to deliver my orders from the top of
the stairs and when he had listened to just as much as he
cared to hear he would disappear through the kitchen door,
and no amoimt of calling would bring him back. As the
kitchen was an ante-chamber to a sort of Chinese catacombs,
extending over a good part of the basement, I never ven-
tured to follow him and I had to swallow my wrath as best
I could.

But he was a jewel despite his eccentricities. He could
produce the most elaborate and varied buffet suppers I ever
saw and I never knew a cook who could make such a wonder-
ful variety of cakes and fruit tarts and cream-puffs. He
took a real delight in their construction, and for two days
before a reception he would spend all his time filling every
pan in the house with patisseries elaborately iced in every
imaginable colour.

I began at once to give an afternoon reception every week
and if it hadn't been for my disagreeable, but capable, old
Ah Sing I should have been in a constant turmoil of en-
gagements with caterers and confectioners. . As it was, I
never had to give an order, really. "Reception Wednesday,
Ah Sing," was all that was necessary, and except for a
glance now and then to see that the muchachos were giving
the floors and the fumiture a little extra polish on Wednes-
day morning, the only preparations I had to make for receiv-
ing two thousand people were to put on an embroidered
muslin gown and compose myself.

These afternoon receptions were public, our only form of
invitation being an "At Home" notice in the newspapers, and
considering the imsettled state of Manila society in those
days, it is really remarkable that we had so few unwelcome
guests. There were a great many derelicts and generally dis-
reputable people, both American and European, trying to

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

better their fortunes or add to the excitement in our agitated
community, but we suffered no unpleasant consequences from
our open hospitality, though every Wednesday the Palace
was thronged and every Wednesday many new faces ap-
peared. Army and Navy people, civilians of every occupa-
tion and many foreigners — Germans and British mostly —
came nearly always. I remember especially the first instal-
ment of American school teachers. They were, for the most
part, a fine lot of men and women who had come out with
high hopes and ideals and an enthusiastic desire to pass them
on. There were some pretty girls among them and a number
of very clever looking men. I believe they used to enjoy
my parties as much as anybody in Manila. They were
homesick, no doubt, especially the girls, and I suppose
the sight of so many friendly American faces cheered them
up.

The Filipinos had to have a little coaxing before they
began to avail themselves very freely of our general invita-
tion. But by asking many of them personally and persist-
ently to "be sure and come Wednesday" we prevailed on a
good number to believe they were really wanted ; and after a
little while there began to be as many brown faces as white
among our guests.

Speaking of school teachers reminds me that it was just

about this time that our minds were relieved of all anxiety

with regard to Bob's and Helen's education. My husband

had wanted to send our ten-year-old son back across the

Pacific and the United States, all by himself, to his Uncle

Horace's school in Connecticut, and I had opposed the idea

with all my might without being able to offer a satisfactory

substitute plan. But now a school for American children

was opened and they were as well taught as they would have

been at home. Moreover, Bob and Helen found a large

number of congenial companions, and I don't think I ever

saw a happier set of boys and girls. They lived ^|^f doors

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

and did everything that children usually do, but their most
conspicuous performance was on the Luneta in the evenings,
where they would race around the drive on their little ponies,
six abreast, or play games all over the grass plots which were
then, and always have been, maintained chiefly for the ben-
efit of children, both brown and white.

My husband's change in title and station made very little
difference in the character of his duties, but it gave him
increased authority in the performance of them. The on-
erous necessity for submitting legislation to an executive
whose point of view was diflFerent from that of the Commis-
sion came to an end, and he was able to see that such laws as
the Commission passed were put in operation without delay.
Under Greneral Chaffee the feeling on the part of the Army
against the encroachments of civil government gave way,
slowly but surely, to an attitude of, at least, friendly tolera-
tion. It was as if they said : '*Well, let them alone ; we
know they are wrong; but they must learn by experience,
and, after all, they mean well."

General Chaffee and General MacArthur were two quite
different types of men. General Chaffee was less precise,
less analytical. General MacArthur had always been given
to regarding everything in its "psychological" aspect and,
indeed, "psychological" was a word so frequently on his lips
that it became widely popular. General Chaffee was impet-
uous; he was much less formal than his predecessor both in
thought and manner, and Mr. Taf t found co-operation with
him much less difficult. He made no secret of his convic-
tion, which was shared by most of the Army, that civil gov-
ernment was being established prematurely, but he was not
unreasonable about it.

He refused at first to listen to the proposition for the

establishment of a native Constabulary. This had been

the Commission's pet project ever since they had been in

the Islands, and it was a great disappointment to them to

218

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

find that the opposition which they had encountered in the
fonner administration was to be continued.

What they wanted was a force of several thousand Fil-
ipinos, trained and commanded by American Army officers,
either from the regular Army or from the volunteers. The
same thing had been done with success by the British in India
and the Straits Settlements, by the Dutch in Java and by our
own Greneral Davis in Porto Rico, and as the insurrectionary
force had dwindled to a few bands and to scattered groups
of murderers and ladrones, so acknowledged by everybody,
there was no reason why a native constabulary should not be
employed to clear these out.

This plan was among the first things submitted to Gen-
eral ChaflFee, but he was evidently not impressed. "Pin
them down with a bayonet for at least ten years" was a
favourite expression of Army sentiment which sometimes
made the Commissioners' explanations to the natives rather
difficult.

General Wright, on behalf of the Commission, called on
Greneral Chaffee and was much surprised to learn that he
had not even read the Constabulary bill which had been
passed some time before and held up pending the hoped for
opportunity to carry it into effect. When General Wright
explained the purport of the measure General Chaffee said,

"I am opposed to the whole business. It seems to me that
you are trying to introduce something to take the place of
my Army."

*Why, so we are," said General Wright "We are try-
ing to create a civil police force to do the police work which
we understood the Army was anxious to be relieved of. You
have announced your purpose to concentrate the Army in the
interest of economy, and to let our civil governments stand
alone to see what is in them and we consider it necessary to
have a constabulary, or some such force, to take care of the

lawless characters that are sure to be in the country after four

219

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

years of war, and especially in a country where the natives
take naturally to ladronism. The Municipal police as now
organised are not able to meet all the requirements in this
regard."

"There you are," said (Jeneral Chaffee, "you give your
whole case away."

"I have no case to give away," replied General Wright.
"We are trying to put our provincial governments on a basis
where they will require nothing but the moral force of the
military arm, and actually to preserve law and order
through the civil arm. The people desire peace, but they
also desire protection and we intend through the civil gov-
ernment to give it to them."

The Commissioner then suggested the names of some
Army officers whose peculiar tact in handling Filipinos had
marked them as the best available men for organising and
training native soldiers, but Greneral Chaffee was not in-
clined to detail them for the work, so General Wright
returned to the Commission quite cast down and communi-
cated to his colleagues the feeling that they were to have a
continuance of the same difficulties with which they were
required to contend under the former administration.

But a peacemaker came along in the person of General
Corbin. He spent some time with General Chaffee and
then came to Malacaiian to visit us. He made a hurried,
but quite extensive trip through the Islands and gave the
whole situation pretty thorough inspection. After he left,
a change was found to have come over the spirit of affairs,
and it was thought that he had managed to make clear to
everybody concemed that, while there was a military arm
and a civil arm of the government in the Philippines, they
represented a single American purpose and that that purpose
had been expressed by the administration at Washington
when the Commission was sent out to do the work it was then
engaged upon.

220

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

After that General Chaffee seems not only to have been
amenable to reason, but to have been imbued with a spirit
of cordiality and helpfulness which was most gratifying to
the long-harassed Commission. To facilitate co-operation,
a private telephone was installed between the offices of Mr.
Taft and the Commanding General, and it seemed to me
that my husband suddenly lost some of the lines of worry
which had begun to appear in his face.

The Constabulary, as everybody knows, was eventually
established and perhaps no finer body of men, organised for
such a purpose, exists. It took a long time to get them en-
listed, equipped and properly drilled, but to-day they are a
force which every man and woman in the Philippines, of
whatever nationality, colour, creed or occupation, regards
with peculiar satisfaction. They include corps enlisted
from nearly every tribe in the Islands, not excepting the
Moros and the Igorrotes. The Moro constabulario is dis-
tinguishable from the Christian in that he wears a jaunty red
fez with his smart khaki uniform instead of the regulation
cap, while the Igorrote refuses trousers and contents himself
with the cap, the tight jacket, the cartridge belt and a bright
''^G-string." To the Ifugao Igorrote uniform is added a
distinguishing spiral of brass which the natty soldier wears
just below the knee. It is difficult to imagine anything
more extraordinary than a "crack" company of these mag-
nificent bare-legged Ifugaos going through dress-parade drill
under the sharp commands of an American officer. The
Constabulary Band of eighty-odd pieces, under the direction
of Captain Loving, an American negro from the Boston Con-
servatory of Music, is well known in America and is gen-
erally considered one of the really great bands of the world.
All its members are Filipinos.

Press clippings and some correspondence which I have
before me remind me that even at this period there began
to manifest itself in the Taft family, and otherwheres, a

221

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

mild interest in the possibility that my husband might be-
come President of the United States. Mr. Taft -himself
treated all such "far-fetched speculation" with the derision
which he thought it deserved, but to me it did not seem at
all unreasonable. We received first a copy of the Boston
Herald containing two marked articles in parallel columns,
one of which, headed by a picture of Mr. Taft, stated that
in Washington there had been serious suggestion of his name
as a Presidential candidate and the other giving a sympa-
thetic account of an anti-imperialistic meeting at Faheuil
Hall. We thought the two articles as "news items" hardly
warranted juxtaposition, and it seemed to us the editor was
indulging a sort of sardonic sense of humour when he placed
them so. Not that my husband was an "imperialist," but
that he was generally so considered. Indeed, he was the
most active anti-imperialist of them all. He was doing the
work of carrying out a thoroughly anti-imperialistic policy,
but he recognised the difference between abandoning the
Philippines to a certain imhappy fate and guiding them to
substantial independence foimded on self-dependence. It
took a long time to get the shouters from the house-tops to
accept this interpretation of our national obligation, but
there was reassurance in the fact that where our honour is
involved Americanism can always be trusted to rise above
purely partisan politics.

Mr. Taft's mother, who took an active and very intelli-
gent interest in her son's work and who sent him letters by
nearly every mail which were filled with entertaining and
accurate comment on Philippine aflFairs, took the suggestion
of his being a Presidential possibility quite seriously. And
she did not at all approve of it. Having seen a number of
press notices about it she sat down and wrote him a long
letter in which she discussed with measured arguments the
wisdom of his keeping out of politics. At that time the idea
appealed to nothing in him except his sense of humour. He

222

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

wrote to his brother Charles : "To me such a discussion has
for its chief feature the element of humour. The idea that
a man who has issued injunctions against labour unions, al-
most by the bushel, who has sent at least ten or a dozen vio-
lent labour agitators to jail, and who is known as one of the
worst judges for the maintenance of government by injimc-
tion, could ever be a successful candidate on a Presidential
ticket, strikes me as intensely ludicrous; and had I the
slightest ambition in that direction I hope that my good
sense would bid me to suppress it. But, more than this, the
horrors of a modem Presidential campaign and the political
troubles of the successful candidate for President, rob the
office of the slightest attraction for me. I have but one
ambition, and if that cannot be satisfied I am content to
return to the practice of the law with reasonable assurance
that if my health holds out I can make a living, and make
Nellie and the children more comfortable than I could if I
went to Washington.*'

This letter is dated August 27, 1901, and was written on a
Spanish steamer which the Commission had taken from
Aparri, on the north coast of Luzon, after they finished the
last of the long trips they had to make for the purpose of
organising civil government in the provinces.

It was just after they retumed from this trip; just when
things were at their brightest ; when everything seemed to be
developing so rapidly and our hopes were running high, that
we were shaken by the appalling news of the attack on Presi-
dent McKinley. We had kept luncheon waiting for Mr.
Taft until it seemed useless to wait any longer and we were
at table when he came in. He looked so white and stunned
and helpless that I was frightened before he could speak.
Then he said, "The President has been shot."

I suppose that throughout the United States the emotions

of horror and grief were beyond expression, but I cannot

help thinking that to the Americans in the Philippines the

223

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

shock came with more overwhehning force than to any one
else. Mr. McKinley was our chief in a very spedal sense.
He was the director of our endeavours and the father of our
destinies. It was he who had sent die civil officials out
there and it was on the strength of his never failing support
that we had relied in all our troubles. It mig^t, indeed,
have been Mr. Root in whose mind the great schemes for the
development of the islands and their peoples had been con-
ceived, but Mr. Root exercised his authority throu^ the
wise endorsement of the President and it was to the Presi-
dent that we looked for sanction or criticism of every move
that was made. Then, too, the extraordinary sweetness of
his nature inspired in every one with whom he came in close
contact a strong personal affection, and we had reason to
feel this more than most people. Truly, it was as if the
foundations of our world had crumbled under us.

But he was not dead; and on the fact that he was strong
and clean we began to build hopes. Yet the hush which fell
upon the community on the day that he was shot was not
broken imtil a couple of days before he died when we re-
ceived word that he was recovering. We were so far away
that we could not believe anybody would send us such a
cable unless it were founded on a practical certainty, and
our *Thank God !" was sufficiently fervent to dispel all the
gloom that had enveloped us. Then came the cable an-
nouncing his death. I need not dwell on that.

Mr. Taft and Mr. Roosevelt knew each other very well.
They had been in Washington together years before, Mr.
Taft as Solicitor Greneral, Mr. Roosevelt as Civil Service
Commissioner, and they had corresponded with some fre-
quency since we had been in Manila. So, in so far as the
work in the Philippines was concerned, my husband knew
where the new President's sympathies were and he had no
fears on that score. At the same time he was most anxious

to have Mr. Root continued as Secretary of War in order

224

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

that there might not be any delay or radical change in carry-
ing out the plans which had been adopted and put in opera-
tion under his direction. All activities suffered a sort of
paralysis from the crushing blow of the President's assassi-
nation, but the press of routine work continued. We were
very much interested in learning that a great many Filipinos,
clever politicians as they are, thought that after Mr. Mc-
Kinley's death Mr. Bryan would become President, and
that, after all, they would get immediate independence.

Then came the awful tragedy of Balangiga. It hap-
pened only a few days after the President died, while our
nerves were still taut, and filled us all with unspeakable
horror intensified by the first actual fear we had felt since
we had been in the Philippine Islands. Company "C" of
the 9th Infantry, stationed at the town of Balangiga on
the island of Samar, was surprised at breakfast, without
arms and at a considerable distance from their quarters, and
fifty of them were massacred. About thirty fought their
way bare handed through the mob, each man of which had
a bolo or a gun, and lived to tell the tale. It was a disaster
so ghastly in its details, so imdreamed of imder the con-
ditions of almost universal peace which had been estab-
lished, that it created absolute panic. Men began to go
about their everyday occupations in Manila carrying pistols
conspicuously displayed, and half the people one met could
talk of nothing else but their conviction that the whole
archipelago was a smouldering volcano and that we were all
liable to be murdered in our beds any night. Of course this
made the Army officers more certain than ever that the
Islands should have remained under military control indefi-
nitely, and I cannot deny that, at the time, their arguments
seemed to have some foundation. It was a frightful nerv-
ous strain and it took several months of tranquillity to restore
confidence. If it had been a regular engagement in which

the Americans had sustained a reverse it could have been

225

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

accepted with some philosophy, but it was a plain massacre
of a company of defenceless men by many times their num-
ber who had gotten into the town with the consent of the
American authorities, and in conspiracy with the local head-
man and the native parish priest, on the pretext of bringing
in for surrender a band of insurrectos.

The man, Lucban, who was in command of the Samar
ladrones who committed this atrocity, is now a prominent
politico in Manila, and it is interesting to know that only last
year, in a campaign speech, he referred with dramatic inten-
sity to "our glorious victory of Balangiga," He was ap-
pealing to an ignorant electorate, many of whom, as he
knew, wore the scar of the awful Katipunan 'T^lood pact,"
but it is just to record that the average Filipino is not proud
of the Balangiga "victory."

Shortly before these unhappy events my sister Maria was
called back to America by the illness of our mother, and I
was left to face the tragic excitements of the month of Sep-
tember without her comforting companionship. By October
I began to feel that I would have to get out of the Philippine
Islands or suffer a nervous breakdown, so my husband and I
agreed that it would be well for me to "run up to China," as
they express it out there. Running up to China at that time
of year meant getting out of tropic heat into bracing autumn
weather with a nip of real winter in it, and there was noth-
ing that I needed more.

Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Moses were both anxious to see
something of China before leaving the Orient, and as this
seemed an excellent opportunity to make the trip, they de-
cided to go with me. The Boxer Insurrection had just been
suppressed and the Dowager Empress had not yet retumed
from the West, whither she had fled during the siege of
Peking. We were used to the alarums of war and we

thought we were likely to see more of China "from the in-

226

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

side" than if we visited the country during a period of com-
plete calm. Then there were wonderful tales of valuable
"loot" which interested us. Not necessarily illegitimate
loot, but curios and art treasures in the hands of Chinese
themselves who were selling things at ridiculously low
figures and, sometimes, with a fascinating air of great mys-
tery. There is some allurement in the idea of bargaining
for priceless porcelains, ivories, silks and Russian sables
behind closed and double-locked doors, in the dark depths of
some wretched Chinese hovel. Our Army officers who had
helped to relieve Peking brought us stories of this kind of
adventure, and I secretly hoped that we should be able to
have just some such experience. But being the wives of
American officials I thought likely we should be "taken care
of" every hour of every twenty-four. And so we were.

We sailed to Shanghai and went from there straight to
Peking, where we became the guests of Colonel and Mrs.
Robertson, who had gone in with the American troops in the
Allied Armies and were quartered in no less a place than the
Temple of Heaven. The casual tourist looking now 'upon
that glorious collection of ancestral shrines would find it
difficult to believe that they once served as barracks for
American soldiers. Most people who visit the Temple of
Heaven find in it an atmosphere of peace and serenity such
as is achieved by few structures in the world, and to have
this deep calm invaded by business-like "foreign-devil"
troops must have ruffled the spirits of the high gods. But
the soldiers had to be quartered somewhere and this great,
clean, tree-sheltered enclosure in the heart of the Chinese
city offered ample space.

Mr. Conger was then our Minister to China, and after

spending a few very busy days sightseeing we went to the

Legation to visit him. The Legation quarter, which had

been laid in ruins during the Boxer troubles, had not yet

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

begun to assume an aspect of orderliness, and many were the
evidences of the weeks of horror through which the besieged
foreign representatives had lived.

As the Empress Dowager and her court had not yet re-
turned, we hoped to be able to see all the mysteries of the
Forbidden City, but order had been restored to a point where
it was possible to make the palaces once more "forbidden,"
so we were shown only enough to whet our curiosity. But
the wonderful walls and the temples, the long, imbelievable
streets and the curious life of the people were sufficient to
save us from any feeling of disappointment in our visit.
At a dinner given for us by our Minister we met a number
of men and women who had been through the siege, and I
sat next to Sir Robert Hart, of the Imperial Chinese Cus-
toms, the most interesting man, perhaps, that the great occi-
dental-oriental co-operation has ever produced.

When we returned to Shanghai oa our way down from
Peking I was greeted by two cablegrams. It just happened
that I opened them in the order of their coming and the first
one contained the information that my husband was very ill
and said that I had better retum at once to Manila, while
the second read that he was much better and that there was
no cause for alarm. There was no way of getting to Manila
for several days, because there were no boats going. So
I decided to take a trip up the Yangtse River on
the house-boat belonging to the wife of the American Con-
sul. If I had been doing this for pleasure instead of for
the purpose of "getting away from myself" I should have
enjoyed it exceedingly, but as it was I have but a vague
recollection of a very wide and very muddy river; great
stretches of clay flats, broken here and there by little clumps
of round moimds which I knew were Chinese graves, and
bordered by distant, low hills; an occasional quaint grey
town with uptilted tile roofs ; and a few graceful but dreary-
looking pagodas crowning lonesome hill-tops. And in addi-

228

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

tion to all of this there was a seething mass of very dirty and
very noisy humanity which kept out of our way and regarded
us with anything but friendly looks.

I had left my husband apparently perfectly well, but I
subsequently learned that the night after I left Manila he
developed die first symptoms of his illness. It was diag-
nosed at first as dengue fever, a disease quite common in the
Philippines which, though exceedingly disagreeable, is not
regarded as dangerous. It was about two weeks before a
correct diagnosis was made, and it was then discovered that
he was suffering from an abscess which called for a serious
emergency operation. He was taken to the First Reserve
Army hospital and the operation was performed by Dr.
Rhoads, the Army surgeon who afterward became his aide
when he was President.

The children must have been much frightened. They
had never seen their father ill before, and he told me after-
ward that he should never forget the way they looked as he
was being carried out of Malacanan on a stretcher borne by
six stalwart American policemen. They were all huddled
together in the great hall as he passed through, and while
Bob and Charlie were gazing at the proceedings in open-eyed
astonishment, Helen was weeping.

For twenty-four hours after the operation the doctors were
not at all certain that their patient would live, nor did
their anxiety end at that time. The abscess was of long
growth, the wound had to be made a terrible one, and there
was great danger of blood poisoning. Mr. Taft rallied
but a second operation was necessary. By the time I
reached Manila he was well on the way to recovery, though
even then there was no prospect of his being able to move
for many weeks to come.

He used to lie on his cot in the hospital and recite to his

visitors a verse of Kipling's which he thought fitted his case

exactly :

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

"Now it b not well for the white man

To hurry the Aryan brown,
For the white man riles and the Aryan smiles*

And it weareth the white man down.
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white

With the name of the late deceased.
And the epitaph drear: *A fool lies here
Who tried to hurry the East.' "

It was decided at once by everybody, including the doctors,
Mr. Root and President Roosevelt, that Mr. Taf t must leave
the Islands as soon as he was able to travel, and there were
several reasons, besides those connected with health, why it
seemed best for us to return to the United States. The
principal one was that Congress was becoming very active
with regard to Philippine matters, and as Mr. Taft was
anxious that the ri^t kind of legislation should be passed,
he wished to go to Washington and present the facts about
the situation as he had found them during his long hand-to-
hand struggle with the problem. Mr. Root cabled him
that his presence in Washington was necessary and granted
him a three months' leave of absence from his duties as
Governor, while Greneral Wright was appointed vice-
Govemor to fill his place for the time being.

Mr. Worcester was the ranking member of the Commis-
sion, but my husband felt that he had not quite the same
talent for genially dealing with every kind of person,
whether evasive Filipino or dictatorial Army officer, which
Greneral Wright so conspicuously displayed, and, moreover,
Mr. Worcester was entirely engrossed with the problems of
his department, which included health and sanitation and
the satisfactory adjustment of the difficulties connected with
the government of the non-Christian tribes. These were
matters which appealed to Mr. Worcester's scientific mind
and which he vastly preferred to the uncongenial task of

administering the routine of government, so he was only

230

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

too willing not to be encumbered with the duties of Gover-
nor. This, I understand, was Mr. Worcester's attitude
throughout his thirteen years as Secretary of the Interior,
during which time he was always the ranking Commis-
sioner with the first right, under a promotion system, to
the Grovemorship whenever a vacancy occurred in that
office.

The transport Grant was assigned for our use by General
Chaffee, and we made our preparations for an extended
absence.

One incident of my husband's convalescence in the hos-
pital I think I must relate. In an adjoining room Greneral
Frederick Funston was recovering from an operation for
appendicitis and he was sufficiently far advanced to be able
to walk around, so he used to call on Mr. Taft quite often.
Now Greneral Funston, for the benefit of those who have
no mental picture of him, is by no means gigantic. He has
the bearing of a seven-foot soldier, but the truth is he is not
more than five feet three or four inches in height.

One day there was an earthquake of long duration and
extended vibration which would have been sufficient to
destroy Manila had it not lacked a certain upward jerk
calculated to unbalance swaying walls. One gets used to
earthquakes in the Orient in a way, but no amount of famil-
iarity can make the sensation a pleasant one. My husband
was alone at the time and he had decided to hold hard to
his bed and let the roof come down on him if it had to.
The hospital was a one-story wooden building and he really
thought he was as safe in it as he would be anywhere.
Moreover, he was quite unable to walk, so his fortitude could
hardly be called voluntary, but he had scarcely had time to
steel himself for the worst when his door was thrown open
and in rushed General Funston.

*We must carry out the Governor!'' he shouted; "we
must carry out the Governor !"

231

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

"But how are you going to do that, General?" asked Mr.
Taft.

He knew quite well that General Funston, in his weakened
condition, would be incapable of carrying an infant very far.

"Oh, I have my orderly with me," responded the doughty
General, and by this time he had begun to get a firai grasp
on the mattress while behind him hurried a soldier, shorter
even than his chief, but with the same look of dauntless
determination in his eye.

In spite of the straining on the rafters, Mr. Taft burst
out laughing and flatly refused to let them try to move him.
Fortunately for them all the upward jerk necessary to bring
down the roof didn't occur, so there is no way of telling
whether or not, for once in his life, Greneral Funston started
something that he couldn't finish.

We sailed from Manila on Christmas Eve, 1901, and,
much as I had enjoyed my life and experiences in our new
world of the Philippines, I was glad to see the tropic shores
fade away and to feel that we were to have a few months
in our own land and climate, and among our own old friends,
before I sighted them again.

232

CHAPTER XI

A TRIP TO ROME

The winter of 1902, the greater part of which we spent TiT
Cincinnati, is memorable only as a period of bereavement
and protracted ilkiesses. Perhaps such a record has no
place in a narrative wherein it is my wish to dwell on pleas-
ant memories only, or, at least, to touch as lightly as possible
upon those incidents which, for one's peace, may better be
forgotten, but a whole winter filled with grief and worry
is not so easily torn from the leaves of the calendar rolled
back.

In the first place, when I left Manila in December, 1901,
I was very near to a nervous breakdown. This was due to
the long strain of a peculiarly exacting official life in a try-
ing climate, and an added weight of uneasiness about my
husband's illness.

Then, too, my mother was very ill. She had suffered a
stroke of paralysis the year before from which she had never
rallied and I was extremely anxious to be with her in Cin-
cinnati.

When we arrived in San Francisco a terrible mid-winter
storm was sweeping the country from one end to the other
and we were strongly advised to delay our trip across the
continent, but we were both eager to go on so we started
East at once over the Union Pacific.

When we passed Ogden wt found ourselves in the midst
of the worst blizzard I ever saw. The snow piled up ahead
of us, delaying us hour by hour; tiie bitter wind fairly shook
the heavy train ; and to turn mere discomfort into misery the
water pipes in the cars froze solid and we were left without
heat of any kind. There was nothing to do but to go to
bed; but even so, with all the blankets available piled on
top of us, we shivered through interminable hours while the

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

train creaked and puffed and struggled over the icy tracks.

When we reached Omaha I received a telegram telling
me that my mother had died the day before, and I found
it no longer possible to brace myself against the inevitable
collapse. We hurried on to Cincinnati and arrived in time
for my mother's funeral, but I was too ill to be present.
It was two months before I began to recover.

In the meantime Mr. Taf t left us and went on to Wash-
ington for consultation with the President and Mr. Root
and to appear before the Philippine Committees of the
House and Senate which were then conducting minute in-
quiries into conditions in the Islands preparatory to passing
a much-needed govemmental bill. For a whole month he
was subjected to a hostile cross-examination, but he was
able to place before the Committees more first-hand and
accurate information on the subject of their deliberations
than they had theretofore received. This was exactly what
he wanted to come to the United States for, and he would
greatly have enjoyed it had he been in his usual form, but
he was not. During his stay in Washington he was the
guest of Secretary and Mrs. Root and only their friendly
care and solicitude enabled him to continue so long. In
March he was compelled to return to Cincinnati for another
operation, the third in five months. Everything considered,
it seemed to me the Taft family had fallen upon evil days.

However, the weeks passed, I began to improve, and as
soon as my husband had fairly set his feet on earth again
we began to make plans for our retum to the Philippines.
There could be no thought of abandoning the work in the
Islands just when it was beginning to assume an ordered
and encouraging aspect, nor was it possible just then to
shift the responsibility to other shoulders. This would have
been too much like ""changing horses in the middle of a
stream."

My husband was able while he was in Washington to pre-

234

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

sent to President Roosevelt and Secretary Root a very clear
outline of Philippine affairs, together with such details as
could never be conveyed by cable, and the inevitable con-
clusion reached was that no solution of the problem was
possible which did not include the settlement of the Friar
controversy. The four monastic orders, the Franciscan, the ^
Dominican, the Augustinian and the Recoleto, which held
four hundred thousand acres of the best agricultural land in
the Islands, had won the lasting enmity of the Filipino peo-
ple and it was absolutely impossible to establish permanent
peace while the Friars remained and persisted in an attempt
to return to their parishes. Hundreds of them were living
in practical imprisonment in the monasteries of Manila,
and that they should not be allowed to retum to their
churches throughout the Islands, from which they had been
driven, was the one stand taken by the Filipinos from which
they could not by any form of persuasion be moved.

The solution of the difficulty proposed by Mr. Taft and
his colleagues in the Philippine government was that the
United States purchase the Friars* lands and tum them into
a public domain on the condition that the orders objected to
by the people be withdrawn from the Islands.

As soon as President Roosevelt recognised the importance
of accomplishing these things he decided, with charac-
teristic directness, that somebody should go at once to Rome
and open negotiations with the Vatican, and after consider-
ing various men for this delicate mission he concluded that
Mr. Taft was the man best fitted to undertake it.

The prospect of another novel experience was exceedingly
gratifying to me and I began at once to look forward with
interest to a renewal of my acquaintance with Rome and to
the trip back to the East by the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and
the Indian Ocean which, according to Kipling, "sits an'
smiles, so sof , so bright, so bloomin' blue." So my feet
no longer lagged in my preparations for a long trip with my

235

RECOLLECnOXS OF FULL YEARS

dircc diildrm and anodicr c^tmdcd icsidcncc in die tropics.

To assist \b. Taft in his ncgotiatioos with tfac Vatican,
and to make op a dignifird and f oimidable loc^dng Commis-
sion, the President appcnnted Rshop (XGomian of die Catb-
olic diocese of South Dakota, and General James F. Smith,
at diat time a member of the Philippine judiciary and in
later years Philipfnne Gxnmissioner and Governor-General
of the Islands. His rank of General he attained as an of-
ficer of volunteers in the Army of Pacification in the Philip-
pines, but, a lawyer in the beginning, after he was appointed
to the Bench he became known as Judge Smidi, and Judge
we always called him* He is an Irish Catholic Democrat
and a man of very sane views and exceptional ability.
Major John Biddle Porter was made Secretary-Interpreter
to the Commission, and Bishop Brent, Episcopal Bishop of
the Philippines, on his way to Manila, decided to go with
Mr* Taft, wait for him until he had completed his business
at Rome and then continue with him the journey to the Phil-
ippines. This was the b^inning of a warm friendship be-
tween Bishop Brent and ourselves, and no one can have lived
in the Philippines since, or have been familiar with the affairs
of the Islands, without knowing what a blessing his work
and presence have been to the Philippine people, and how
much he has aided the Government in its task.

We engaged passage on the steamship Trave, sailing from
New York to Gibraltar about the middle of May; the day
for our departure was close at hand; many good-byes had
been said ; and, altogether, the immediate future was looking
bright, when suddenly I found myself once more within the
orbit of my unlucky star. My son Robert chose this op-
portune moment to develop a case of scarlet fever. Of
course that left me and the children out of all the plans and
I was compelled to accept a hastily made arrangement which
provided for my remaining behind and following my hus-
band and his interesting party on a later ship. Fortunately

236

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Robert was not with the other children when he contracted
the disease. He was visiting friends in another part of town
and I had him removed immediately to the Good Samaritan
Hospital, then settled down to my vigil which might be long
or short as fortune decreed.

My husband's mother was in Millbury while all these
things were transpiring and he called her up on the long dis-
tance telephone to tell her about Bobby's illness and to say
good-bye.

"Then Nellie cannot go with you?" said Mrs. Taft.

"No, Pm sorry to say she can't," said my husband.

"But you have now an extra stateroom, have you not?"

"Yes, Mother."

"Well, Will, I don't think you ought to make such a trip
alone when you are so far from strong, so I just think I'll go
with you in Nellie's place," said my mother-in-law.

And she did. The intrepid old lady of seventy-four
packed her tnmks and was in New York ready to sail within
twenty-four hours, and my husband wrote that she acted
altogether with an energy and an enterprise which filled him
with pleasure and pride. On the steamer, and later at the
hotel Quirinal in Rome, she presided with dignity for more
than a month over a table at which daily gathered a com-
pany composed of a Colonial Grovemor, a Supreme Judge,
a Roman Bishop, an Anglican Bishop and a United States
Araiy officer.

Her activity and fearlessness kept her family and friends
in a state of astonishment a good part of the time. She
went wherever she liked and it never seemed to occur to her
that it was unusual for a woman of her age to travel every-
where with so much self-reliance. She thought nothing of
crossing the American continent every year to visit her
daughter or sister on the Pacific Coast, and out in Manila
we used to laugh at the possibility of her appearing on the
scene at any moment In fact, she very seriously considered

237

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

coming at one time. I was glad that she could go with
my husband to Rome because she really could be a comfort
and a help and not at all a responsibility.

Robert was not nearly as ill as we expected he would be
and in a few weeks I was able to make definite plans for
joining my husband. My sister, Mrs. Anderson, was going
to Paris so I took advantage of the opportunity to enjoy her
companionship on the voyage and sailed with her on the
fourth of June, landing in France and going by train to
Rome.

That the record of our ill-luck may be quite complete I
must add that on the way across the Atlantic my son Charlie
managed to pick up whooping-cough, and that by the time
we reached Rome he had passed it on to Helen. Her
first remark to her father was a plaintive query: 'Tapa,
why is it we can never go anywhere without catching some-
thing?''

I devoutly hoped that we had caught everything there
was to catch and that we might now venture to predict a
period of peace.

I found my party very comfortably bestowed. They were
occupying a whole floor at the Quirinal, the largest hotel then
open in the city, and were keeping what appeared to me to
be considerable "state." It looked as if they had the en-
tire building to themselves, but that was because it was
midsummer when few tourists visit Rome and when all
Roman society is supposed to flock to its mountain homes
and to northern resorts. However, midsummer though it
was, a good many members of the "Black," or Vatican di-
vision of society, still lingered in the city and I found them
evincing every desire to make our stay both pleasant and
memorable. Before I arrived Mr. Taft had already "met,
called upon, taken tea with and dined with Cardinals,
Princes, counts, marquises, and distinguished Englishmen

and Americans resident in Rome," to quote from one of his

238

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

own letters, but he had a good many things to do over
agam in my honour. He had also had an audience with
Pope Leo XIII, and was deep in the rather distracting im-
certainties and intricacies of his negotiations.

He did not have the pleasure of seeing the King of Italy
whom he had a great desire to meet, because, even though the
American Ambassador had made all the arrangements, eti-
quette did not permit such an audience until his relations
with the Vatican had terminated, and by that time the King
had gone to the military manoeuvres in North Italy.

My husband*s position was one of very great delicacy.
By the nature of our national institutions it is not possible
for us to send a representative to the Vatican in a diplo-
matic capacity no matter what the emergency may be, and
Mr. Roosevelt in sending this Commission to Rome had no
intention that its office should be construed into a formal rec-
ognition of the Vatican, which could not fail to raise a storm
of protest and opposition in this country. So the instructions
given to Mr. Taft by Secretary Root were made very defi-
nite on this point. After reviewing the necessity for taking
I such action on the part of our government and covering the

favourable reports on the proposed negotiations submitted
by the Philippine Committees of the House and Senate, the
instructions began with paragraph one :

One of the controlling principles of our government is the com-
plete separation of church and state, with the entire freedom of
each from any control or interference by the other. This principle
is imperative wherever American jurisdiction extends, and no modi-
fication or shading thereof can be a subject of discussion.

Following this in numbered paragraphs, a tentative plan
for the adjustment of the Friar difficulties is outlined and the
instructions end with paragraph nine :

Your errand will not be in any sense or degree diplomatic in its
nature^ but will be purely a business matter of negotiation by you

239

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

as Governor of the Philippmes for the purchase of property from
the owners thereof, and the settlement of land titles in such a man-
ner as to contribute to the best interests of the people of the
Islands.

These instructions were easier to receive than to carry
out, since from the beginning the Vatican made every pos-
sible effort to give the mission a diplomatic aspect and to
cast upon it the glamour of great official solemnity, and Mr.
Taft had constantly to keep his mind alert to the danger
of accidental acquiescence in a misinterpretation of his posi-
tion. To take a position which would soothe the feelings
of American Catholics and yet not shock the conscience of
any Protestant was something like being ground between
the proverbial millstones. However, Cardinal Rampolla
very graciously met the businesslike ideas of the Commission
and arranged a private audience with Pope Leo at which the
propositions of the Philippine government were to be out-
lined to him.

My husband's memory of this now historic mission to
Rome seems to include little which was not directly con-
nected with the business in hand, but Judge Smith displays a
more impressionable bent. In answer to an inquiry as to
what he recalls of the visit he wrote Mr. Taft a most interest-
ing letter. All his memoranda of the trip, including letters,
journals and souvenirs, were destroyed in the San Francisco
fire, but he says:

"After our arrival there was a long wait that arrange-
ments might be made for an audience with the Holy Father,
but finally the date was fixed and the Commission, at high
noon, in evening dress and top hats, went to the Vatican and
passed up the long staircase, lined with Swiss Guards, which
leads to the State apartments. We were received by the
Chamberlain and several other functionaries and were con-
ducted from one apartment to another until finally we were

ushered into the presence of Leo XIII, to whom you made

240

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

a statement of the matters which were to be made the subject
of negotiation.

'This statement had been previously translated into
French by Bishop O'Goraian and Colonel Porter, and you
will remember there were some things about Bishop O^Gor-
man's French which did not meet with the entire approval
of Colonel Porter. Whether you arbitrated the matter and
selected the appropriate phrase which should have been used
I do not know; but I do know that at one time there was
danger of the severance of the friendly relations which had
theretofore prevailed between the good Bishop and the good
old Colonel.

"My recollection of the Holy Father is that his face was
like transparent parchment, that he had the brilliant eyes
of a young man and that he was wonderfully alert of mind,
although bent over by the weight of years.

"Of course, none of us could forget Cardinal RampoUa,
— ^tall, slender, straight, vigorous in both mind and body,
impenetrable, and cold as fate. A man evidently of wonder-
ful intellect and fully equal to any demands that mi^t be
put upon him as the diplomat of the Vatican."

I might add that the first part of my husband's speech,
a copy of which I have, consisted of a few remarks appro-
priate to the presentation of a gift from President Roosevelt
to the Pope. This gift was a specially boimd set of Mr.
Roosevelt's own works.

When the formal interview was at an end the Pope came

down from the dais on which he sat and indulged in a fifteen

or twenty minute personal conversation with the members of

the Commission. *Tie asked for the pleasure of shaking my

hand," writes my husband to his brother Charles, in the

usual vein of humour which obtains between them, adding,

"a privilege which I very graciously accorded him." He

also joked about Mr. Taft's proportions, saying that he had

understood he had been very ill, but from observation he saw

241

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

no reason to suppose that the illness had been serious. He
poked gentle fun at Bishop O'Gorman and made kindly in-
quiries of Judge Smith and Major Porter; then he walked
with the party to the door and bowed them out, a courtesy
which I believe was unprecedented.

"He had a great deal more vigour of motion,'* writes Mr.
Taft, "and a great deal more resonance of voice than I had
been led to suppose. I had thought him little more than a
lay figure, but he was full of lively interest and gesture, and
when my address was being read he smiled and bowed his
head in acquiescence.'*

*We visited the catacombs,** says Judge Smith, "St.
Peter*s, St. Paul's beyond the walls, and a few of the basil-
icas of ancient Rome now dedicated to Christian worship.
The Borghese and various other art galleries left their im-
pression, as did some of the interesting old palaces, notably
the one which was then threatening to fall into the Tiber,
and the ceiling of which bears the famous fresco of Cupid
and Psyche.

"One day during our first wait we had dinner out at the
American College as guests of Monsignor Kennedy, where
you (Mr. Taft) made a speech which brought much applause
from the students in red cassocks, and everybody was happy.
After dinner some of us made a visit to a villa by the Orsini
on the hills overlooking the Campagna, which villa had
recently been purchased by the collie as a summer home.

"You will remember our call on Cardinal Martinelli and

the dinner we had with good old Cardinal SatoUi who took

such a pride in the wine produced by his own vineyards, a

wine, by the way, which was not unreservedly approved by

the owners of other vineyards. One of the most delightful

experiences of all was our dinner with the good Episcopal

Rector, Dr. Nevin, when ox-tongue done in the Russian

style was served as the piece de resistance. You cannot f or-

242

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

get how shocked were some of the circles in Rome to find
Bishop O'Gromian and myself at such a festal board under
such circumstances, and how Pope Leo showed his thorough
imderstanding of American institutions by saying that Amer-
ican Catholics might very properly do things which would
be very much misunderstood if done by Romans. The
Episcopal Rector was a mighty hunter, a great traveller, and
gifted with a fund of anecdote which made him a most de-
lightful host."

I found this highly social and sociable party rather im-
patiently awaiting a reply to their formal, written proposals
to the Vatican which had been tumed over to a Commis-
sion of Cardinals. They were giving a fine imitation of
outward leisurely poise, but among themselves they were
expressing very definite opinions of the seemingly deliberate
delays to which they were being subjected. Mr. Taft was
anxious to sail for Manila on the loth of July, and already
had his passage booked on the Koenig Albert^ but the im-
mediate prospect seemed to be that he would be held in Rome
for the rest of the summer.

He did not have the greatest confidence that he would
succeed in the mission which meant so much to his future
course in the Islands, and, indeed, it was quite evident that
he would not succeed without prolonged effort to be con-
tinued after he left Rome. The various Cardinals lost no
opportunity to assure him that the Vatican was in full sym-
pathy with the proposals made and that he might expect
a very early and satisfactory termination of the business,
but he decided not to believe anything imtil he should see
the signatures to the contract The factions and the poli-
tics of the Vatican were most perplexing. The monastic
orders were the conservative element in the negotiations,
being willing enough to sell the Friars' lands at a valuation
to be decided upon by a board of five members, two repre-
senting the church, two representing the United States gov-

243

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

eminent and the fifth to be selected from some other coun-
try, but they were not willing to consent to the withdrawal
of the Friars from the Philippine Islands. Then there were
wheels within wheels; Papal candidates and candidates for
Cardinals who thrust into the negotiations considerations
for agreeing or not agreeing which greatly puzzled the
purely business-like representatives of the American govern-
ment.

But I was not particularly annoyed by the delay. I
found much to interest me in Rome, and I saw my husband
improving in general health and gaining the strength he
needed for a re-encounter with the difficulties in tropic
Manila. Prominent Republican leaders had aroused his
impatience at different times by publicly announcing that,
in all probability, he was "going out to the Philippines to
die.'* He wrote to his brother from Rome :

"I dislike being put in such an absurd position before the
country as that of playing the martyr. Pm not asking any
favours on account of health or any other cause, nor am I
taking the position that I am making any sacrifice. I think
that a great and unusual opportunity has been offered me
and if I can improve it, all well and good, but I don't want
any sympathy or emotional support.*'

, He was easily aroused to resentment on the subject, but,
just the same, it was gratifying to observe him quite rapidly
regaining his normal vigour and buoyancy.

My mother-in-law was having a most wonderful time.
She was comfortably established at the Quirinal in rooms
next to ours, and was enjoying the devoted attention of
every man in the party whether he wore ecclesiastical frock,
military uniform or plain citizens' clothes. She went every-
where and saw everything and was as indefatigable in her
enjoyment as any of us. She met old-time friends whom
she had known when she and Judge Taft were in the

diplomatic corps abroad, and with them she indulged in

244

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

pleasant reminiscence. After I arrived she became more'
energetic than ever and led me a lively pace at sightseeing
and shopping, because, as she wrote to another daughter-in-
law, Mrs. Horace Taf t, "Nellie is not at all timid and as she
speaks French we can go anywhere."

I soon found that in spite of official and personal protest to
the contrary we were considered quite important personages,
and the elaborate hospitality we were offered kept us busy
at nearly all hours when hospitality is at all in order.
There were teas and luncheons, dinners and receptions, and
functions of every description, and we met a great many
renowned and interesting people, both Roman and foreign.
Mr. W. T. Stead, the correspondent for the London
Times who was lost on the Titanic^ was one of them.
Then there was Mr. LafFan, proprietor of the New York
Sun^ and Mrs. Laffan, and Dr. Hillis of Brooklyn who was
in Rome with his son. An attractive personality, who in-
terested us very much and whose hospitality we enjoyed,
was Princess Rospigliosi, the wife of an Italian nobleman,
who lived in an enchanting house. She had a very beautiful
daughter who was at that time keenly interested in the con-
troversy as to whether or not Catholics should vote in Rome.
She was strongly in favour of their doing so and, with ex-
traordinary directness, carried her advocacy straight to the
Pope and insisted that it was a great mistake for Cath-
olics not to take advantage of the ballot and by that means
secure the political rights to which they were entitled.
Pope Leo, although very much impressed by what she said,
insisted that it was not yet time to urge the reform suggested,
and wound up by saying, "My good daughter, you go al-
together too fast for me !" I don't doubt that by this time
the young Princess is a warm supporter of woman's suffrage.

Also, we were entertained by a Mr. McNutt who had been
in our diplomatic corps at one time in Madrid and Con-
stantinople, at another time had been tutor to the sons of the

245

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Khedive of Egypt, and was then one of the Papal Chamber-
lains. He had married a woman of wealth, a Miss Ogden
of New York.

Mr. McNutt had one of the most elaborate and beau-
tiful palaces I ever saw. He had studied the customs of
Roman society in the picturesque days of the Medicis and the
Borgias, had rented the Pamphili Palace and restored it to
its pristine glory, and it was here that he entertained us at
a dinner, with cards afterward.

I felt like an actor in a mediaeval pageant whose costume
had not been delivered in time for the performance. Cardi-
nals in their gorgeous robes, with gold snuflF-boxes, gave to
the scene a high colour among the soberer tones of Bishops
and Archbishops and uniformed Ambassadors. Then there
were Princes and Princesses and other nobilities of Roman
society, the men displaying gay ribands and decorations,
the women in elaborate costumes, and all in a "stage setting*'
as far removed from modernity as a magnificent old-world
palace could be. To make this reproduction of old customs
complete our host made a point of having liveried attend-
ants with flaming torches to light the Cardinals to and from
their carriages.

Before I reached Rome, Mr. Taft and his associates had
been present at a Papal consistory at which the Pope pre-
sided over the College of Cardinals. They were the guests
of the Pope and occupied the Diplomatic Box. I was sorry
to miss this exceptional privilege, but we were given ample
opportunities for seeing and hearing several noteworthy
religious festivals both at St. Peter's and the church of St.
John of Lateran. I was educated in the strictest Presby-
terianism, while my husband's mother was a Unitarian, and
Puritan in her training and in all her instincts. We could
not help feeling that we had been led into a prominent
position in a strange environment. But, unshaken though we

were in our religious affiliations, we appreciated the real

246

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

beauty of the ceremonies and knew that we should rejoice
in the unusual privilege accorded us which would never be
ours again.

It was near the end of our stay in Rome that we had our
audience with the Pope, — Mrs. Taf t, Robert, Helen and I.
I wore a black af temoon gown with a black veil on my head,
while Mrs. Taft wore her widow's veil as usual. Helen, I
dressed in white and, to her very great excitement, she wore
a white lace veil. Bishop O'Gorman accompanied us and
when we reached the door of the Vatican imder the colon-
nade at the right of St. Peter's, we were met by some mem-
bers of the Swiss Guard in their curious uniforms, conducted
through endless corridors and rich apartments until we came
to a small waiting-room where we were left for a few mo-
ments by ourselves. We had only time to adjust our veils
and compose ourselves when the door on one side opened
and we were ceremoniously ushered into the presence of Leo
XIII who sat on a low chair imder a simple canopy at the
far end of the room. He rose to greet us as we entered,
and as we were presented one by one he extended his hand
over which we each bowed as we received his blessing.

He began speaking to me in French and finding that I
could answer him in that language he talked with me for per-
haps half an hour with a most charmingly graceful manner of
comment and compliment. He spoke of Mr. Roosevelt's
present and wished that he knew English so that he might
read the books. He referred to Mr. Roosevelt as "President
Roomvine" which was as near as he seemed to be able to get
to that very un-Latin name; said that he himself, in his
youth, had been devoted to the chase and would like very
much to read "The Strenuous Life."

Later he called Robert to his side and gave him a special

blessing, saying that he hoped the little boy would follow

in the footsteps of McKinley and Roosevelt. He asked

Bob what he expected to be when he grew up and my self-

247

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

confident son replied that he intended to be Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court. I suppose he had heard the Chief
Justiceship talked about by his father until he thought it the
only worthy ambition for a self-respecting citizen to enter-
tain.

When we arose to go^ His Holiness escorted us to the door
and bowed us out with a kindly smile in his fine young eyes
that I shall never forget.

Shortly after this I left Rome. It was getting hot and
my husband persuaded me to take the children away, prom-
ising to join us for a short breath of moimtain air before he
sailed for Manila. It had been decided that I should remain
in Europe for a month or so and I was to choose the place
best suited for recuperation. I went first to Florence for a
week, then to the Grande Albergo Castello de Aquabella at
Vallombrosa. The sonorous name of this hotel should have
been a sufficient warning to me of the expense of living there,
but I was not in a mood to anticipate any kind of unpleasant
experience.

It is a beautiful place reached by a funicular railway from
a station about fifteen miles from Florence, and is where
Milton wrote parts of Paradise Lost. The hotel was an old
castle remodelled, and as we were almost the only guests and
were attended by relays of most obsequious servants we
managed to feel quite baronial. We spent our time being
as lazy as we liked, or driving in the dense black forests of
pine which cover the mountains and through vistas of which
we could catch fascinating glimpses of the beautiful, town-
dotted valley of the Amo some thousands of feet below.

On the 20th of July my husband came up and joined us

in this delightful retreat. He had just received his final

answer from the Vatican and, while he was disappointed

at not being able to settle the matter then, he was hopeful

that a way had been found which, though it would entail

much future labour, would lead to a satisfactory solution

248

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

of the problems. An Apostolic Delegate, representing the
Vatican, was to be sent to Manila to continue the negotia-
tions on the ground, and Pope Leo assured Mr. Taft that
he would receive instructions to bring about such an adjust-
ment as the United States desired. This assurance was car-
ried out, but only after Leo*s long pontificate had come to an
end.

The final note was written by Cardinal RampoUa who
rendered *liomage to the great courtesy and high capacit)r**
with which Mr. Taft had filled "the delicate mission," and
closed by declaring his willingness to concede that "the
favourable result" must in a large measure be attributed
to my husband's "high personal qualities."

I had hoped to have Mr. Taft with us at Vallombrosa
for a week or so before he sailed, but the time allotted in our
plans for this was taken up by delays in Rome, so that
when he did arrive he had only twenty-four hours to stay.
His final audience with the Pope was arranged for the fol-
lowing Monday, there were a number of minor details to be
attended to, and he was to sail Thursday morning from
Naples on the Princess Irenes to which he had been obliged
to transfer from the Koenig Albert.

The last audience with His Holiness consisted chiefly in
an exchange of compliments and expressions of thanks for
courtesies extended, but it had additional interest in that the
Pope chose to make it the occasion for personally presenting
to the members of the party certain small gifts, or souvenirs,
which he had selected for them. He had previously sent
an inquiry through Bishop O'Gorman as to whether or
not the Commissioners would accept decorations, but Mr.
Taft replied that the American constitution forbids the ac-
ceptance of such honours without the consent of Congress,
so nothing more was said about it.

The presents he did receive were a handsome Jubilee

medal displaying a portrait of His Holiness in bas relief,

249

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

and a gold pen in the form of a large feather with the
papal arms on it. To me the Pope sent a small piece of
old Geraian enamel showing a copy of an ancient picture of
St. Ursula and her virgins, framed in silver and gold beau-
tifully wrought. Smaller gold medals were given to each
of the other Commissioners, while President Roosevelt re-
ceived a copy in mosaic of a picture of a view of Rome from
a comer in the Vatican gardens in which the Pope is seen
seated with three or four Cardinals in attendance. This,
together with letters from His Holiness and Cardinal Ram-
polla to the President and Mr. Hay, the Secretary of State,
was given to Bishop O'Grorman to be delivered when he
arrived in the United States.

My husband sailed from Naples on the 24th of July, s^d
I, with the three children and their French govemess, started
north by Venice and Vienna to spend a few weeks in the
mountains of Switzerland before returning to Manila.

There were rather terrifying reports of a cholera epidemic
raging in the Philippines and I dreaded the prospects of
going into it with my children, but I knew that heroic efforts
were being made to check it and I felt confident that, in
Manila at least, it would have run its course before I should
arrive, so I booked passage on the German steamer Hamburg
and on the 3rd of September sailed for the East and the
tropics once more«

250

CHAPTER XII

LAST DAYS IN THE PHILIPPINES

When Mr. Taft reached Manila he found the city en fete
and in a state of intense excitement which had prevailed for
two days during which the people had expected every hour
to hear the great siren on the cold storage plant announce
that the little Alava^ the government coastguard boat which
had been sent to Singapore to get him, had been sighted off
O)rregidor.

When the announcement finally came, everything in the
harbour that could manage to do so steamed down the Bay
to meet him, and when the launch to which he had trans-
ferred from the A lava came up to the mouth of the Pasig
River and under the walls of old Fort Santiago, seventeen
guns boomed out a Grovemor's salute, while whistles and
bells and sirens all over the bay and river and city filled the
air with a deafening din.

Wherever his eyes rested he saw people, — crowding win-
dows, roofs, river banks and city walls, all of them cheering
wildly and waving hats or handkerchiefs. And the thing
which moved him most was the fact that the welcoming
throng was not just representative of the wealthy and edu-
cated class, but included thousands of the people, barefooted
and in calicoes, who had come in from the neighbouring and
even the far provinces to greet him.

Mrs. Moses asked Mr. Benito Legarda, one of the Fili-
pino members of the Commission, whether or not there
had ever been a like demonstration in honour of the arrival
of a Spanish Governor, and his answer was :

"Yes, there were demonstrations always, but the govem-
ment paid the expenses."

In this case the very opposite was true. The government

had no money to waste on celebrations and all government

251

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

buildings, such as the City Hall, the Post Office and the
Ayuntamiento, were conspicuously bare. Thieir nakedness
was positively eloquent of economy in the midst of the riot
of gay bunting, the flags, the pennants and the palm leaves
in which the rest of the city was smothered. Then there
were extraordinary and elaborate arches spanning the streets
through which the Governor was to be conducted. One of
these, erected by the Partido Federal^ displayed a huge al-
legorical picture which had a peculiar significance. Filipina,
a lovely lady draped in flowing gauze, was seen, in an atti-
tude which combined appeal with condescension, presenting
to Columbia a single star, implying that she desired to be
accepted as one of the States of the Union.

I am indebted to the descriptive art of Mrs. Moses, to
photographs and to my own knowledge of the Filipino way
of doing things for the mental picture I have of this cele-
bration.

At the landing near the Custom House my husband found
a great procession in line, ready to escort him to the Ayun-
tamiento where the speeches of welcome were to be made.
There were regiments of cavalry, infantry and artillery, as
well as platoon after platoon of native and American police
with as many bands as there were divisions of the procession.
Picked men from the volunteer regiments acted as a special
guard for the Groveraor's carriage and they must have added
much to the impressive array, because I know of my own
observation that the volunteers were always as fine a looking
body of men as it would be possible to find anywhere.

When Mr. Taft reached the Ayuntamiento he listened

to glowing speeches of tribute and welcome in the Marble

Hall, then he stood for hours shaking hands with the

people who, in orderly file, passed in and out of the building

which was large enough to hold only a very small fraction

of them. When this was over and his audience had settled

down he proceeded to tell them in a clear and simple way all

252

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

about his experiences in Rome and how far the negotiations
with the Vatican had proceeded. This was a matter of
paramount importance to the Filipinos and they listened
with an intensity of interest which Mr. Taf t said seemed to
promise serious consequences if the business could not be
carried to a successful conclusion.

However, despite the joy and festivity with which he was
greeted upon his return, the Grovemor did not find general
conditions in the islands either prosperous or happy.

Everything that could possibly happen to a country had
happened or was happening. The cholera epidemic was
still raging, and while it had abated to a considerable ex-
tent in Manila it was at its worst in Iloilo and other prov-
inces. There had been from seventy to eighty cases a day
in Manila for a long time, and the quarantine regulations
had incensed the ignorant people to a point where force had
to be used to secure obedience. They did not understand
sanitary measures and wanted none of them ; they clung to
their superstitious beliefs, and were easily made to accept
as truth wild statements to the effect that the Americans were
poisoning the wells and rivers and had stopped transporta-
tion and business with the sole purpose of starving or other-
wise destroying the entire population. Even the educated
ones were not without their time-honoured prejudices in this
regard, for while Mr. Taf t was in Rome he receive a cabled
protest from Filipino members of the Commission with a re-
quest that he order the quarantine raised.

When he arrived in Manila the cholera cases had fallen
to between ten and twenty a day and business had been re-
sumed to a certain extent, but the situation was still critical
and a fresh outbreak on account of polluted water was to be
expected at any time. All the sources of water supply were
patrolled by American soldiers day and night and every pre-
caution was taken; whole sections of the city were burned
in an attempt to stamp out the pestilence, but the disease

253

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

had to run its course and it was months before it was com-
pletely eradicated.

While the people were dying of cholera the carabaos, the
only draught and f arai animals in the Islands, were dying by
thousands of an epidemic of rinderpest. This scourge, too,
was fought with all the force of both the civil and military
arms of the government, but before it could be checked it had
carried off a large majority of the carabaos in the Archi-
pelago with the result that agriculture and all other indus-
tries dependent upon this mode of transportation were
paralysed. A general drought in China made a rice famine
a practical certainty, even if the people should have money
to buy rice, so the future looked black indeed.

The cholera and rinderpest had greatly reduced govem-
ment revenues and many plans for much needed public works
had to be modified or abandoned, while the condition of the
currency added to the general chaos. There was no gold
standard and the fluctuations in the value of silver made it
necessary for the Grovemor to issue a proclamation about
once a week fixing a new rate of exchange. In this way it
was calculated that the government, with insufficient income
at the best, lost a round million dollars gold during a period
of ten months.

To cap all and add exasperation to uneasiness the ladrones
had become increasingly active with hard times and were
harrying the districts around Manila to such an extent that
the people were in constant terror. The ravages of the rin-
derpest had made the carabao a very valuable animal and
the chief object of the ladrones was to steal such as were left
and drive them off to be sold in distant provinces. Nor
were they at all particular about their highwaymen's
methods or chary of sacrificing human life. There was a
veritable hotbed of ladronism at Caloocan, a suburb of
Manila, which was augmented by the roughs and toughs
from the crowded and miserable districts in the lower city,

254

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

while across the Bay in Cavite province, known as the
"mother of insurrection," there were several hundred rifles
in the hands of marauders who hid away in the hills and
jungles and made conditions such that Mr. Taft was asked
by the Director of Constabulary to suspend the writ of ha-
beas corpus, thus declaring the province in a practical state of
siege. Mr. Taft would not do this, saying that he thought
the only course was to 'liammer away with the constabulary
imtil the abuse was stamped out by the regular methods of
supposedly peaceful times," but the worst feature of the
situation was that wherever ladronism showed its head there
would be cohorts of "irreconcilables" — ^posing in every-day
life as loyal citizens — ready, within the limits of personal
safety, to encourage and assist it. Anything to hamper and
harass the government.

Shortly after Mr. Taft*s arrival in Manila, the vice-Grov-
emor, General Wright, and Mrs. Wright left the Islands for
a well-earned vacation and my husband wrote that the
amoimt of work which confronted him was staggering. He
took on General Wright's department in addition to his
own duties, and if it hadn't been that he had at least
half way learned not to try to '"hurry the East" he probably
would not have lasted long.

Among the first steps to be taken was to provide against
the inevitable famine, and to do this it was necessary for
the Goviemment to send to China and Saigon for large quan-
tities of rice to be stored in public godowns. They bought
and brought to Manila something like forty million pounds
of this first of all necessities to an oriental people, and the
intention was to sell it at cost when the market supply began
to run low and prices began to soar beyond the poor man's
reach. A certain degree of paternalism has always been,
is now, and probably always will be necessary in the govern-
ment of the Filipino people.

Mr. Taft besought the United States Congress to appro-

^5S

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

priate a sum to be used for the importation of work animals,
for the purchase of rice and the furnishing of work on pub-
lic improvements. The animals were not to be given
away, but were eventually to be sold at reasonable prices-
Three millions were appropriated and spent.

Congress was also petitioned to establish a gold standard
of currency, and this too was done, to the inexpressible relief
of everybody interested in the Philippine welfare, in the
following January. The currency now is as sound as our
own, every silver peso, which corresponds to the old "dollar
Mex," being worth fifty cents gold.

When I arrived in Manila in early October I found the
situation more interesting than it had ever been, even though
it was distracting to the men who had to deal with it. My
first necessity was, of course, to settle myself once more at
Malacanan. During my absence the old Palace had been
all done over, painted and patched and cleaned and redec-
orated until it was quite unlike its quaint, old dilapidated
self. Some of the colours were a shade too pronounced and
some of the decorations ran a little more to "graceful pat-
terns" than suited my taste, but I was glad of the added com-
fort and cleanliness.

It was difficult in the beginning to accustom myself to
cholera conditions. The disease was communicated to very
few Americans or other white foreigners, but safety was se-
cured at the price of etemal vigilance. Water could not
be drunk unless it was boiled imder one*s personal super-
vision ; nothing uncooked could be eaten, not even a piece of
imported fruit, unless it had first been washed in a carbolic
solution, a process, I may say, which added nothing desirable
to its flavour; a good many other precautions were necessary
which made us feel as if we were living always in the lower-
ing shadow of some dreadful catastrophe, but, even so, we

were surprisingly calm about it — everybody was — and

256

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL .YEARS

managed to come through the experience without any visible
ill-eflFects.

There was one new thing for me, and that was a live cow.
For two long years we had manfully striven to make our-
selves believe that we liked canned milk and condensed
cream just as much as we liked the fresh milk we had been
used to all our lives. In fact, we were fond of declaring
that we couldn't tell the difference. But we could. And in
our secret hearts we all welcomed as the most delectable
treat an occasional gift of skimmed milk from a friend who
had been a pioneer in the momentous venture of importing
an Australian cow.

The importation of our cow was a real event, and she
straightway took up a position of great dignity and impor-
tance in our establishment. She roamed at will about the
groimds of the Palace and her general conduct was the sub-
ject of daily comment in the family circle. A number of
people brought in cows about this time, but very few of them
lived long enough to prove their dairy worth. Our cow
flourished and gave forth large quantities of milk, and this
fact became the subject of what was supposed to be a huge
joke.

Mr. Worcester, who was the high chief health author-
ity in the Islands, decreed that all animals as they were
brought in should be inoculated for rinderpest, tuberculosis,
and a number of other things, — "including prickly heat,"
said General Wright, — ^but it just so happened that a great
majority of these scientifically treated beasts died almost im-
mediately, and Greneral Wright could always arouse the
wrath of Mr. Worcester — a thing he loved to do — by sug-
gesting that the only reason our cow lived was because "she
had not been inoculated."

The presence of the cow having given me a true farmer
spirit — ^at least, I suppose it was the cow — ^I decided to have

257

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

a garHen. There were very few v^^tables that the Fili-
pinos knew how to raise at that time, and our longing for
fresh things was constant and intense. I selected a promis-
ing looking spot behind the Palace, had it prepared for plant-
ing, then I bought a supply of fresh American seeds and care-
fully buried them in places where I thought they might
develop into something. The result was positively astonish-
ing. The soil was rich and the sun was hot, and in an incred-
ibly short time we were having quantities of beans and cauli-
flower and big red tomatoes and all kinds of things.

My ambition grew with success and I branched out into
poultry. The first thing anybody knew I had a big screened
yard full of chickens and turkeys little and big, which were
a source of great enjoyment to us all both in their noisy
feathered state in the chicken yard and done up in a variety
of Ah Sing styles on our very well supplied table. I won-
der how my cook made up the "squeeze" out of which he
was cheated by my industry and thrift.

But, dwelling on these minor details I am getting far
ahead of my story. There were many things in the mean-
while engaging my attention, the most important of which, I
suppose, was the great church schism.

Gregorio Aglipay, an Ilocano priest of the Roman Catho-
lic Church, joined the original insurrection against Spain, or
the Friars rather, at its inception and was excommunicated.
He became an insurgent leader with a reputation for
great cruelty, and continued in the field against Spain,
and subsequently against the United States, until re-
sistance was no longer possible. He was among the
last insurrecto chiefs to surrender in northem Luzon. When
peace was restored he began immediately to solicit the in-
terest and aid of other Filipino priests, of politicians and
influential men in a plan for organising an Independent Fili-
pino Catholic Church, and his temporary success must have
surprised even him.

258

ARCH ERECTED BY THE PARTIDO FEDERAL RtPRESE.VTINO

FILIE'INA OFFERINC ANOTHER STAR TO THE

AMERICAN FLAG

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

While the people loved Catholicism, the failure of the
Vatican to accede to their wishes with respect to the Friars,
as expressed by the American Commission to Rome, added
impetus to the rebellious movement and when the announce-
ment of the new organisation was made it was foimd to be
based on the strongest kind of support. Aglipay consti-
tuted himself Obispo Maximo, assumed a fine regalia, and
conferred upon fifteen or more of his lieutenants the regular
church dignities and titles of a lesser order. He offered the
people the same ceremonies, the same relief, the same con-
fessional, and the same faith generally to which they had
always been accustomed, so they found it easy enough to
transfer their allegiance, and the new church gained adher-
ents with such startling rapidity that it seemed as if a ma-
jority of the population would go over to it.

The result may easily be imagined. The Roman Catholic
organisation had controlled Philippine affairs, both temporal
and spiritual, for so long that the possibility of a rebellion
of this character had never been thought of. Ev^ry loyal
Catholic, and especially every bishop and priest and friar,
was horrified, and an almost frantic controversy began to
rage about the devoted head of the civil Governor as soon as
he arrived in Manila. He was appealed to to take drastic
action to suppress the movement and because he could do
nothing even to check it the American government was re-
viled in the Catholic press as it had never been reviled before.
Mr. Taf t calmly met the storm with an iteration and reitera-
tion of American principles of religious toleration, and de-
clared that he had neither ri^t nor wish to try to direct the
religious inclinarions of the people, and that all he could
do in the matter was to enforce the keeping of the peace.

The people had been taught by Aglipay and his fellow-
conspirators, and, indeed, by the whole history of church
buildings in the Islands, that church properties belonged to

the people and that if they wished to do so it was right for

259

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL .YEARS

them to oust the regularly constitute3 priests from the
churches and to tum these edifices over to the Independent
body. This the government would not allow, holding that
any dispute over property rights must be settled by due proc-
ess of law. A few riots ensued wherein the constabulary
and police came in violent contact with the Aglipayanos, but
the Filipino is quick to recognise justice, and this decree of
the government was very readily given general acceptance,

Mr. Taft was repeatedly warned by the allies of Rome
that the movement was nothing but a cloak for the worst in-
surrection against the government that the Filipinos had yet
attempted, and this suspicion was somewhat strengthened by
the fact that many of the least tractable insurrecto leaders
were among its directors, but in the main the schismatics
evinced every desire to obey the injunction laid upon them
not to resort to incendiary methods. And it was thought
that the treatment they received in return would probably do
more than all the preaching in the world to convince them
that under American sovereignty they were actually to enjoy
complete religious freedom.

Liberty to take possession of property by force was denied
them, but liberty to think and worship as they pleased was
not only given them, but in the peaceful exercise of this
liberty they even enjoyed police protection, and this was a
never-before-heard-of thing which gave them food for very
serious thought. Under Spanish dominion Aglipay would
have been taken to the Luneta and shot as Jose Rizal was
shot, and his followers would have met and mourned in
secret, but the American authorities held, according to Ameri-
can beliefs, that an Aglipayan, or independent Catholic or-
ganisation, had as much right to parade in the streets with
candles and images as had the Roman Catholic or any other
religious body.

Mr. Taft had vaguely suggested the possibility of some

such development as this during his visit to the Vatican,

260

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

but it made no impression. However, now that it had come,
it gave the American Commission some advantage in the
Friars and Friars* lands negotiations because it was sure to
convince the Vatican that the case of the Friars was hope-
less and so inspire speedier action than might otherwise bcf
hoped for.

In the midst of it all the Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop
Guidi of Stauropoli, arrived from Rome ! He was an Ital-
ian, very friendly and tolerant, with neither fanatic nor
ascetic tendencies. He was by no means adverse to tak-
ing part in any kind of social gaiety and I remember that
at one of our first entertainments after his arrival he ex-
pressed great regret that he could not join in the Rigodon.
I came to enjoy association with him exceedingly.

At one of my first receptions that season quite a dramatic
scene occurred in the ballroom. A thousand or more peo-
ple, perhaps, had passed the receiving line. Monsignor
Guidi came in all his stately regalia, and shortly afterward
Aglipay put in an appearance. The people wandered
around all over the place, circulating through the spacious
gardens and around the verandahs, so there was a possibility
that these two would not meet even though they were both
very conspicuous figures. But it was not long before the
Papal Delegate hurried up to Mr. Taft and, in a state of
visible excitement, inquired who the stranger in the striking
religious garb might be.

"That," said Mr. Taft, "is Aglipay."

"But, you know," said the Monsignor, "it is impossible
for you to receive him here when I am present !"

Then Mr. Taft once more laboriously explained the
standpoint of the American government, saying that Agli-
pay was in his house in his private capacity as a citizen, that
he had as much right there as any odier citizen, and that it
would not be possible to ask him to leave as long as he
conducted himself as a guest should.

261

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

'Then, I shall have to go," said Monsignor Guidi.

"I am very sorry," said Mr. Taft. "I understand your
position perfectly and I trust you understand mine as well."

So the highest of insular Church dignitaries got his hat
and hastened away while the ^'renegade and impious im-
postor" remained — in serene unconsciousness of the disturb-
ance he had created? Perhaps not. At least he was se-
rene.

But our relations with Monsignor Guidi continued most
agreeable during our entire stay in the Islands. Mr. Taft
thought very highly of him as a man and an ecclesiastical
statesman and diplomat and greatly regretted his death
which occurred after we left the Islands. Through him,
the question of the Friars' lands was settled as Pope Leo
had told Mr. Taft it would be, satisfactorily to the United
States. To bring that story, which was distractingly long
drawn out in reality, to a close, I will merely add that the
government succeeded in purchasing the Friars' lands for
the sum of $7,000,000; they were turned into a public
domain to be sold imder most encouraging conditions, to
their tenants and others who wished to acquire homesteads.
The Friars were not sent back to the parishes and many left
the Islands.

However this was not brought about without the pro-
tracted exercise of patience and diplomacy in the very midst
of which the long arm of Washington reached out and
touched my busy husband on the shoulder. He came home
one day with a puzzled air and a cablegram from President
Roosevelt. This cablegram read, in part:

Taft, Manila. On January first there will be a vacancy on die
Supreme G>urt to which I earnestly desire to appoint you. • • • I
feel that your duty is on the Court unless you have decided not
to adopt a judicial career. I greatly hope you will accept. Would
appreciate early answer.

Roosevelt.
262

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

This came before I had been in the Islands a month and
when Mr. Taft was so deep in the complications of his
work that he was almost a stranger to his friends.

There was an accompanying cablegram from Secretary
Root strongly urging acceptance on the score of my hus-
band's impaired health. Mr. Root declared that he was
most unwilling to lose his services in the Philippines, but
thought it better for him "not to take any serious risk of
breaking down and having to leave the Islands an invalid
even after a considerable period of further service." As
Mr. Taft was feeling particularly well and was taking daily
exercise and keeping himself in excellent condition this
sounded rather like anticipating a very unlikely calamity,
but the last time Mr. Root had seen him he was anything
but robust so it was easy to understand the Secretary's
friendly concern for him.

What to do? This was not a question which gave Mr.
Taft even a shade of hesitation, because he knew imme-
diately what he must do. All his life his first ambition had
been to attain the Supreme Bench. To him it meant the
crown of the highest career that a man can seek, and he
wanted it as strongly as a man can ever want anything.
But now that the opportunity had come acceptance was not
to be thought of. I had always been opposed to a judicial
career for him, but at this point I shall have to admit I
weakened just a little. I remembered the year of illness
and anxiety we had just been through; and sometimes I
yearned to be safe in Washington even though it did mean
our settlement in the "fixed groove" that I had talked
against for so long.

Mr. Taft's plain and unmistakable duty held him in the
Philippine Islands. He knew he could not detach himself
completely from the enterprise upon which he was engaged
without grave consequences to it. His one cause for un-
certainty as to what he should do lay in a suspicion that he

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

might have done something to embarrass the Administration
in a political sense, or that his opponents in the monastic
orders and Friars' lands controversy might have made repre-
sentations which caused the President to consider his re-
moval "upstairs" advisable. He discussed the matter con-
fidentially with Mr. Benito Legarda and with the Chief
Justice of the Philippines, Mr. Arellano, and the comment
of the Chief Justice was: "There, the influence of the
Friars has reached even to Washington." Mr. Taft cabled
to his brother Henry in New York to make private inquiries
in this connection, since he did not wish to remain in the
islands if his presence there was in any way undesirable,
but at the same time he cabled to the President :

President Roosevelt, Washington. Great honour deeply appre-
ciated but must decline. Situation here most critical from eco-
nomic standpoint. Change proposed would create much disap-
pointment and lack of confidence among people. Two years now
to follow of greater importance to development of islands than
previous two years. Cholera, rinderpest, religious excitement,
ladrones, monetary crisis, all render most unwise change of Gov-
ernor. These are sentiments of my colleagues and two or three
leading Filipinos consulted confidentially. Nothing would satisfy
individual taste more than acceptance. Look forward to the time
when I can accept such an offer, but even if it is certain that it can
never be repeated I must now decline. Would not assume to
answer in such positive terms in view of words of your despatch if
gravity of situation here was not necessarily known to me better
than it can be known in Washington. Taft.

He also sent the following cablegram to Secretary Root :

Secwar, Washington. Referring to cablegram from your office
of 26th inst. (October, 1902) my health is about as good as when
I landed in 1900, but conditions here would make my withdrawal,
unless absolutely compulsory, violation of duty. It may be that
I shall be ill again, but I am more careful now than before.
Chance has thrown every obstacle in the way of our success, but
we shall win. I long for a judicial career but if it must turn on
my present decision I am willing to lose it. Taft.

264

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

In late November Mr. Taft received this letter from the
President :

Dear Will» I am disappointed^ of course, that the situation is
such as to make you feel it unwise for you to leave, because, ex-
actly as no man can quite do your work in the islands, so no man
can quite take your place as the new member of the 0>urt« But,
if possible, your refusal on the ground you give makes me admire
you and believe in you more than ever. I am quite at a loss whom
to appoint to the Bench in the place I meant for you. Every-
thing else must give way to putting in the right man; but I can't
make up my mind who is the right man.

Always affecdonately yours,

Theodore Roosevelt.

So ended that period of wondering what we were to do.
At.least I thought it was ended, and while I settled down to
ibc continued and continuous round of social "work" and
pleasure, Mr. Taft proceeded with his strenuous fight
against accumulated and complicated difficulties. We had
Major General and Mrs. Miles with us at Malacanan for
a time and after they left I went down to Batangas, where
Greneral Bell was in command, to "rest" awhile in Mrs.
BelPs somewhat less crowded and exciting circle. I ac-
cepted with a high degree of pleasure the prospect of per-
haps two more years in this very interesting field of work,
but President Roosevelt had other views. It was scarcely
a month after the Supreme Court incident was supposed to
be closed when Mr. Taft received a letter which reopened
it with a decisiveness which seemed final. Such parts of
the letter as bear directly on the proposal to Mr. Taft I
shall quote:

Dear Will, I am awfully sorry, old man, but after faithful
effort for a month to try to arrange matters on the basis you
wanted I find that I shall have to bring you home and put you on
the Supreme Court. I am very sorry. I have the greatest con-
fidence in your judgment, but, after all, old fellow, if you will
permit me to say so, I am President and see the whole field. The

265

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

responsibility for any error must ultimately come upon me, and
therefore I cannot shirk the responsibility or in the last resort yield
to any one else's decision if my judgment is against it. After the
most careful thought; after the most earnest effort as to what you
desired and thought best, I have come, irrevocably, to the decision
that I shall appoint you to the Supreme Court in the vacancy
caused by Judge Shiras' resignation. ... I am very sorry if what
I am doing displeases you, but as I said, old man, thb is one of the
cases where the President, if he is fit for his position, must take the
responsibility and put the men on whom he most relies in the pardcu-
lar positions in which he himself thinks they can render the greatest
public good. I shall therefore about February first nominate you
as I have suggested. With affectionate regard.

Ever yours,

Theodore Roosevelt.

This seemed final enough as to be quite unanswerable, so
I heaved a sigh of resignation and made some remark about
the not unpleasing prospect of our all getting home alive at
any rate. Greneral Wright was to succeed to the Gtovemor-
ship, which was a great consolation to my husband, and we
began at once to outline a programme of obedience to the
President. Mr. Taft announced his impending departure
and really considered that further argument was useless, but
conditions were such that he could not resist the temptation
to hazard one more protest. He cabled to Mr. Roosevelt :

The President, Washington, Recognise soldier's duty to obey
orders. Before orders irrevocable by action however I presume
on our personal friendship even in the face of your letter to make
one more appeal, in which I lay aside wholly my strong personal
disinclination to leave work of intense interest half done. No man
is indispensable; my death would little interfere with programme,
but my withdrawal more serious. Circumstances last three years
have convinced these people, controlled largely by personal feel-
ing, that I am their friend and stand for a policy of confidence in
them and belief in their future and for extension of self-govern-
ment as they show themselves worthy. Visit to Rome and pro-
posals urged there assure them of my sympathy in regard to
friars in respect to whose far-reaching influence they are moi^

266

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

bidly suspicious. Announcement of withdrawal pending settle-
ment of church question, economic crises, and foitnative political
period when opinions of all parties are being slowly moulded for
the better, will, I fear, give impression that change of policy is
intended because other reasons for action will not be understood.
My successor's task is thus made much heavier because any loss of
the people's confidence distinctly retards our work here. I feel
it is my duty to say this. If your judgment is unshaken I bow
to it and shall earnestly and enthusiastically labour to settle ques-
tion friars* lands before I leave, and to convince the people that
no change of policy b at hand; that Wright is their warm friend
as sincere as they think me, and that we both are but exponents
of the sincere good will toward them of yourself and the Ameri-
can people. Tatt.

After this things began to happen which nobody, least of
all my husband, had anticipated. When the announcement
was made that we were to leave there was, at first, just a
buzz of astonishment and incredulity, but within two days
the whole city of Manila was placarded, in all the neces-
sary languages, with the simple and uniform sentiment:
"Queremos Taft," "We Want Taft." Mr. Roofs render-
ing of this in English was "I want you, Mah Honey, yes, I
do/* These announcements were printed in letters of all
sizes and all colours, but the wording did not vary in the
slightest degree; just, **We Want Taft."

Then on the morning of the loth of January — the letter
from Mr. Roosevelt was received on the 6th — ^we saw
marching through the gates of Malacanan a column of
citizens, blocks long, with bands playing, flags flying and
many transparencies bobbing over their heads. Tliese citi-
zens packed themselves around the entrance of the Palace
and proceeded to make a demonstration. It was rather sad-
dening to us in view of our conviction that we must go, but
we listened with what composure we could command to the
eloquent speeches. The speakers came up into the Palace
and addressed the crowd from a great window over the

mam entrance.

26z

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Dr. Dominador Gromez, one of the popular orators and
labour agitators, began by saying that Mr. Taft was the
"saint" who had "the power to perform the great miracle"
of uniting the distinct opinions and contrary motives of the
people, and declared that "this is a spontaneous demonstra-
tion of aflFection for our Grovemor which is to be reduced to
expression in a respectful petition to the President."

Dr. Xeres Burgos, an old insurrecto, said he spoke for no
political party but in behalf of the mass of people which
surrounded us, — "this people who wish to say to you that all
those calamities which have weighed and do weigh upon the
Filipinos are as nothing compared with the evil effect caused
by your impending departure from this government, just
at the precise moment when the Filipino people expect,
through your honesty and love for them, an end to all eco-
nomic and governmental disturbances, as well as the solu-
tion of the agricultural problem which is so closely inter-
woven with the Friar question. The Filipino people trust
that the home government will not tear from their arms
their beloved governor upon whom depends the happy solu-
tion of all Philippine questions. In a word: the Filipino
people desire the continuation of Governor Taft in these
Islands!"

Tomaso G. del Rosario likened Mr. Taft to a ship's rud-
der adept at "avoiding shallows" and "bringing her safe
into port." Then he said the Philippines were "rising
from the ashes of a momentous revolution and advancing
toward the future with a heart full of enthusiasm and hope,"
and that "a ruler lacking the qualifications so happily com-
bined in Mr. Taft might faint by the wayside."

There were other speeches, but the climax came when

Pedro A. Patemo began by comparing Mr. Taft with Jesus

Christ, saying that "as Christ had converted the cross into

a symbol of glory and triumph, so had Grovemor Taft

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

turned a dying people to the light and life of modem liber-
ties/*

This sounds quite blasphemous in English, but the Fil-
ipinos take strange liberties with holy names which shock
us but which to them are mere expressions of piety. Jesus
is a favourite name for boy babies, while there is a street of
"The Heart of Jesus" in Manila, and many others equally
inconsistent with our more reticent taste.

Needless to say the cable between Manila and Washing-
ton was crowded that day with protests to the President;
protests not only from citizens and committees of citizens,
but from all Mr. Taft*s colleagues in the government, both
Filipino and American. Two days later my husband re-
ceived a message from Mr. Roosevelt which gave us all a
hearty laugh. It read, simply: "Taft, Manila, All right
stay where you are. I shall appoint some one else to the
Court. Roosevelt."

Altogether it was quite an exciting event. After the
"smoke of battle" had cleared away Mr. Taft rose up out of
his depression and went to work with renewed vigour and
strengthened confidence, but I began to think that after all
the demonstrations and protestations we should have to
remain in the Islands the rest of our lives whether we wanted
to or not. Six months later, however, we leamed, to
our consternation, that Mr. Root was going to resign as
Secretary of War in the fall or winter following, and with-
out a moment's hesitation as far as we could judge, the posi-
tion was offered by Mr. Roosevelt to Mr. Taft. It was
urged upon him, in fact. This was much more pleasing to
me than the offer of the Supreme Court appointment, be-
cause it was in line with the kind of work I wanted my hus-
band to do, the kind of career I wanted for him and ex-
pected him to have, so I was glad there were few excuses

for refusing to accept it open to him. If it hadn't been

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

that it was merely a case of transferring his services from
the necessarily restricted field of work in the Philippines to
the broader and more powerful field of general supervision
of Philippine affairs in the War Department, he probably
would have declined the appointment and begged to be
left where he was, but the change was not to take place for
a year and he knew that as soon as he had settled the Friars'
question and a few other matters of importance in the Is-
lands he could be of more use to the Filipino people in
Washington than he could in Manila. Greneral Wright
was to succeed him, with Mr. Ide and Judge Smith, both
trained men, in line of succession to follow General Wright,
so with the promise of a few months in which to close up
the affairs in which he was most deeply engrossed, he ac-
cepted the Cabinet office.

Shortly before we left Manila to take up our residence in
Washington we decided to give a final and memorable
entertainment. We wanted it to be something original,
so we discussed it and pondered over it at great length.
We thought we had given every kind of party that inge-
nuity could devise during our residence at Malacaiian, but
one evening, sitting out on the verandah looking across the
still, softly-lapping river at the low-hung lights on the op-
posite bank, it suddenly occurred to me that we had an ideal
setting for a Venetian Camival, and a Venetian Carnival
was settled upon without further ado. It was to be a
masked ball, the front gates of the Palace grounds were to
be closed and everybody was to come by boat to the river
landing on the verandah below.

As soon as this plan was noised abroad the town was

agog with excitement. The first question, of course, to

occur to everybody was: 'What shall I go as?'* And

pretty soon every woman in town, and many men, assumed

that labouredly innocent air peculiar to a period of prepara-

270

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

tion for a masked ball in a community where everybody
knows or wants to know all about everybody else.

I knew right away what I should "go as." I would be
a Venetian lady of romance days. But the question of Mr.
Taft's costume was not so easily settled. If he hadn't
interposed so many ideas of his own it would have been
much simpler. In writing to his brother Charles he says:
"It is a humiliating fact to me that every suggestion of a
character for me by me has been summarily rejected by
Nellie unless it involved the wearing of a gown of such
voluminous proportions as to conceal my Apollo-like form
completely. The proposal that I assume the character of
an Igorrote chieftain because of the slight drain on capital
and our costuming resources did not meet with favour. So
it is settled that I must assume the robes and headgear of
the husband of the Adriatic, the Doge of Venice. The
question is whether the robe can be made historically accu-
rate and at the same time so conceal my nether extremities
as to make it imnecessary for me to dye my nether under-
garments to a proper colour, for the entire Orient cannot
produce tights of a sufficient size. The Council of War,
meaning Nellie, has not advised me on the subject, but
tights or no tights we shall have a Doge of Venice *that never
was on land or sea.* " And we did.

We called a committee of Filipinos to arrange about

illuminations on the river and the decoraticxi of launches,

cascoes, bancas, rafts and barges, and this committee took

the whole matter out of my hands and went to work with

the zeal of children playing at some fascinating new

game. They arranged for a number of pavilioned craft

decorated with flowers, and offered a prize for the most

beautiful and elaborate private launch, or boat of any kind.

Then on either bank of the river they stretched lines of

coloured electric lights and crossed the river at close intervals

271

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

with other lines as far as the eye could see in both direc-
tions. The whole Palace building was outlined in elec-
tric lights, while the great trees and every little bush were
wired and strung with a myriad multicoloured globes,
hundreds of them covered with Japanese lanterns in fantas-
tic colours and designs. All the garden walks and drives
were bordered with tiny coloured lamps burning cocoanut
oil, set close in against the well trimmed l^wns, and when
it was all finished and the light turned on the place was
like a fairyland.

The date for the Carnival was set for full moon night,
the third of December, and never will I forget the brilliance
and beauty of the scene as one gay and picturesque barge
or improvised gondola after another, full of laughing, chat-
tering and singing people in masks and all manner of strange
costumes, and with mandolins and guitars playing, floated
up under the bright canopy of swinging globes, a million
times reflected in the ripples of the river, to the ancient-
looking, moss-grown landing where Mr. Taft and I, as the
Doge of Venice and his Lady, stood receiving our guests
with as much mock stateliness as we could ccxnmand in the
midst of such a merry throng. It will linger in my memory
always as one of the most entrancing evenings of my life.

Rain was predicted, as usually happens when I give any
kind of a garden party, and all day long I had watched the
clouds with a feeling of helpless exasperation. I wanted
fair weather; I wanted the moonlight; but as night came on
the lowering grey canopy seemed to float upward and
spread itself out into a mere haze which softened and dif-
fused the brightness and made ten times more effective our
myriad swinging lamps and lanterns.

Everybody had done his or her utmost in the matter of

costuming, and with a success that I never saw surpassed.

All the fine old collections of jewels in the rich Spanish and

Filipino families were taken out, and in many cases made

272

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

over into special designs to deck oriental princesses, his-
toric queens and noble ladies of storied fame.

Perhaps the most striking costume of all was worn by-
Mrs. Rafael Reyes, a tall dark Spanish lady of extraordi-
nary beauty, the wife of a prominent and wealthy Filipino.
Seiiora Reyes came as the Queen of Night, and she was
literally ablaze with diamonds. Not brilliants nor rhine-
stones, but diamonds large and small, sewn all over the
long graceful folds of her sweeping black robe to represent
stars. On her small shapely head, crowned with a wealth
of shining black hair, she wore a large diamond crescent.
She caught the light and sparkled, her vivacious personality
sparkling with her jewels. On that memorable occasion
nobody who saw her could possibly forget her.

Dancing and frolicking continued long into the night,
but as the evening wore to a close we began to feel a sense
of depression. In a very few days we were to leave the
Islands perhaps never to return, and this was our last party
at old Malacanan. It is not amiss, I am sure, to say that
every laughing face sobered and every voice took on a
regretful tone as one by one our guests came up to say good
night — and good-bye.

273

CHAPTER Xra

SECRETARY OP WAR

To illustrate what seems to me to be rather widely con-
trasted views of the position of Secretary of War for the
United States, I think I must relate two experiences I had
in the beginning of Mr. Taf fs career in that office.

Before we left Manila his appointment had been an-
nounced and as we passed throu^ Japan en route to Wash-
ington we were received with all the ceremony and official
dignity that the Japanese naturally would consider proper
to the entertainment of the War Minister of a great and
friendly foreign power. This was experience number one.

It was just before the outbreak of hostilities between
Russia and Japan, and General Kuropotkin, the Russian
Minister of War, had very recently been in Tokyo and had
been accorded a welcome so elaborate that it became historic.
It satisfied the Japanese conception of courtesy to an exalted
foreign visitor and we discovered that it was to serve as
a model for our own reception, thou^ our time was so
short that the programme had to be considerably modified.

Had we remained with our ship to Yokohama there would
have been no opportunity to entertain us at all, but a
special train was sent to meet us at Nagasaki, the first port
of call on the homeward voyage, and nearly the whole
length of the Empire from Tokyo, and we were whisked
through ahead of everything two or three days in advance
of our ship, which had to make two more stops before pro-
ceeding to Yokohama.

We were the guests of the nation and were conducted
from one function to another with the greatest honour and
official formality. Among other arrangements made for
our entertainment was a luncheon at the Palace with the
Emperor and Iknpress, and Mr. Taft was permitted, in his

274

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

capacity of a war secretary, to witness the evolutions of a
crack Japanese regiment, of 3,000 troops ready for the field
massed on a single great parade groimd.

The Japanese Minister of War, General Terauchi, was
a soldier — ^which seems fitting, and which is usual in most
countries I believe — and he assumed at once, in common
with all the other Army officers whom he encountered, that
Mr. Taft was a soldier, too. This has nothing to do with
my immediate story, but I remember it as one of the most
amusing circumstances of that visit to Japan. Whatever
Mr. Taft may be he is not martial, but these Japanese war-
riors proceeded to credit him with all manner of special
knowledge which he had never had an opportunity to acquire
and to speak to him in technical terms which, it must be ad-
mitted, strained his ability for concealing his ignorance. He
finally said that if anybody asked him again about the
muzzle velocity of a Krag-Jorgensen, or any like question,
he intended to reply : "Sh ! It's a secret !"

General Kodama, who afterward made himself world-
famous as Chief of Staff during the Russo-Japanese War,
had been Military Governor of Formosa and he was
especially interested in Mr. Taft because he conceived that in
the Philippines we had a parallel for their Formosan prob-
lem. He grew quite confidential, telling Mr. Taft many
things about the Japanese administration of Formosan af-
fairs and drawing comparisons between his difficulties and
those that we had encountered imder similar circumstances.
He ended by saying :

* We had to kill a good many thousands of those people
before they would be good. But then, of course, you under-
stand,— you know, — ^you know !"

This story could not have been told at that time because
there were groups of active anti-Imperialists in the United
States who would have pounced upon it as something to be
made the most of as an argument for their cause, but in the

275

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

light of history that has been made I think it is safe to tell
it now. Mr. Taf t had to admit that he was a man of peace,
that so far as he personally was concemed he had never killed
nor ordered killed a single Filipino m his life, and that his
whole endeavour had been to forai a friendly alliance with
the Philippine people and to dissuade them from indulgence
in the personal danger involved in their useless opposition to
temporary American control.

We made something of a triumphal progress through
Japan during our short stay and were escorted to our ship
by numerous dignitaries who were extremely gracious and
who cheered us on our way with such ^1)anzais !" and such a
waving of flags as made me feel that we were quite important
personages. Later on I had my sense of the importance of
my position rudely shaken. There is one thing to be said
for the American Republic and that is that no public official
is permitted to retain for very long a too exalted opinion of
himself.

One day shortly after my arrival in Washington, I was
at tea at the house of a friend and foimd myself in conversa-
tion with a lady, the wife of an Army officer, whom I had
known in Manila. We talked around and about various
subjects, after the manner of ladies at a tea, when she finally
said to me :

"You know, Mrs. Taft, I have thought about you so
often and wondered how you liked it here in Washington
after your life in Manila. Why, out there you were really
a queen, and you come back here and are just nobody P^

There was another lady who sat next to my husband at a

dinner one night. It was a place of hcHiour, next to a Cabinet

officer, and she no doubt considered it necessary to "make

conversation" while the candle-lights shone. She went

along quite successfully for awhile, but eventually blundered

into this :

"Do you know, Mr. Secretary, I really think you ought to

276

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

go out and see the Philippine Islands. They say they are
so interesting !'*

Poor man, most of his reputation, such as it then was, had
been made in the Philippine service, but he replied to her :

"That's right, I should go. And Tm going, too, just as
soon as I can possibly get away."

He meant that. He had promised the Filipinos that he
would return to open their first Assembly, and even then he
had a fixed desire to lead a party of American Congressmen
to the country whose affairs they were endeavouring to settle
by long-distance legislation founded upon very mixed and,
in some cases, greatly distorted, second-hand information.

Mr. Taft became Secretary of War at the beginning of
19049 but I spent the remainder of the winter after our
arrival in the United States in Santa Barbara and did not
join him until May, when I met him at St. Louis, where he
went to open the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.

President Roosevelt was to have done this, but urgent
aflFairs kept him in Washington, so the Secretary of War
was asked to represent him and to make the speech which an-
nounced to the world the inauguration of this great Fair.
I remember the occasion especially because I had been so
long out of touch with the kind of buoyant Americanism
which made itself felt in St. Louis that I had almost lost my
own identity with it, and I began then to think that it was
really good to be back in my own country.

I knew fairly well what it would mean to settle down in
Washington as the wife of a Cabinet officer because I had
lived in Washington before. While I didn't expect to be
and didn't expect anybody to consider me "just nobody*' I
knew that it would not be at all like entering upon the duties
and privileges of the wife of the Governor of the Philippine
Islands. I thought what a curious and peculiarly American
sort of promotion it was which carried with it such dimin«
ished advantages.

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

My first necessity in my generally considered enviable
position was to find a house in Washington large enough
to contain my family, to peraiit such participation in social
life as would be expected of us, and the rent for which would
not wholly exhaust the stipend then allowed to a Cabinet
officer.

Eight thousand dollars a year, sufficient income though it
may be when it is expected to accommodate itself to an
ordinary eight-thousand-doUars-a-year standard of living,
shrinks alarmingly when its recipient is expected to maintain
on it the dignity of a Cabinet position. If we had not had
some private resources I don't quite see how we could have
managed. Fortunately for my husband, and more so for his
successors in office, this figure was raised to twelve thousand
before he left the War Department, and still there are com-
plaints which I am amply able to appreciate.

We finally settled, on the first of October after my arrival
at Washington, in a pleasant, old-fashioned house on K
Street near i6th. It was not the most elegantly equipped
house available, but we preferred a little extra space to the
more elaborate modem conveniences, so we took it.

We were spared one item of expense by having the use
of the War Department carriage and its big Irish coachman,
Quade. Quade was quite a character. He had been at
one time in the artillery service and had occupied the po-
sition in which we found him through several administra-
tions. He was never able to lose the habits and manners of
an artillery man, and Mr. Roosevelt used to say he never
drove behind him without feeling as if he were on the caisson
of a gun wagon going into action. He kept his horses in
fine condition, though a trifle too fat perhaps, and he took
great pride in the speed he could get out of them. He would
swing around comers and dash past street cars and other

vehicles in a way that was anything but soothing to sensitive

278

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

nerves, but there was no use protesting. Quade's character
was fully formed.

He used to feed Mr. Taft*s private riding horse at the
public expense, and Mr. Taft didn't approve of this. He
thought he ought to include the pay for its keep in his per-
sonal accoimts, and he told Quade so, asking him at the same
time to have a bill made out so that he might settle it.
Quade regarded him in utter disgust for a moment, then said :

**Well, Misther Sicretary, what with the good an' plinty
o' fodder we got in the stables, I guess ye can go on a-f eedin*
your horse here without the Government's a-worryin* anny."

I remember going one day to a reception at the house of
Justice Harlan on the occasion of his twenty-fifth anni-'
versary on the bench. President Roosevelt was already
there and as we drove up we found the bicycle policemen
surrounding the entrance waiting for him. Quade, with
great friendliness but with an absolute lack of decorum,
leaned over on the box and shouted to them as we passed :

"Ah, Begorra! Ye'U be a-waitin' around fer my boss
one o' these days !"

Faithful Quade lived to see his prophecy fulfilled, but not
long afterward he lost his life at his post of duty in a shock-
ing accident. He was driving the Department carriage for
Secretary of War Dickinson's family; the pole broke, the
horses became frightened and bolted. There were young
children and a nurse in the carriage, so Quade bravely held
on to the reins and finally succeeded in turning the horses
into a fence. He saved the occupants of the carriage from
injury, but he himself was thrown forward violently, falling
in such a way as to break his neck.

Another War department employe whom we valued
highly was Arthur Brooks, a coloured department messenger,
and a major of militia. Arthur was the most useful indi-
vidual I ever knew anything about, combining absolute loy-

279

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

alty with an efficiency and accuracy that were most comfort-
ing to his employers. He went into the War Department
during President Arthur's administration and gradually won
for himself a position of especial trust. Mr. Root, as Sec-
retary of War, found Arthur most valuable and reposed the
utmost confidence in him.

For me he did all kinds of things which without him would
probably have been done very badly. He "managed" all
my larger entertainments, being present, after I had done all
I could by way of preparation, to see that everybody was
properly received, that the service ran smoothly and that
nothing went amiss. When Mr. Taf t became President he
had Arthur transferred to the position of custodian of the
White House and I shall have occasion to speak of him in
that capacity later on.

Taking things all in all, I think we managed to get on
very well indeed, though I did sometimes sigh for the lux-
urious simplicity and the entire freedom from petty house-
hold details that I had left behind me in Manila. I did not
fijid that my very large and very black cook was so capable
as to make me forget the excellencies and the almost sound-
less orderliness of Ah Sing ; nor did my coloured butler and
one housemaid quite manage to take the places of Ah King
and Chang, my two upstairs "Chinaboys" at Malacaflan.
As for the six or eight barefoot muchachos who "skated" my
Philippine hardwood floors to a state of mirror gloss and
kept everything speckless without ever seeming to do any
work at all, they could have no substitute in a Washington
establishment.

The life of a "Cabinet lad)^" newly arrived in the Capital

is one of rather monotonous stress. In the first place she is

expected to call on nearly everybody who calls on her, and, of

course, nearly everybody does that. This custom in my

time was especially insisted upon with regard to the wives of

all the Congressmen and of all the men connected with the

280

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

various departments. Then there were the wives of the
members of the Supreme Court, women whose husbands were
connected with the many different bureaus and a large and
most attractive civilian society which contributes so much to
the gaiety of the city. And besides all these there were the
Army women, any number of them.

Every afternoon throughout the winter when I was not
"at home" myself I started out on certain rounds of calls,
and I think I made as many calls as any one I knew. Irk-
some to me as this duty sometimes was, in the formal dis-
charge of it I made some of the pleasantest friends I ever
had. I have always foimd Army women particularly de-
lightful, and it is easy to understand why they are so. In
the course of their wanderings and their many changes of
habitation, and in consequence of the happy-go-lucky at-
titude toward life that they are bound to assume, they ac-
quire a cordiality of manner and an all-round generous tone
which make them very attractive.

One morning each week Mrs. Roosevelt held a meeting of
the Cabinet ladies at the White House, but this was not a
social affair. We met to discuss various matters supposed
to be of interest to us all, and would gather in the library
from eleven to twelve for this purpose.

After calling, the most important social duty devolving
upon a Cabinet officer's wife is dining out. We always
dined out when we were not giving a dinner party at our
own house, so that from the time Mr. Taf t became Secre-
tary of War we almost ceased to know what it was to have
"a quiet evening at home." Of course such a life gave us
an opportunity for meeting many interesting men and women
who contributed much to the sum total of what the world
seemed to have in store for us.

It has been the custom through a good many administra-
tions for the President, sometime during the season between

December first and Lent, to dine with each member of the

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Cabinet, and all other members of the Cabinet, with only a
few outside guests, were usually invited to these parties.
It can easily be imagined that they did not offer much varia-
tion, especially in view of the fact that hard and fast rules
of precedence settled for the hostess just where each of her
guests should sit. Mr. Roosevelt did not care for this cus-
tom, so during his last Administration it became usual to
ask to such dinners only people outside the "official family,"
as it is called. The dinner to Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt which
we gave each year was our most ambitious social function
and it was my desire always to invite as many persons as
possible who would themselves prove entertaining and who
would not be likely to meet the President in the ordinary
course of events. I often asked friends from different parts
of the country to visit us for the occasion.

Every Wednesday af temoon all the ladies of the Cabinet
were "at home" and nearly all Washington called on each
of them. Then, too, the casual visitors to the Capital were
free to attend these informal receptions and I used to be
surprised at the number of curious strangers who found their
way into my drawing room.

However, this is only a glimpse in general of the life of
a Cabinet lady during the regular social season. Fortu-
nately for me my husband was, from the very beginning, a
travelling Secretary. I remember most of the cartoons of
those days pictured him either as "sitting on the lid,"
wreathed in cherubic smiles, while President Roosevelt
rushed off on some flying trip, or as himself making a frantic
dash for the rear platform of a moving train. The rush of
Mr. Roosevelt was always expressed by the backward sweep
of the ribbon attached to his eyeglasses, while Mr. Taf t was
usually pictured with a perspiring look, his hat lifted off his
head by the wind and a busy looking suitcase, labelled in
large letters: "Taft," swinging wildly along behind him.

282

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

And these cartoons were rather accurately descriptive of real
conditions.

I had hardly got my house on K Street in order before
something happened in Panama which made it imperative
for the Secretary of War to go down to the Isthmus and
give the situation his personal attention. There was a state
of popular discontent among the Panamanians complicated
by question of zone boundaries, jurisdiction, postal regula-
tions, tariff inequalities and a few other matters, and by
that time we had too much at stake in the Canal 2^ne to
risk long distance or dilatory regulation.

The building of the Panama Canal was not included in
the business of the War Department until after Mr. Taft
became Secretary, nor was there at that time any definite
idea of having it done by the Army Engineer Corps, but it
has long been recognised that in the War Portfolio accom-
modation can be foimd for any and every kind of govern-
mental problem, and Mr. Taft had not been Secretary long
before Mr. Roosevelt transferred the administration of
Canal Zone affairs to his already well-laden shoulders.

I was very glad to have an opportunity to see the begin-
ning of what I knew was to be the greatest enterprise ever
undertaken by the United States, so I fully approved of
my husband's suggestion that I accompany him to Panama.
Seiior Obaldia, the Panamanian Minister to Washington,
went also, and among others in the very interesting party
were Rear Admiral J. G. Walker, President of the Canal
Commission, Judge Charles G. Magoon, law officer of the
Commission, and Mr. Nelson W. Cromwell, counsel for the
Republic of Panama.

On this trip Mr. Taft went to Panama as a representative
of the President of the United States for the purpose of
presenting to the President of Panama a message of friend-
ship, and to make, if possible, an amicable adjustment of

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

the differences between American and Panamanian interests.

It was in November, 1904. We went from Washing-
ton to New Orleans and were greeted in a kindly manner
all along the way. When we arrived we were met by a
most imposing committee of citizens who escorted us to our
hotel. No sooner were we installed, in the midst of all the
luxury that could be prepared for us, than Governor
Blandhard, with due ceremony and accompanied by mem-
bers of his staff in uniform, called to pay his official respects.
We hadn't very long to stay, but every hour was filled with
entertainments made memorable by the courteous and high-
bred lavishness for which New Orleans is famed, the only
private event of our visit being a dinner with Archbishop
Chapelle, now dead, who was Archbishop of Manila when
Mr. Taft first went to the Philippines and with whom he
good-naturedly, but persistently, disagreed on the important
problems connected with the necessary disentanglement of
the affairs of Church and State in the Islands.

We sailed on the little Dolphin from New Orleans to
Pensacola, where the cruiser Columbia lay waiting to take us
down to Panama, and it was to the boom of saluting guns,
the cheers of hospitable Pensacola citizens and the strains
of "The Star Spangled Banner" that we got under way on
this first memorable trip to the Canal Zone.

We arrived at Colon on a Sunday morning, and I remem-
ber distinctly that it seemed more like "getting home" than
like getting to a strange place. The whole atmosphere and
surroundings, the people, the language they spoke, the
houses and streets, the rank earth odours and the very feel
of the air reminded me so strongly of the Philippines as to
give me immediately a delightful sense of friendly famil-
iarity with everything and everybody.

We were met at Colon by the vice-President of Panama,
Senior Arosemana, and a number of other Panamanian offi-
cials, by Greneral Davis, then Grovemor of the Canal Zone^

284

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

and by Mr. John Barrett, the American Minister to Panama.
A private train was waiting to take us across the Isthmus and
we lost no time in getting started. Our visit had been
'"programmed" almost to the last hour of our time, and the
first event was to be an exchange of formalities between the
Secretary of War and the President of Panama that very
afternoon.

When we got to the city of Panama just before luncheon
we went to the home of Mr. Wallace, the Chief Engineer,
whose guests we were to be during our stay, and early in
the aftemoon Mr. Taft, accompanied by uniformed aides
and other Army officers, with enough ceremony to satisfy
even the most formal, went to call on President Amador.
The call was promptly returned with due formality, and the
decks were then considered "cleared for action."

Negotiations began at once, but the conferences were
private, and in our daily round of sight-seeing and social
diversions it did not seem that the delicate machinery of
diplomatic transaction was in motion at all.

Our Minister, Mr. Barrett, had a charming house in the
old tropic city and on the Monday evening after our arrival
he gave a dinner at which were gathered many high officials
of the Panama Republic as well as all the interesting Amer-
icans who were then directing our great Canal building en-
terprise. Mr. Barrett, being a bachelor, placed President
Amador opposite himself; he took Madame Amador at his
right; Mr. Taft sat next to her, while I occupied the place
at the right of the President and had on my other side Seiior
Arias, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Greneral Davis, Mr.
Wallace, Colonel Grorgas — "the man of the hour" during
that cleaning-up period, — ^many Army officers and Cabinet
Ministers in full regalia and many decorations, with their
wives, were seated in order of rank along the sides of the
great table, which, laden with flowers and gleaming glass and

candles, made a picture long to be remembered even by one

285

2 irxT : Tmzss cf fcii. teaks

;3 •vjsrrjcrATjs aur

n;x^ tf>r tr^^nvbblc poEitioa of a badidor £plamat and
wt a*I a/Jv: v^d Mr, Harmx to get rcarrkd. He parried oar
j;Vt a^ bc»t he ax;!d imtil President Amador Tolontecrcd
t>>^ informatioa that die American ^Cnister was hoDoraij
Vrr^'ulmt of the Iris Cluh, an association of some three
hundred-odd of the cfacnccst girls in Panama. "And he
can't get one out of the lot," said the Prr^dent.

After diimer a large reception was held in die saloo which,
M in all Spanish houses in die trofncs, was on what mi^t
t>e called the second floor, die first floor being only a sort of
plastered and stone-paved street-level basemenL The
hi^ly'-polished floor of the big room didn't look to me to
be particularly safe and I suppose Mr. Barrett observed my
worried looks as it "gave^' under the wei^t of my husband.
He hastened to reassure me by telling me that he had taken
tlie precaution to have it shored up with heavy timbers under
the «i)ot where Mr. Taft was to stand to receive the long
line of guests. He seemed to consider this a fine joke, but I
tluMight it a most commendable measure.

When we arrived in Panama we were not at all certain
that wc should find the country in a state of tranquillity;
nor did wc exactly; though by prompt action the President
had nipprii a budding revolution only a short time before.
Hostilities had been averted, but the people were in a bad

286

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

temper and it was thought best to keep them "merely guess-
ing*' while the negotiations between the Secretary of War
and the Panamanian government were in progress, and much
of Mr. Taf t's time, therefore, was spent behind the closed
doors of President Amador's council chamber.

In the meantime I made myself familiar with the wonder-
ful American project which brought the Panama Republic
into existence. The Canal then was a sorry sight. The
public clamour in the United States was for "making the
dirt fly," but it did not look to a mere layman as if we could
ever make it fly fast enough or in sufficient quantities to
really bring the two oceans together. All along the line of
operations the old French machinery lay buried in pathetic
ruin in a tropic jungle which had all but effaced the evi-
dences of the French enterprise, and such conditions of gen-
eral unhealthiness prevailed as made it seem almost too
much to expect that any kind of clean-up programme could
be made effectual.

But all that story has been told; told in actual accom-
plishment with which all the world is familiar. I am only
glad that I saw Colonel Gk)rgas and his men in that initial
and contagious enthusiasm which, being sustained, resulted
in a record of which we are all so proud.

The Panamanians are nothing if not expansively hospit-
able. On the 4th of December, after we had been on the
Isthmus a couple of weeks and while the results of the offi-
cial negotiations were still, as far as any one knew, "in the
lap of the gods," an ocean steamship was chartered by a
company of hosts, and about three hundred guests, the elite
of the whole republic, were invited for a picnic party to the
Pearl Islands in the Bay of Panama, and a sail out into the
Pacific Ocean. It was an all-day expedition and included
the exploration of the beautiful little group, some pearl-div-
ing for our especial benefit, a most amazing luncheon, and a

dance on deck, to the music of a stringed band in gay and

287

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

most decorative uniforms, at which Mr. Taft made a tre-
mendous "hit." The tiny Panamanian woman who first
danced with him was thought to be very courageous, but as
one after another followed suit his reputation grew and it
finally was conceded, in the midst of great merriment, that
he was as light of foot as the slimmest Panamanian of them
all.

Having always been used to my husband's dancing, and
knowing how much he likes it, I never thought of it as any-
thing unusual, but during the days when he was being
"boomed" for the Presidency and was therefore much in
the public prints, it was made the subject of frequent jest.
I have one bit of doggerel in my scrap-book which appeared
in the Baltimore American after the reception we gave on
the occasion of General Kuroki's visit to this country, and
the last verse of which runs :

That Taft is just a wonder

Is a thing which we all know;
That as Presidential thunder

His big boom is like to go.
But as butterfly, blooms sipping,

And as waltzer, simply ripping!
'Tis a sight to see Taft tripping

On the light fantastic toe!

As a matter of fact he dances exceedingly well, if his wife
who has been dancing with him for the past thirty years
may say so.

When we retumed from the Pearl Islands to Panama City
that evening we were met by a pleasing surprise. The text
of the agreement which had been reached by Mr. Taft and
the government of Panama, and which had not been men-
tioned by anybody all day, had been made public during our
absence and newsboys were crying "extras" in all the streets,
while excited groups stood about here and there wreathed in

smiles and talking with great animation. Everybody

288

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

seemed wholly satisfied and wherever we went we were met
with cheers and cries of **Viva!"

The keynote sounded in this agreement was that justice
should be done at Panama. Mr. Taf t interpreted the treaty
between pur country and the infant republic; he adjusted
the differences with regard to postal regulations and the
tariff; he defined the harbour boundaries; and, much to the
satisfaction of the Panamanians, he kept within the hands
of the American authorities all matters pertaining to the
public health. The people realised the necessity for a
pure water supply, for sewer systems, clean and well-paved
streets, and the eliminarion of the dread diseases which made
the Isthmus a death trap for white men, and all these things
America offered to Panama as a free gift that the great
work of building the Canal might go on. If vociferous
cheers are an expression of gratitude the people were grate-
ful.

The next day a great demonstration took place in Cathe-
dral Plaza. We stood on a balcony of the Grand Central
Hotel, on one side of the square and opposite the Cathedral,
and looked out across a veritable sea of moving, swaying,
white-clad humanity. As far as one could see in every di-
rection there were people, and when Mr. Taf t stepped to
the balcony rail to address them they gave voice to a cheer
which made it seem certain that all cause for quarrel between
us had happily been removed.

There had been vague rumours that the deposed War
Minister of the Panama government who had attempted to
start the rebellion would, with his followers, take this occa-
sion to make a hostile demonstration, but he was evidently
sensible enough to realise that his was an unpopular cause.
Moreover, his original army of two hundred and fifty men
had been reduced to twenty-five, and if that were not dis^
couraging enough he had only to contemplate the natty

American Marine corps in the Canal Zone and the Pacific

289

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL yEARS

squadron, including the New York, the Boston, the Ben--
nington and the Marblehead, lying out in Panama harbour
unobtrusively but very positively guaranteeing peace.

Mr. Taft in his speech to the Panamanians was eamest.
He was imbued with the spirit of conquest as represented in
our Panama Canal enterprise. It was to be a conquest of
nature's own forces in their most formidable aspects and
he expressed a determinaticMi to enforce, during his term of
administration, the laws necessary to make that conquest
possible, and capping all his promises of fair treatment to
the people of Panama, he emphasised an insistence upon
orderly government in the little republic which brought forth
round after round of applause.

He was destined to have almost endless difficulties of
various sorts in the Canal Zone, but he had the great
privilege of occupying an administrative office, first as Sec-
retary of War and then as President, until the end of the
work was in sight and all the problems had been fully solved.
During those eight years, wherever he might be or whatever
business happened to be temporarily paramoimt. Canal ques-
tions were with him always and were always given first ohi-
sideration.

The history of the Panama Canal is divided into two

great periods. The first covers the full discussion and

final settlement of the question as to which route should be

adopted, the Nicaraguan or the Panama; the negotiation of

the Hay-Herran Treaty with Colombia, by which we were

given the right to complete the Panama Canal, and under

which we secured all the rights of the French Panama Canal

Company; the rejection of the Hay-Herran Treaty with

Colombia; the revolution of Panama; the establishment of

the Panamanian Republic and its rec(^ition by President

Roosevelt, the negotiation of the Hay-Varilla Treaty with

Panama, by which we acquired dominion over the Canal

Zone, and the right to build the Canal from the Republic of

290

MR. TAFT AND tOLOXKL GOETHAI.S, IN I'ANAMA

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Panama, guaranteeing at the same time the integrity of that
Republic. During all this period Mr. Taft was in the
Philippines. In February, 1904, when he became Secretary
of War, the Hay-Varilla Treaty was pending in the Senate.
In a few weeks thereafter, it was consented to by the Senate,
the Panama Commission was appointed, and early that
spring the second period of the construction of the Canal
began. The work was placed by the President under Mr.
Taft as Secretary of War. From that time until his retire-
ment from the office of President, March 4, 1913, the con-
struction was constantly under his supervision. Sometime
this history must be written. The chief crises in this work
as he has recited them were the organisation of the force un-
der the Commission, the adjustment of the relations of Pan-
ama to the work under the treaty, the change of engineers
from Mr. Wallace to Mr. Stevens, the consideration by an
International Commission, with a divided report, as to the
proper type of the Canal, whether sea level or lock, the very
close fight in Congress to sustain the Administration view in
favor of the lock type, the settlement of the issue whether the
Canal should be built by contract or by Grovemment agency,
the selection of a successor to Mr. Stevens when he resigned,
and the placing of the work under Army engineers and the
selection of Colonel Goethals as the man to take the respon-
sibility, the adjustment of critical labour troubles, and the
confirmation by a Commission of the security of the founda-
tion of the Gatun Dam. These were the points of critical
importance in Mr. Taft's Administration. In deciding the
questions which came to him, it was necessary for him to visit
the Canal seven times in as many years, and I went with him
on three of his visits. The contrast between the Canal when
we first visited it and were the guests of Mr. Wallace, the
first engineer, and as it was when we were the guests of
Colonel Goethals in 1912, when the Gatun Lake was more

than half filled and nothing but the slides in the Culebra Cut

291

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

remained for excavation, it is most interesting to look back
upon. I was twice the guest of Colonel and Mrs. Goethals,
and the beautiful view of the Canal Valley from the win-
dows of their house in the town of Culebra, which has now
disappeared, will long remain in my mind.

It was not long after our return to Washington frwn
the first trip to Panama before arrangements were completed
for the tour of the big Congressional party which Mr. Taf t
"personally conducted" to the Philippines and back, and
which was destined to be slightly overshadowed as a Con-
gressional party by the personality of Miss Alice Roosevelt
who, under the chaperonage of Mr. Taft and Mrs. New-
lands, made the trip just, as Kipling sings, "for to be*old
and for to see."

Knowing that I should have an opportunity to go again
to the Far East in two years to be present at the inaugura-
tion of the first Philippine Assembly, I decided to remain
behind this time. I did not think I would much enjoy this
brief busy trip to the Orient with three children and decided
that a quiet summer in England would be better for us all.
So I took a cottage in Oxford for the summer and with my
two younger children and one of my Cincinnati friends and
her two children made various trips here and there and found
myself most pleasantly entertained. It was an exceedingly
quiet summer, unbroken save by the somewhat lurid accounts
which we gathered from the British and European press of
the progress of the Congressional party with Mr. Taft and
Miss Alice Roosevelt in the East. One Grerman paper went
so far as to announce that Miss Roosevelt was undoubtedly
engaged to be married to her father's War Secretary.

It was my intention to sail from Southampton and meet

Mr. Taft in New York on his arrival from the EasL We

had been inveighing all summer against the British system

of handling luggage and when we went to look after our

trunks in the Oxford station we were charmed to find that

292

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

a new method of labelling had been introduced and that
our luggage would travel down to London and across Lon-
don to the station for Southampton without any assistance
from us. We pocketed our British substitutes for Ameri-
can baggage checks with considerable satisfaction and started
on our way.

When we arrived in London I sent the boys over to the
station from which we were to leave for our steamer to
make sure that our baggage had really been delivered as
promised. Unfortunately the boys got to the station just
as King Exlward arrived, and they were so excited about
getting a glimpse of the monarch that they gave up trying
to look after baggage. Wei-'-haTing nodiing else to do,
drove to the station a full hour before the steamer train
was to leave, and had occasion to congratulate ourselves for
being so early. Our trunks were not in the station. My
friend jumped in a hansom and rushed to the station
where we had come in. I spent the time ransacking every
comer and looking over piles of all kinds of luggage and
three-quarters of an hour passed before a telephone message
came to say the trunks were found and that they had started
across town.

But the train would leave in five minutes ! I was fran-
tic. Otherwise I should never have played my last card
and exposed myself to the jibes of my family forever after.
I rushed into the office of the station-master determined to
overawe him by revealing to him my official position.

"I am Mrs. William Howard Taft of Washington," I
cried. "I must get my trunks on that boat train. They'll
be here in a few minutes. Can't you hold it for me !"

He looked at me blankly.

"My husband is the Secretary of War of the United
States,'* I went on desperately.

"'I am very sorry. Madam," he began, then I made my last
effort.

293

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

"You must have heard of him. He's travelling now with
Miss Alice Roosevelt."

At last I had produced the eflFect I desired. Immediately
the station was my castle. The station-master was my himi-
ble servant. He accompanied me out, ordered the train held,
and superintended a whole obsequious force which hustled
our baggage aboard as soon as it arrived. Since we made
the boat, which we would not otherwise have done, I was
able to bear the chaffing of my children and friends when
they continued to refer to me as The Mrs. Taft whose hus-
band was travelling with Miss Alice Roosevelt.

Early in the autumn of 1906 the American Consul (Jen-
eral at Havana began cabling to the government at Wash-
ington that the Cuban republic under President Palma was
rapidly going to pieces. What was described as "devastat-
ing and paralysing civil strife" was rampant, and a serious
insurrection was threatened.

The Constitution of the Cuban republic and the Cuban
Treaty with the United States contains a "self-acting"
clause, known as the Piatt Amendment, which was intro-
duced by the United States Congress, and which provides for
American intervention in Cuban affairs whenever such inter-
vention is deemed requisite to a continuance of peace and
good government in the island.

Sometime during the first week in September the situation
became acute and President Palma, fearing that it would
become formidable and knowing that he had no adequate
force to protect life and property, urgently, though secretly
begged our government to send warships to his assistance.
On September 1 2 he despatched a cablegram imploring that
an American Army be landed in Havana at once to prevent
a threatened massacre of citizens; on September 13 he de-
cided to resign the Presidency and compel the United States
to assume the responsibility of government; on September 14

President Roosevelt called a conference at Oyster Bay where

294

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

it was decided that Mr. Taft should undertake the task of
Cuban pacification, peaceful if possible — and on September
20 Mr. Taft, accompanied by Mr. Robert Bacon, Assistant
Secretary of State, as a fellow Peace Commissioner, landed
at Havana. They didn't lose much time.

Then began what Mr. Taft always refers to as "those
awful twenty days." The people were divided into various
warring factions, the result, largely, of political habits in-
herited from the old Spanish regime wherein a new party
arose on the slightest provocation, basing its antagonism to
the others on nothing finer nor more patriotic than individual
desire for political patronage.

President Palma still held the reins of government, but
camped just outside Havana were twenty thousand men
under arms ready at any moment to open hostilities. These
insurgents, as well as the party in power, had appealed to the
United States for intervention, but neither faction had any
intention of accepting any form of compromise which did
not include all their demands.

For about a week the fiercest storm that Mr. Taft had ever
encountered raged about his head. His one immediate de-
sire was to avoid bloodshed. His investigations proved that
no real obstacle to tranquillity, or to compromise, existed
and he made every effort to induce the Cubans to settle their
differences on high non-partisan grounds, each yielding some-
thing to the other for the sake of the general good. But
he found very little interest in the "general good." Indeed,
all through his despatches during those days there runs a
complaint that except with President Palma and a few others
patriotism was not very apparent, that petty jealousies and
personal ambitions, often of a brazen or a sordid nature, con-
stituted the chief secret of all the dissension and strife.

Events must have moved with feverish rapidity. The

insurrectos demanded the annulment of the election which

continued the Palma government in power, and the situa-

295

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

tlon developed new complications with every argument and
piece of testimony presented by either side. Finally when
it was decided to begpbti an investigation of election returns
with the hope of arriving at a just conclusion. President
Palma, who had certainly been elected by irregular methods,
thou^ with no connivance on his own part, promptly re-
signed; his C(Higress failed to meet and elect his successor.
To forestall a state of absolute anarchy, with the approval of
President Roosevelt, Mr. Taft issued a manifesto proclaim-
ing an American provisional government with himself as the
provisional governor of the republic This happened on the
eighth day after his arrival in Havana.

American marines had already been landed to guard the
Treasury and a large force of United States troops, under
General Frederick Funston, was in readiness to sail at once
for Havana.

There was a strong sentiment among the better elements
of Cubans, and an almost unanimous expression on the
part of foreign residents, in favour of annexation to the
United States. Indeed, feeling ran so high on this point,
and especially among those, of whatever nationality, with
financial interests at stake in Cuba, that it was thought for
a time that an effort would be made to stampede or force
the United States government into such action. But Mr.
Taft's Philippine experience proved of value to him in
this crisis, and his proclamation provided only for a pro-
visional government "to last long enough to restore order
and peace and public confidence." The Cuban flag was not
hauled down; no Cuban official was to be disturbed in the
discharge of his regular dudes; and the American flag was
to fly over nothing but American troops. In other words,
the Cuban Republic was not to cease for an instant to exist.
It was a curious situation.

Shortly after the provisional government was instituted,

Mr. Magoon was appointed to relieve Mr. Taft in the

296

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

office of governor, and was instructed to proceed at once to
Havana. Mr. Taft cabled me and Mr. Bacon cabled to
Mrs. Bacon, asking if we did not want to accompany Mr.
Magoon, and, of course, we immediately decided to do so.
We sailed on the Mascotte with the battleship Texas in our
wake, carrying three hundred marines from Norfolk, and
for the first time in my life I felt as if I were actually
"going to war." There was such a sense of^rush through-
out the whole performance that it seemea tremendously
serious. As a matter of fact, intervention was accomplished
without the firing of a single gun, and when we landed at
Havana, on the afternoon of the loth of October, just
twenty days after Mr. Taft's arrival on the scene, the
principal enterprise in progress was the disarmament of
insurgent troops which was by that time almost completed.

When we landed in Cuba I found myself once again,
although only for the moment "the first lady of the land,**
and we were received with much ceremony. It reminded
me of Manila days.

As we passed the Cabafias fortress at the entrance of
Havana harbour the Texas fired a salute and the echo of
the answering guns cracked and rattled from piers and sur-
rounding sea-walls. Everything in the harbour dipped its
flag as we came in, while from out of the maze of battle-
ships and cruisers, transports, merchant vessels and shore
boats we saw a launch approaching in the bow of which
I could easily make out my husband's generous proportions.
With him were his colleague, Mr. Bacon, his aide. Captain
McCoy, and a second aide, Captain Jose Marti, an artillery-
man and son of an old Cuban patriot whom he had ap-
pointed to this position, to the intense gratification of the
Cuban people.

A second launch followed, bearing Greneral Funston and

his aide. Captain Cloman, while a third full of Cuban

newspaper men brought up the rear. These newspaper

297

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

men were the most engaging reporters I ever encountered.
They didn't approach Mrs. Bacon and me with pads and
pencils and a few ill-considered questions. No, indeed.
They came bearing flowers, great, gorgeous bouquets for
each of us, and we were permitted to receive these with-
out having to say anjrthing more compromising than : "It
was a very pleasant voyage, thank you," and, "Yes, in-
deed, we are very glad to get to Havana."

When we reached the wharf of the Captain of the
Port we found a large gathering of American naval offi-
cers and Cuban citizens, and we were formally welcomed
by Seiior Julio de Cardenas, the Mayor of Havana, who
was continuing to exercise his official authority exactly as
if nothing unusual had occurred. He was accompanied
by the members of the City Council and with them later
escorted us to the Palace.

As Mrs. Bacon and I stepped into our carriage the
commander of the rebel army and his wife came up
to welcome us with what the paper that evening described
as "a floral offering," but we saw nothing of the de-
posed President or his followers. Upon his resignation
he had gone down into the country, where he was said to
have been received with marked enthusiasm and sympathy.
Nobody ever accused President Palma of being anything
but an honest man and a sincere patriot, the victim of po-
litical chicanery on the part of his supporters. It was
afterward shown that he could easily have been re-elected
without trickery, but dishonest politics were the only kind
of politics that his people had yet leamed how to play.

When we arrived at the Palace, Mr. Taft, Mr. Bacon
and Mr. Magoon went into a long conference in the gov-
emor's office, while I wandered around the imposing build-
ing. It was about as cheerful as a mortuary chapel. It
seemed to be admirably adapted for the display of gold lace,

gorgeous decorations and lofty martial manners. After a

298

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

brief inspection I sought the spacious discomfort of my own
room and an hour's repose imder a betasseled canopy.

Mr. Magoon was not to assume the office of governor
until disarmament was completed and an amnesty proclama-
tion had been issued. Mr. Taft intended to leave him
with no insurgents except those who refused to give up
their arms, and these were no longer to be known as insur-
gents. They were to be called bandits and were to be hunted
down and treated as such.

I was mistress of the Palace at Havana for just three
over-crowded days. Before our arrival Mr. Taft and Mr.
Bacon had been the guests of the American Minister, Mr.
E. V. Morgan, at his beautiful home about nine miles out-
side the city. This house stood between two insurgent
camps and the mediators had to pass by automobile through
rebel lines every morning and evening while the uncertain
negotiations were in progress, but the strange part of this
intervention was that it was welcomed by all the parties
concerned except the intervening party, so the mediators
were shown every courtesy.

Mr. Taft did not take possession of the Palace immedi-
ately after the President's abdication, but when Mr. Ma-
goon was arriving he thought it wise to do so in order that
he might induct him into the office and all its dignities with
due form, and so it happened that we found him living there.

On the afternoon after our arrival Mrs. Bacon and I

gave a reception which I remember as a most notable affair.

It was attended by himdreds of Cubans, by all the members

of the different foreign colonies and by every American Army

and Navy officer who was not at the moment on active duty.

Everybody seemed to be especially happy and festive after

the month of gloom, and the pretty white gowns, the gay

Cuban colours and the crisp smartness of American uniforms

mingled together in the great rooms with quite brilliant

effect. While we stood shaking hands with the throng

299

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

passing by in single file, the Municipal Band in the Park
before the Palace played American music, from the latest
ragtime back to "Swanec River," interspersed with well-
rendered classics and a few gay, lilting airs peculiarly
Spanish.

On the following afternoon Mr. Morgan tried to outdo
the affair at the Palace with a reception in our honour at
his house, and succeeded admirably. Mr. Taf t had written
of Mr. Morgan : *Ht is something of a sybarite. He has
a very fine house, a French cook and all the luxuries, and
we arc being exceedingly well taken care of; — ^thou^ I do
think we eat too much!'' In fact, Mr. Morgan is a true
host, combining imagination and great ability with the wish
to entertain. His house at Havana was like a scene from
some tropical grand opera. Standing in the midst of fine
gardens heavy with groups of big drooping palms and ferns,
and bri^t with wide spaces of green lawn, it seemed like
a veritable story-book house. It had wide corridors and a
quaint, moss-softened patio, in the middle of which a foun-
tain played over a mass of brilliant tropic plants. The
spacious rooms were filled with curios and art treasures from
all parts of the world, and I was especially interested in a
splendid collection of brass-bound and inlaid Korean chests.
Mr. Morgan was America's last Minister to Korea, being
transferred from Seoul to Havana when Japan established
her Korean protectorate.

Althou^ it was nine miles out to Mr. Morgan's house,
everybody came, and it was said to be the most representa-
tive gathering of the cit/s leading families that had been
seen in many a day. Of course there was music and dancing
and refreshments and all the elements which go to make up
an enjoyable entertainment, and even though there was a
general celebration going on in the city, the crowds took
their departure reluctantly.

The general celebration was in commemoration of the

300

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

anniversary of the outbreak of the Ten Years' War in 1858,
and it was strange to see all parties uniting in a demonstra-
tion of what seemed to be real patriotism. Havana was
decorated in regular old-fashioned Fourth of July style, and
there were parades and speeches, bands, banners and fire-
works, just as if Cuba were the solidest little Republic in the
world. One really couldn't take the situation very seriously
after all, — except that it was costing the country a great
deal of money and certainly would have cost many foolish
lives had it not been taken in hand so promptly.

The next morning we inaugurated Govemoon Magoon
and took our departure, leaving him to his uncomfortable
fate. I remember later a cartoon depicting him as sitting
in agony on a sizzling stove labelled "Cuba," while Mr.
Taft appeared in the distance in a fireman's garb carrying
a long and helpful-looking line of hose. But that illus-
trated subsequent history.

We sailed from Havana on the battleship Louisiana^
escorted by the Virginia and the North Carolina^ Mr. and
Mrs. Bacon, Greneral Funston, Mr. Taft and I, on the
13th of October, just twenty-nine days from the day on
which Mr. Roosevelt had called the momentous OMiference
at Oyster Bay to decide what should be done about Cuba,
and we escaped by only a few hours the terrible storm which
swept east from the Gulf of Mexico that same evening.
It was one of the worst storms the locality had ever known.
It did untold damage to property, killed a number of people
and by cutting the island off from outside communication
gave the United States a short period of acute uneasiness on
account of the thousands of American soldiers quartered in
Cuba and the big fleet of American battleships lying in Ha-
vana harbour. The waters of Hampton Roads were so
rough that after boarding the Dolphin for the trip up the
Chesapeake and the Potomac to Washington we went ashore

at Fort Monroe and took the train.

301

CHAPTER XIV

BUSY YEARS

These were the days when Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Root and
Mr. Taft were known and very aptly caricatured as "The
Three Musketeers/* a thing which both pleased and amused
them. Mr. Roosevelt was, of course, D' Artagnan, Mr. Root
was Athos and Mr. Taft was Porthos, and they worked to-
gether in such hamiony and with such high mutual regard
as one remembers now with singular satisfaction.

Mr. Hearst was nmning against Mr. Hughes for Grov-
emor of New York, and the situation in Idaho, complicated
by the murder of Governor Stexmenberg and the activities
of the anarchistic element in the Western Federation of
Miners, seemed also to demand special attention from
the Administration, so Mr. Root was delegated to *liurl the
spear of civilisation and right thinking" in New York, while
Mr. Taft was sent into the West widi Idaho as the climax
of his itinerary.

All this had been arranged for him while he was away
on the mission of averting disaster in Cuba, and when he re-
turned to Washington he had just time, as he expressed it,
"to pack the War Department into a suitcase" before he
was off on a speech-making trip which took him from Balti-
more through Ohio, Illinois, Nebraska, Wyoming and Idaho
and back through Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Or-
leans to Washington, with only such time for preparation
of speeches as he could get on the trains between stops.

His letters to me were dictated to his stenographer, and
in re-reading them I get the impression that I was made the
victim of his thinking processes since he poured into them
all the politics and the turmoil of the hour, together with
lengthy comments which kept me very much alive with inter-
est in the campaign in which he was engaged.

302

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

About this time there appeared in the New York Sun an
editorial which pleased me and which expressed the rush
of our lives with singular vividness. It said in part :

Merely to record the movements and missions of the Secretary of
War requires a nimble mind. He journeys from Washington to
Manila to reassure ten millions of natives restive under an experi-
mental scheme of civil government and turns up in Panama to
speed the digging of the Isthmian Canal. To give a fillip to a
campaign for reform in some western State, or cUrect the southern
Republicans in the way they should go, or enlighten the people
Down East as to the President's home policy, or illuminate the
recesses of a problem in jurisdiction for the benefit of a bar asso-
ciation, is only a matter of grabbing a time table and throwing a
change of clothing into a travelling bag. Such are mere relaxa-
tions and holiday jaunts for the Hon. William H. Taft.

A Cuban revolution would be a poser to most statesmen, and
to an ordinary Secretary of War a labour of Hercules ; but to the
business of bringing peace with honour to a distracted land, de-
posing one government and setting up another, meanwhile gratify-
ing everybody and winning the esteem of the fiercest warrior, Mr.
Taft devotes only one page of the Calendar and takes ship for the
States to resume his routine duties as if he had done nothing out
of the common.

But routine duties in Washington do not hold him long. An
itinerary is made up for him and he plunges into the stress and
turmoil of a political campaign. He is to make speeches in Ohio
and Illinois, and Idaho claims him too. From Havana to Poca-
tello is something of a change and a far cry, but it is all in the
day's work for William H. Taft ... all nice problems look alike
to the Secretary of War who should be called the Secretary of Peace,
so uniform is his success in smoothing the wrinkled front of con-
flict and making two laughs echo where one groan was heard before.

No emergency, no exigency can put the Hon. William H. Taft
down. With a heart for any fate, buoyant as hope, versatile as
the kaleidoscope, indefatigable as fate and indomitable as victory,
he is a most amazing and effective Secretary of War. "Cabinet
help" when William H. Taft is the instrument and medium, is
tantamount to the energy and force of a whole Administration.
Yet there are those who would circumscribe his activities by in-
vesting him with the robes and immobile dignity of judicial office.

303

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

This subject of my husband's appointment to the Su-
preme Bendi cropped up with what seemed to me to be
rather annoying frequency. While we were in Cuba it was
rumoured that he would be asked to fill the vacancy created
by the retirement of Justice Brown, but the report correctly
stated that he would be likely to refuse the appointment
because of the rapidly developing possibility that he would
be the Republican nominee for the Presidency the following
year.

At this time Mr. Taft was all but impervious to any
friendly advice which, being followed, would have tended
to enhance his own political advantage. He was not play-
ing politics for himself; he was attending strictly to busi-
ness, fully imbued with the conviction that the public de-
sired a continuation of the Administration as it stood. Mr.
Roosevelt's personal popularity could not be denied nor in
any way belittled, but he had already announced that he
was not a candidate for a third term, and all over the coim-
try the party was organising to support Mr. Taft, while a
number of other names were prominently mentioned as "pos-
sibilities." Mr. Roosevelt had assured my husband that he
could count on his support, and he also urged him to lose no
opportunity to give personal encouragement and impetus to
the campaign that was being started in his behalf. But
Mr. Taft paid very little attention, and never did he cease
to regard a Supreme Court appointment as vastly more de-
sirable than the Presidency. If his letters of tihat period
could be read it would readily be seen that he was a most
difficult candidate for his loyal and eager supporters to
manage.

About this time, in conversation with Mr. Roosevelt in
respect to Mr. Taft's candidacy, I got the impression that
he was discouraged over my husband as a candidate be-
cause he had avoided co-operation with certain political
organisations in the West, and, further, that Mr. Roosevelt

304

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

thought he might have to join with other Republicans in
supporting Governor Hughes, because Mr. Taf t was such a
poor politician.

I reported this to Mr. Taft and urged him to display a
little more enthusiasm on his own account, but in reply I got
a good-natured reminder that there was "plenty of time," to-
gether with an analysis of the public feeling which, he
decided, was not running in his favour at all. He wrote
to Mr. Roosevelt :

Mrs. Taft writes me that you are disposed to lecture me for
not being more cordial in co-operation with some of my . . • friends
who want to organise a campaign for me for the presidential
nomination. I told them just ezacdy what the fact was and noth-
ing more, and I don't find myself equal to becoming part of any
organisation of that sort. The truth b in • • • and some of the
other States, if a man does not join in a way as to imply a kind of
obligation to look after these people, should success follow, there
is no particular enthusiasm in his favour, and in my state of indif-
ference about it the organisation is not likely to follow me.

Mrs. Taft said that you said you might have to support Hughes
for the presidency. If you do you may be sure that you will
awaken no feeling of disappointment on my part. While I very
much appreciate your anxiety that I shall be noiiunated, and re-
gard it as the highest compliment possible to me, and as a most
gradfying evidence of your good will, you know what my feeling
has been in respect to the presidency, and can understand that it
will not leave the slightest trace of disappointment should you
change your views and think it wise to make a start in any odier
direction.

In Mr. Roosevelt's reply to Mr. Taft, he said I had mis-
understood him, that what he had said was that Mr. Taft
must not be too entirely aloof because if he were it might
dishearten his supporters and put all Republicans in such
shape that some man like Grovemor Hughes, or more proba-
bly some man from the West, would turn up with so much
popular sentiment behind him that there would be no course
open but to support him.

305.

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

The 1905 campaign was a hotly contested one. The Re-
publicans won in New York and Idaho^ and generally, I
believe, though I remember those two States especially, and
I find Mr. Taf t writing to Mr. Root from Ft. Leavenworth,
Kansas, on his way back from Boise City:

Dear Athos:

I saw a copy of your speech when I was in the ''wilds'' of
Idaho, and I cannot tell you the comfort it gave me to read it, and
how it intensified the affection and admiration I have always had
for the speaker. I can just think of your making up your mind
to say the thing and do die thing that the occasion demanded. • • •
You selected the psychological moment, and I have no doubt that you
did a great deal to prevent Hearst's election, and I do not doubt also
that you are receiving the commendations of your grateful fellow
citizens of New York, and all over the country, as you ought to,
for hurling your spear full and fair at thb '^knight of evil." • • •

From everything I have seen in the west my judgment b that
the President cannot avoid running again. • . • There b no real
second choice where I have been. Of course there are compli-
mentary allusions to others. • • • So far as you and I are con-
cerned I think we are well out of it, and whatever may be our
ambitions for honourable service, there b a compensation in not
having to be exposed to the horrors of a campaign with thb product
of yellow journalism whom you have had so much satbfaction in
sending down to defeat for a time.

Apropos of this victory, Mr. Roosevelt wrote to Mr. Taf t ;

Upon my word I do not know which to be the more proud of,
what Root did in New York or what you did in Idaho.

When Mr. Taf t got back to Washington he found the fol-
lowing letter from Mr. Root, which completes the triangle
of this mutual admiration society of the Three Musketeers :

Dear Porthos:

I have been disappointed that your most important and ad-
mirable speech in Idaho has not been more freely publbhed and
commented on in the East. I have just suggested to the Editor of

306

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

The Outlook that lie ought to print It in eztenso and call atten-
tion to it. He will apply to you directly for it and I hope you
will let him have it.

I am going to start Saturday afternoon to be away for a week,
and if you see any gaping lids about my Department in the mean-
time, please sit on them gently*

Faithfully yours,

EuHu Root.

"Sitting on the lid" was not in any sense the stationary
and reposeful performance the expression seems to suggest.
Before Mr. Taft returned to Washington from a tour of
inspection of brigade posts, which followed immediately
upon his trip to Idaho, Mr. Roosevelt had gone to Panama,
leaving behind him various questions, including the one
which resulted from the discharge without honour of the
three companies of coloured troops at Brownsville, Texas,
for the Secretary of War to keep within bounds until his
return. Then there were many matters of a purely execu-
tive nature which, as long as they did not require the signa-
ture of the President himself, Mr. Taft was authorised and
expected to dispose of. And with the Secretary of State
also absent, his ofRce became government headquarters, prac-
tically, where foreign Ambassadors, Senators and officials
of other Departments had to take their chances of an inter-
view along with visitors or representatives from the Philip-
pines, Hawaii, Cuba, Porto Rico, Alaska and the Canal
Zone, and with Army officers and War Department clerks.

I finally gave up all idea of ever getting him home to
luncheon, but we nearly always had a dinner engagement,
so along about the hour when I knew he would have just
time to rush h(xne and dress I would call him on the tele-
phone. And then, if I were fortunate enough to get him
without a disgraceful delay, he almost invariably came in,
followed by an extra private secretary bearing a large port-
folio of papers to be disposed of before such hour as he chose
to consider bedtime.

307

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

The winter of 1906-7 was too busy to remember as any-
thing except a sort of hazy nightmare lightened in spots by
contemplation of the delightful possibilities contained in
a rapidly growing Presidential *1x)om," but it came to
an end, and early in the summer I gathered up my family
and a few necessary belongings and went to Murray Bay.
We were to leave some time in August for the Philippines
and the trip around the world via the Trans-Siberian Rail-
way, and I wanted very much to have my husband get away
for a few weeks of absolute detachment from public affairs,
feeling sure that it would be his last opportunity for rest
and relaxation for many a day. But no man can be a can-
didate for President of the United States and indulge at
the same time in even a short period of complete tranquillity.

Before Mr. Taft joined me he, in deference to the wishes
of the men who were conducting his 'IxxMn,*' made an-
other speech-making trip throu^ the West on the method
so aptly described as "whirlwind," and did not arrive in
Murray Bay until the first week in July.

It just occurs to me that I have covered all these different
periods of our lives without even mentioning Murray Bay,
although a large part of the Taft family has been spending
the summers there for twenty years or more. We went
there before the place became in any sense "fashionable,"
when the only kind of hotel accommodation was in quaint
old inns of the real French-Canadian type in which no Eng-
lish was spoken, but where service of such delightfully sim-
ple and satisfactory quality as can no longer be obtained was
smilingly offered at rates which would now be considered
absurdly low. After our first year in 1892 we always had
a cottage, — ^and cai going to Murray Bay we prepared to
enjoy ourselves in the luxury of complete simplicity.

The cottage which we have occupied for a number of years
is perched on a rocky headland overlooking the sixteen miles
wide stretch of the St. Lawrence river and almost entirely

308

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

hidden in a dense grove of fragrant pine trees. It is roomy
and cixnfortable, but simple as a camp in the woods, being
finished in unpainted pine and furnished with only such
things as may be locked up and left year in and year out.
There is nothing to tempt any possible robber, the only
distinctive things in the house being some Philippine curios,
wall decorations and floor mats, called "petates," which
we have brought with us at different times from Manila.

Mr. Taft stayed at Murray Bay about five weeks, but
during that time our cottage in the woods was the United
States War Department and headquarters of a very probable
Presidential candidate. Then, too, Mr. Taft was beset
with the nagging necessity for preparing speeches which
were really to launch his campaign for die nomination before
he left for the trip around the world. The campaign in
Ohio became centred and active during the summer, with
Mr. Taft far in the lead among possible candidates, and all
over the country organisations were forming which de-
manded whole-hearted and unremitting attention.

The busy man wrote to Mr. Roosevelt: "I am enjoy-
ing my vacation,'' but his vacation consisted in a release
from constant social formalities and a daily round of golf
on the links of the Murray Bay Club which he liked so much
and over which he had played for so many years, — ^nothing
more.

Early in August he left for Washington with the under-
standing that I should complete arrangements, and taking
Charlie with me, should meet him at the entrance of Yellow-
stone Park at the end of the month. In the meantime he
had one more long speech-making trip to begin at Columbus
on the 19th of August and to take him through Ohio, Ken-
tucky, Missouri, Oklahoma and to Denver.

His mother, to whom the whole family was strongly de-
voted, was at this time very ill. It did not seem possible
that she could be with us for long, and all of her sons wished

309

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

sincerely to be able to remain near her. One of them,
Horace, was able to do so, but when my husband declared to
her his desire to give up the trip to the Philippines and stay
in the United States until she recovered she said to him :

"No Taft, to my knowledge, has ever yet neglected a
public duty for the sake of gratifying a private desire. You
promised the Filipinos that you would be present at the
opening of their first Assembly, and if you should break that
promise and neglect your plain duty on my account, it would
give me no pleasure."

This was the last serious thing she ever said to him, and
it gave him great comfort throughout the long trip as the
reports of her failing strength came to him. He never saw
her again.

With my son Charlie, who was then nearly ten years old,
I met my husband and his party at Livingston Junction,
on the Northem Pacific Railroad in Montana, and we pro-
ceeded together to Gardiner at the entrance to Yellowstone
Park. There we were met by General Yoimg, the Superin-
tendent of the Park, and Colonel Henry T. Allen, and by the
head of the Park transportation company and began at once
a wonderful three days' trip, which included, among other
things, the business of inspecting the Army post with the
purpose of making recommendations for changes in the Park
patrolling system.

As our time was very short we had to drive about fifty
miles every day, which meant hurrying on at top speed, with
relays of Army mules, and not much more than a how-d'ye-do
and good-bye at every place we stopped. In consequence
we completely lost track of the days of the week and made
what I then thought would prove to be a fatal error.

We got back to the Mammoth Springs Hotel one evening
and found the place quite gay with crowds of tourists.
There being nothing else to do, I suggested that after din-
ner we play bridge in the lobby where all the people were

310

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

and where everything seemed so lively and entertaining.
We did* Mr. Taf t and I, General Clarence Edwards and
another member of our party sat there and played until quite
late, enjoying ourselves immensely. Everybody looked at
us, and I noticed a few persons taking special pains to pass
close enou^ for a really satisfactory inspection, but we were
used to being gazed at and paid no attention to it. It was
not until the next moming that every look that was cast
upon us assumed for me a special meaning. The next
moming was Monday !

Under any circumstances it would have shocked us some-
what to find that through forgetfulness we had played
bridge during a whole Sunday evening, but with Mr. Taft
generally recognised as a probable candidate for President,
our shock was merged into serious concem with regard to
the effect the story might have on the millions of good Sab-
batarians throughout the country. And there was no possi-
ble explanation that we could make. Playing cards was
bad enough, but to have forgotten Sunday altogether was a
great deal worse, so we were perfectly helpless. Up to the
day Mr. Taft was elected I looked for the story to rise up
and smite us. I had visions of glaring headlines: "Taft
Plays Cards on the Sabbath Day." Having been brought
up on strictly Sabbatarian principles myself, I knew what
good use could be made of the incident in the hands of our
political enemies. But we never heard a word from it, and
I have a warm regard for all those good people who failed to
avail themselves of such an opportimity for a bit of valua-
ble gossip. Or had they all forgotten it was Sunday, too?

On the way from Yellowstone Park to Seattle I had a
taste of real campaign work and always thereafter enjoyed
a full realisation of its difficulties. I got completely wom
out as a mere onlooker,, and as I saw Mr. Taft encountering
the throngs at every stopping place, speaking until his voice
was reduced to a hoarse whisper, and shaking hands until

311

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

he groaned with the ache of his muscles, my political en-
thusiasm waned slightly, thou^ temporarily, and I could
think of nothing to be more thankful for at the moment
than the fact that we were about to set out on a two weeks'
ocean voyage, beginning a three months' trip around the
world.

312

<5 4
5 " »
? 5 I

* h H

a o z

CHAPTER XV

A HURRIED TRIP AROUND THE WORLD

I HAVE not the space to give a detailed account of this trip
around the world. After a pleasant voyage on the steam-
ship Minnesota we were given in Japan the same warm wel-
come that we had always had there, and Mr. Taft and I
were entertained at the Shiba Detached Palace, one of the
Imperial residences. We lunched with the Einperor and
also with Prince Fushimi, and we met the admirals and the
generals who had won such distinction in the Russo-Japanese
War. These included Admiral Togo and Field Marshal
Prince Oyama. It was explained to Mr. Taft by the Court
Chamberlain that we were regarded as personal guests of
the Emperor. Marquis Saionji was then Premier, but
Prince Katsura, whom he had succeeded and who was our
old friend, was still powerful in the coimcils. Mr. Taft
held a number of interesting and useful interviews with these
statesmen of Japan, and also with the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Coimt Hayashi, and with Marquis Terauchi, the
Minister of War, who has now become Govemor of Korea.
He was able, from what they told him, to understand the
attitude of Japan toward the United States, and to feel con-
fident of her wish to remain in bonds of amity with us. At
a dinner in Tokyo, given by the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Mr. Taft made a speech in which he pointed out the absurd-
ity of a war between Japan and the United States, and
showed how the true interests of both nations required a
strengthening of the bonds of friendship between them.
This speech attracted much attention throughout the Orient
and was cabled back to the United States as an expression
of the Administration on the subject. The Japanese resi-
dents of Yokohama presented to Mr. Taft and me on this
visit a very hansdome silver tea set.

Our course took us by way of Shanghai and we stopped

313

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

there for just one busy day. In the morning Mr. Taft ded-
icated a Young Men's Christian Association building which
had just been constracted and to the cost of which a number
of Chinese Mandarins, though not Christians, had made sub-
stantial contribution. The afternoon was devoted to shop-
ping and to a most elaborate and picturesque reception and
tea which was given for us by the Chinese guilds of the city.
At this tea I was presented with a very curious and interest-
ing bowl of Chinese silver which is among my most valued
possessions. In the evening a great banquet was given by
the leading citizens of Shanghai at the Astor Hotel, where
provision was made for the ladies to hear the speaking from
a platform erected at one end of the room. Mr. Taft made
a speech on the subject of the relations of the United States
to the development of China, which was long remembered
as a succinct and forcible presentation of the policy of the
United States toward that country, then in an interesting
stage of its awakening from a long lethargy.

In Manila, at the formal opening of the first Assembly,
Mr. Taft laid down the purposes of the Administration in
the passage of the Philippine Act, plainly saying to the
Philippine people that independence was not near at hand,
and that it could only come after a period of earnest eflFort
on their part to fit themselves for complete self-government.
His candour and frankness did not please many of the As-
sembly, but his view has always been that the only way in
which to deal with the Filipino people is to tell them the
exact truth, unpalatable though it may be, and to fulfil
promises with the greatest care. Filipinos may be very lax
in discharging the full measure of their own assurances, but
the way to maintain influence over them is to pursue a policy
of clear and candid statement, full performance and exact
justice. They are prone to accept every declaration in the
same sense in which they would like to construe it, and the
utmost care must be taken to prevent their being misled.

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Demagc^ery with them is likely to be most pernicious in
its ultimate results.

During this visit we were the guests of Governor Gen-
eral Smith at Malacafian Palace and I experienced a pleasant
renewal of old impressions and sensations. Mr. W. Cam-
eron Forbes, who succeeded Govemor Smith, was then Sec-
retary of Commerce and Police and, in this capacity, was in
charge of Public Works. He had built for himself at
Baguio a fine country residence which he called "Topside,"
a name which fits it exactly, since it stands, literally, at the
"topside** of the island of Luzon, at an elevation of more
than five thousand feet, and overlooks the broadest and most
colourful stretch of moimtain scenery imaginable. We vis-
ited Mr. Forbes at "Topside" and were able to see for the
first time the splendid achievements in the development of
the summer capital which I anticipated in Chapter IX.
Mr. Taft assured an enthusiastic enquirer that he was not
surprised at the magnificence of the Benguet Road because
he had authorised the expenditure of a sufficient amount to
produce something tmusual, and that he would, indeed, have
been surprised if it hadn't been done. But he had to con-
fess to a little surprise at the improvement of the town of
Baguio. The difference was so great that it was almost
impossible to recognise the place as the site of the ragged
little Igorrote village where I had spent such pleasant and
"uncivilised" days just before my husband's inauguration
as the first gpvemor of the Philippines.

It would be useless for me to attempt to detail the thou-
sand and one events of this visit to Manila. Upon our
arrival we were handed a printed schedule of dinners,
luncheons, teas, receptions, balls, meetings, celebrations,
trips of inspection, and business conferences which we had
to do our best to carry out. Fortunately provision was
made for a few hours of rest which could be used for other
things when we got behind with the programme.

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

On a day in November, when blue Manila Bay lay spark-
ling in the sun, we set sail for Vladivostok on the U. S. S.
Rainbow^ flying the flag of Admiral Hemphill, and cchi-
voyed by two other naval vessels. The most amusing inci-
dent of this trip, which was quite a tempestuous one, was
the gradual freezing up of our Filipino orchestra. They
left Manila clad in natty white uniforms, responding with
enthusiasm to the strains of the many bands on shore and
on the fleet of harbor laimches which accompanied us down
the bay. They played for us at dinner that night and gave
a concert on deck the next day, but then began the rapid
descent of the mercury in the thermometers and the con-
sequent undoing of our tropical musicians. They first
changed into heavy blue uniforms and tried their best to
look comfortable. Then they put on their overcoats and
kept them on. Finally they deserted the deck altogether
and their rather disconnected strains came up to us throu^
a partly open hatch just over the engine room. When we
reached the forbidding harbour of Vladivostok, where the
temperature . stood below zero, the poor bugler was so thor-
oughly cold that he couldn't adjust his lips to his bugle to
pipe distinguished visitors aboard. Our party on this trip
around the world was small, including only my son Charlie,
Mr. Taft's secretary, Mr. Fred C. Carpenter, Greneral Clar-
ence R. Edwards, Mr. and Mrs. Martin Egan and two other
newspaper correspondents.

Shortly before we reached Vladivostok there had been a
mutiny on one of the torpedo boats in the harbour, and a
woman anarchist had induced the crew to take the boat out
into the stream and raise the red flag. This outbreak was
suppressed with a heavy hand, and a number of those sus-
pected of complicity in the plot were arrested. As the Grov-
emor had power of life and death over them it was assumed
that the extreme penalty was visited on some of them at

least, but no publicity was given to the proceedings. The

316

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

cflFect of the tragedy upon our arrival, however, was marked.
The town was in a most imquiet state and there were vague
rumours of danger to be met on every hand. We were not
permitted to go ashore without a heavy guard of bristling
Cossacks, and everywhere we went we were under the closest
and most careful protection. It was most exciting, though
in the midst of the cordial hospitality of our Russian hosts
we could not feel that there was the slightest cause for ap-
prehension. As soon as we dropped anchor in the harbour
we were welcomed to Vladivostok by the Governor and
Greneral Commanding. He assigned Prince Bariatinski,
Colonel of a regiment stationed at Vladivostok, to act as
Mr. Taft's aide during our stay, and from Saturday until
Tuesday he and the Princess, both of whom spoke English,
were with us constantly, adding much to our enjoyment.
Our visit concluded with a dinner and ball given by the Gov-
ernor, and the next morning we bade good-bye to the Rain'
bow and Admiral Hemphill and made our way, surrounded
by Cossack guards, to the railway station where the train
waited to start on its twelve days* trip across Siberia. The
government provided us with a large private car of the
armoured variety which contained a number of compart-
ments that were fully as spacious and comfortable as an
average steamship cabin and we settled ourselves in them
quite as we would have done on a trans-Pacific liner.

The trip across Siberia is exceedingly interesting. One
anticipates endless monotony, but only the landscape lacks
variety. For days together the train runs along through a
country which looks exactiy like South Dakota or Nebraska
and which is interesting only in its wonderful possibilities. '
It is one of the world's open spaces, imdeveloped but capable
of producing anything. I had always imagined Siberia as
a country filled with sadness and I expected it to depress
me, but it arouses no such feeling. We met trainload after
trainload of happy Russian colonists on their way to the

317

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

new settlements, and at all the well-built stations along the
way we saw a great number of sturdy peasant farmers and
their families who looked thoroughly comfortable and con-
tented. We whiled away the hours with bridge and books,
and, though the train never made more than two or three
stops a day, the time passed quickly. Throughout the
joumey our car was guarded by stalwart Russian soldiers in
most picturesque uniforms, stationed on both platforms, and
each time the train stopped this guard was changed with
considerable ceremony. Also at every station near an army
post Mr. Taft was greeted by the Commander of the Dis-
trict with strict military form, all of which added colour
and interest to the joumey.

Mr. Willard D. Straight, then United States Consul at
Mukden, met us at Vladivostok with plans for our reception
at Mukden. When we arrived there we were welcomed by
a company of Chinese soldiers dressed in the old Mongolian
custom, and by a squadron of Cossacks. We were hurried
in a carriage behind two fast trotting Orloff horses to a hotel
where all the consuls assembled greeted us with cakes, cham-
pagne and very short speeches. There was considerable ex-
citement among the consuls with regard to the toasts to be
drunk and the order of precedence in which the rulers of
the different countries were to be named, but Mr. Straight
was diplomatic enough to mention every proper name in
right order and the result was a round of congratulation and
merriment. In the meantime the leisurely and accommo-
dating train was waiting, so we hurried back to the station
at the terrific pace usual to the Russian with his beautiful
horses. No people not inherently fine could ever produce
the kind of horses one sees in Russia. And the Russians
love them. I can think of nothing more pleasing than the
picture of a great, shaggy, gruff-voiced Russian coachman on
the box of his carriage or droshky, gently urging his well-

318

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

kept horse on to his best speed in terms of endearaienL
*'On, Little Brother !" says he.

At Moscow we were right royally entertained by the Grov-
cmor-General of the city who did everything possible to
make our visit memorable. We arrived late Saturday night
and on Sunday the Kremlin was opened for our especial
benefit and we were given full opportunity to see every part
of that ancient and interesting home of Russian autocracy
with all its collections of priceless treasures. A hurried
round of entertainments, which included a special ballet
performance at the Opera, ended with a dinner given by the
Govemor-Greneral, and we left on the midnight train for St.
Petersburg. We had not been there more than an hour or
so the next morning when we received a telegram aimounc-
ing that a woman Nihilist had thrown a bomb at the Grov-
emor*s sleigh which had exploded under the horses, killing
them and the coachman and throwing the Governor and his
aide backward into the snow unharmed. As these gentle-
men had both been very kind to us it brought home in a
startling way the danger that attends high position in Russia.

In St. Petersburg we dined with the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, M. Iswolski and Madame Iswolski, and with them
received the Diplomatic Corps. Mr. Taf t and General Exi-
wards had an audience with the Czar and attended the
annual Saint's day celebration of a famous regiment num-
bering about 3,200, no man of which measures less than six
feet two. They were also present at a luncheon which the
Czar gave to the officers of this regiment at the Czar-Koe-
Selo Palace. In the Czar's suite there were two or three
gentlemen who remembered Mr. Taft's father as Minister
to Russia, so he very greatly enjoyed the experience of meet-
ing them.

Our visit was a hurried one, and after a stay of three days
we left for Berlin. Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Root were not

319

REOOLLECnONS OF FULL YEARS

dispoBtd to hart Mr. Taft risit anj of the courts of Europe
except at St. Petcisbing and that only for the pmposc of
coDTcying his grateful acknoirledginent of the courtesies
shown us in our kng trip across Siberia. Nor in the state
of his mother's healdi, idiich we knew to be precarious, was
he disposed to accept the inyitatiaos which he rccdved from
the German Emperor, the King of Bd^um, the President
of France and others, to visit their countries and became
their guesL At Berlin we had just time to dine with the
American Ambassador and ^frs. Tower, and to meet a few
American friends whom diey had invited in, then Mr. Taft
and the other members of the party went to Hamburg to
take the Steamship General Grant at that port, while I, with
Mrs. Post Wheeler, rushed down to Paris to do a few hours'
shopping, planning to join the Grant at Boulogne die next
evening. In the meantime a terrible storm began to rage
along the coast, and when we reached Boulogne there was
some question about our being able to get to the Grant
which lay at anchor just outside the breakwater. However,
we boarded the little tender and she started for the very wild
looking open channel. She had no sooner struck the heavy
seas before she had broken her rudder and was being buf-
feted about in a really terrifying manner. We managed in
some way to get back inside the breakwater where some re-
pairs were made, then we started out again. We repeated
this performance several times, listening meanwhile to gen-
erally voiced predictions that nothing on earth could save
us from going to the bottom, and, although it was only nine
o'clock in the evening when we boarded the little vessel, it
was four o'clock in the morning before she came alongside
the Grant and discharged her dilapidated and exhausted
passengers.

Mr. Taft had waited up for us and had seen the tender
come out of the harbour and go back, and, assuming from
what was told him that no attempt would be made to trans-

320

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

fer the passengers before morning, he went to bed. When
I got aboard the steamer, filled with excitement over the
dangers through which I had passed, and found him peace-
fully sleeping in his cabin, I declined to accept any explana-
tion. A French sub-prefect, who had been sent out by the
Minister of the Interior of France with greetings and com-
pliments, and who had come in his full regimentals with a
cocked hat, was waiting to see Mr. Taft and I was cruel
enough to insist that he should get up and receive him.
Throwing a long fur coat over his pajamas the Secretary of
War of the United States walked out into the salon to meet
the polite representative of the politest of peoples, but after
a grave exchange of formal salutations the situation proved
too much for their gravity. They burst out laughing at
each other, to the immense enjoyment of the bystanders, and
the gloom of the wee sma* hour was lifted.

When we touched at Plymouth that afternoon we re-
ceived a despatch announcing the death of Mr. Taft's
mother. The funeral took place in Cincinnati, at the home
of Mr. Charles Taft, several days before we could reach
New York.

On our retum to the United States we found that my
husband's rivals for the Republican nomination had been
making great headway. Mr. Roosevelt was quite impatient
at the loss of ground that Mr. Taft*s candidacy had suf-
fered and he urged him to take a more active interest in the
situation. He insisted that Mr. Taft should change the
subject of a speech which he had agreed to deliver in Boston
from the Philippine problem to a discussion of the financial
situation which was then acute after the depression which
had taken place during our absence. Mr. Roosevelt's
forcible expression was that the business and political public
had no more interest in the Philippines than in the subject
of "nature faking."

I cannot go into the details of the preliminary convention

321

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

fi^t. My husband's brother Charles devoted a full year to
it, established headquarters in Ohio and Washington, and
bore the brunt of the contest. The afternoon of the con-
vention when the voting came, we all assembled at my hus-
band's office in the War Department and received the news
over the telephone as it came in. I have a series of photo-
graphs, taken by a friend, of the expressions on my hus-
band's face as the results of the voting were being annoimced.
Soon after the nomination was made, on the first of July
Mr. Taf t resigned from the Cabinet, and we established our-
selves at Hot Springs, Virginia, where he spent some weeks
preparing his address of acceptance. This he submitted to
Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Root before he went to Cincinnati
to deliver it. Mr. Charles Taft made elaborate prepara-
tions to receive and entertain the Committee of Announce-
ment, and on a platform in front of his fine old house, in
Pike Street, on one of the hottest dajrs of the summer, my
husband delivered his acceptance. We then returned to
Hot Springs and spent another month in preparation for the
campaign. From Hot Springs we went to Middle Bass
Island on Lake Erie to spend a week or more there. We
then went to Cincinnati. Upon this latter trip Mr. Taft
made a good many speeches from the platfomi of our
car. In September Mr. Bryan's campaign looked very
hopeful. The opposition of Mr. Gompers and organ-
ised labour seemed formidable. Mr. Taft determined
to meet this issue fully and frankly. He was attacked
because he had delivered a number of labour decisions
supposed to be against the interest of labour. He -had
sent to jail, for six months, the chief lieutenant of Debs
in the Debs railway rebellion of 1894, breaking it up in
Cincinnati and the vicinity. He did not apologise in any
way for the action he had taken. A meeting of the railway
trade organisations was called in Chicago at Orchestra Hall,

and there he explained his action, defended it, and avowed

322

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

that were the same questions presented to him again, he
would do the same thing he had d(Mie, and that he had no
excuses to offer. Frcxn that point he made a long trip in
the West, upon which I did not accompany him. I re-
mained in Cincinnati with Mrs. Charles Taf t and my sister
Mrs. Anderson. It was the first political campaign in which
Mr. Taft was a candidate before the people. The reports
that came indicated that he had lost his voice, and I was
greatly concerned lest he mi^t break down in his strenuous
labours and new experience. The ups and downs of such
a campaign, the prophecies, the hopes, the fears aroused by
favourable and opposing newspapers were all new and try-
ing to me, and in a way I think I was imder as great a nerv-
ous strain as my husband was, without the steadying help
of the hardest kind of work. However as the campaign
drew near to a close, the Republican confidence grew
stronger and stronger, so when we were assembled finally
under the hospitable roof of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Taft,
with a company of friends to receive the dispatches on elec-
tion night, the news of the great success that came did not
surprise us.

323

CHAPTER XVI

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Shortly after my husband's election, having spent a
couple of restful weeks at Hot Springs, Virginia, we went
to Augusta, Georgia, and took the old house known as
the Terrett Cottage, near the Bon Air Hotel. To me the
weeks we spent there were exceptionally happy <Mies and I
should like to mention each friend — friends then and friends
still — who contributed to our constant enjoyment, but there
were too many of them and their kindnesses too numerous.

Mr. Taf t, of course, immediately became engrossed in the
difficulties of securing a Cabinet which would satisfy every-
body and disappoint none, — an impossibility, — ^as well as
a thousand and one other matters not connected in any way
with the daily games of golf on Augusta's sandy links
which attracted such wide attention. But even then my
own problems became to me paramount and I began to ^ve
them my almost undivided attention and, to neglect the
political affairs which had for many years interested me so
intensely. Perhaps with my husband safely elected I con-
sidered all important affairs satisfactorily settled. At any
rate I found little time or inclination at the moment to worry
about who should have the high offices in the new President's
gift, or what policies should be pursued during his adminis-
tration.

At my request Captain Archibald Butt came down to
Augusta to consult with me as to changes I wished to make
in the White House service, and together we went over the
whole situation. As President Roosevelt^s aide he knew the
whole lexicon of customary White House social fomialities.

I had been a member of Washington's official family for
five years and knew as well as need be the various phases
of the position I was about to assume, so my plans were

324

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

not so difficult to put into form, however difficult I may have
found them to put into execution.

We made a trip to Panama in February before the Inau-
guration and did not reach Washington until the end of the
month when we went to stay with our friends, Mr. and Mrs.
William J. Boardman, and their daughter, Miss Mabel
Boardman, at their residence on Dupont Circle. We spent
with them a busy week as the recipients of varied and de-
lightful hospitality, which was terminated by a splendid
reception in our honour on the evening of the second of
March.

Captain Butt, who was to be continued as aide to Presi-
dent Taf t, called on me at oace upon my arrival in Wash-
ington to assure me that my instructions had been carried
out and that the new regime, fully organised, would go
into effect at the White House on the morning of March
fifth.

Some time before the Inauguration, indeed shortly after
Mr. Taft's election. President Roosevelt expressed a desire
that we should dine with him and Mrs. Roosevelt on the
evening of the third of March and spend that night in the
White House as their guests. This was breaking a prece-
dent, but it was Mr. Roosevelt's plan for bidding us a warm
welcome to the post which he was about to vacate, and my
husband accepted with grateful appreciation. My impres-
sion is that neither Mrs. Roosevelt nor I would have sug-
gested such an arrangement for this particular evening, but,
it having been made for us, we naturally acquiesced.

The third of March, a stormy day, was filled with innu-
merable minor engagements and small incidents, with in-
structions and counter-instructions and, especially, with
weather predictions and counter-predictions, so it was not
until shortly before eight o'clock that Mr. Taf t and I, hav-
ing dressed for dinner, arrived at the White House. The
other guests at the dinner were Senator and Mrs. Lodge,

3^5

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Senator and Mrs. Root, Admiral and Mrs.'Cb^es, Mr. and
Mrs. Nicholas Longworth and Miss Mabel Boardman.

Now there is always bound to be a sadness about the end
of an administration, no matter how voluntarily the retiring
President may leave office, no matter how welcome the new
President and his family may be. Mrs. Roosevelt seemed
depressed, not, I am sure, over the prospect of leaving the
White House, — Presidents' wives are always given plenty
of time to prepare themselves for that event, — ^but for other
reasons which one easily could surmise. Her husband and
son were about to start for a long and, possibly, dangerous
trip into the jungles of Africa, and she was looking forward
to a year of anxiety. She was leaving a full and busy life ;
she had occupied her high position for nearly eight years,
during which she had made a host of friends, and a great
number of them had called during the afternoon to say fare-
well and to express their deep regret at her departure. I
knew all of these things, realised their depressing effect and
sympathised with her deeply. The President and Mr. Taf t,
seconded by other guests, did their best with stories and con-
versation, made as general as possible, to lighten the occa-
si(Hi, but their efforts was not entirely successful.

As my husband had an engagement to attend a "smoker**
which was being given to him at the New Willard Hotel
by a large gathering of Yale men, the party broke up very
early and, as soon as the last of the guests had gone, I went
immediately to my rooms. We had been assigned to the
suite in the southeast comer, known in the White House as
the Blue BedroOTi.

This Blue Bedroom gave me food for interesting reflec-
tion. Conspicuous, under the mantel against the side wall,
I found, on a bronze plate, the following inscription (which
I read as I struggled with my hooks) : "In this room Abra-
ham Lincoln signed the Eknancipation Proclamation of Jan-
uary 1, 1863, whereby four million slaves were given their

326

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

freedom and slavery forever prohibited in these United
States." It is only a state bedroom now, having been made
so by the plans of the McKim restoration which was accom-
plished during the Roosevelt administration, but it was once
Lincoln's Cabinet room, a room in which he lived through
many terrible days during the Civil Wan It seemed strange
to spend my first night in the White House surrounded by
such ghosts.

I went to bed reasonably early, hoping that I might have a
good, long sleep and get up refreshed and ready for an event-
ful day. But the press of circumstances was against me.
My mind was never more wide awake. In spite of my deter-
mination to rest, I went carefully over the whole Inaugural
programme. I wondered if this had been done, if that had
been attended to. I worried over many petty details with
which I had no reason to be concemed. I suppose I must
have been excited, a condition quite rare with me, but then,
too, the weather had something to do with it. Never was
seen such a night in Washington. It will be remembered
that Mr. Moore, the Chief of the Weather Bureau, had
prophesied that the storm of the third would pass and that
the Fourth of March would dawn as clear and bright as any
Inaugural Committee could wish. He made himself very
popular with the anxious officials, who were expending their
ener^es in the preparation of a fair weather programme, but
his popularity was short lived. He afterward learnedly ex-
plained that some wholly unprecedented thing had hap-
pened in the wind currents, causing a "flareback" — ^what-
ever that may be. It was a memorable "flareback" in any
event, not to be forgotten by those who were so seriously in-
convenienced by its results.

After I had fallen asleep in the early morning hours, think-
ing— ^with faith in the prophet — to wake up and find a smil-
ing world, I was roused by loud, crackling reports which
seemed to be in the immediate vicinity of my windows. I

327

^ I

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

got up and looked out. It was li^t enough for me to see
that the world was ice-bound and that the storm, instead of
abating, had increased in violence. The crackling I had
heard was the noise of twigs and tree limbs breaking with
the weight of the ice which encased them. It didn't look
hopeful for the Inaugural Ceremonies, and I had a ludicrous
vision of a haughty, gold-laced parade sliding, rather than
marching with measured precision, down Pennsylvania Ave-
nue, striving to maintain its dignity while it spasmodically
lost its footing. But mine was rueful mirth.

In the morning Mr. Taft found President Roosevelt in
the great hall below, genially alerL

"Well, Will," he exclaimed, "the storm will soon be over.
It isn't a regular storm. It's nature's echo of Senator Rain-
er's denunciations of me. As soon as I am out where I can
do no further harm to the Constitution it will cease."

"You're wrong," said Will; "it is my storm. I always
said it would be a cold day when I got to be President of the
United States."

It was really very serious. Railroad and telegraphic
communications were paralysed all along the Atlantic Coast.
Wires were down \n every direction and traffic of all kinds
was at a practical standstill. Thousands of people, on their
way to Washington for the Inauguration, were tied up at
points outside the city and it was impossible for awhile even
to get a telegram in or out. However, Inaugurations do
not wait for fair weather and the programme had to pro-
ceed.

About half past ten I saw the President and the President-
elect, in a closed carriage, accompanied by Senators Knox
and Bacon of the Inaugural Committee, and a brilliant
mounted escort, start on their slippery way toward the Capi-
tol. The Inauguration ceremonies would not take place
until twelve o'clock, but there were a number of bills wait-
ing for the signature of Mr. Roosevelt, and it was necessary

3^8

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

for him to go early to the ofBce of the President at the Capitol
to attend to this and other final business details.

Before they left the White House it had not yet been
decided whether or not the Inauguration would take place
out of doors. Mr. Taft regretted exceedingly the necessity
for disappointing thousands of people, but at the same time
he recognised the danger of exposing the crowds to the wet
and penetrating cold, and he considered, especially, the im-
possibility of asking Chief Justice Fuller, who was then
over seventy years old and very frail, to brave a blizzard,
even for the purpose of administering a Presidential oath.
However, he decided to wait until the weather had given
its ultimate indication before changing the programme. He
said afterward that as he drove to the Capitol there were
many brave citizens in the streets who gave voice to as hearty
cheers as could possibly be expected under the circumstances.

I was being taken care of by Captain Archibald Butt, so I
had nothing except the weather to worry about. With a
last hopeless look out of doors I proceeded to don my In-
auguration finery, feeling duly thankful that it was not too
springlike in its character. The newspapers say I wore a
purple satin suit, and a small hat trimmed with gold lace
and a high white aigrette. This is as good a description as
any, though it might have been more flattering, considering
the importance I attached to the subject. I remember the
hat perfectly. The aigrette was not quite as high as it
started out to be. It had nearly met an imtimely end at a
reception the day before where it collided with a lighted
gas-jet. Fortunately it was put out before it was greatly
damaged, but it had to be trimmed down some, and I im-
agined that it exuded a faint odour of burning feathers.

At least two years before the election, when no one could
anticipate who would be the next President, President Roose-
velt had announced at a Cabinet meeting that he did not in-
tend to ride back to the White House with his successor. It

3^9

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

was a precedent which he did not like and which he desired
to break. Mrs. Roosevelt went, with her family and
friends, directly from the White House to the station to
wait for her husband to join her after the Inauguration.
It was about half past eleven when Captain Butt and I
started in a limousine for the Capitol where we arrived to
find the "scene set'* for the ceremonies in the Senate Cham-
ber.

Our children were already in the gallery, waiting eagerly.
It was an event in their young lives never to be forgotten,
and I believe that Robert and Helen were in properly re-
ceptive moods. My son Charlie, however, seems not to
have been so confident. Charlie is a great lover of adven-
ture stories and it is a favourite tradition in the family now
that he carried with him to the Senate Chamber a copy of
"Treasure Island" with which to while away the time in
case the Inaugural address should prove too long. Charlie
was only eleven years old and I consider it a great tribute
to his father's eloquence that "Treasure Island" was not
opened that day.

This Inauguration was said to be, by persons who had
seen many, one of the most impressive ceremonies that ever
opened the administration of a President. The oath of
office is usually administered and the Inaugural address de-
livered from a large platform erected in front of the Capi-
tol before which ten thousand people can assemble. But
the ten thousand people are sure to have been waiting in
a massed crowd for an hour or more ; they are always tired
and uncomfortable, so when they finally discover that few
of them can really hear anything, and that they have seen
all there is to be seen, they begin to move about and talk,
the noise and agitation greatly detracting from the impres-
siveness of the ceremony. Because my husband's Inaugura-
tion took place in the Senate Chamber it was no less "in
the sight of all the people." There was room on the floor

330

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

of the Chamber for the whole official personnel of the Gov-
ernment of the United States, resident in Washington.
There were the retiring President and his Cabinet, the Jus-
tices of the Supreme Court in their robes of office, the Sen-
ate and the House of Representatives, besides the foreign
Ambassadors and the wholf Diplomatic Corps in their bril-
liant uniforms, while the galleries were crowded with offi-
cial families and a substantial number of unofficial audi-
tors.

It was a great presence; and the taking of the oath and
the delivering of the Inaugural address before assembled
national authority and the world's representatives, in a sol-
cnm silence in which every word could be heard, left a deep
impression.

As soon as Mr. Taft had finished speaking Mr. Roose-
velt walked rapidly up, and giving his hand a mighty grasp,
said something which sounded like ''Bully speech, old
man!" and hurried out of the Chamber accompanied by
members of his Cabinet who were to see him off at the
station. My husband told me afterward that what he
really said was: "God bless you, old man. It is a great
state document.*'

Since the ex-President was not going to ride back to the
White House with his successor, I decided that I would.
No President's wife had ever done it before, but as long as
precedents were being disregarded I thought it might not
be too great a risk for me to disregard this one. Of course,
there was objection. Some of the Inaugural Committee
expressed their disapproval, but I had my way and in spite
of protests took my place at my husband's side.

By the time the Inauguration ceremonies were concluded
the skies had cleared and the sun had come out. Mr. Taft
left the Senate Chamber with the Ccxnmittee, followed by
the assembled dignitaries in the order of precedence. With
Captain Butt I hurried from the gallery and joined

331

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

him in the great hall iinder the Dome, on his way to the
platforai on the North Side where the Inauguration would
have taken place but for the weather. In front of the
temporary structure many people had gathered, and as
we descended to the front they called for the new President.
In response he stepped to the platforai where the Inaugural
oath was to have been administered, and bowed repeatedly.

A platoon of mounted Police and our escort, the Cleve-
land City Troop, with their elaborate and beautiful uni-
forms somewhat bedra^led by the morning's sleet and
mud, met us at the steps leading down from the platform.
We entered the official coach and four and were slowly
driven down through the Capitol groimds to Pennsylvania
Avenue, and thence to the White House. As I have said,
the clouds had rolled by; the day was cold but bri^t; the
expected and expectant crowds were thronging the side-
walks and filling the stands, and our greeting from them
was all that my fancy had pictured it.

For me that drive was the proudest and happiest event
of Inauguration Day. Perhaps I had a little secret elation
in thinking that I was doing something which no woman
had ever done before. I forgot the anxieties of the pre-
ceding night; the consternation caused by the fearful
weather; and every trouble seemed swept aside. My re-
sponsibilities had not yet begun to worry me, and I was able
to enjoy, almost to the full, the realisation that my hus-
band was actually President of the United States and that
it was this fact which the cheering crowds were acclaiming.

There was nobody at the White House to bid us wel-
come except the official staflF and some of our own guests.
But it didn't matter. There is never any ceremony about
moving into the White House. You just. drive. up and
walk in, — and there you are. The aides and ushers who
greeted us at the entrance, treated our occupation of our
new residence so much as a matter of course that I could not

332

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

help but feel something as Cinderella must have felt when
her mice footmen bowed her into her coach and four and
behaved just as if they had conducted her to a Court Ball
every night of her life. I stood for a moment over the
great brass seal, bearing the national coat-of-arms, which is
sunk in the floor in the middle of the entrance hall. "The
Seal of the President of the United States," I read around
the border, and now — that meant my husband !

But I could not linger long because my duties as a hostess
began at once. I was not unused to die accepted regula-
tions of official life, so, in spite of a sli^t feeling that the
whole thing was unreal, I was not embarrassed as I walked
into the great dining-room and took my place by the door
to receive guests for the first time as mistress of the White
House.

I had left to the efficient management of Captain Archi-
bald Butt as many of the details of the dajr's progranune as
was possible. Some time before I had carefully gone over
the. plans with him, we had provided for any reasonable
emergency, and I knew my instructions would be carried
out. Captain Butt — ^later Major Butt — ^had been military-
aide to President Roosevelt; we had known him well, both
in the Philippines and in Washington, and we were glad to
have the opportunity of continuing him in that capacity.
Whatever Major Butt did was done faultlessly — alwajrs.
During the three years he was with us — day in and day out,
upon every possible occasion, in the closest intimacy — ^I
never ceased to wonder at his genius for work, his compre-
hensive grasp of important matters and of small details,
his extraordinary accuracy. His very presence inspired the
utmost confidence. Archie Butt, as everybody called him,
became our close and dearly loved friend. Indeed, we felt
that he belonged to us, and nothing in all our experience
ever touched us as deeply as the tragedy of his death. Re-
turning from a short vacation abroad, he went down on the

333

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Titanic^ facing death like a soldier, after the lives of nearly
all the women and children had been saved.

We had invited a large number of people to the usual
Inaugural luncheon. The cook and several of the staflE
of servants were to accompany Mrs. Roosevelt to Oyster
Bay, but they remained until the afternoon of the Fourth
when the staff I had engaged were installed. There are a
few old, official servants who remain in the house from one
administration to another, keeping in operation an uninter-
rupted household routine, so there was no reason why the
Inaugural luncheon should not be carried through with the
same smoothness and despatch to be expected on ordinary
occasions. But again we reckoned without the weather.
The difficulties of traffic, added to the crush on the avenues,
made it impossible for our guests to arrive on time and they
continued to straggle in throughout the whole aftemoon,
each one wishing to apologise in person and make special
explanation. This, of course, made anything like system-
atic reception out of the question and the result was that the
luncheon really ran into and became a part of the tea for
my husband's classmates of Yale, which was scheduled for
five o'clock. There was some confusion, but much good-
will and frank enjoyment and the fact that the President
was not there to receive his classmates caused nothing more
than a few repetitions of, by that time, familiar comments
on the elements.

Mr. Taft was reviewing the Inaugural Parade and the
last of it did not pass the reviewing stand until after night-
fall. He came in, however, in time to exchange greetings
with old-time, enthusiastic friends, the members of the Yale
class of '78, and to hold them longer than they had intended
to remain. When the last of them had wished us God-
speed and said good-bye, we stood, the five of us, — my hus-
band, my three children and I, — ^alone in the big state din-
ing-room, and tried tb realise that, for the first time, the

334

PRIVATE DINING-ROOM OF THE WHITE HOUSE, AND THE
FAMILY SITT]\(;-R(M)M AT THE END OF THE LONG
UI'STAIRS CORRIDOR

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

White House was really our Home. The great walnut-
panelled room, with its silvered chandeliers and big moose
heads, seemed very empty with only the Taft family in it,
after all the clatter and chatter that had been soimding
there all day. We gazed at each other for a moment, with
slightly lost expressions on our faces, and then nature as-
serted herself in the new President.

"Let's go up stairs, my dears, and sit downT said he.

Poor man, he had not experienced the blissful sensation
of sitting down since early that morning; so we proceeded
out to the elevator, which Charlie, true to his boy nature,
had, of course, already learned to operate. For once, I am
glad to say, it did not stick between floors. This was a
habit to which it became addicted in later days, a habit it
was sure to indulge on occasions when the President prou^^|
used it for taking a large party of men upstairs after din^flF
But this time he was able, without delay, to reach the best
easy-chair in the sitting-room where he remained until I
prodded him once more into activity by reminding him that
he must get into evening clothes else the Inaugural Ball
could not take place.

Not having been taxed so greatly, I was not yet ready to
succumb to fatigue ; besides I was now eager to roam around
the house, to familiarise myself with the mysteries of my
new home and to plan the assignment of rooms among vari-
ous members of the family who were to come to us that very
night.

The second story of die White House, where all the fam-
ily living rooms are, corresponds in spaciousness with the
floor below, which, with its broad hall, its great East Room,
its large reception rooms and state dining room, is familiar
to the public. Upstairs there is a very wide hall running
the entire length of the building. The rooms occupied by
the President and his wife are in the south-west comer and
at that end of the house the hall is partially partitioned and

335

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

screened off and pleasantly furnished with desks, sofas and
easy-chairs to make a fairly large and very private family
sitting-room. It was here that I left my tired husband
while I went on my first tour of exploration.

At each of the four comers of the house there is a suite ;
all arranged on the same plan, exactly alike, except as
to decoration. Each consists of an exceedingly large bed-
room with a spacious bath, and a smaller room adjoining
which may be used as a bedroom or dressing-room. I
went first into the large bedroom which my husband and
I expected to occupy. The windows of this room look out
on the White House gardens where the large fountain plays,
and, beyond, on the Washington Monument, the Potomac
River and the distant Virginia hills. This, I think, is the
t glorious vista in Washington, which is a city of splen-
vistas, and seeing it that March night by the long line
of lights which stretch across the Potomac bridge and meet
the lights of Arlington, it was, indeed, inspiring.

The room was the room where Lincoln slept, indeed,
where every President since Jackson has slept. A tablet
under the mantel states this fact. It is the room which
must necessarily have more intimate and personal associa-
tion with the men who have occupied the White House
than any other. Other parts of the house have been the
scenes of great historic events and of magnificent hospitality,
but here, one after another, the Presidents of the United
States have really lived and been at home.

Its furnishings have, undoubtedly, been changed many
times and yet I found it to contain many old and interest-
ing pieces. The most striking object in the room was an
enormous four-poster bed with a great curved canopy of
wood, decorated with carved and gilded eagles and uphold-
ing heavy draperies of blue and white brocade. In this
bed, we had been told, the Prince of Wales slept when he
visited this country in i860, but on the first night I dis-

336

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

covered that, whatever its historic interest, I did not like it
as a bed to sleep in. I soon replaced it with Vwo smaller
mahogany beds and I dispensed altogether with the drap-
eries. There were canopies of the same gilded eagles over
the windows, and the curtains suspended from them, as
well as the upholstery of the sofa and chairs, were of the
same blue and white brocade. Some of the furniture was
colonial, some Victorian. The colonial furniture in the
White House is very good and there is quite a lot of it in
all the bedrooms, but many of the bureaus and wardrobes
are of the scarcely-to-be-called beautiful style of the Vic-
torian era. I secured for our room, later on, the beds, a
dressing-table and some chairs, all colonial. These were
about the only pieces of furniture I bought for the White
House. I also substituted heavy chintz for the broca^^
draperies and upholstery, and did away with the canopraP
entirely, as they seemed to me to be too heavy for a sleeping
room. The small room in the comer of our suite Mr. Taf t
used for a dressing-room.

The correspiMiding suite across the hall I gave to Helen,
my daughter. It had been occupied by both of the Misses
Roosevelt and before them, I believe, by Mrs. McKinley.
It had been fitted up in pretty flowered chintz for Miss Ethel
Roosevelt, after Miss Alice had married, and we left it
imchanged.

I strolled down the hall, which contains only a large table
and a few portraits of Presidents for whidh there is no
wall space down stairs, and looked into the Library which
is exactly in the center of the house on the south side. It
is oval like the Blue Drawing Room beneath it and it is
a little dark in the daytime, being shaded by the roof of
the south portico. This was Mrs. Roosevelt's favourite
room and it had been fitted most charmingly with many of
her own belongings, but as they were now gone and my own
had not yet been moved in, it looked rather bare. The

337

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

furniture had not been upholstered for many years and
it was a little shabby. Later on I had it all recovered
and the walls of the room retinted, and when I had put in
some of the Oriental tapestries and handsome pieces of
furniture which I had brought with me from the Far East
it made a very beautiful and livable room. We used it
a great deal, especially when there were guests, but for the
family the sitting-room at the end of the hall was always
the favourite gathering place.

Opposite the Library a short corridor extends to the win-
dow imder the roof of the front portico and on each side
of this doors open into smaller bedrooms; smaller, that is,
in comparison with the four large ones. Even these would
be considered large in an ordinary house. One of them I

igned to the housekeeper and die other to my two sons.

e boys' room was rather dark, with its windows directly
under the roof of the portico; and it was furnished, more-
over, in dark red, a colour which does not add light to gloom-
iness, but the boys got it because they were the members of
the family who would care the least and who would be the
most away.

The great staircase descends from the central hall just
beyond these rooms and facing the staircase is the President's
Study. The eastern end of the building was all used as
offices until the new offices were built and the house restored
in accordance with the original plan. The Presidents with
large families must, indeed, have been in an uncomfortable
situation when they had to confine themselves to the rooms
in the west end, the only rooms then available for living
purposes. The facts are that such families found the house
to be less commodious than a "five-room flat," as the wife of
one President expressed it. I believe the Roosevelts, imtil
the house was remodelled, were unable to accommodate one
guest.

There is a story that when Prince Henry of Prussia was in

338

TWO WHITK HOUSE H1;DR(H>MS SHOWING prXK OI.U COLONIAL BEWS

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Washingtoxi, President Roosevelt invited him to ride. The
Prince accepted and just before the appointed hour appeared
at the White House in his street clothes, accompanied by a
valet bearing his riding clothes. He had very naturally
expected to change at the White House, but it happened
that on that day there was not one room that could even be
prepared for a Royal dressing-room, so the President was
compelled to request His Hi^mess to return to the German
Embassy to change. I believe this incident had the effect
of hastening the deliberations of the members of the Ap-
propriations Committee of the House who were then lei-
surely figuring on the amount necessary for the restora-
tion.

Senator McMillan, who was at the head of the Dis-
trict Committee in the Senate, and who, in his lifetime
was the leading spirit in the improvement of Washington,
in the revival of the L' Enfant plan, and in the creation of a
Commission of Fine Arts to pass upon contemplated struc-
tures and changes, conferred with Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt
and with Senator Allison of the Appropriations Committee,
and by an amendment in the Senate, in the spring of 1902,
to which Speaker Cannon and the House Appropriations
Committee assented, the necessary funds for this restoration
were eventually provided and, most fortunately, the whole
work was committed to Mr. James McKim, of McKim,
Meade and White, who, among all the architectural monu-
ments to his genius which he left, left no greater evidence
of his mastery of his art than this. He added the grace-
fully beautiful terraces on either side, equipf)ed with electric
light standards, and in accord, really, with the original plan
of the house, and utilised them in a most ingenious way.
He made of the one on the west a very dignified and con-
venient approach, through the basement, for large companies
attending state entertainments. Cloak stands for the ac-
commodation of thousands were fitted into each side of this

339

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

passageway and guests now are able to dispose of their wraps
and proceed to the staircase leading up to the main hall on
the first floor without the sli^test interruption or discom-
fort-

The ample and airy space beneath the high portico on the
south side was used for domestic ofSces and servants' quar-
ters, thus greatly increasing the capacity of the house, and
the construction of the very convenient executive office
building, reached by a covered, or cloistered passage from
the White House basement, was carried out on lines so like
in style and appearance to the north portico, so low and
classically simple, that it detracts nothing from the general
effect and interferes in no way with the dignified outlines
of the home of the Nation's Chief Magistrate.

During the reconstruction the President and Mrs. Roose-
velt lived either at Oyster Bay or in a house a few steps
from the White House on Lafayette Square. Mr. McKim
frequently consulted Mrs. Roosevelt as to interior changes
and many of her views were adopted, so that the woman's
side of the new White House was well looked after.

The work took longer and cost more than was expected
and this elicited much criticism of the architect as well as of
the architectural result. His aim had been to make as little
outward change in the main lines as possible and yet to make
as great a change as space would permit in interior accom-
modation. Considering what he had to accomplish his suc-
cess was remarkable. But the Philistines among the Con-
gressmen and Senators, who don't like architects anyway,
found much to complain of. In their daily visits to the
President they did not, by Mr. McKim's plan, reach him
through the historic front entrance, supported by the great,
white pillars, but they were relegated to a business office,
simply and conveniently equipped, and it offended the sense
of due proportion of some of them as to who were the real
power in the government, the legislative representatives

340

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

calling on business or the social guests of the President.

But now, after all the ignorance, ill-feeling and prejudice
displayed in the most unjust attacks upon Mr. McKim, those
whose judgment is worth anything, and that includes the
whole body of the people of the United States, rejoice in
their hearts that the greatest of American architects was
given a free hand to adapt to modem needs, but also to pre-
serve in its dignity and beauty, this most appropriate offi-
cial home of the Head of the Republic.

These observations may not be in place just here, but they
occurred to me on the first evening of my occupancy of the
White House, and I congratulated myself that I was to en-
joy the results of that successful reconstruction of what had
been a most uncomfortable mansion.

The President's Study, as it is now called, is the only
room of the old Executive offices which has not been changed
into a sleeping room. It is now the President's more per-
sonal office where he can receive callers more privately than
in the new office building. A small bronze tablet under the
mantel tells, in simple words, the history of the room.
Here all the Presidents since Johnson held their Cabinet
meetings, and here the Protocol suspending hostilities with
Spain was signed in McKinley's administration. A picture
of that event, painted by Chartran, hangs in the room and
conveys a remarkably vivid impression of the men who had
a part in it. The faces of President McKinley, of Justice
Day, who was then Secretary of State, and of M. Cambon,
the French Ambassador, are especially striking. This room,
in which there had been a great many personal mementos
gathered by Mr. Roosevelt in his interesting career, also
looked, after their removal, rather bare on that evening of
my first inspection and, save for the pictures and the tablet,
had little in its character to make real in one's mind the great
events that it had witnessed. Yet, as I roamed around that
evening, the whole house was haunted for me by memories

341

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

of the great mca and the channing women whose most thril-
ling moments, perhaps, had been spent under its roof, and
I was unable to feel that such a commonplace person as I
had any real place there. This feeling passed, however, for
though I was always conscious of the diaracter which a cen-
tury of history had impressed upon the White House, it
came, nevertheless, to feel as much like home as any house
I have ever occupied. That Study, which seemed at the
moment so much a part of American history and so little
even a temporary possession of the Taft family, was later
hung with amusing cartoons illustrative of events in Mr.
Taf t's career, with photographs of his friends, and with what
are called at Yale *'memorabilicf^ of his varied experiences,
and it became, in time, for us all, peculiarly his room.

The Blue Bedroom, where we had slept the night before
as guests of the Roosevelts, belongs to one of the four cor-
ner suites and I planned to give it to my sister Eleanor, Mrs.
Louis More, and her husband, while the smaller room in die
same suite I assigned to Miss Torrey, our Aunt Delia — and
during our administration apparently the coimtry's "Aimt
Delia." She had been staying with us at the Boardmans'
and was probably enjoying the Inauguration of her nephew
more than anyone in Washington. The last of the suites,
which was exactly like the blue suite except that it was hung
in pink brocade, I gave to my husband's sister and brother-
in-law. Dr. and Mrs. Edwards of San Diego.

When I had finished my explorations and arrangements
I glanced at the clock in the Pink Room and discovered that
I had no time to lose before beginning that important toilet
which would make me ready for the Inaugural Ball, the
last, but not the least of the Inaugural functions.

I hurried to my room and foimd the hairdresser waiting
for me. I sat down widi a feeling of great comfort and
submitted myself with hopeful patience to her ministra-
tions. But die was so overcome by the greatness of the oc-

34^

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

casion that, although she was quite accustomed to the idio-
syncrasies of my hair, she was not able to make it "go ri^t"
until she had put it up and taken it down twice, and even
then it was not as perfectly done as I had fondly hoped it
would be. I believe this hairdressing process made me more
nervous than anything else in the whole course of the day.

While it was going on, my new gown lay glittering on
the bed, where the maid had placed it, and I was very anx-
ious to get into it. It had given me several dajrs of awful
worry. It was made in New York and the dressmaker had
promised that I should have it at least a week before it
was needed so that any necessary changes could easily be
made. But day after day went by and no dress, — ^the third
of March arrived and then I began, frantically, to telegraph.
I finally received the reassuring advice that the dress was
on its way in the hands of a special messenger, but the spe-
cial messenger was, with many other people, held up for
hours by the blizzard and did not arrive at the Boardmans'
until after I had left for the White House, wondering, dis-
consolately, what on earth I should wear to the Inaugural
Ball if it happened that the messenger couldn't get there at
all. The suspense had been fearful and it was a com-
fortable relief to see the gown all spread out and waiting
for me.

It was made of heavy white satin which I had sent to
Tokyo to have embroidered, and the people who did the
work surely knew their art. A pattem of golden-rod was
outlined by a silver thread and cleverly fitted into the long
lines of the gown, and no other trimming had been used
except some lace with which the low-cut bodice was finished.
It fitted me admirably and I hoped that, in spite of all the
mishaps in my preparations, I looked my best as I descended
from the White House automobile at the entrance of the
Pension Office.

The Pension Office was not built for balls, Inaugural or

343

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

ocfaerwise, and oq the evening of Marcfa Foarth, 1909, after
a day of melting sleet and snow, the entrance was not espe-
cially inviting. Neither was the dressing-room which had
been assigned to me. I suppose that for years it had rung
with the ceaseless click of scores of typewriters and that its
walls had beheld no more elaborate costume than a business
blouse and skirt since the occasion of the last Inaugural
Ball which had marked the beginning of the second Roose^
velt administration four years before. But as I needed to
do very little "prinking** it really didn't matter and I quickly
rejoined the President and proceeded, on his arm, to the
Presidential Box, this being a anall round gallery above
the main entrance of the great ballroom which is itself, in
everyday life, the principal workroom of the Pension Office.

A brilliant, an almost kaleidoscopic scene spread before
us. The hall is of tremendous proportions, pillared with
red marble and with walls tinted in the same colour. Every
inch of floor space seemed to be occupied. The bright
colours and the gleam of women's gowns met and clashed,
or harmonised with the brighter colours of diplomatic uni-
forms. Officers of the Army and Navy, in full regalia,
mingled with the hundreds of men in the plain black of for-
mal evening dress. It was a w(xiderful glittering throng,
more magnificent than any I have ever seen. It was not
possible to distinguish individuals except in the space di-
rectiy below the box, but there, as I looked down, I saw
a great semi-circle of faces — thousands, it seemed to me —
smilingly upturned toward us. The din of human voices
was terrific ; even the loudest band procurable had difficulty
in making itself heard. But the scene was so gay in colour,
and the faces that gazed up at us were so friendly and happy
that I felt elated and not at all overwhelmed.

The first person whom my eyes rested upon in the box
was Aunt Delia, already installed in a chair near the back
and drinking in the scene with visible pleasure. Aunt

344

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Delia, at that time, was eighty-three years old, but not for
anything would she have missed one feature of this crown-
ing day of her life. Having no children of her own, she
had for many years given the greater part of her thought and
interest to her nephews and nieces, and she followed every
step in my husband's career with an absorption, not to say
an excitement, as great as my own. All day long she had
travelled from ceremony to ceremony, conducted by Lieu-
tenant Reed, one of the Naval aides. She would arrive,
leaning on his arm, among the first at each appointed place,
ready and eager for any new event. She didn't miss even
the late supper of birds, salads and ices which was served to
us later that night, before we left the Ball. And now she
sat in the Presidents Box, her soft, white hair arranged by
the best hairdresser, gowned in rich, old-fashioned, black
velvet, adorned with all the good old lace which she had
been treasuring for years for an occasion justifying its dis-
play.

The Vice-President and Mrs. Sherman arrived shortly
after we did and shared the box with us. They also had
with them a large family party and were both so jolly and
so much in the festive spirit that formality disappeared.
Many friends and officials of distinction came, in the course
of the evening, to pay their respects; and members of our
own family came and went at intervals as they were inclined.

I may as well say here that my husband and I both came
from such large families that all Washingtoxi, at the time
of the Inauguration, seemed filled with our near and dear
relatives. Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Taft took a comfort-
able house for ten days, while Mr. and Mrs. Henry Taft
and Mr. Horace Taft were at the New Willard.

About eleven o'clock the President and I descended to the
ballroom floor, followed by Vice-President and Mrs. Sher-
man and, as is the custom, proceeded slowly down the length
of the hall and back between the closely packed rows of peo-

345

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

pie who stood aside to make room for our promenade. This
ceremonious parade was not as tiTUig for me as it may sound,
for not only did I have the reassurance of my husband's ami,
but the crowd was too large to seem very personal. So I
was quite serene, except for frequent spasms of anxie^ lest
™y gorgeous length of train be stepped on.

Except for this ceremony, and for a short supper whidi
was served to us and a few invited guests in a private room,
the President and I remained in the box until shortly after
one o'clock when we once more descended and made our
way to a waiting automobile which very quickly whisked us
away to much needed rest.

However, I must still have had energy enough left to
worry over domestic arrangements since the last thing I re-
member of that eventful day was a hearty lau^ from my
husband when I exclaimed in sleepy tones: "I wonder
where we had all better have breakfast in the morning !"

346

CHAPTER XVII

THE WHITE HOUSE

The members of my family, and especially my children,
are prone to indulgence in good-natured perscmalities and
they like to make the most of my serious attitude toward my
domestic responsibilities, saying that I make them three
times as difficult as they need be by a too positive insistence
on my own methods.

Perhaps I did make the process of adjusting die White
House routine to my own conceptions a shade too strenuous,
but I could not feel that I was mistress of any house if I did
not take an active interest in all the details of running it.

The management of the White House is, of course, a
larger task than many women are ever called upon to per-
form, and, incidentally, the same "white light that beats
upon a throne" sheds its sometimes uncomfortable radiance
upon the usually unprepared heads of America's Qiief Ex-
ecutive and his family. Accustomed as I had been for
years to publicity, yet it came as a sort of shock to me that
nearly everything I did, and especially my slightest inno-
vation, had what the reporters call "news value."

I have lived too much in other countries ever to under-
estimate the importance of outward form, yet I think I may
claim a wholesome regard for and a constant acquiescence in
the principles of democratic simplicity, though not the kind
of "democratic simplicity" which is usually written in quota-
tion marks.

I made very few changes, really. As a matter of fact no
President's wife ever needs to unless she so desires, because
the White House is a governmental institution thoroughly
equipped and always in good running order. Each new
mistress of the house has absolute authority, of course, and
can do exactly as she pleases, just as she would in any other

347

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

home, but in the beginning I confined my eflForts largely to
minor matters connected with the house service itself. I
wished to install certain members of the house personnel of
my own choosing, and this I did. Later I made some
changes in a few important social usages.

There are cert^n duties connected with the White House
routine which have been performed by the same employes
throughout one Administration after another and each new
President's wife finds these men invaluable and wonders, I
am sure, how the White House could ever be run without
them. For instance, there are Mr. Warren S. Young, who
has been for thirty years the Social Executive Officer, and
Colonel W. H. Crook, who became Chief Custodian imder
Lincoln in 1865 and is holding the same office to-day. The
duties of each of these men are delicate in the extreme, but
they know their work down to the minutest detail and it
would be difficult to measure their value to the woman who,
in public opinic«i, is wholly responsible for the White House.

As to my own innovations, I decided in the first place to
have, at all hours, footmen in livery at the White House
door to receive visitors and give instructions to sightseers.
Before my time there had been only "gentlemen ushers"
who were in no way distinguishable from any other citizen
and many a time I have seen strangers wander up to the
door looking in vain for someone to whom it seemed right
and proper to address a question or to hand a visiting card.
The gentlemen ushers I retained, the head usher, Mr.
Hoover, having become invaluable through similar service
under every Administration since Cleveland's first, but I put
six coloured men in blue livery at the door, two at a time,
relieving each other at intervals, and I think many a timid
visitor has had reason to be thankful for the change.
Incidentally they lend a certain air of formal dignity to the
entrance which, in my opinion, it has always lacked.

These footmen received everybody who sou^t to enter

348

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

the White House. If it happened to be a party of tourists
they were directed to such parts of the building as are open
to the public at stated hours ; if it were a caller, either social
or official, he or she was conducted to one of the drawing-
rooms. But sensible as this innovation seemed to me, it
met a varied criticism from the adherents, sincere and other-
wise, of our too widely vaunted "democratic simplicity."

Another change I made was the substitution of a house-
keeper for a steward. I wanted a woman who could relieve
me of the supervision of such details as no man, expert stew-
ard though he might be, would ever recognise. The White
House requires such ordinary attention as is given by a good
housekeeper to any house, except, perhaps, that it has to
be more vigilantly watched. Dust accumulates in comers ;
mirrors and picture glasses get dim with dampness ; curtains
sag or lose their crispness; floors lose their gloss; rugs turn
up at comers or fray at the ends ; chair covers get crumpled ;
cushions get crushed aitd untidy; things get out of order
generally; and it is a very large house. Kitchen helpers
grow careless and neglect their shining copper pots and pans
and kettles; pantry boys forget and send in plates or glasses
not polished to perfection; maids forget to be immaculate
and linen is not properly handled; they are just like em-
ployes in other homes and they need a woman*s guidance
and control. I engaged my housekeeper before my hus-
band's Inauguration and she reported for duty on the morn-
ing of March fifth.

If I could remember how many turkeys the President
gives away every Christmas I could tell just how many
persons there are in the White House service. I know it is
something like one hundred, but they go to employes of all
kinds, to important house officials, to minor officials, to serv-
ants of high and low degree, to gardeners, stable boys, chauf-
feurs and all.

The staff of the White House proper is not so numerous,

349

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

ci^tcen or twenty perhaps, including cooks, kitchen maids,
butlers, boys, housemaids and laundresses. There was one
coloured cook, Alice, ^o prepared the meals for the serv-
ants' dining-room and who had been in die White House
twenty years*

My head cook, whom I engaged, was Swedish. She was
a miracle of a cook, but she displayed a romantic tendency
as well. She must have been about forty, apparently quite
staid, when she acquired a husband, a policeman on
duty at the White House, and, in due course, a baby.
She had been married only a little over a year when her
husband contracted tubennilosis. We had always been
very much interested in her, deploring the home-making
tendency which took her away from us, so when we
learned of her misfortune Mr. Taf t immediately took steps
to have her husband sent to Ft. Bayard, the Military Tuber-
culosis Sanatorium in New Mexico. The cook, who earned
seventy-five dollars a mondi, put her baby out to nurse and
returned to the White House, where we got regular reports
as to the progress of the invalid and the infant, eadi of
whom proceeded to do as well as could be expected.

The other servants in the White House are paid the usual
wages, from twenty-five to fifty dollars, and are no more and
no less efficient than other good houseworkers in other homes.
The entire White House staff is paid by the Grovemment,
the only private servants in our employ being a Filipino
valet who had been with Mr. Taf t for a number of years, and
my personal maid.

In fact, all White House expenses are paid by the Govem-
ment except actual table supply bills, and Mr. Taf t is fond
of insisting upon his conviction that the country treats its
President exceedingly well. He was the first President to
receive a salary of $75,000.00 a year, and when the sub-
ject of his nomination was uppermost in political discussions
he did not hesitate to say that he thought this increase from

350

TWO C0R\1;RS or THC WHITK IIOl SK KITCHt\

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

$50,000.00 was an absolute necessity. He did not expect
to spend $75,000.00 a year, but he knew by careful calcula-
tion and by a knowledge of President Roosevelt's expendi-
tures that he would have to spend at least $50,000.00 a
year and he thou^t he had a citizen's right, even as Presi-
dent, to provide a small competence for his family, a thing
which in his twenty years of poorly paid official service he
had never had an opportunity to do. He was fifty years
old with two sons and a daughter in school and college and,
as Secretary of War at least, he had long been working for a
wage which was insufficient. But the country really is good
to its President. It does not make him rich by any means,
but it enables him to banish the wolf a fair distance from
his door if he is sensible enough to assist its generosity by
the exercise of a mild form of prudence.

My first inspection of the White House on the evening of
my husband's Inauguration was casual, but the next day I
assumed the management of the establishment in eamest
and proceeded upon a thorough investigation which resulted
in some rather disquieting revelations.

Mrs. Roosevelt, as the retiring Mistress of the White
House, naturally would make no changes or purchases which
might not meet with the approval of her successor, so I found
the linen supply depleted, the table service inadequate
through breakages, and other refurnishing necessary.
There is a government appropriation to meet the expense of
such replenishments and repairs, and every President's wife
is supposed to avail herself of any part of it she requires to
fit the mansion for her own occupancy.

Perhaps nothing in the house is so expressive of the various
personalities of its Mistresses as the dinner services which
each has contributed. For my part I was entirely satisfied
with the quiet taste displayed by Mrs. Roosevelt and ccmi-
tented myself with filling up the different broken sets in
her service to the number necessary for one himdred covers.

351

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

I always enjoyed, however, using some of the old historic
plates and platters at small luncheons and dinners. There
are enough plates left of the Lincoln set to serve a course to
a party of thirty. Though I speak of the different designs
as expressive of personalities they represent, perhaps, various
periods of popular taste rather than individual preference.
Samples of all the different services, displayed in cabinets
in the long eastern corridor, are among the most interesting
exhibits in the White House.

From the day my husband became President I never knew
for certain until I entered the dining-room just how many
persons there would be at luncheon. He always did credit
me with a miraculous ability to produce food for any num-
ber of persons at a moment's notice and when he was Gover-
nor of the Philippines and Secretary of War I alwajrs had
to keep an emergency supply cupboard, but I did not feel
that I could carry with me into the White House the happy-
go-lucky attitude toward the formalities which I had en-
joyed in those days, so meeting his sudden demands became
a slightly more serious matter. His haphazard hospitality
was of more concern .to the servants than to me, however,
and I think it is only his own gift for inspiring respectful
devotion on the part of his household staff that ever enables
me to keep a cook more than a week at a time.

During our first spring in the White House Congress was
in extra session for the purpose of revising the tariff and Mr.
Taft was in constant conference with the different Senators
and Representatives. We had members of Congress at
luncheon and dinner daily, and at breakfast quite frequently.

Always, in consultation with my housekeeper and the head
cook, I made out the daily menus.

"How many for limcheon, Madame?" was the cook's in-
variable question.

"I haven't any idea," was my invariable reply.

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

If no guests had, to my knowledge, been invited I would
give instructions to have luncheon prepared for the family
only, emergency provision being a thing imderstood. My
day's plans would then be sent over jto Mr. Young, the Ex-
ecutive Social Officer, who had his office in the Executive
wing of the building, and I would go on about my accus-
tomed duties and pleasures knowing that no surprise would
find us quite surprised.

Along about eleven o'clock the house telephone would
ring, or a note would be sent over, and annoimcement would
be made that Mr. So and So would lunch with the President
and Mrs. Taf t. The table would be laid while the kitchen
staff stood calmly by awaiting final orders. In another half
hour might come the annoimcement of a second guest, or
group of guests, whereupon the amiable butler would have to
make a complete change in table arrangements. Only about
a half hour before the stated luncheon hour did the cook
ever consider it safe to begin final preparations, but too
often for the maintenance of entire smoothness in domestic
routine Mr. Taf t would come across from the Executive of-
fices anywhere from a half hour to an hour late, bringing
with him an extra guest, or even a number of extra guests
whose coming had not been announced at all.

This system, or this lack of system, obtained throughout
my four years in the White House, but I and my capable
and willing staff, all of whom were devoted to the President,
eventually adjusted ourselves to it and I began to take great
delight in the informal meeting of so many interesting and
distinguished men at our open limcheon table.

I tried to insist that the dinner hour should always be
properly respected, and it usually was. While we gave
many informal, small dinners, — ^nearly every night as a mat-
ter of fact, — there were crowded into my first season from
March imtil I became ill in May most of the big official

353

RECXHXBCnONS OF FULL YEABS

f uDctJoiis wbiA zrt a past of White Bbosc life alwajrs^
well as a number cf axstrtainaMOOs whadt wm a port of
wy owuscneoie or inncwraf mmml

Oor fiist ofl&aal cntertammmt was ibe Dipknntk T

on die 12th of Maicfa, jnst cig^ days after the loaqginatiaa,
and bef ofe I had tine to stttle mysdf in the midst of my
own belongings which weie to fill the euipij spaces left by
die removal of BlrSb Roosevdtfs personal effects. At this
tea we recrivcd die entire Diplamadc Coips^ indnfing all
heacfa of Misaons^ and all Secictaries and Attaches^ with
their wives.

Nothing could be more statelily impottant- It was the
first presentation of die Diplomatic Corps to the new Presi*
dent and thotigh, having been for several years in Washing-
ton sodety, we knew many of them quite well, the method of
procedure was as formal as the State Departoaent could
make it. Explicit directions as to the manner in wfaidi they
were to present themselves were sent in printed form to every
diplomatic representative in Washington, but while an al-
most oppressive dignity marked the proceedings, our wide
acquaintance made it possible for us to depart somewhat
from the rigid form decreed and to lend to the occasion an
air of general friendliness it could not otherwise have had.

It mi^t be interesting to those not familiar with Wash-
ington life to know just what the prescribed ceremonies are
for such an event. I confess that at first they seemed to me
to be rather formidable, accustomed as I was to the dignities
of government.

The guests are not received by the President and his wife
as they arrive. They are requested to "present themselves
(in uniform) at the East entrance and to assemble in the
East Room at a sufficient interval before five o'clock to en«
able them by that hour to place themselves in the order of
precedence, each Chief of Mission being immediately fol-
lowed by his staff and ladies of his Embassy or Legation."

354

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

They are met in the East Room by the Secretary of State
and other State Department officials, and by some of the
aides-de-camp on duty at the White House.

In the meantime the President and his wife take their posi-
tions in the Blue Room and exactly at five o'clock the doors
are thrown open and annoimcement is made in the East
Room that they are ready to receive.

The Dean of the Diplomatic Corps then steps forward,
past the military aides stationed at the door leading into the
Blue Room and is presented by the senior military aide to
the President He in tum presents each member of his suite,
all of whom pass promptly on and are presented by another
aide to the President's wife, the head of the Mission being
presented to her at the end of these ceremonies. Each Am-
bassador or Minister, in strict order of precedence, passes by
with his staff, and they all proceed through the Red Room
and into the state Dining Room where tea and other refresh-
ments are served.

At the conclusion of the presentations the President and
his wife usually retire and leave their guests to be entertained
for a few formal moments by whomever has been invited to
preside at the tea-table, but Mr. Taf t and I followed them
into the dining-room to have tea with them. I knew this
was a departure from established custom, but it seemed a per-
fectly natural thing for us to do. I forgot to take into con-
sideration the attitude of our guests, however. Our unac-
customed presence rather bewildered the diplomats for a
moment. There were no rules to guide them in such an
emergency and they didn't know exactly what was expected
of them. I had finally to instruct one of the aides to an-
nounce unofficially to the wives of some of the more im-
portant of them that nothing at all was expected, and that
they should retire without making any adieus whenever
they so desired. I was told afterward that nearly everybody
was pleased with the innovation, and in the official White

355

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

House Diary — ^kept for the purpose of establishing prece-
dents, I suppose — ^it was recommended that it be followed
on all future occasions of a similar nature.

At our first state dinner, given to the Vice-President and
Mrs. Sherman, there were thirty-two guests, all Cabinet Of-
ficers, Senators and Representatives. To prove my claim
to a natural tendency toward simple and everyday methods
I need only say that even as the President's wife it seemed
strange to me to have our guests arrive without immediate
greetings from their host and hostess. Many a time at
Malacafian Palace and in other homes I have gone through
the not unusual experience of a hostess who spends the last
possible moments in putting "finishing touches" to prepara-
tions for a dinner, then hurries off to dress in record time
that she may be able to meet her first arriving guest with an
air of having been ready and waiting for ever so long.

But at the White House the guests assemble in whatever
room may be designated and there, grouped in order of rank,
await the entrance of the President and his wife. At this
first formal dinner of ours the guests assembled in the Blue
Room, the Vice-President and Mrs. Sherman being first, of
course, and nearest the door leading into the corridor, while
beyond them were the Cabinet officers, then the Senators
and Representatives in order of seniority.

Upon our appearance the band began to play *The Star
Spangled Banner*' — ^which, let me say parentfietically, is
almost as difficult a tune to walk by as Mendelssohn's Wed-
ding March — ^and played just enou^ of it to bring us to
the door of the Blue Room. After we had shaken hands
with everybody the senior aide approached Mr. Taft with
Mrs. Sherman on his arm and annoimced that dinner was
served, whereupon Mr. Taft offered his arm to Mrs. Sher-
man and started for the dining-room.

For my first dinner I chose pink Killamey roses for table
decorations and it woufd be difficult to express the pleasure

356

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

I felt In having just as many of them as I needed by merely
issuing instructions to have them delivered. The White
House greenhouses and nurseries were a source of constant
joy to me. I had lived so long where plants are luxuriant
and plentiful that a hoiise without them seemed to me to be
empty of a very special charm and the head horticulturist
remarked at once that during my regime his gems of palms
and ferns and pots of brilliant foliage were to be given their
due importance among White House perquisites. I filled the
windows of the great East Room with them, banked the fire-
places with them and used them on every possible occasion.

The state Dining Room is one of the many splendid re-
sults of the McKim restoration and, next to the East
Room, is the handsomest room in the White House. It is
not so tremendously large, its utmost capacity being less than
one hundred, but it is magnificently proportioned and beau-
tifully finished in walnut panelling with a fireplace and
carved mantel on one side which would do honour to an
ancient baronial hall. A few fine moose and elk heads are
its only wall decorations.

We had table-tops of all sizes and shapes, but the one we
had to use for very large dinners was in the form of a cres-
cent which stretched around three sides of the room. For any
dinner under sixty I was able to use a large oval top which
could be extended by the carpenters to almost any size. In-
deed, I have seen it so large that it quite filled the room
leaving only enough space behind the chairs for the waters
to squeeze their way around with considerable discomfort.
On this table I used the massive silver-gilt ornaments which
President Monroe imported from France along with his
interesting collection of French porcelains, clocks and statu-
ettes which still occupy many cabinets and mantels here and
there in the house.

These table ornaments remind one of the Cellini period
when silversmiths vied with each other in elaborations.

357

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Based on oblcxig plate glass mirrors, each about three feet
in length, they stretch down the middle of the table, end to
end, a perfect riot of f estocmed railing and graceful figures
upholding crystal vases. Then there are large gilded can-
delabra, centre vases and fruit dishes to match. In their
.way they are exceedingly handsome, and they certainly are
appropriate to the ceremony with which a state dinner at
the White House is usually conducted.

The White House silver is all very fine and there are
quantities of it. It is all marked, in accordance with the
simple form introduced at the b^inning of our history, "The
President's House,'' and some of it is old enough to be
guarded among our historic treasures.

When I went to live at the White House I found, much
to my surprise, that this silver had always been kept in a
rather haphazard fashion in chests, or boxes, in the store-
room. I decided to remedy this even though in doing so
I was compelled to encroach somewhat npoa the White
House custodian's already limited quarters. These quar-
ters are a good-sized office with the house supply rooms
opening o£F it, and a smaller room adjoining. They are on
the ground floor just across the wide corridor from the
kitchen. At one end of the smaller room I had built a
closet with regular vault doors and combination locks. I
had the space divided into compartments, with a special
receptacle for each important article, and velvet-lined trays
in drawers for flat silver, each one of which could be slipped
out separately. Tbis silver closet became the joy of Arthur
Brooks' life, he being the War Department Messenger who
was my right hand man all the time my husband was Secre-
tary of War and who was appointed White House Custo-
dian at our request a short time before Mr. Taft was inau-
gurated.

I was "at home" informally at the White House about
three afternoons a week when my friends came to see me and

358

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

when I received many ladies who wrote and asked for an
opportunity to call. I always received in the Red Room
which, with fire and candles lighted, is pleasant enough to
be almost cosy, large and imposing though it be. I usually
had twenty or more callers and I found this a delightful
way of meeting and getting close to people as I could not
hope to do at the great formal receptions.

As an example of one of these, I might cite my first after-
noon reception to the Congressional ladies for which some-
thing like four hundred invitations were issued. I intended
to carry this off without assistance, other than that rendered
by the ladies I had asked to preside over the refreshment
tables, but in the end I asked Mr. Taf t to receive with me,
a task never very difficult for him. There were no men in-
vited, so he had the pleasure of shaking hands and exchang-
ing pleasantries with several himdred wcxnen, and he did it
without a single protest I made the mistake on this occa-
sion of receiving in the East Room as the guests arrived,
thinking that by so doing I could make the party somewhat
less formal. But I only succeeded in having the stairway
leading up from the east entrance overcrowded and in mak-
ing the affair much more formal than it would have been had
I followed the usual course of permitting the people to as-
semble in the East Room and to be received in the Blue
Room on their way through to the Dining Room. It amuses
me to find that Captain Butt in the Official Diary has care-
fully recorded all my mistakes as well as my successes for
the supposed benefit of other Mistresses of the White House.

I do not wish to convey an impression that life in the
White House is all a public entertainment, but there are a
certain nimiber of set functions during every season which
are as much a part of Washington life as is a Congressional
session. But even with teas, lunchecHis, musicals, small din-
ners, garden parties and dances coming at short intervals
between the more official entertainments, we still had many

359

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

evenings when there were so few guests as to make us feel
quite like a family party. Indeed, once in a while we dined
alone.

We b^an immediately, as our first spring advanced, to
make almost constant use of the porches and terraces which
are among the most attractive features of the White House.
The long terrace extending from the East Room I found
to be a most delightful promenade for guests on warm spring
evenings, while the corresponding terrace leading out from
the Dining Room proved most useful for large dinner par-
ties at times when dining indoors would have been rather un-
pleasanL

With Congress in session nearly all summer Mr. Taf t gave
a series of Congressional dinners and the last one he had
served on this terrace. A curious incident marked the occa-
sion for special remembrance. It was known that one of the
Senators invited had never crossed the White House thresh-
old because of his unfriendly feeling toward the administra-
tion. He paid no attention whatever to his invitation — ^a
formal one, of course, requiring a formal answer — ^until the
day before the dinner. He then called the White House
on the telephone and asked if he would be expected to wear
a dress suit. Mr. Hoover, who received the inquiry, replied
that evening dress was customary at White House dinners,
whereupon the Senator mumbled something at the other end
of the line. Mr. Hoover asked him whether or not he
intended to come. He replied that he guessed he would,
and abruptly rang off.

The next evening the party waited for him for a full half

hour before they decided to sit down without him, and even

then his vacant place was kept open for him. He did not

come nor did he ever offer any kind of apology or excuse for

his extraordinary conduct. There are certain manifestations

of so-called Jeffersonian simplicity in this country of ours

360

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

that I am sure Jefferson would deplore if he lived in this day
and generation.

The north verandah of the White House is pleasant
enough^ but it lacks the charm of seclusion peculiar to the
south portico which runs around the oval Blue Room and
looks out upon the broad south garden with its great foun-
tain, and with Potomac Park, the River and Washington's
Monument in the background. This soon became our fa-
vourite retreat and we used to sit there in the ever lengthen-
ing spring evenings, breathing the perfume of magnolia
blossoms, watching the play of lights on the tree-dotted
lawns and on the Monument — ^which is never so majestic as
in the night — ^and realising to the full the pleasant privilege
of living in this beautiful home of Presidents.

Mr. Taft had a Victrola in the Blue Room and he never
failed, when opportimity offered, to lay out a few favourite
records for his evening's entertainment. Melba and Caruso,
the Lucia Sextette, some old English melodies, a few lively
ragtime tunes; in those delightful surroundings we found a
Victrola concert as pleasant a diversion as one could desire.
With no applause, no fixed attention, no conversation, no
effort of any kind required, my husband found on such quiet
evenings a relaxation he was fully able to appreciate during
that first trying summer.

That Manila could lend anything to Washington may be
an idea that would surprise some persons, but the Luneta
is an institution whose usefulness to society in the Philippine
capital is not to be overestimated. At least it was so in my
day; and for a long time before Mr. Taft became President
I had looked with ambitious designs upon the similar possi-
bilities presented in the drives, the river-cooled air and the
green swards of Potomac Park. I determined, if possible, to
convert Potomac Park into a glorified Luneta where all
Washington could meet, either on foot or in vehicles, at five

361

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

o'clock OD certain evenings, listen to band concerts and enjoy
such recreation as no other spot in Washington could possibly
afford.

The Army officer in charge of Public Buildings and
Grounds had a bandstand erected in an admirable loca-
tion at the end of an ellipse, and we decided that the long
drive theretofore known as "The Speedwajr*' should be re-
named Potomac Drive. Arrangements were made to have
band concerts every Wednesday and Saturday afternoon
from five to seven o'clock.

Saturday, the 17th of April, the concert began, and at
five o'clock Mr. Taf t and I, in a small landaulette motor-car,
went down to the driveway and took our places in the
throng. The Park was full of people. As many as ten
thousand crowded the lawns and footways, while the drive
was completely packed with automobiles and vehicles of
every description. Everybody saw everybody that he or she
knew and there was the same exchange of friendly greetings
that had always made the Limeta such a pleasant meeting
place. I felt quite sure that the venture was going to suc-
ceed and that Potomac Drive was going to acquire the special
character I so much wished it to have.

I also thought we might have a Japanese Cherry Blossom
season in Potomac Park. Both the soil and climate en-
couraged such an ambition, so I su^ested that all the bloom-
ing cherry trees obtainable in the nurseries of this country be
secured and planted. They were able to find about one
hundred only. Then the Mayor of Tokyo, having leamed
of our attempt to bestow the high flattery of imitation upon
his country, offered to send us two thousand young trees.
We accepted them with grateful pleasure, but one consign-
ment was found to be afflicted with some contagious disease
and had to be destroyed. I watched those that were planted
later with great interest and they seem to be doing very well.
I wonder if any of them will ever attain the magnificent

362

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

growth of the ancient and dearly loved cheny trees of Japan.

One of the delights of living in the White House is in
being able to entertain one's friends from a distance with a
confidence that they are being given a real pleasure and an
experience of an unusual kind. More often than not we
had house guests, old friends from Cincinnati, from New
Haven, from the Philippines, from here, there and every-
where; friends with whom we had been closely associated
through the years and who felt whole-hearted satisfaction in
my husband's attainment of the Presidency. ,

To be stared at is not pleasant because it keeps one self-
conscious all the time, but one gets more or less used to it.
And anyhow, I enjoyed a sort of freedom which Mr. Taft
did not share in any way. While he would probably have
been recognised instantly in any^crowd anywhere, I found
that in most places I could wander about unobserved like any
inconspicuous citizen. It was a valued privilege.

My daughter Helen likes to tell about an experience
she had one day in Philadelphia. She was a student at
Bryn Mawr College and she went in to Philadelphia to do
some shopping. Among other things she had to get herself
some shoes. At the shoe store she was waited on by a girl
who was anything but intelligently attentive. She had tried
Helen's patience considerably by suggesting in a certain
nagging way that her superior knowledge of what was '^being
worn" deserved respect, and that Helen didn't know what
she wanted anyhow.

Helen selected some shoes and decided to have them
charged to me, and she thought what a satisfaction it was
going to be to reveal her identity to the patronising and
offensive young person. The young person produced pad
and pencil to make out the check.

"Please have them charged to Mrs. William Howard
Taft," said Helen with what I am sure was her loftiest air.

"Address?"

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

'Washington."

The salesgirl held her pencil poised over the pad and with
the familiar expression of satisfaction over a sale accom-
plished said pleasantly :

36*

CHAPTER XVm

80MB WHITE HOUSE FORMALITIES

My very active participation in my husband's career came to
an end when he became President. I had always had the
satisfaction of knowing almost as much as he about the
politics and the intricacies of any situation in which he f oimd
himself, and my life was filled with interests of a most un-
usual kind. But in the White House I found my own duties
too engrossing to permit me to follow him long or very far
into the governmental maze which soon enveloped him.

I was permitted fully to enjoy only about the first two
and a half months of my sojourn in the White House. In
May I suffered a serious attack of illness and was practically
out of society throu^ an entire season, having for a much
longer time dian that to take very excellent care of myself.
During this period my sisters, Mrs. Louis More, Mrs. Charles
Anderson, Mrs. Laughlin and Miss Maria Herrcm, came
from time to time to visit us and to represent me as hostess
whenever it was necessary for me to be represented.

But even in my temporary retirement, as soon as I was
strong enough to do anything at all, I always took a very
lively interest in everything that was going on in the house,
and from my apartments on the second floor directed arrange-
ments for social activities almost as if I had been well.

I didn't even have the privilege of presiding at all my first
year garden parties, thougjhi this was a form of hospitality
in which I was especially interested and which, I believe, I
was able to make a notable feature of our administration.
Garden parties are very popular in the Far East and I think,
perhaps, I acquired my very strong liking for them out there,
together with a few sumptuous notions as to what a garden
party should be like.

The Emperor and Empress of Japan give two each year;

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

erne in the spring under the cherry blossoms to celebrate the
Cherry Blossom season, and one in the autumn in the midst
of chrysanthemums and brilliant autumn foliage. These
are the events of the year in Tokyo, marking the opening and
the close of the social season, and society sometimes prepares
for them weeks ahead, never knowing when the Imperial invi-
tations will be issued. The time depends entirely on the
blossoming of the cherry trees or the chrysanthemums in the
Imperial Gardens. When the blooms are at their best the
invitations are sent out, sometimes not more than two days
in advance, and society, in its loveliest garments, drops every-
thing else and goes. It would be very nice, of course, to
have alwajrs some such special reason for giving a garden
party, but it is only in the "Flowery Kingdom" that the
seasons are marked by flowers.

Nothing could be finer than the south garden of the White
House. With its wide lawns, its great foimtain, its shading
trees, and the two long terraces looking down upon it all, it
is ideally fitted for entertaining out of doors. And I must
mention one other thing about it which appealed to me
especially, and that is the wholesomeness of its clean Amer-
ican eartli. This is lacking in the tropics. There one may
not sit or lie on the ground, breathing health as we do here ;
the tropic soil is not wholesome. Not that one sits or lies
on the ground at garden parties, but the very feel of the
earth imderfoot is delightfully diflFerent.

I determined to give my first garden party at the White
House as soon as spring was sufficiently far advanced to
make it possible. I issued invitations, 750 of them, for Fri-
day, the 7th of May, planning at the same time three others
to complete the season, one each Friday during the month.

In order to put possible bad weather off its guard, I made

the invitations simply for an "At Home from 5 to 7 o'clock,'*

because all my life the elements have been unfriendly to me.

Whenever I plan an outdoor fete I b^n to consult the

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

weather man with the hopeful faith of a Catherine de
Medici appealing to her astrologer, but for all my humble
spirit I very frequently get a downpour, or else a long-drawn-
out and nerve-trying threat. Quite often the lowering
clouds have passed and my prayers for sunshine have been
rewarded, but quite often, too, I have had to move indoors
with an outdoor throng for whom no indoor diversions had
been arranged.

By way of preparation for my first garden party I had a
large refreshment tent put up in the northwest comer of the
garden where it would be handy to the kitchen and serving
rooms, while imder the trees here and there I had tables
spread at which a corps of waiters were to serve tea during
the reception. The Marine Band I stationed behind the iron
railing just under the Green Room. For any kind of out-
door entertainment at the White House the band had always
been placed in the middle of the lawn between the south
portico and the fountain, but I thought, and correctly, that
the house wall would serve as a sounding board and make the
music audible throughout the grounds. I arranged to receive
under one of the large trees in a beautiful vista looking
south.

No sooner were my plans completed, however, than the
weather man predicted rain. It was coming, sure. Of
course, I knew it would, but I had had too much experience
to think of coming in out of the rain before it began to come
down. I always sustain my hopeful attitude until the
deluge descends.

About half past three it began to rain in torrents and I
saw all of my festive-looking preparations reduced to sopping
wrecks before there was even time to rush them indoors. By
five o'clock, when it was time for the people to begin to
arrive, it had stopped raining, but the lawns were soaked and
the trees were dripping dismally, so I directed the band to
move into the upper corridor, as usual for af temoon affairs,

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

had the refreshment tables spread in the state Dining Room
and took my by that time accustomed positicm to receive the
long line of guests in the East Room.

A week later I had better luck. I sent out the same kind
of invitations, made the same kind of preparations, slightly
elaborated, and was rewarded with a perfect mid-May day.

The guests arrived at the East Entrance, came down the
Long Corridor, out through one of the special guest dressing-
rooms, and down the long slope of the lawn to the tree where
Mr. Taft and I stood to receive them, with Captain Arch-
ibald Butt to make the presentations. At the next garden
party I requested the gentlemen to come in white clothes, in
thin summer suits, or in anything they chose to wear,
instead of in frock coats. Some young people played
tennis on the courts throughout the reception ; it was warm
enough for bright coloured parasols and white gowns; the
fountain made rainbows and diamond showers in the sun, and
altogether it was a most pleasing picture of informal out-
door enjoyment Each year after that the four May
garden parties were among the most popular entertainments
of our social season.

The question of a "Summer Capital," as the President's
summer home is called, was quite a serious one for us to settle.
We had been going to Murray Bay for so many years that we
had few affiliations with any other place, and we were most
uncertain as to what we might be able to do.

We finally selected a number of likely places and made

our choice by the process of elimination. One location was

too hot, another had a reputation for mosquitoes, another was

too far away, another hadn't first-class railway, postal and

telegraph facilities, and another, worst drawback of all, had

no good golf links. It wouldn't have been a livable place

for Mr. Taft without golf links because golf was his principal

form of exercise and recreation. Also the whole family

agreed that we must be near the sea, so our search finally

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

narrowed to the Massachusetts coast. I decided on the
North Shore, as the coast from Beverly to Gloucester is
called, because it had every qualification for which we were
seeking, including excellent golf at the Myopia and Essex
County clubs. Then, too, it had a further attraction in that
the summer homes of a number of our friends were located
there, or in the near vicinity.

I went up in the spring to Beverly Famis, with my friend
Miss Boardman, and inspected houses for three days, finally
selecting one, principally for its location. It stood near the
sea and its velvety green lawns sloped all the way down to
the sea wall. From its verandah one could see out across
Salem Harbour to Marblehead.

The house itself was a modem frame cottage, as simple as
anything well could be, with a fine verandah and a dormer
windowed third story. It was large enough for the family
and for such visitors as we inevitably would have to accom-
modate, but besides the Taft family, which was numerous
enough at that time, there were Captain Butt and a large
corps of secretaries and stenographers, to say nothing of the
Commander of the Sylph^ the President's smaller yacht, who
all had to be within call when they were wanted. Then,
too, there was the necessity for Executive Offices and I didn't
think it would seem like having a vacation at all if the Exec-
utive Offices could not be somewhere out of si^t so that they
might sometimes be out of mind. The President didn't ex-
pect to be able to spend much of his time away from Wash-
ington the first summer but when he did come to Beverly I
wanted him to feel that he was at least partially detaching
himself from business. So another house was found in the
town, yet on the seashore, and was fitted up for Executive
Offices and as a home for the office staff and Captain Butt.
The secret service men, like the poor, we had with us always,
but it never seemed to me that they "lived" anywhere.
They were merely around all the time. They were never

369

RBCOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

naif onned, of course, and looked like casual visitors. They
used to startle callers by emerging suddenly from behind
bushes or other secluded spots — not I am sure because of a
weakness for detective methods, but because they ccxicealed
comfortable chairs in these places — ^and asking them what
they wanted. It was sometimes most amusing and some-
times rather trying, but as long as there are cranks and un-
balanced persons such precautions will be necessary for the
protection of Presidents, and anyhow, one gets so used to the
men as almost to forget what they are there for.

We did not go to Beverly the first summer until the third
of July. Captain Butt preceded us to make final arrange-
ments for our reception on the Fourth, and the servants and
motor cars had been sent on several days before. I was
still in such ill-health that it was necessary to avoid the
excitement of the inevitable crowds, so when our private
car "Mayflower" arrived in Beverly the welcome ceremonies
were purposely subdued. A great crowd was present at the
station, but at Mr. Taft's request no speeches were made.
Shortly after we arrived at the house the Mayor of Beverly,
with a committee of citizens, called, an address of welcome
was delivered, to which Mr. Taft responded and cordial re-
lations were established. But nothing more occurred even
though it was the Fourth of July.

Mr. Taft spent just one day with us, then hurried away to
keep a bewildering number of engagements here and there
before he returned to Washingt<Hi, where Congress was still
in stormy session over the tariff bill.

He came back in August to spend a month with us, and
then the little sea-side colony, which we had found as quiet
as the woods, except for the lavish hospitality of its people,
became indeed the nation's summer capital. Nobody found
it inconvenient to come to Beverly to see the President and
he was just about as busy there as he ever was in Washington.
He had a game of golf every day on the Myopia links and

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

grew jubilant over his scores, but for the most part he seemed
always to be attending to the business of being President.
There was an Executive Office, as I have said, but nearly
always one could find four or five men sitting on the verandah
waiting to see him. Fortunately he had a large room to
himself with a private entrance, but we grew so accus-
tomed to running into strangers that we came almost not to
notice them and to enjoy our supposed privacy as if they
were not there.

The most interesting callers we had that summer were
their Imperial Highnesses, Prince and Princess Kuni of
Japan, who were making a tour of the world. They were
accompanied by Madame Nagasaki, the wife of the Court
Chamberlain who officiated at my husband's first audience
with the Emperor, by Colonel Kukurita, a military aide and
Mr. Matsui, Charge d' Affaires of the Japanese Embassy in
Washington. They were escorted by representatives of both
the State and War Departments. I had never met these
Imperial personages, but when Mr. Taft and Miss Alice
Roosevelt were in Japan they had been presented to their
Highnesses, so Mr. Taft invited Miss Roosevelt, then Mrs.
Longworth, and her husband to meet them.

The day following the visit of the Prince and Princess
Mr. Taft left for a long trip through the West and I didn't
see him again until the late autunm when we all returned to
Washington.

The social season in Washington always opens with the
Cabinet Dinner in December. This is one of the regular
State Dinners which are carefully scheduled and jealously
regarded as such. The others were formerly the Diplomatic
Dinner and the Supreme Court Dinner, but we inaugurated
a Speaker's Dinner, so there are now four. These are state
functions pure and simple, but by the exercise of a little art
one can manage to make them most enjoyable affairs. To
the Cabinet Dinner only the Vice-President and his wife, the

371

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

members of the Cabinet aad their wives and a few especially
distinguished outsiders are invited.

The hostess doesn't have to worry about seating the Cab-
inet officers because it is all a matter of precedence and is
attended to by the Social Executive Secretary. The rank
of a Cabinet officer is determined by the date on which his
office was created and not, as one might think, by the relative
importance of his official status.

The only time when a friendly democracy presents itself
to the President en masse is on New Year's Day. At the
New Year's Reception he receives just as many persons as he
can shake hands with between the hours of eleven in the
morning and half past two or three in the afternoon. His
wife, the wife of the Vice-President and the ladies of the
Cabinet receive with him as long as it is physically possible
for them to do so. While writing in the third person I am
thinking in the first, of course. These were our customs.

Yet if anybody unfamiliar with Washington life imagines
that a New Year's Reception means throwing open the
White House doors and admitting the public without con-
sideration of rank or the rules of precedence he is mistaken.
The Reception, up to a stated hour, is as carefully regulated
as any other function, and I oxisider the list of the especially
favoured most interesting as a revelation of the complexity
of Washington's social life.

Announcement is made that the President will receive at
1 1 :oo A.M. — the Vice-President, the members of the Cabinet
and the Diplomatic Corps; at 11:20 a.m. — ^the Supreme
Court, members of the Judiciary of the District of Columbia,
former Cabinet officers and former diplomatic fepresenta-
tives of the United States; at 1 1 :30— Senators, Representa-
tives and Delegates in Congress; at 1 1 45 — OflBcers of the
Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps and the Militia of the
District of Columbia; at 12:15 p.m. — Regents and Secre-
tary of the Smithsonian Institution, all* the various Com-

37^

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

missions, Assistant Secretaries of Departments, the Solicitor
General, Assistant Attorneys-General, Assistant Postmasters-
General, the Treasurer of the United States, the Librarian
of Congress, the Public Printer, heads of all Bureaus and
the President of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and
Dumb; at 12:30 p.m. — ^The Secretary of the Cincinnati,
the Aztec Club of 1847, the Associated Veterans of the War
of 1846-47, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the
United States, the Grand Army of the Republic, the Medal
of Honor Legion, the Union Veteran Legion, the Union
Veterans' Union, the Society of the Army of Santiago, the
Spanish Minute Men, the Sons of the American Revolution
and the members of the Oldest Inhabitants' Association of
the District of Columbia; at 1 :oo p.m. — Citizens.

As all the men present themselves in the dress uniform of
their various services or orders, or wearing the decorations
they have won in epoch-marking events, one gets a most
illimiinating view of organised American patriotism.

There is an old system obtaining at the White House
known as inviting guests "behind the line." This means
that a chosen few are permitted as special guests to be
present in the Blue Room while a reception is in progress.
It is a system which has at times been so carelessly regulated
as to engender jealousies and dissatisfactions, and we de-
termined if possible to avoid on all occasions any appearance
of favouritism. So at our first New Year's Reception we de-
cided to limit special privileges to the Diplomatic Corps, the
wives of Assistant Secretaries and our own house guests.
This made the distinction a mere matter of official rank and
did away with all possibility of unpleasant comment from
distinguished members of civilian society.

For instance, there has always been a delicate question in
connection with the Judicial Reception as to whether or not
on this occasion the Justices of the Supreme Court take
precedence over the members of the Diplomatic Corps.

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

The Justices have alwajrs contended that at their own Re-
ception they do, but the unwritten code has it that no per-
son under the rank of President or Vice-President ever takes
precedence over an Ambassador who is the direct represent-
ative of his sovereign.

We settled this question by inviting the heads of all Mis-
sicms to the Blue Room where they were greeted by the
President before he took his place in the receiving line, and
where they were permitted to remain as long as they desired,
being, as it were, a part of the receiving party. This was
a solution which satisfied everybody and pleased the Diplo-
mats particularly.

A great many special arrangements are necessary for a
New Yearns Reception at the White House. For every
state occasion or any large function there are always many
extra footmen, policemen, guards, waiters, cloak room at-
tendants and ushers on hand, but on New Year's Day the
array of them would be most imposing if they were not
almost lost in the midst of a thronging populace. All the
people who come to these receptions do not pass the receiving
line. Many of them find points of vantage in the vicinity
merely to look on, and yet the President shakes hands with
from six to eight thousand of them before the gates are
closed. I have seen the line of waiting people stretching
out through the spacious grounds, down the street, around a
comer and out of sight at a time when I had already given
up in utter exhaustion. And the way the carriages come
and go in perfect order, without a hitch, each coachman with
his card of a particular colour telling him just where to make
his exit, was a thing I never could understand.

The corps of aides arrange all these details and each de-
partment, including the police and the secret service, has its
printed and explicit orders for the day a long time ahead.
Some of the police orders are interesting. For instance:
"No person under the influence of liquor, disorderly in his

374

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

behaviour or bearing any advertisement will be allowed
in line. Conspicuously dirty persons will not be admitted."
Also : ''Except in the most aggravated case a coachman will
not be taken from his box and put under arrest. It will
be sufficient to take his name and address and arrest him on
the following morning."

After a New Year's Reception the White House is a
sorry sight, even though by using extra strips of carpet to
protect the polished floors and by removing fine rugs and
breakable bric-i-brac every possible precaution is taken to
make the damage as slight as possible. But it doesn't take
long to restore the house to its normal condition. The way
the crowd of workmen used to go about putting the place in
order after an invasion of this kind always reminded me
of the well-drilled stage hands at a hippodrome who manage
to set different scenes and keep things spic-and-span without
even interfering with a continuous performance.

Very shortly after the New Year's Reception, three days
later in fact, we gave the next big event of the season, the
Diplomatic Reception. It is understood, of course, that
one of the chief occupations of the President of the United
States is shaking hands. I am moved to this observation
by memories of uncounted hours by my husband's side in a
receiving line at the White House when thousands of guests
passed by, each separately introduced to both the President
and to me and each extending an untired hand to give and to
receive the hearty grasp which all good Americans so highly
regard. And there is no conceivable forai of work or exer-
cise more fatiguing. If it were not for the mental stimulus
afforded by the friendliness of a gay throng, by music and
lights and a general festive atmosphere, it could hardly be
borne.

For Mr. Taft it was never so hard because in his long
public career, and especially through a political campaign,
he had had considerable training for it. But for me it was

375

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

somewhat more difBcuIt. My friends used to wonder how
I could stand it, but when I was well I never found it so
much of a strain that I could not very quickly recover from
it. When I was not feeling particularly strong I would
resort to all manner of innocent pretexts to give myself
short intervals of rest. I would tum aroimd and engage in
important conversation with someone behind me; I would
consume minutes in taking a drink of water; or I would
get into serious difficulty with my flowers or something.
Then, too, I sometimes would sit frankly down and let the
crowds pass by.

To me the long standing was the real strain and I soon
came to a point where I was willing to sacrifice appearance
to approximate comfort by wearing wide flat slippers with
low heels.

The Diplomatic Reception is undoubtedly the most bril-
liant of the set state functions which are given at the White
House each year, but to me it was never as interesting as the
Diplomatic Dinner which follows it. There are thirty-nine
foreign Embassies and Legations in Washington. Each
Ambassador and Minister has his own distinctive and some-
times very elaborate regalia; each attache, military and
naval, wears the uniform of his service, in many cases very
picturesque and often positively flamboyant; the foreign
women, gowned exquisitely, are many of them crowned with
tiaras and laden with jewels, and when they are all gathered
around one great, glittering and gorgeously decorated table
they present such a picture of varied colour and magnificence
as is not to be seen on any other occasion in Washington.

I used always to wonder how they managed to get along
with each other. There is an impression quite general
among us that we are the only nation on earth that sends
abroad diplomatic representatives without any knowledge of
the French language. This is not quite true. There- are a
good many diplomats in Washington who do not speak

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

French, and there are more diplomats' wives. But as both
men and women are seated at the Diplomatic Dinner in
strict order of rank, there is no chance to take into considera-
tion the seemingly important question as to whether or not
dinner partners will be able to commimicate with each other
very freely. They do speak English, of course, but many of
them imperfectly, and, taking them all, with exactly thirty-
nine different accents. Imagine the wife of the Chinese
Minister sitting between the Minister of Salvador and the
Minister of Cuba, or the wife of the Japanese Ambassador
having on one hand the German Ambassador and on the
other the Minister of Costa Rica !

It all depends on how long they have been in Washing-
ton. When I first went to the White House the Italian
Ambassador was the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, with
the Austrian Ambassador next, while among the Ministers
those from Siam and from Costa Rica, I think, had prece-
dence over all others. If the Minister of Haiti remained
in Washington long enough he could outrank the Minister
of Spain. The Minister of Haiti is the only negro diplomat
in the Corps and his place at table in my time was with a
group of envoys of almost equal rank who sat together near
one outer end of the gre4t crescent.

It was not possible to invite many outsiders to the Diplo-
matic Dinner because there were enough of the Diplomats
themselves with their wives and attaches to tax the capacity
of the State Dining Room. But Mr. Taft never did take
space limits into consideration. For both Receptions and
Dinners I used always to go over the invitation lists and do
my best to keep them within bounds. Regretfully enough
would I cut them wherever I found it possible, but my hus-
band, according to his fixed habit, invariably added more
names than I took off, so, thanks to him, we have to our
credit the largest dinner parties ever given in the new Execu-
tive Mansion. Mr. McKim in his report on the restoration

377

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

of the White House says the Dining Room will hold one
hundred, but strained to its utmost capacity ninety-two was
as many as I could ever crowd into it, and then everybody
was aghast at the number. We might have put a star in
the hollow of the crescent so as to accommodate a few more,
but I never thought of it imtil this moment. Fm glad it
never occurred to Mr. Taf t. With his expansive disposition
he certainly would have had it tried.

The Reception crowds I did manage to cut down. It
simply had to be done. When more than two thousand
people get into the White House it is a literal "crush" and
nobody has a good time. We not only introduced dancing
in the East Room at Receptions, a feature which delighted
everybody and especially the young people, but we always
served refreshments to every guest within our gates.

This was, I suppose, the most generally approved depar-
ture from established custom that was made during my ad-
ministration. It was made possible by cutting down the
list of guests one half and inviting one half to one reception
and the other half to the next. As a matter of fact, prepar-
ing a buffet supper for a company of 2,000 people is not
much more of a strain on ordinary household resources than
serving a nine or ten course formal dinner to eighty or ninety
guests. Neither undertaking is particularly simple, but the
White House kitchen and pantries are large and adequate,
we had an efficient staff and we never had any mishaps or
embarrassments that I remember.

Several days before a large recepticm my cooks would
begin to tum out piles upon piles of small pastries and to do
all the things that could be done in advance. Then on the
day of the reception, with plenty of extra assistants, it was
found easily possible to prepare all the salads and sand-
wiches, the ices and sweets, the lemonades and the punches
that were necessary. Nor did we find that it interfered in
the least with the usual household routine. We took our

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

meals in the small family dining room adjoining the State
Dining Room, and even gave small and successful dinner
parties while the State Dining Room was in the hands of the
carpenters and decorators.

Referring to the serving of refreshments reminds me of an
incident which gave us some uneasiness shortly after Mn
Taft*s election. It was during that phase of his career
which all Presidents pass through, when his most casual
remark was likely to be construed into an "utterance," and
his most ordinary act was likely to become a widely heralded
"example." It was while he was still being held up as a
model of all the excellencies — framed in a question mark:
"What will he do?" In other words it was before his In-
auguration. ^

He was at a dinner at Hot Springs, Vir^nia. As the
wine was being served one of the diners turned down his
glass with the remark that he had not taken a drink for
eighteen years. Mr. Taf t, in the most usual and common-
place manner, followed suit, saying that he had been a total
abstainer for nearly two years and expected to continue so.
The incident was made the basis of a sensational newspaper
story which created the impression that he had acted with
great dramatic effect and that his remark amounted to a
declaration of principle which he would turn into a Presi-
dential policy.

Immediately he was overwhelmed with memorials, with
resolutions of commendation framed by some of the most
worthy and admirable Christian and temperance organisa-
tions in the country. It was taken for granted that he
would banish alcohol in every form from the White House.
In simple honesty he had to tell all the reverend gendemen
that he had made no pronouncement with regard to limiting
White House hospitality, that he had no desire to interfere
with any normal man's personal habits and that as President
he had no intention of trying to do so.

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

The truth is that he is a total abstainer because never in
his life has he indulged in stimulants to any extent; they
have no attraction for him whatever, and he found in those
days that with so much dining out, it was wiser to decline all
wines and liquors. Being naturally abstemious he has al-
ways rather objected to being giveh personal credit for such
virtue.

It was about this time that I, too, got into trouble of a
peculiar sort. In the mass of correspcmdence which began
to roll in upon me as soon as my husband was elected, there
were requests of every possible kind from all parts of the
world. Among these came a letter from a society of
women engaged in political and social reform work in cme
of the newer Balkan States, asking me to lend my aid in
forming a similar society in the United States.

I declined with as much grace and courtesy as I could
ccxnmand and thought nothing more about it. Imagine
my surprise to find almost immediately that my reply had
been construed by its recipients into a sort of expression of
personal interest in and sjmipathy for the people of their
country in general. I was proclaimed the warm friend of
the young State and an enemy to all her enemies. The inci-
dent became the subject of an exchange of diplomatic notes
in Washington, and it took a bit of the suavity of the State
Department to extricate me from the tangle in which my
alleged active participation in the trouble in the Balkans
had placed me. It taught me a lesson.

Throughout my four years in the White House my mail
contained surprises every day, but I soon learned not to be
surprised at petitions for assistance in various forms. It is
extraordinary how many of these a President's wife receives.
The greater number came to me from small charitable organ-
isations throughout the cotmtry. It seemed to me that no-
body ever thought of organising a bazaar or a church fair

without asking me for some sort of contribution, and before

380

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

holidays, especially Easter and Christmas, I was simply
besieged* They did not want money ever; they wanted
something that could be sold as a souvenir of myself. I
never, to my knowledge, refused a request of this kind. Mrs.
Roosevelt had used a photograph of the White House, and I
decided, finally, to do the same. I chose a view of the
South Portico eight by ten inches in size which I thought
very nice, and asked to have it reserved for me. With my
signature across one comer it became a most satisfactory
souvenir. I hesitate to hazard a guess as to the number I
signed and sent away, but, ordered by the hundreds, they
didn't cost very much, so contributing them to good causes
became a pleasure unmarred by a sense of unjustifiable ex-
travagance. Handkerchiefs, too, were in great demand
and I always kept a supply of them on hand.

I see I have wandered away from the receptions and din-
ners and my attempt to tell in some sort of consecutive
fashion what a social season at the White House consists of,
but remembering the crowds I lived in for four years it seems
to me that everybody must know just as much about these
things as I do. I have to keep reminding myself that I am
not writing altogether for people who live in Washington,
but for the people in the far places who have never been to
Washington, but who have just as much of a personal prop-
erty right in the nation's capital and just as much interest in
the proper conduct of its affairs whether they be legislative,
administrative, diplcxnatic, or merely social, as any President
ever had.

381

CHAPTER XIX

CONCLUSION

Our second summer at Beverly began with a call from Mr.
Roosevelt. When the ex-President returned to the United
States, on the i8th of June, 1910, after an absence of a year
and a half, Mr. Taft sent two members of his Cabinet, the
Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of Agriculture, and
his aide. Captain Butt, to New York to meet him and to ex-
tend to him a personal as well as an ofBcial welcome home.
According to Captain Butt's OfBcial Diary :

"Immediately upon the arrival of the S.S. Kaiserin
Angus te Victoria at Quarantine the Presidential party scaled
the sides of the steamer by means of a rope ladder and pro-
ceeded to the staterooms of Mr. Roosevelt where each mem-
ber of the party greeted the ex-President. Then Captain
Butt, who was in full dress uniform, saluted Mr. Roosevelt
and presented to him the letter of welcome entrusted to his
care by the President. Mr. Roosevelt read it and expressed
his great appreciation of the honour of the receipt of the
letter, as also for the ordering of the U. S. S. South Carolina
and other vessels to accompany him from Quarantine to
New York. Captain Butt also presented to Mr. Roosevelt
a letter (from Mrs. Taft) supplementing the President's
invitation to Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt to pay them a visit at
the White House now or at any time when it might be con-
venient for them to do so. . . . Mr. Roosevelt took occasion
to send his sincere appreciation and profound thanks to the
President by Captain Butt both for the official and personal
welcome extended to him."

I removed the Presidential household to Beverly the week
Mr. Roosevelt arrived and did not see him until after Mr.
Taft joined me about ten days- later. Again to quote iicm
Captain Butt's carefully kept record:

382

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

"June 30 — ^At 3 130 o'clock ex-President Theodore Roose-
velt, accompanied by Senator Lodge, called to pay his re-
spects to the President. He was met at the entrance by
Captain Butt, who announced his arrival. The President
immediately came out and greeted his visitor most affection-
ately, addressing him as Theodore.

"Colonel Roosevelt took both hands of the President, and
said,

" 'Mr. President, it is fine to see you looking so well.'

*' 'But why "Mr. President^ '?' laughed the President.

'" 'Because,* replied Colonel Roosevelt, 'it used to be "Mr.
President" and "Will," now it must be "Mr. President"
and "Theodore." '

"The President conducted his distinguished predecessor to
the side porch where they started into a series of deli^tful
reminiscences of the past Administration. . . . Colonel
Roosevelt remained two hours, during which he gave the
President an interesting accoimt of his trip."

I was present at this interview and remember it as being
remarkably pleasant and entertaining. Everybody will
recall that the question of Mr. Roosevelt's attitude toward
my husband was even then a debatable one, but Mr. Taft
had resolutely refused to believe that it could ever be any-
thing but friendly. I did not share his complete faith, but I
was glad on this occasion to find the old spirit of sympathetic
comradeship still paramoimt and myself evidently proved
to be unwarrantably suspicious.

Mr. Roosevelt had just been in England where he acted
as the representative of the President of the United States
at the funeral of King Edward, and that solemnly magnifi-
cent event seemed to have overshadowed in his mind every
other experience he had had during his long absence. He
described the stately ceremonies and the medisevally pic-
turesque procession in vivid detail and did not fail to empha-
sise their grave and reverential aspects, but he dwelt partic-

383

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

ularly, and to our great amusement, upon the humorous
side of the situati(Hi in which he had foimd himself.

It will be remembered that among Kings and Emperors
and Czars, and even lesser potentates, the rank of Presidents
was a difficult thing to determine. Should minor royalties
take precedence over the representatives of the French Re-
public and the United States of America, to say nothing of
Mexico, Brazil, Switzerland, and all the other great and
small democracies?

Mr. Roosevelt had great difficulty in finding his place.
Then, too, he was constantly running into kings and other
royalties to whom he, naturally, owed ceremonious respect.
They were so numerous in London at the time that familiar-
ity with them bred carelessness in one whose tongue had not
been trained to the hcHiorifics of Court life, and he foimd
himself making extremely funny blunders. He told us
many stories of his adventures with the world's elect and,
with his keen appreciation of the ridiculous and his gift of
description, gave us as merry an af temoon as we ever spent
with him.

I dwell on the memory of this agreeable meeting with Mr.
Roosevelt and the entertainment it afforded me, because by
his manner he succeeded in convincing me that he still held
my husband in the highest esteem and reposed in him the
utmost confidence, and that the rumours of his antagonism
were wholly imfounded. I was not destined to enjoy this
faith and assurance for very long.

In mid-July of that year we started off for a short cruise
on the Mayflower^ the only one we ever made. It is not
really possible for the President to have a vacation, but if he
happens to be a good sailor I know of no better way for him
to get short intervals of rest than by boarding the Presi-
dential yacht and steaming away, out of the reach of crowds.

We had only a small party with us, my husband's brother,
Mr. Horace Taf t, my sister, Mrs. Louis More, Miss Mabel

384

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Boafdman and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Mr.
Beekman Winthrop, and Mrs. Winthrop; and Captain Butt,
of course, was with us always.

We headed north for the Maine coast with Eastport as
our first stopping place. The mayor of that interesting city
of fisheries came on board as soon as we dropped anchor,
made a felicitous speech of welcome and proceeded to lay
out a programme of sightseeing and festivities which would
have kept us there for a considerable longer time than we
could stay if it had all been carried out, and this experience
was repeated everywhere we went. We had to decline
everything except a motor ride about town for the purpose
of getting a glimpse of the weir fisheries and the sardine can-
neries, but a President doesn't visit Eastport very often, so
the people thronging the streets made it seem quite like a
holiday.

Then a committee from the Island of Campo Bello, which
lies a short distance off the coast and which is a British pos-
session, waited upon us with an invitation to come across and
go for a buckboard ride aroimd a part of the island. It
soimded like such a homely and restful form of amusement
that Mr. Taf t was sorely tempted to break the unwritten law
which decrees that a IPresident may not set foot outside
United States territory, but he concluded that he had better
not. The rest of us, however, decided to go and we had a
jolly, jolting ride which ended at the summer home of Mrs.
Franklin Roosevelt.

Everywhere we went we were most delightfully .enter-
tained, finding beautiful homes and merry summer hosts at
every port and town. At fashionable Bar Harbor we found
a colony of friends whose winter homes are in Washington
and Mr. Taft got some excellent gojf . There were lunch-
eons and dinners, of course, every day and everywhere, to
say nothing of teas and large receptions, and Mr. Taft had
to make speeches, too, and meet all the Maine politicians.

385

*♦•♦.

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

But there were the long restful nights on the Mayflower^
steaming along among the crags and rocks of the broken, pic*
turesque coast, or lying at anchor in some quiet harbour with
cmly the soft water sounds to break the stillness, and it
would not have taken much persuasion to have kept me
aboard indefinitely.

The Mayflower is used ordinarily for official purposes in
connection with naval reviews and other naval ceremonies,
and at such times, with the President on board, there is a
punctilious formality to be encountered which makes a mere
civilian feel like a recruit under the eyes of a drill-sergeant.
But it is very interesting. One gets so used to seeing every-
body in imif orm standing stiffly at attention as the President
passes that one almost forgets that it isn't their natural atti-
tude.

And then the guns. They shake one's nerves and hurt
one's ears, but they are most inspiring. The President's sa-
lute is twenty-one guns. It is fired every time he sets foot on
the deck of the Mayflower^ or any other naval vessel, and
when he passes, on the Mayflower^ between the lines of naval
vessels on review he gets it from every ship in the fleet, not
one by (me, but altogether, so I think I know what a naval
battle sounds like.

Shortly after we returned from our little cruise on the
Maine Coast we received a visit from the President of Chili,
Seiior Montt, and Sefiora Mcmtt. He was on his way to
Europe, having been ordered abroad on account of Ul health.
He stopped in New York at the request of his government,
and at Mr. Taft's invitation came to Beverly to pay his
official respects to the President of the United States. He
made the trip to Boston by special train and was there met
by the Mayflower and by Captain Butt.

President Montt was very ill indeed. On the way down

to Beverly he had a heart attack which alarmed everybody

336

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

and made it seem very probable that he would not be able
to land. But he recovered sufficiently to become the most
cheerful and confident member of the party and we found
him and Senora Montt to be among the most delightful
of all the distinguished visitors we had the pleasure of en-
tertaining during our temi in the Presidency. After the
ceremonious presentation and the exchange of intemational
compliments were disposed of they took luncheon with us
and we spent several most interesting and memorable hours
together. The members of his numerous entourage for
whom there was no room in our modest summer cottage were
entertained at limcheon on board by Captain Logan of the
Mayflower and by Captain Butt. We were told afterward
that they managed to create quite an entente cordial^ toast-
ing each other's Presidents and armies and navies and minis-
ters and attaches and everybody else they could think of
with great enthusiasm and gusto. Seflor Montt died a week
later just as he reached England on his health-seeking trip.
In his death Chili lost an eminent citizen.

Mr. Taft remained with us at Beverly, playing golf, at-
tending to routine business, seeing the never-ending line of
visitors and preparing speeches xmtil September when there
began for him one of those whirlwind seasons, so many of
which he had lived through. With a printed itinerary in
his pocket he was off from Boston on the third of Septem-
ber to attend the Conservation Congress at St. Paid. With
two speeches to be delivered, one at the Congress and one
at the State Fair in Minneapolis, to say nothing of another
in Chicago and numerous short speeches from the rear plat-
form of his train, he was still back in Boston on the eighth
to be present at an aviation meet where together we saw the
performance of the best aviators of that day.

A short interval of rest and he was away again to New
Haven to attend a meeting of the Yale Corporation, then

387

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

out to Cincinnati to the Ohio Valley Exposition and back
to Washington as quickly as a long programme of speeches
and hospitalities could be disposed of.

The political skies were then beginning to cloud up in
eamest; he had a Democratic Congress to prepare messages
for, and I suppose the approaching winter looked anything
but alluring to him.

For the first time in the history of the Executive Mansion
it was turned into a bachelors' hall during my yarious ab-
sences. My husband always had one or more men staying
with him, he would move his aides and secretaries into the
White House, and so arrange things that my frequent de-
sertions of him never weighed very heavily on my conscience.

When he arrived in Washington this time he organised a
Cabinet House Party so that Washington and the newspaper
correspondents had something to worry about for quite a
while. He gathered all the members of his Cabinet imder
his roof and kept them there where he could have three Cabi-
net meetings a day besides the ones he called in the Execu-
tive Offices. People made wild guesses at all kinds of
crises and at all manner of important disclosures to be made,
but it was only a house party after all. There were a great
many problems to be solved, proposed legislative meas-
ures to be discussed, and with every woman in the Cabinet
off summering somewhere it was an excellent opportunity
for the Executive branch of the Government to do extra
work.

The distinguished gentlemen had to "double up" in rooms,

too, so I have often imagined that they got very little rest

at any time. The Secretary of State and the Secretary of

the Treasury had the southeast room; the Secretary of the

Navy and the Secretary of the Interior had the northeast

room ; the Attomey General and the Secretary of Commerce

and Labour had the northwest room ; the Postmaster General

had Robert's room; the Secretary of Agriculture had the

388

1 =

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

housekeeper's room, and the Secretary to the President had
my son Charlie's ro<Mn. I think probably as a house party
it was unique, but if there had been any more Departments
of Government the President would have had to fit up a
dormitory.

At this point in Archie Butt's record I find the note:
"Mrs. Taft left this moming for New York to fit her son
Charlie out in long trousers."

That brings up impleasant memories. Like any sensible
woman I never would admit that I had reached the high
point in life as long as I had one son still in knickerbockers,
but with one son at Yale, with a young lady daughter ready
to be presented to society, and with Charlie going into long
trousers I felt that the day was approaching when the un-
happy phrase "getting on in years" might be applied to me.

The very rapid lengthening of Charlie's legs had been a
subject of much discussion at Beverly during the summer and
the necessity for bestowing upon him the dignity of man-
style garments had been manifest to everybody sometime be-
fore I would consent to recognise it.

One day the telephone rang and Helen answered it. A
voice at the other end of the line said :

"I'd like to speak to Master Charlie Taft, please."

"Somebody wants to speak to you, Charlie," said Helen.
Then sister-like she stood by to see who it was and what he
could possibly want with her unimportant younger brother.
She was surprised to hear this half of a very earnest con-
versation :

"Who said so?"

"Certainly not!"

"Well, somebody has been giving you misinformation."

"An absolute denial."

"Well, if you want to quote me exactly you may say that
I said the rumour is false; wholly without foundation."

"All right. Good-bye."

389

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

Helen was sufficiently startled to place Charlie under
cross-examination at once. She had visions of grave com-
plications wherein he played the unfortunate part of a Presi-
dent's son who had forgotten the rigid discretion exacted of
him by the nature of his position.

Charlie admitted that it was a reporter who had called
him up.

"Couldn't you tell that from the way I talked to him?"
said he.

He had heard enough such conversations to have acquired
the natural "tone," but he insisted that the subject of his
conversation with his reporter was "purely personal" and
had nothing whatever to do with his sister nor yet with any
matters of high importance to the Government.

The question had to be referred to the President, his
father, before he would admit that the reporter wanted to
write something about his going into long trousers.
> "And if that isn't a personal matter," said he, "I should
like to know what is."

To his intense delight, his "absolute denial" to the con-
trary notwithstanding, I fitted him out, kissed my baby
good-bye and sent a young man son oS to school in his stead,
feeling vaguely thankful that I should have until Christmas
to get used to the thought of him before having to see
him again.

Shortly afterward I rctumed to the White House and
to the routine of a social season. The Cabinet officers having
all gone to their respective homes we gave the Cabinet
Dinner with all its accustomed formalities, then came mus-
icals, luncheons, small dinners, teas and parties of various
sorts xmtil near the end of the year when I introduced my
daughter to society.

Helen had gone out in Washington and had attended my
entertainments during the winter of 1909 whenever she had
been at home from college and when I was ill had even acted

390

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

as hostess in my place at a dinner we gave for Prince and
Princess Fushimi of Japan, but she had never "come out,'*
so I gave two parties early in the winter of 1910 in honor
of her debut.

We began with an afternoon At Home, for which, as my
daughter says she "got all the flowers there were in Washing-
ton," and later I gave a ball on the night of December 30th,
when the East Room was filled with hundreds of young
people clamouring for "just one more dance" until two
o'clock in the morning.

The New Year's Reception was followed in quick succes-
sion by the Diplomatic, Congressional, Judicial and other
state functions; the winter passed like a dream; the Gar-
den Party season was upon us ; then came the greatest event
of our four years in the White House, our Silver Wedding.

Twenty-five years married and all but a single year of
it spent in the public service. It did not seem unfitting to me
that this anniversary should be spent in the White House or
that we should seek to make it an event not to be forgotten
by anybody who happened to witness it. I thanked the
happy fate that had given me a summer wedding-day be-
cause I needed all outdoors for the kind of party I wanted
to give. That silver was showered upon us imtil we were
almost buried in silver was incidental; we couldn't help it;
it was our twenty-fifth anniversary and we had to celebrate
it.

I am not going to try to remember or to take the trouble
to find out how many invitations we issued. I know there
were four or five thousand people present and that a more
brilliant throng was never gathered in this country.

It was a night garden party with such illuminations as are
quite beyond description. Every tree and bush was ablaze
with myriads of tiny coloured lights, the whole stately man-
sion was outlined in a bright white glow ; there were strings
of bobbing, fantastic lanterns wherever a string would go;

391

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

the great fountain was playing at its topmost hei^t in
every colour of the rainbow ; while on the gleaming point of
the Monument and on the flag stretched in the breeze from
the staff on the top of the White House shone the steady
gleam of two searchli^ts.

My husband and I received the almost endless line of
guests under a large tree about midway between the South
Portico and the fountain; the entire house was thrown open
and was filled constantly with people seeking the refresh-
ment tables laid in the dining rooms and vestibule. I have
a right to be enthusiastic in my memory of that party be-
cause without enthusiasm it could not have been given at all.
And why should not one be frankly grateful for success?

With the passing of another season, in no way different
from those that went before, I come to the end of my story.
There is another story to tell, longer and fuller, but it does
not belong to me. It belongs to the man whose career has
made my story worth the telling.

After Mr. Taft was renominated, or rather after the sec-
ond convention in Chicago when the Republican party was
divided, I began to make plans for the future in which the
White House played no part. I stopped reading the ac-
counts of the bitter political contest because I found that
the opposition newspapers made so much more impression
on me than those that were friendly to my husband that I
was in a state of constant rage which could do me no pos-
sible good.

Mr. Taft had never been subjected to bitter criticism and
wholesale attack until his term in the Presidency and I sup-
pose I had formed a habit of thinking that there was nothing
to criticise him for except, perhaps, his unfortunate shortcom-
ing of not knowing much and of caring less about the way
the game of politics is played. Such criticism of him as
Mr. Bryan's supporters were able to create for their use in
1908 amounted to nothing. His record of twenty years*

392

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

uncriticised service stood, and he stood on iL I think we
both avoided much perturbation after we became convinced
of the unfaimess and injustice of much that was said by
hostile newspapers, by not reading it. Mr. Taf t took much
satisfaction from those words of Lincoln's which Mr. Nor-
ton, his Secretary, had photographed and placed in a frame
on his office desk:

"If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks
made on me this shop might as well be closed for any other
business. I do the very best I know how — the very best I
can ; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end. If the
end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't
amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten
angels swearing I was right would make no difference."

I wanted him to be re-elected, naturally, but I never en-
tertained the slightest expectation of it and only longed for
the end of the turmoil when he could rest his weary mind
and get back into association with the pleasant things of
life. Fortunately we are a family that lau^. Both Mr.
Taf t and the children manage to get some fun out of almost
everything, and I and my matter-of-f actness have afforded
them life-long amusement. They like now to tell a story
about me which doesn't impress me as being particularly
funny.

During the last campaign I was at Beverly alone a good
part of the summer, but when Mr. Taft did join me for
short intervals he brought Republican Headquarters with
him, more or less, and a few political supporters were sure
to follow for consultation with him.

There was one good old enthusiastic friend who had al-
ways supported him and who was then making a valiant
fight in his behalf. And he had faith that they would win.
He assured me they would win. He told me how they were
going to do it, pointing out where Mr. Taft's strength lay
and telling me how kindly the people really felt toward him.

393

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

"Mrs. Taft, you mark my word," said he, "the President
will be re-elected in November !"

**Well," said I, **you may be right, but just the same I
intend to pack everything up when I leave Beverly, and I
shall take the linen and silver home."

• ••••*••

At a dinner given by the Lotos Club in New York, just
ten days after Mr. Wilson's election in 1912, Mr. Taft
said:

*The legend of the lotos eaters was that if they partook
of the fruit of the lotos tree they forgot what had happened
in their country and were left in a state of philosophic calm
in which they had no desire to return to it.

"I do not know what was in the mind of your distin-
guished invitation committee when I was asked to attend
this banquet. They came to me before election. At first
I hesitated to accept lest when the dinner came I should be
shorn of interest as a guest and be changed from an active
and virile participant in the day's doings of the Nation to
merely a dissolving view. I knew that generally on an oc-
casion of this sort the motive of the diners was to have a
guest whose society should bring them more closely into con-
tact with the great present and the future and not be merely
a reminder of what has been. But, after further considera-
tion, I saw in the name of your club the possibility that you
were not merely cold, selfish seekers after pleasures of your
own, and that perhaps you were organised to furnish omi-
solation to those who mourn, oblivion to those who would
forget, an opportunity for a swan song to those about to
disappear. • . .

"TTie Presidency is a great office to hold. It is a great
honour and it is surroimded with much that makes it full of
pleasure and enjoyment for the occupant, in spite of its
heavy responsibilities and the shining mark that it presents
for misrepresentation and false attack. ... Of course the

394

RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS

great and really the only lasting satisfaction that one can
have in the administration of the great office of President is
the thought that one has done something pemianently useful
to his fellow coimtrymen. The mere enjoyment of the
tinsel of ofRce is ephemeral, and imless one can fix one's
memory on real progress made through the exercise of pres-
idential power there is little real pleasure in the contempla-
tion of the holding of that or any other office, however great
its power or dignity or high its position in the minds of men.
"I beg you to believe that in spite of the very emphatic
verdict by which I leave the oflSce, I cherish only the deepest
gratitude to the American people for having given me the
honour of having held the office, and I sincerely hope in
looking back over what has been done that there is enough
of progress made to warrant me in the belief that real good
has been accomplished, even thou^ I regret that it has not
been greater. My chief regret is my failure to secure from
the Senate the ratification of the general arbitration treaties
with France and Great Britain. I am sure they would have
been great steps toward general world peace. What has
actually been done I hope has helped the cause of peace, but
ratification would have been a concrete and substantial step.
I do not despair of ultimate success. We must hope and
work on."

THE END

395

n^n 1 6 iP9<»

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