Presidents and Pies; Life in Wasington 1897–1919, by Isabel Anderson
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Library of Congress Presidents and pies; life in Wasington 1897–1919, by Isabel Anderson. Presidents and Pies A PRESIDENT AND A PIE PRESIDENT TAFT AT A RED CROSS LUNCH AT FORT MYER PRESIDENTS AND PIES Life in Washington 1897–1919 BY ISABEL ANDERSON With Illustrations LC BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The Riverside Press Cambridge 1920 COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY ISABEL ANDERSON ALL RIGHTS RESERVED LC APR -5 1920 20-6432 ©CLA566480 DEDICATED WITH MUCH LOVE TO MY SISTER ELSIE McMILLAN WITH WHOM I ASSOCIATE MY EARLY DAYS IN WASHINGTON FOREWORD Presidents and pies; life in Wasington 1897–1919, by Isabel Anderson. http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.06432 Library of Congress A celebrated novelist once said, “If you write from the outside, you will soon reach the end of your material, but if you write from the inside, you can continue forever — you are never written out. It is like drawing on a well which is fed from an inexhaustible spring.” But yet, though I have written more travel books than fairy stories, I have hopes that my well will never prove empty. No doubt it will need to be replenished, but twenty years in Washington, with its statesmen and diplomats, with its people from all over the world, with its wars and its crises, ought to furnish some underground spring. At any rate, I shall send the bucket down and see what is brought up. I am anxious to record my memories of old Washington before the World War, as well as the changes brought about by it, for we all feel that many of the changes have come to stay, and that the city will never be quite the same again. I started out simply to tell a little of the life in the Capital during the administrations of the last viii four executives, ending with the war-time canteen here; in other words, to talk of Presidents and Pies, but as I ramble on, there are more I's than pies and more parties than politics. Unlike a recent autobiographer, I shall not skip a decade or so without a word of explanation. If there are gaps and empty spaces in this narrative, it is because my notes were taken at varying intervals and must be considered more or less fragmentary. For a time we lived in Brussels and Japan, for eight months during the present war I worked in France and Belgium Libre, and throughout several administrations the spring saw us taking trips or returning to our country place in Brookline. “What's the point in writing a book about your home town?” asked an interested friend. “To get yourself into trouble? Rather risky to write about Washington when you live there, it seems to me.” She added suggestively, “And it's your thirteenth book, too, is n't it?” “Well, it may be risky,” I answered, “but I'll run the chance, for it is n't my thirteenth book, but the fourteenth, you see, so the hoodoo must be lifted.” ix Presidents and pies; life in Wasington 1897–1919, by Isabel Anderson. http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.06432 Library of Congress Nevertheless, I realize that I have undertaken a delicate task. Some people who have not been mentioned may wish they had, and some who have been mentioned may wish they had n't. Moreover, some of the caricatures and comments on human frailties may not be appreciated. But at least my conscience is clear, for it has all been done in a kindly spirit and without malice, wishing no man ill and all men well. I want to thank Miss Katherine K. Crosby and Miss Esther Bates for helping me collect my scattered notes, and also the National Magazine for allowing me to reprint several articles. CONTENTS I. Looking Back 1 II. “ A Red Torch flared above His Head” 24 III. Rough Rider and Buccaneer 46 IV. Parties and Politics 71 V. Enter Mr. Taft 98 VI. Sundry Visitings and Visitations 126 VII. Cruising and Campaigning 148 VIII. Divers Democrats 165 IX. Allied Missions 185 X. Pies 202 XI. A Topsy-Turvy Capital 226 Presidents and pies; life in Wasington 1897–1919, by Isabel Anderson. http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.06432 Library of Congress XII. Royalties Arrive 257 ILLUSTRATIONS A President and a Pie: President Taft at a Red Cross Lunch at Fort Myer Frontispiece Dining-Room, Anderson House, Washington 8 Tennis Cabinet Diploma 28 The President's Birthday Party: A Fantasy 32 Drawn by John T. McCutcheon Moss and Shells from Florida: Weld Garden 52 Outdoor Stage: Weld Garden 64 The Duke of the Abruzzi 76 Caricature by Morgan Dennis Thomas Nelson Page 80 Caricature by Clary Ray Where the Duke Lunched: Weld Garden 84 Captain Archibald Butt 106 Caricature by Clary Ray Presidents and pies; life in Wasington 1897–1919, by Isabel Anderson. http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.06432 Library of Congress General Clarence R. Edwards 106 Caricature by Clary Ray Andrew J. Peters 112 Caricature by Clary Ray Nicholas Longworth 112 Caricature by Clary Ray Larz Anderson: A Diplomat 116 A Newspaper Caricature xiv Rear-Admiral William Sheffield Cowles 124 Caricature by Clary Ray Commander (now Rear-admiral) Albert P. Niblack 124 Caricature by Clary Ray Dancer in Miss Porter's Play at Weld, 1916 134 Presidential Golf 150 A Newspaper Cartoon Nicholas Longworth's Dilemma 158 Drawn by Mrs. Bellamy Storer, 1910 Presidents and pies; life in Wasington 1897–1919, by Isabel Anderson. http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.06432 Library of Congress A Sweet Dream of Peace: A Preparedness Cartoon 166 Drawn by W. A. Rogers Visit of Marshal Joffre and Mme. Joffre to King Albert and Queen Elizabeth at their Villa near the Belgian Front, March 21, 1918 190 Canteen Workers 206 A Red Cross Traveling Kitchen 206 Ball-Room, Anderson House, Washington 226 Gallery, Anderson House, Washington 260 The King of the Belgians 270 Caricature by Morgan Dennis The Queen of the Belgians 278 The Prince of Wales 284 Caricature by Morgan Dennis The Pershing Parade, September 15, 1919 288 Photograph from an Aeroplane Presidents and Pies PRESIDENTS AND PIES CHAPTER I Looking Back Presidents and pies; life in Wasington 1897–1919, by Isabel Anderson. http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.06432 Library of Congress In Washington there is always something new under the sun. No other place is just like it in this respect — perhaps our republican form of government with its constant changes is responsible. Prominent men arrive, take up their duties for a time and depart again; only the Justices of the Supreme Court remain for life. Watching the administrations come and go, we have seen no two alike, what with the shifting group of foreign envoys and the men whom our own States send here to represent them. Influenced by climate and the various racial strains that people their part of the country, the Senators and Congressmen are strongly differentiated — descendants of Kentucky mountaineers, New England seafaring men, Nebraska pioneers, Florida Crackers — men of the North and the South and the East and the West, met together here to frame laws, and incidentally 2 to make the Capital the most interesting city in America. There are many points of view from which to write about Washington — indeed, no two people would be likely to describe it in the same way. I am no historian to dive into Congressional archives, no politician to record the disputes of House and Senate, no diplomat, no sociologist, humorist, nor reformer. Mine is the point of view of one who has lived here for twenty years and who has met and listened to the “Senators, honorables, judges, generals, commodores, governors, and the ex's of all these, as thick as pick-pockets at a horse-race or women at a wedding in church . ambassadors, plenipotentiaries, lords, counts, barons, chevaliers, and the great and small fry of legations” who make the life here so varied and fascinating. Some politics, a touch of history, a dash of description, with a flavor of social affairs — such are the ingredients of my “pie,” which, whatever its faults, I hope may not sit heavily on the reader's digestion. Of all the cities in the country, Washington is the one where the social life is most important. This is true, obviously, of any capital, for 3 such a regîme is absolutely necessary for carrying on much of the diplomatic and political business of the nation. But it is especially true of Washington, where there are only a few first-class restaurants or theaters, and little good art or music. To be sure, an artist may appear for a few weeks Presidents and pies; life in Wasington 1897–1919, by Isabel Anderson. http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.06432 Library of Congress to paint some political celebrity, and we do have a week of opera in the spring, the Philadelphia orchestra and the Boston Symphony occasionally come, and singers give concerts now and then in halls or private houses; but that is about all. As a consequence, one dines out continually. This gives people a chance to see each other under the pleasantest circumstances, and affairs of state and of international importance may be talked over informally and in that best of humors which comes after a good dinner. The diplomat secures most of his information or quietly spreads his propaganda either at table or afterwards in the smoking-room. When official conferences are held, a certain procedure and precedence have to be maintained, and the appointment is sure to be published or made subject to surmise.