Bewooralit ata,
Bellefonte, Pa., November 2, 1928
THE UNHAPPY STORY OF MARY
TODD, THE WOMAN LINCOLN
LOVED.
(Continued from page 2, Col. 6.)
Sumner was well informed as to
what Edmunds was doing. He knew
that Edmunds had sent into the inner
«circles and the byways of Washing-
‘ton and was calling hs his com-
‘mittee a multitude of the scandal-
mongers who had made Mary Lin-
coln’s life wretched while she was in
‘the White House. Sumner did not
believe that Edmunds would dare to
embody the gossip in his report and
he hoped rather against hope that the
very venom of the gossipers would
prove their absurdity to the eight
other men who formed the committee.
Each day until the 13th of June
.Sumner asked for the report without
result, asked for it so regularly that
there developed a sort of rite—Sum-
ner rising and putting his request in
his courtly way; a hiss from the gal-
lery; Edmunds slowly getting to his
feet and deliberately making an ex-
«cuse that deceived no one; a patter
.of handclapping from the gallery; and
‘the gavel brought down by the Vice-
President.
But on the 13th, Edmunds gave his
report.
The Committee recommended that
the pension to Mary Lincoln be refus-
ed. Their reasons were concise. Lin-
coln was a civil and not a military of-
ficer and his death occurred in the
civil walks of life. Only the families
of soldiers should be allowed pen-
sions. Moreover, there was nothing
to distinguish this case from that of
other civil officers who had lost their
lives in the performance of their pub-
lic duties. The Committee had found
that Mrs. Lincoln was not destitute.
The Committee had “good reason to
nso —
think that after Mr. Lincoln’s death |
she received no inconsiderable amount
.of clothing, plate, household goods,
ete., which should be considered” in
relation to the case. The report
wound up with the statement that the
Committee was in possession of other
facts regarding Mrs. Lincoln which
clinched their resolve not to recom-
mend the pension.
The report was accepted without
debate and Sumner’s first bout was
lost.
He now had measured the depth of
Edmund’s opposition and was deter-
mined that his next bill should not
get into the hands of the clever Ver-
monter. Three weeks later he intro-
duced a new bill, this time for $3,000,
and then set all his skill in motion to
prevent its being referred to Ed-
mund’s committee. Cameron backed
him in this and so did Morton of In-
diana and Howard of Michigan, but
Sumner was father, mother and nurse
to the bill. He gave the Senate no
rest.
But Edmunds was as famous an
obstructionist as Sumner was an ag-
.gressor. People from all over the
country wrote to the Senator from
Massachusetts protesting against his
attempt to waste the public moneys on
Mrs. Lincoln. Even some of his distin-
‘guished friends, one of them, Lydia
Maria Child, a member of that group
.of noble women of whom he had
spoken to Mary years before, called
him to account for his action. Sum-
ner was courteous but unmoved. And
the fight went on in the Senate.
“I wish to call the honorable mem-
bers’ attention to the fact that a bill
granting a pension to Mrs. Mary Lin-
coln is before us. It has been too
long before us.” This from Sumner.
Senator Tipton of Nebraska. “I ob-
ject.”
Senator Sumner: “Will not my
friend allow me to plead with him
that a vote be taken?”
Senator Tipton: “I will not.
shall not vote in Senator Edmunds’s
absence.”
Senator Morrill: “I am bitterly op-
posed to paying three thousand dol-
lars. 1 propose to strike out three
thousand dollars and insert five dol-
lars per day. We should not pay her
enough to educate a brilliant boy
abroad. In my judgment he had bet-
ter be educated over here than abroad
where he will not be brought up un-
der the principles of his father.”
Sumner: “I would remind the gen-
tleman that he is speaking of the
wife of Abraham Lincoln.”
Senator Cameron: “Tut! Tut! Tut!”
Thus day succeeded day and month
followed month. As the winter of
1869-70 came on, the bill assumed a
.deep significance in Sumner’s mind.
He was getting on in years, though
he still looked to be in his prime. He
was fifty-eight. He had lived life
deeply though splendidly, and he had
learned some important things. One
of these was that one must gage the
possibility of success of any big en-
terprise by measuring the characters
of its protagonists. If Americans in
bulk were grasping and gullible, then
the fighting he had done for twenty
years was wasted.
This struggle became very import-
ant to him. And—an added incentive
—he was very lonely. It comforted
him to be fighting for a woman.
On the morning of July 9, 1870,
he wiped the sweat from his face,
tossed the great mane of grizzled
hair back from his forehead and rose
in his place in the Senate. One fine
hand, the same hand that had brought
Mary Lincoln the teacup at Fort
Wayne, rested on his hip in a famil-
iar gesture of defiance. But he
spoke gently and as if bringing up
a new matter.
“A bill for the pension for Mrs.
Lincoln was introduced at the last
Congress. It failed. During the first
week of the present Congress, now
more than a year ago, 1 introduced
another bili. I plead with the honor-
able members to act upon it.
Senator McCreery of Kentucky
rose. “Three of our Presidents have
died during their term of service. In
each instance I believe Congress vot-
ed one year’s salary to their wives.
Their wives, it is true, were domes-
tic ladies and did not choose to travel
in Europe. If Mrs. Lincoln chooses
to do so I am the last man who would
criticize her taste. But I am the last
man to tax the people for its indul-
You |:
Carolina has a circulation of less than
one dollar to the inhabitant. Is she
to be called upon for part of that,
that Mrs. Lincoln may give more
freely to the beggars of Europe?”
“I find this discussion indelicate,”
i cried Senator Fenton of New York.
“Mrs. Lincoln may have been indis-
creet, she may have forfeited a meas-
ure of the respect due one in her
position. Grant it. But still she is
the widow of Lincoln.”
That this damning with faint praise
might not go unnoted, Senator Sauls-
bury of Delaware added his mite. “I
was no friend personal or political
of Lincoln. I believed his adminis-
tration disastrous. I believe it unfor-
tunate that any such man ever lived
as President. And yet if Lincoln’s
widow is in want I am willing to con-
tribute with other Senators from my
private purse for her relief.”
Yates of Illinois uttered so loud a
groan that he immediately obtained
the floor. “Sir, there are recollec-
tions and memories, sad, silent and
deep, which induce me to vote against
this bill. Amid all the perils of life,
amid good and evil report, a woman
should be true to her husband. Mr.
President, this occasion does not re-
quire and I shall not go into details.
But there are reasons why I cannot
vote for this bill.”
Saulsbury rose. Sumner tried to
interrupt him, but the Southerner
would nat be denied his chance to
give a covert insult to Lincoln’s wife.
He made this priceless effort:
“I know nothing of Mrs. Lincoln’s
character . . . In my eye she stands
today just as lovely, as amiable and
pure as though she were the widow
of a Democratic President, around
whom my hopes clustered and my
warmest affections turned. While I
am opposed to any act of her hus-
band »
At this point, Sumner whispered to
Cameron. The Senator from Penn-
sylvania took the floor quickly. He
had listened te the efforts of Yates
and Saulsbury with undisguised dis-
i gust.
| “A great deal of opposition to thi
| bill arises from prejudices, politica
{ prejudice and social prejudice, got up
{in this city. When Mr. Lincoln and
{ his family came here, the society of
Washington was very adverse to him
or to any other Republican family
who might come here, and they were
in a great measure ostracized. The
ladies and even the gentlemen, the
gossips of the town did all they could
to try to make a bad reputation for
Mrs. Lincoln and tried to do so for
the President. His career was so
extraordinary, he was such an extra-
ordinary man that they could not
destroy him but they will carry their
venom so far as to destroy the social
position of his wife. I do not want to
talk, and I say, let us vote!”
“Aye, let us vote, Mr. President!”
said Sumner, quickly and a little
wearily. It was noon now, a July
noon in Washington with heat that
dragged like leaden weights on every
motion. “Aye, let us vote.” He
paused and lifted his head; his glor-!
lous voice swept the great room like
an organ. “Surely the honorable
members of the Senate must be weary
of casting mud on the garments of
the wife of Lincoln: those same gar-'
ments on” whi¢h = one terrible night,
five years ago, gushed out the blood
and brains of Abraham Lincoln. She
sat beside him in the theater and she |
received that pitiful, that holy deluge ,
on her hands and skirts because she!
was chosen companion of his heart.
She loved him. I speak of that which |
I know. He had all her love and Lin- |
coln loved—as only his mighty heart |
could love—Mary Lincoln. Let us
vote.”
There was utter silence for a full
minute on the floor and in the gal- |
lery. No one hissed. The gavel did |
not fall. Then -the honorable mem- |
bers, in a hush, as if the coffin of Lin- |
coln lay in their midst, voted. |
The result stood, yeas 28, nays 20,
absent 24.
Sumner had won the fight.
Mary, in Frankfort, received from
one of those curious-minded friends '
who always keep one informed of evil
reports, a full account of the Senate !
fight. She wrote Sumner several let- .
ters of deepest gratitude. But the
viciousness of the Senate debate rob-
bed the pension of any aura of na-
tional graciousness.
Mary, by this time, had lost the
power of feeling surprise at any show
of bad taste in the public attitude
toward her. Still, as she made her
preparations for returning to Amer-
ica, she was conscious of a sense of
wonder that the men of the Senate,
though without bowels of compassion
for Lincoln’s wife, showed not some
shadow of decent feeling for his two
sons. Robert was suffering torment
from the Senate reports. Tad, while
in Europe, was partially sheltered
from knowledge. But what little he
learned made the boy almost frantic.
She delayed her return for many
weeks. Finally it was the thought
that she was as much the widow of
a soldier as Mrs. U. S. Grant ever
could be, that enabled her to make
the start. She reached here at last,
not with chin up as Abraham Lin-
coln’s wife had every right to come
home, but shrinking, wondering when
the next blow would fall.
She went back to Chicago, glad to
be among her own. Tad at eighteen
was now the center of her existence,
for Bob was married and living his
own successful life. Tad’s health was
a ceaseless source of anxiety to her.
He never had been strong. Early in
July he went to bed with typhoid fev-,
er. On the morning of the 15th, in
violent agony, he passed away.
“Baby Eddie, Willie, Tad, Abr’am!
There is a curse on me,” Mary told
her sister Elizabeth, who sought to
comfort her. “You ought to pray
that I be taken now to my husband
and children.”
But life had not yet finished with
little Mary Todd. Bit by bit there re-
vived in her her old love of things of
the mind. She turned back to books
and study. She was fifty-three now,
but clothes, even mourning clothes,
mattered much to her and she took
an interest in them.
She lived in shrinking seclusion,
sensitive to every misinterpretation,
vet gossip sought her out even when
' Baby Eddie usea to draw what he
- that would have meant the very bread
them twenty years before.
| came President, she sustained her new
she went abroad to spend a winter in
Paris or London.
ing a picture in her little salon in
Paris, she slipped and fell, injuring
her spine. She suffered a great deal
from the inflammation that followed,
but she managed to keep about, and
to get back to Springfield, still show-
ing her interest in fashion, for she
had displaced the crinoline with the
wonders of the bustle!
Robert was making progress in pol-
itics—a son of whom to be proud, and
Mary was proud of him, but to her
sensitive eyes a career in politics was
a course to be viewed with acute anx-
iety. Those ghastly years in the
White House had broken her nerve.
She worried about Bob and about her
old age. If she was to be an invalid,
she would be a burden to her rela-
tives and she hated the thought.
Elizabeth laughed at her. “You
don’t picture yourself properly, Mary.
You don’t realize that in spite of all
you've been through, you're still the
best company in the world. I think
if a locomotive ran over you, you'd |
still be a spitfire, still have some-'!
thing funny to say.”
They were driving to the station :
in Springfield when Mrs. Edwards |
said this. Mary was going to get |
treatments for her back. She was
looking delicate, but her eyes were
still lovely and her skin soft as a
child’s.
She shook her head. “Abr’am and
Willie were the humorists of our fam-
ily. Willie used to tell jokes when
he was only fiv:. For that matter,
called funny pictures and chuckle with :
rapture over them. He was the im-
age of his father when he lay in his
little casket.” She looked up, caught
her sister's long face and smiled.
“I’m making you out a liar, poor Eliz-
abeth. Wait till I get back from New
York! I really can’t be funny now.
My back feels like—oh, do you re-
member old black Zeb, our gardener
in Lexington, when he had the ‘mis-
ery?’ He and I are twin souls now.”
And as Elizabeth helped her from
the phaeton, Mary doubled over,
screwed her face up in one of her,
marvelous impersonations and as the
image of the old darky she left her |
sister on the station platform, help-
less with laughter. '
The New York doctor couldn’t cure !
her poor back, and after a few weeks
Mary returned to Springfield and
went to bed. i
She was sick now, helpless at last’
and at last giving way to her fears. |
She thought, that poverty finally had
claimed her for its own and she be-
lieved that Bob, now Secretary of
War, was about to be assassinated. |
" All her old gaiety and all her sense
of humor could not “help her now. |
But this state did not last long. Fate
at last finished with tormenting her. |
On the morning of July 16, 1882, |
came a blessed stroke of paralysis |
and at eight o'clock that night she |
died. They laid her in the room !
where, forty years before, Lincoln |
had made her his wife.
On the morning of the 17th, news- |
papers all over the country announced
her death. Many of them made oc-
casion for raking up old stories about
her. But the New York Times and
the New York Tribune paid tributes
of Heaven to Mary had they made
Too late!
Yet because one would do them |
justice, it is fair to tell here some of
the things they said. The Tribune
spoke of her loyalty and her kindness
of heart. adding, “After Lincoln be-
position with intelligence and dignity.
She never received the credit due her.
There probably never was an occupant
of the White House so persistently
slandered and maligned . . .”
The Times added its tardy truth.
“In a war atmosphere like that which
enveloped the White House, nothing
but the strongest conjugal affection
could have maintained even a shadow
of domestic happiness. But it is a
matter of record that Lincoln in his
homely phrase constantly referred to
his home and his family, his wife and
boys, and to his daily domestic con-
cerns with real enjoyment and with
the unaffected simplicity of a villag-!'
er who never had dreamed of power
or greatness.
give those slanderous tongues which
maligned the wife of the President,
who idolized and worshiped her hus-
band. These fantastic inventions,
gence. The good old State of North! In the winter of 1879, while hang-
2
ie mnie
It is not easy to for-!
71-16-tf
LUMBER?
Oh, Yes!
W.R. Shope Lumber Co.
Lumber, Sash, Doors, Millwork and Roofing
Call Bellefonte 432
Don’t Eat Raw Pork.
A warning has been issued by Dr.
J. Moore Campbell, chief of the bu-
reau of communicable diseases, State
Health Department, regarding the
hazardous practice of eating uncook-
ed pork and pork products.
“At this season of the year hogs
are butchered at home for family con-
sumption.” “Those preparing the
meat and its products, especially dur-
ing the mixing of sausage, frequent-
ly consume some of this material
while still in the raw state. Others ATTORNEYS-AT-LAW
are likely to use smoked sausage as FE sas
food without first subjecting it to the Law, Bellefonte, Pa. Practices is
re. : all courts. Office, room 18 Crider’s
“These practices,” he asserted, | Exchange. 61-1y
“carry the possibility of infection KENNEDY JOHNSTON. —Attorney-at-
whie
The
from the trichinois parasite,
sometimes is found in hogs.
Department’s records of last year
showed a score of serious cases, di-
rectly traceable to this source, one of
which resulted in death. With the
use of ordinary precaution, not one of
these infections need have occurred.”
Jon L.
born of a time prolific of chimeras |
and phantasms are now laid to rest |
with the unhappy lady whose last |
years have been filled with so much
to make life a burden.
away saying ‘Surely no sorrow is like
unto my sorrow!’ ”—Hearst’s Inter-
national Cosmopolitan.
A Chance to Go to Annapolis.
J. Mitchell Chase, a member of
Congress from this district, announ-
ces that arrangements have been
made with the U. 8S. Civil Service
Commission to hold a preliminary
competitive examination on Novem-
ber 17, 1928, for the selection of one
midshipman for the Naval Academy
in 1929. Owing to the large number |
of applicants, Congressman Chase
has decided that this will be the fair-
est plan, as it will give every candi-
date an equal chance.
Candidates must be of good moral
character, residents of the 23rd Penn-
sylvania Congressional District, phys-
ically sound, and between the ages
of 16 and 20.
Those receiving the highest grades,
as certified to Congressman Chase by
the Civil Service Commission, will be
nominated as principal and alternates
to take the regular examination for
entrance next spring.
The examination may be taken on
the above date, either at the post of-
fice at Clearfield or Bradford, Pa., at
9a m.
As the Civil Service Commission
must be notified not later than No-
vember 5th of prospective candidates,
it is requested that all candidates
notify Congressman Chase of their
intention before that date, when they
will be furnished with complete in-
formation how to proceed. Please be
sure to state whether you expect to
take the test at Clearfield or Brad-
ford, also give the exact date of your
birth.
Address all communications to J.
Mitchell Chase, House of Representa-
tives, Washington, D
She went,
Republican Nominee
FOR
House of Representatives
THE
If re-elected my future aim shall be, as it has
been in the past, to discharge all the duties of my
office without fear or favor.
I shall not forget that it will be my duty to
under it at all times.
stand by the Constitution and the laws framed
In no other way can the interests of the County
be better conserved or advanced.
Political Advertisement
P. L. Beezer Estate.....Meat Market
NO MEAL COMPLETE
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Hams, of course, fresh or cured;
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Telephone 667
Market on the Diamond
Bellefonte, Penna.
2]
Law, Bellefonte, Pa. Prompt at-
tention given all legal business em-
trusteed to hiis care. Offices—No. 5, East
High street. 57-44
M. KEICHLINE. — Attorney-at-Law
and Justice of the Peace. All pro-
fessional business will receive
| prompt attention. Offices on second floor
of Temple Court. 49-5-1y
G. RUNKLE.—Attorney-at-Law, Con-
sultation in English and German.
Office in Crider’s Exchange, Belle-
fonte, Pa. 58-8
PHYSICIANS
R. R. L. CAPERS.
OSTEOPATH.
Bellefonte State College
Crider’'s Ex. 66-11 Holmes Bldg.
S. GLENN, M. D. Physician and
Surgeon, State College, Centre
county, Pa. Office at his residences.
D. CASEBEER, Optometrist.—Regls-
tered and licensed by the State.
Eyes examined, glasses fitted. Sat-
isfaction guaranteed. Frames replaced
and leases matched. Casebeer Bldg., High
St., Bellefonte, Pa. 71-2
VA B. ROAN, Optometrist, Licensed by
the State Board. State College,
every day except Saturday,
Bellefonte, in the Garbrick building op-
posite the Court House, Wednesday after-
noons from 2 to 8 p. m. and Saturdays
ia. m. to 430 p. m. Bell Phone 68-40
|
FEEDS!
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