FAMOUS MEN.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5440, 26 June 1929, Page 1

FAMOUS MEN.

SOME HUMVN STORIES. TOLD BY HOUSEKEEPERS. Probably if Hie housekeepers of famous men could be persuaded to write their true histories the world would be provided with some pculiarly human stories that historians always seem to miss (states a writer in the “Dominion”). For instance, Mrs Jaffray, for 17 years housekeeper of the White House, the official residence of United States Presidents, sums up the various Presidents that she has served. Taft, she said, was the bestnatured President; Wilson was the kindest ; and Harding the best-dress-ed. Mrs 'Taft was the tiniest first lady of the land ; Mrs Wilson the most motherly, and the second Mrs Wilson most affectionate. Mrs Harding had the loveliest clothes, and Mrs Coolidge was ostensibly the happiest. Two pictures that most readiiy come into her mind are of President Wilson as a broken-hearted man kneeling beside the bed of his sick wife, begging her to eat just a little food. Tne other picture is of President Tai t sitting beside bis wife after she had lost the power of speech, following an illness, saying over and over again to her, “Now, please, darling, try and say ‘the’—that’s it, ‘the.’ That’s pretty good, but now try it again.” Some historians make great statesmen appear just a little inhuman. Perhaps that is why history is so difficult to remember.