WOODROW WILSON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1022, 12 November 1912, Page 4

WOODROW WILSON.

BOYHOOD OF THE PRESIDENT.

No city iu the country is more intimately connected with the history or “Tommy” Wilson than is Columbia, U.S.A. It was there that his father Dr. Joseph Wilson, a minister ot the Southern Presbyterian Church, brought his family in 1870, to accept in the Southern Presbyterian Theological Seminary the chair of Pastoral and Evangelical Theology, During his four years there he also acted as supply minister of the First Presbyterian Church. It was here that young “Tommy” a tall lad of 14, attended the famous old “Barnwell Academy” preparatory to entering college. He was never known by the name of “Woodrow,” but simply as “Tommy.” And to all the old inhabitants “Tommy” he will be to the end of the chapter. When on the afternoon of July and the news of Woodrow Wilson’s triumph came, the word went around ; “Tommy won ! Hurrah (or Tommy !” “Know Tommy Wilson !” said Pringle Yoemaus, one of Columbia’s attorneys. “Why, sure, I used to go to school with him at Barnwell’s school. He was a nice boy, too; good common sense and good judgment, and always exceedingly practical. Yes, he was bright enough at his books, but Tommy didn’t frighten any of us iu those days with fears of his early death from overwork or too much piety! He was just an ordinary boy like the rest cf us — only it seems now as if he wasn’t!” One old lady who was a teacher in the Sunday school he attended exclaimed regretfully when she was told of Wilson’s nomination : “If I’d only known Tommy Wilson was going to be President I’d have noticed him more particularly when he went to Sunday school! But how wa« I to kuow such a thing ? He always was such a nice boy, and always had beautiful manners, even as a little fellow. I remember he never forgot to pull off his cap to ladies and say, ‘Yes, ma’am.’ Old Dr. Wilson was a regular old Chesterfield himself, and he brought up his boys very strictly. He was mowing the lawn with lilac kid gloves on when he first met Miss Jessie Woodrow, and it tickled her so she fell in love with him on the spot. I don’t mean Tommy had on lilac kid gloves ; it was Tommy’s father, old Dr. Wilson. “The old man was mighty punctilious, and he was very particular about his son’s manners. He always taught them to pull their hats off to ladies and old gentlemen, and to stand up when ladies came into the room, and to hold a chair for a lady when she sat down. Tommy had beautiful manners —it’s more than the young men have now. But I never noticed anything else special about him, except that he seemed a very kind-hearted boy and was always lovely to his sisters, and didn’t tease and torment them as most boys do. He always seemed veryproud of them, especially of Annie, they two always were sorts of chums. Well, we’re all mighty proud of Tommy now.” All Columbia is “proud of Tommy” now, and there are many spots iu the old city that are to-day being pointed out as intimately associated with Tommy’s own life or with that of his family. They all seem to stand out from the rest of the town now—all because they belong to “Tommy” or “Tommy's folks” or because “Tommy” once belonged to them.

First and foremost is the old house in which Tommy lived during his boyhood days here, the old house on the corner of Hampton and Henderson Streets, now owned by J. M. Van Meter. Here it was, on the wide lawn, and in the still more enchanting “back yard,” that young Tommy, always an imaginative child, played his “makeup games” with his young brother, Joseph, the favourite ot these being “Pirates,” the inventive mind of the older brother furnishing the South Pacific Ocean as setting, and adventures as wild and dangerous as any of Captain Kidd’s for action.

About this time Tommy was devouring Cooper’s sea tales and Marryatt’s yarns, and though he had never seen any but a toy ship and never been near the ocean, his mind had grappled with the whole nautical science so lar as concerned his games, and he knew and understood the name ol every class or type of sailing ship, and the name, place and use of every spar, sheet and shroud. He himself was an admiral, sent out to investigate with his fleet —his younger brother —the ravages being done to traffic in the Pacific seas ; and many and

varied were their adventures. Every adventure was clearly set forth iu the admiral’s daily “report,” each adventure leading up logically to the next, The struggle of “Admiral” Wilson with the South Sea pirates was no less real to the boy than are affairs of state to the man.

Besides the old boyhood home there is in the same neighbourhood the ancient Columbia Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where “Tommy’s” father, Dr. Joseph Wilson, taught from 1870 to 1874. This is a very beautiful square of four acres in the heart of the city, where most of the “old time” friends of the Wilson family reside. A picturesque grove of native pine trees, remnants of the virgin forests, form a striking setting for the quaint old college buildings. Stretched on the grass beneath Tommy spent much of his time iu boyhood, always with a book before him, for he was a tireless reader from early childhood. But he was also, as his schoolmates love to remember now, “a typical boy,” and he often indulged his love for climbing trees by scrambling up into the branches of a group of luxurious magnolias after the great snowy blossoms. Another spot where youug Tommy sometimes climbed magnolia trees was iu the gardens of his uncle, Dr James Woodrow, whose old brick residence is still standing at the corner of Sumter and Washington Streets. Dr James Woodrow, the brother of Woodrow Wilson’s mother, Jessie Woodrow, was himself a famous scientist, and he astounded and scandalised the Southern Presbyterian Church by teaching modern biological truths along with theology and advancing the now accepted theory of “evolution.” For many years “Tommy” was famous only as Dr Jrncs Woodrow’s nephew. Mrs Felie Woodrow, the widow of Tommy’s uncle, still lives in the old brick mansion with her daughter Marion. Of course, the fame of her husband’s nephew is a very pleasing thing to “Aunt Felie.” Her joy in “Tommy’s” final triumph was a pretty thing to see.

“I just couldn’t have stood the strain much longer,” she said. “I didn’t see how Tommy could win against such odds. I never dreamed that he was anything but just an ordinary, nice, good little boy. 1 was astonished enough when he published his first book. Tne idea of Tommy writing a book that anybody could actually publish ! And now he may be the President. I hope he wins. However, he has won a great victory already.”

But there is another home in Columbia much more closely and intimately associated with Woodrow Wilson’s life than Aunt Felie’s present dwelling-place, and that is “the old Howe house,” on the corner of Bland ing and Picken Streets, for this house was for many years the home of Mrs George Howe (now Mrs Annie Wilson Cothran, of Raleigh, N.C.), Woodrow Wilson’s favourite sister ; and Woodrow Wilsou spent many long weeks there on visits to his sister, both during boyhood and since his manhood, ■young Annie Josephine Wilson was a noted belle and beauty. The intimacy between this brother and sister was always peculiarly close, the older sister, Marion, dying rather early in life. It was to Tommy that his sister instinctively turned in her widowhood, and he has been ever since a second father to her children, Wilson, George, and little Annie, supervising personally the education of his two nephews, and in countless ways helping his sister iu their youthful training, even giving to the younger of the two, George, a home iu his own bouse throughout his entire college course at Princetown, and fathering the little Annie even to the extent of giving her away last December two years ago, when she was married from his home iu Princetown to Perrin Cothran, of Raleigh.