Busy Cupid at White House in New Conquest
Title
Busy Cupid at White House in New Conquest
Creator
Unknown
Identifier
WWP20888
Date
1915 October 24
Source
Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia
Language
English
Text
CUPID, with his silent darts, has pierced the hearts of nearly every member of the intimate White House circle.President Wilson capitulated to the artful warrior against single blessedness, and before this romance of the chief executive culminated two other members of the president’s household were wooed by the sweet notes of the god of love. While Mars ruled the nations abroad, the small wearer of the bow and arrow was winning his battles in the White House.
In his visits to the White House and into the hearts and minds of the occupants thereof the winged messenger had two attractive and pleasing accomplices in Dr. Cary Travers Grayson, physician to the president, and his most intimate companion, and Miss Isabella Hagner, social secretary at the White House. Their services no longer needed, Cupid turned his darts upon them, bringing down the latter and wounding the former.
In no other administration has Cupid been so active, so successful in his work, as in the present. He has literally built his altar of love within the old, historic mansion that has been the scene of so much sorrow and tragedy, in the years that it has housed the presidents of the United States.
He drove from the heart of its chief executive all thoughts of war, carried away the two Misses Wilson, the social secretary, and, according to report, has about won in his assault upon the third Miss Wilson, Miss Margaret, the last unmarried member of the Wilson family.
If gossip be true, love’s winged crusader will soon fly from the field, with the expected announcement of the engagement of Dr. Grayson to Miss Alice Gertrude Gordon, ward of Mrs. Galt, the president’s affianced.
In less than three years two marriages have taken place in the White House; the president is soon to wed; Miss Hagner will desert her duties as social secretary for married life—and to this quartet of White House marriages, this active little administration cupid says he has two more couples to add to the happy group.
This administration has had its share of trouble, big international problems, domestic politics and war looming on the horizon for weeks after the Lusitania was sunk. Yet it has been replete with romance, love, and match-making, of which the end is not yet. The marriage of President Wilson to Mrs. Norman Galt will be the third marriage of a president of the United States during his term. President Tyler was the first and Grover Cleveland the second. Sorrow threw its sombre figure over the White House last year, when Mrs. Wilson died. But Cupid has brushed aside the gloom caused thereby, and the stork visiting the White House contributed its share to the romance and life within the big edifice overlooking the Potomac.
A page from Cupid’s diary of his doings in the White House reads:“First tried my darts upon Miss Jessie Wilson. Succeeded beautifully. She was married to Francis Bowes Sayre, now living happily at Williamstown. Boy born to couple in the White House; named Francis B. Sayre, Jr.
President Wilson becoming a grandfather, attends christening and seems happy. Think I will try him soon.
“Secretary McAdoo is coming within my powers. His is playing on the tennis court with Miss Eleanor Wilson. My darts went true and trim. They were married, to the surprise of many of their friends. Miss Eleanor Wilson McAdoo was born last year. My friends, the president is another grandfather and seems to enjoy it.
“President Wilson is very busy with international affairs. He would not look at me. Had to get aid of his family and his doctor. They helped and I won.
“Not much left for me to do. The social secretary, who has been a loyal abetter in this and other White House families, has been stricken. She will need me no longer. But there are three others in the White House family and circle that I must bring down. Think I have Dr. Grayson and Miss Margaret Wilson, but I cannot hurry the culmination. There is only one more for me to work upon, Miss Helen Bones, the president’s cousin. I am not through with that little group.”
Dr. Cary T. Grayson, companion and physician, has figured more in the romance surrounding the White House than any other individual. Gossip has married him to this girl and then to that. The last rumor was that he was a suitor of Mrs. Galt. Before that the gossips declared that he was to marry Miss Margaret Wilson. And all the time Dr. Grayson has been attentive to another, and that other Miss Alice Gertrude Gordon, ward of Mrs. Galt, is responsible by a chain of circumstances for the approaching wedding of President Wilson and Mrs. Galt.
Dr. Grayson had known Miss Gordon for several years, having met her in the mountains of West Virginia, where her father amassed a fortune in coal mining operations. She was then an orphan, rich and attractive. The summer acquaintance was resumed in Washington two years ago. Mrs. Galt was the guardian and chaperone of the beautiful West Virginia girl and was much in the society of her ward. At the home of Miss Gordon in WashingtonDr. Grayson met Mrs. Galt. He frequently took both the ward and guardian for long automobile rides and was often seen walking with them in Sixteenth street. Mrs. Galt is an enthusiastic walker; this is her only outdoor recreation, as she does not indulge in golf.
Small things lead often to big events. It was the delight of Mrs. Galt in walks, taken every day, no matter what the weather, that led her into the White House circle and made it possible for cupid to aim his arrow so accurately.Miss Bones, after recovering from an illness, was advised to walk for exercise by this same Doctor Grayson, the accomplice of cupid. But Miss Bones did not know any one with whom to walk. Doctor Grayson knew a very sweet woman who did. He introduced the two. The walks led into the White House There Mrs. Galt met Miss Wilson and the acquaintance quickly ripened to friendship. Mrs. Galt was invited to Cornish last summer and the public knows the rest, for there she met the president in a more intimate way.
Washington is expecting, after the marriage of the president and Mrs. Galt, to be appraised of the engagement of Doctor Grayson and the rich and young Miss Gordon.President Wilson has no intimates in his cabinet. His chums are Colonel E. M. House and Doctor Grayson. The latter has his confidences in private matters, while the former is his political confidant. If anything, the president makes more of a confidant and companion out of his physician than any one else. The doctor is always with him, and has been living in the White House for the last year or so. The two spend agreeable nights together in the little library the chief executive uses as his den. The president, of course, being himself a lover, would naturally use his good offices to encourage the marriage of his physician. And it is only a logical supposition that Doctor Grayson’s praises wil be sung by the president into the ears of Mrs. Galt’s ward. Therefore the country should not be surprised to find another wedding following closely that of the president.
Doctor Grayson is one of the first families of Virginia. He is 37 years old, and is a daring cross-country rider and fox hunter. He is also regarded as one of the best physicians in the navy. He has an attractive, non-assertive personality that, of itself, make him a pleasing companion. His soft-speaking southern voice and his inimitable ancecdotes of the Negro add to his other accomplishments. He is short and slight. His long, thin, dark face, illumined by laughing brown eyes, has done more toward cheering a patient to health than his prescriptions.
From early life Dr. Grayson had a liking for the navy. He entered the service as a paymaster, and after serving a year resigned and entered the medical school of the University of Virginia. After receiving his medical degree he re-entered the navy as a surgeon.
He was assigned as the physician to the White House in the last few months of the Taft administration, and has been there ever since. He has had seven years of sea duty, and traveled in nearly every clime. This experience and the club life of the navy have made him a good fellow, an agreeable companion, and one who has the affectionate regard of President Wilson.Second only in general interest to the love affair of the president and Mrs. Norman Galtis this romantic period of White House history, is the approaching marriage of Miss Hagner to Norman L. James, of Baltimore. This second bridegroom-elect is, like the president, a widower and the father of three children, the eldest a boy of 17 years.
Miss Hagner, while not to be described as strictly a White House bride, has for the greater part of the last 12 years been so important a part of the executive household and so intimately associated with its social life that her approaching marriage takes on almost a national aspect.
In his visits to the White House and into the hearts and minds of the occupants thereof the winged messenger had two attractive and pleasing accomplices in Dr. Cary Travers Grayson, physician to the president, and his most intimate companion, and Miss Isabella Hagner, social secretary at the White House. Their services no longer needed, Cupid turned his darts upon them, bringing down the latter and wounding the former.
In no other administration has Cupid been so active, so successful in his work, as in the present. He has literally built his altar of love within the old, historic mansion that has been the scene of so much sorrow and tragedy, in the years that it has housed the presidents of the United States.
He drove from the heart of its chief executive all thoughts of war, carried away the two Misses Wilson, the social secretary, and, according to report, has about won in his assault upon the third Miss Wilson, Miss Margaret, the last unmarried member of the Wilson family.
If gossip be true, love’s winged crusader will soon fly from the field, with the expected announcement of the engagement of Dr. Grayson to Miss Alice Gertrude Gordon, ward of Mrs. Galt, the president’s affianced.
In less than three years two marriages have taken place in the White House; the president is soon to wed; Miss Hagner will desert her duties as social secretary for married life—and to this quartet of White House marriages, this active little administration cupid says he has two more couples to add to the happy group.
This administration has had its share of trouble, big international problems, domestic politics and war looming on the horizon for weeks after the Lusitania was sunk. Yet it has been replete with romance, love, and match-making, of which the end is not yet. The marriage of President Wilson to Mrs. Norman Galt will be the third marriage of a president of the United States during his term. President Tyler was the first and Grover Cleveland the second. Sorrow threw its sombre figure over the White House last year, when Mrs. Wilson died. But Cupid has brushed aside the gloom caused thereby, and the stork visiting the White House contributed its share to the romance and life within the big edifice overlooking the Potomac.
A page from Cupid’s diary of his doings in the White House reads:“First tried my darts upon Miss Jessie Wilson. Succeeded beautifully. She was married to Francis Bowes Sayre, now living happily at Williamstown. Boy born to couple in the White House; named Francis B. Sayre, Jr.
President Wilson becoming a grandfather, attends christening and seems happy. Think I will try him soon.
“Secretary McAdoo is coming within my powers. His is playing on the tennis court with Miss Eleanor Wilson. My darts went true and trim. They were married, to the surprise of many of their friends. Miss Eleanor Wilson McAdoo was born last year. My friends, the president is another grandfather and seems to enjoy it.
“President Wilson is very busy with international affairs. He would not look at me. Had to get aid of his family and his doctor. They helped and I won.
“Not much left for me to do. The social secretary, who has been a loyal abetter in this and other White House families, has been stricken. She will need me no longer. But there are three others in the White House family and circle that I must bring down. Think I have Dr. Grayson and Miss Margaret Wilson, but I cannot hurry the culmination. There is only one more for me to work upon, Miss Helen Bones, the president’s cousin. I am not through with that little group.”
Dr. Cary T. Grayson, companion and physician, has figured more in the romance surrounding the White House than any other individual. Gossip has married him to this girl and then to that. The last rumor was that he was a suitor of Mrs. Galt. Before that the gossips declared that he was to marry Miss Margaret Wilson. And all the time Dr. Grayson has been attentive to another, and that other Miss Alice Gertrude Gordon, ward of Mrs. Galt, is responsible by a chain of circumstances for the approaching wedding of President Wilson and Mrs. Galt.
Dr. Grayson had known Miss Gordon for several years, having met her in the mountains of West Virginia, where her father amassed a fortune in coal mining operations. She was then an orphan, rich and attractive. The summer acquaintance was resumed in Washington two years ago. Mrs. Galt was the guardian and chaperone of the beautiful West Virginia girl and was much in the society of her ward. At the home of Miss Gordon in WashingtonDr. Grayson met Mrs. Galt. He frequently took both the ward and guardian for long automobile rides and was often seen walking with them in Sixteenth street. Mrs. Galt is an enthusiastic walker; this is her only outdoor recreation, as she does not indulge in golf.
Small things lead often to big events. It was the delight of Mrs. Galt in walks, taken every day, no matter what the weather, that led her into the White House circle and made it possible for cupid to aim his arrow so accurately.Miss Bones, after recovering from an illness, was advised to walk for exercise by this same Doctor Grayson, the accomplice of cupid. But Miss Bones did not know any one with whom to walk. Doctor Grayson knew a very sweet woman who did. He introduced the two. The walks led into the White House There Mrs. Galt met Miss Wilson and the acquaintance quickly ripened to friendship. Mrs. Galt was invited to Cornish last summer and the public knows the rest, for there she met the president in a more intimate way.
Washington is expecting, after the marriage of the president and Mrs. Galt, to be appraised of the engagement of Doctor Grayson and the rich and young Miss Gordon.President Wilson has no intimates in his cabinet. His chums are Colonel E. M. House and Doctor Grayson. The latter has his confidences in private matters, while the former is his political confidant. If anything, the president makes more of a confidant and companion out of his physician than any one else. The doctor is always with him, and has been living in the White House for the last year or so. The two spend agreeable nights together in the little library the chief executive uses as his den. The president, of course, being himself a lover, would naturally use his good offices to encourage the marriage of his physician. And it is only a logical supposition that Doctor Grayson’s praises wil be sung by the president into the ears of Mrs. Galt’s ward. Therefore the country should not be surprised to find another wedding following closely that of the president.
Doctor Grayson is one of the first families of Virginia. He is 37 years old, and is a daring cross-country rider and fox hunter. He is also regarded as one of the best physicians in the navy. He has an attractive, non-assertive personality that, of itself, make him a pleasing companion. His soft-speaking southern voice and his inimitable ancecdotes of the Negro add to his other accomplishments. He is short and slight. His long, thin, dark face, illumined by laughing brown eyes, has done more toward cheering a patient to health than his prescriptions.
From early life Dr. Grayson had a liking for the navy. He entered the service as a paymaster, and after serving a year resigned and entered the medical school of the University of Virginia. After receiving his medical degree he re-entered the navy as a surgeon.
He was assigned as the physician to the White House in the last few months of the Taft administration, and has been there ever since. He has had seven years of sea duty, and traveled in nearly every clime. This experience and the club life of the navy have made him a good fellow, an agreeable companion, and one who has the affectionate regard of President Wilson.Second only in general interest to the love affair of the president and Mrs. Norman Galtis this romantic period of White House history, is the approaching marriage of Miss Hagner to Norman L. James, of Baltimore. This second bridegroom-elect is, like the president, a widower and the father of three children, the eldest a boy of 17 years.
Miss Hagner, while not to be described as strictly a White House bride, has for the greater part of the last 12 years been so important a part of the executive household and so intimately associated with its social life that her approaching marriage takes on almost a national aspect.
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Unknown, “Busy Cupid at White House in New Conquest,” 1915 October 24, WWP20888, Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.