Recollections of full years

Foreword

I wish to express my grateful acknowledgment to Eleanor Franklin Egan and my daughter for their valued assistance in the preparation for publication of these Recollections.

Helen Herron Taft.

CHAPTER I Introductory 1

Cincinnati — City of Birth and Early Memories. Educational and Musical Advantages. Childhood in Large Family on Moderate Income. Meeting Mr. Taft — Political Turmoil. First trip to Washington to visit President and Mrs. Hayes. Social Gaieties and Serious Undertakings. Engagement — Summer in the Adirondacks. Marriage— Trip Abroad. Mr. Taft's Father and Mother. First home — "Satisfactory though Mortgaged."

CHAPTER II Cincinnati and Washington 21

The Superior Court — First Doubt as to Desirability of Judicial Career. Mr. Taft's Embarrassing Truthfulness. My son Robert. Solicitor General — Move to Washington. Mr. William M. Evarts. Washington Society Twenty-five Years Ago. My Daughter Helen. The Federal Bench. Youngest Child. Tranquil Years. The Cincinnati Orchestra. Spanish-American War — Results to the Taft Family.

CHAPTER III To the Philippines 39

The Second Philippine Commission. Army Transport Hancock. Honolulu. "Aloha Oe!" Yokohama. Mr. Taft in a Jinrikisha. His Size Interests the Japanese. Audience with the Emperor and Empress of Japan — A Question of Clothes. I Decide to Remain in Japan for the summer. The Hancock to Manila.

CHAPTER IV In Japan 65

Keeping House in Yokohama — In Quarantine with Measles. A Japanese Menage. Fascinating Oriental Sounds— Alluring Shops. First Letter from Mr. Taft. A bit of Philippine History. Miyanoshita — Japanese Inns — The Darkest Night. A Refugee from China— Boxer Insurrection. Joseph did not Commit Suicide; He was only Learning to Sing. More Letters. Mr. Bryan's Complicating Policy. To Manila^ vii

CONTENTS

CHAPTER V First Impressions of Manila 9 1

The China Sea. Manila Bay — Strange Scenes and Strange Peoples. First Home in Manila — "Getting Used" to my Environment. Seventy Thousand American Troops. General Arthur MacArthur — Social Coolness. Intrigue — Assassinations — Problems. Progress of Pacification. A Typhoon. American Presidential Campaign. Civil and Military Rule. September first — The Commission begins to Exercise Authority.

CHAPTER VI A Strange Environment 118

El costumbres del pais — Employes and Parientes. A Pair of Black Ponies — A Runaway — Filipino Coachmen. Charlie's Playmates. Shopping — Saloons. Manila Society. "He may be a brother of William H. Taft, but he ain't no friend of mine!'' A Filipino Call. Presents. American Patriotism. Friars and Friars' Lands. A Momentous Decision.

CHAPTER VII " Days of the Empire 142

Unrest and Uncertainty — Guerilla Warfare. Re-election of Mr. McKinley. Optimistic in the Face of Chaos. Christmas — Eighty in the Shade. A New Year's Reception — Silk Hats and Frock Coats. The Federal Party and the Peace Movement — Washington's Birthday. First Visit to a Provincial Town. Establishment of Civil Government. Mr. Taft First Civil Governor.

CHAPTER VIII An Historic Trip 156

Through the Southern Islands. Establishing Provincial Governments. A Test of Endurance — Filipino Bands — lianquetes and Bailes — the Rigodon. Moroland. Aguinaldo — Colonel Frederick Funston of "the Suicide Squad." Zamboanga — Cottabato — the Gulf of Davao — Surigao — A Perilous Journey. Cebu. Sorsogon — A Riot of Hospitality. "The Sacred Torch of Liberty."

CHAPTER IX Tin- Wiii) Men's Country 182

Into Northern Luzon — the Wild Men's Country. A Spanish Steamer. General and Mrs. J. Franklin Bell. A Side Trip. Impedimenta and Military Discipline. An Amazing Summit. Where no White Woman ever was before Igorrotes — Human Skulls as House Decorations — Rice Teraces. Down a Long Trail. Baguio — Our $2,- 500,000 Road. Necessity for Haste, viii

CONTENTS

CHAPTER X Governor Taft 206

The Inauguration of Governor Taft. Two Thousand Guests. Moving to Malacanan Palace — Social Activities. The Governor's Working Day. General Chaffee — Continued Differences of Opinion. General Corbin. The Assassination of President McKinley — Dark Days. Mr. Taft and President Roosevelt. Balangiga. A Trip to China — Mr. Taft 111 — Hurried Return. Ordered Home on Leave — An Earthquake. We Sail on Christmas Eve.

CHAPTER XI A Trip to Rome 233

Some Unhappy Memories. Business in Washington — The Friar Lands Question. A Mission to Rome. Left Behind but Follow Shortly. Position and Character of Commission — Complications and Embarrassments. Cardinal Rampolla. Pope Leo XIII. A Brilliant Society. Vatican Politics. An Audience with the Pope. Vallombrosa. Gifts from the Pope. Unfinished Negotiations — Mr. Taft to Manila. Switzerland.

CHAPTER XII Last Days in the Philippines 251

A Great Demonstration. Cholera — Rinderpest — Famine — Turmoil. The Church Schism — Aglipay. Archbishop Guidi. Ladrones and Assassins. Taft declines the Supreme Bench — Mr. Roosevelt Insists — Popular Protest. A Letter from Mr. Roosevelt. Called to Washington as Secretary of War. A Farewell Fete — The Doge of Venice and his Lady — Regretful Good-byes.

CHAPTER XIII Secretary of War 274

Contrasted Attitudes — Guests of a Nation and "Just Nobody." Settling down in Washington — Difficulties in living up to an Exalted Office — Life of a "Cabinet Lady." The Panama Canal — Trip to Panama. Mr. Taft, a Congressional Party and Miss Alice Roosevelt. Summer in England. Intervention in Cuba — "Those Awful Twenty Days."

CHAPTER XIV Busy Years

"The Three Musketeers." A Political Campaign — the Rush of Life. The Supreme Bench again. A Presidential "Boom." Mr. Taft not Interested. I misunderstand Mr. Roosevelt. Athos and Porthos. "Sitting on the Lid." Agitated Days. Growing Enthusiasm. Murray Bay. Starting Around the World — Yellowstone Park — A Sunday game of Bridge. A Taste of Campaign Work.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XV A Hurried Trip Around the World 313

Japan — Shanghai — Manila. Opening of the first Philippine Assembly. Trips and Entertainments. Vladivostok. Across Siberia. Moscow — St. Petersburg — Berlin. A Shopping Expedition and a Perilous Night. The Steamship President Grant. Return to the United States. Nomination for the Presidency — Political Campaign — Election.

CHAPTER XVI President of the United States 3 2 4

The Evening of March Third, 1909. A Dinner Party at the White House. A Stormy Night. Washington Ice-bound and Isolated. "I always said it would be a cold day when I got to be President of the United States." The Inauguration. At Home in the White House — A Brief Inspection — The McKim Restoration. The Inaugural Ball — A Brilliant Scene. "Aunt Delia." The End of the Greatest Day.

CHAPTER XVII The White House 347

Mistress of the White House — Domestic Responsibilities — Some Innovations. The White House staff — Furniture and Porcelains. The President's Hospitality. A Diplomatic Tea. Forms and Precedents. My First Dinner Party. Various Entertainments. Potomac Drive. Delightful Spring Evenings. The Charm of the Home of Presidents. A Passing Glimpse of Mental Pictures.

CHAPTER XVIII Some White House Formalities 365

A Long Illness. Garden Parties — The First Disappointment — Subsequent Success. The Nation's Summer Capital — A Question of Privacy — The Secret Service Men. The Washington Social Season. State Dinners and Receptions. First Cabinet Dinner. The New Year's Reception. "Behind the line." Cutting down the Lists. The Diplomatic Reception and Dinner. Serving Refreshments. Various Demands.

CHAPTER XIX Conclusion 382

Mr. Roosevelt Returns from Africa — Calls at Beverly — An Agreeable Meeting. A Cruise on the Mayflower. The President of Chili. A "Whirlwind" Existence. A Cabinet House Party. Fitting Charlie out in Long Trousers. Helen's Debut. Our Silver Wedding. Renomination. Plans for a Quiet Future. An Expression from Mr. Taft.

x

ILLUSTRATIONS

Mrs. William Howard Taft Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

Mrs. Taft's childhood home on Pike Street, in Cincinnati . . 4 Mr. and Mrs. John Williamson Herron, Mrs. Taft's father

and mother 8

Members of the salon. Mr. Taft in the centre with the author at his right .12

Mr. and Mrs. William Howard Taft at the time of their

marriage !0

Mrs. Taft with Robert and Helen, when Mr. Taft was

Solicitor-General 2 6

Charlie Taft when he went to the Philippines 36

Nikko. An ancient cryptomeria avenue and a glimpse of the

famous temples 5 2

Entrance to the Imperial Palace gardens in Tokyo ... 56 The State Dining-Room of the White House, showing tapestry

Helen Taft in Japanese costume 7^

Mrs. Taft in formal Filipina costume 90

A carved Nara or Philippine mahogany bed, now in Mr. Taft's

room at New Haven 98

A typical Philippine river scene and some Filipino laundry

work 10 4

{Left to right) General Wright, Mr. Taft and Judge Ide, as

Philippine Commissioners 118

A typical Filipino menu and place card 148

Triumphal arch at Bataan 15 2

Filipino members of the organising party enjoying afternoon

repose on the deck of the Sumner 158

The Sultan of Sulu boarding the Sumner, followed by Mr.

Arthur Fergusson, Spanish secretary to the Commission . 166

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

A Moro datu with his retinue, and the favourite wife of a datu

with her maids-in-waiting 170

Picturesque bead bedecked Bogobos of the Davao country . .176

Philippine non-Christians: A Bontoc Igorrote {top left)', a

Moro and two Kalinga chiefs {with shields) .... 182

On the long trail in Northern Luzon. Mrs. Taft second from

the left 186

Mr. Taft and Charlie enjoying their favourite exercise . . . 186

An Igorrote Head Dance and a company of cargodores with

their dogs which are to be killed for food 190

Views of the extraordinary Igorrote rice terraces. Practically

all of the wild men's country is cultivated in this manner . 192

Igorrote chief proudly displaying his house decorations of human skulls and carabao horns 196

Bontoc Igorrotes with ganzas showing handles made of human

jaw bones 196

Benguet Road before and after completion. Not the most

thrilling curve on this spectacular highway 200

The Zigzag. How the Benguet Road climbs to an altitude of

over 5,000 feet in six miles 204

Mr. Taft taking the oath of office as first American Governor

of the Philippine Islands 208

Two views of Malacanan Palace. The first picture shows the

wide, roofless veranda over the Pasig River . . . .214

Scenes attending Governor Taft's arrival in Manila after his

first absence 250

Arch erected by the Partido Federal representing Filipina offering another star to the American flag 258

Mr. and Mrs. Taft with members of their family and staff including Major Noble, aide {at left), and Mr. Fred C. Carpenter, private secretary {right), in costumes worn at the Venetian Carnival 270

Mr. Taft and Colonel Goethals, in Panama 290

{From left to right) Mrs. Jaime de Veyra, Mrs. Taft, Governor Smith, Mrs. Smith, Mr. Taft, Mr. Sergio Osmena, Speaker of the Philippine Assembly, and members of the Assembly in the Ayuntamiento, Manila 312

The White House as it looked on the evening of the Fourth

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACINC} PAGE

Mr. and Mrs. Taft returning to the White House after Mr.

Taft's inauguration 330

The private dining-room of the White House, and the family

sitting-room at the end of the long upstairs corridor . . 334

Two White House bedrooms showing fine old colonial beds . 338

Two corners of the White House kitchen 350

The East Room 356

Mrs. Taft on the Potomac Drive ... .... 360

The south Portico from the end of the garden 364

The White House garden and Washington's Monument from

the south Portico 368

The Taft cottage at Beverly, Massachusetts 372

The crescent table in the State Dining-Room arranged for the

Diplomatic Dinner 376

Mrs. Taft's own picture of the White House 380

The long eastern corridor through which guests arrive for

state functions 388

The main stairway leading to the President's private apartments 388

Introduction

Cincinnati, the city of my birth and early memories, was, in the 'sixties, about as begrimed and noisy and altogether unattractive as any place well could be; yet it possessed certain attributes which really entitled it to the proud designation of "The Queen City of the West."

It was prosperous; it had hardly yet been surpassed in prosperity by Chicago; Cleveland was not even spoken of as a rival; and in many ways it was the most important centre west of New York and east of the Mississippi.

It owed its early development principally to its advantageous location. It lay on the great central route from the East to the West, which runs from Baltimore and Washington to Cumberland and over the Alleghenies to Pittsburg, thence by the Ohio River to Cincinnati and on west to St. Louis and south to New Orleans. It had an important trade with New Orleans and drew commerce from a large territory to the north. But whatever else may be said of it, its most devoted citizen could not claim that Cincinnati was beautiful. Its buildings were unlovely; its streets were badly paved and as badly kept; and it lay under a pall of soft coal smoke which left its sooty mark upon everything — inhabitants included.

Yet, ugly as it was, the city boasted an unusual society. During the first half of the nineteenth century many young men of good stock and great ability, drawn by the promise of rapid advancement, had moved to Cincinnati from all parts of the East and South; New Jersey, New England, Virginia and Kentucky contributing, perhaps, the greatest number. There were many families of wealth and culture which, without parade or display, maintained fine homes and dispensed a generous hospitality. The suburbs,

East Walnut Hills, Mt. Auburn and Clifton, on the heights to the north and east, were famous for their beautiful country places.

Then there was a large population of the best class of Germans, many of whom were university men who left their own country after the Revolution of 1848 and came to Cincinnati to settle. Of these, Frederick Hassaurek, General Willich and Judge Stallo, who came to Cincinnati when Carl Schurz went to St. Louis, are perhaps the most prominent. The German influence upon the community was marked. It made for a more liberal Sunday ; it brought the study of German into the public schools; and it developed a strong taste for good music. Indeed, the musical ail vantages of Cincinnati in my girlhood were better than those of any city in the United States, with the exception of New York or Boston. Theodore Thomas was president of the Conservatory of Music and he organised a symphony orchestra which he continued to direct until he went to Chicago along about 1890.

Cincinnati in those days, with her educated, wealthy and public-spirited society, was much in advance of any other city in the Mississippi Valley in culture and refinement. There was great interest in schools of all sorts and in every kind of intellectual activity. Away back in 1848 the Literary Club of Cincinnati was formed by a company of men among whom were both Mr. Taft's father and mine, as well as Rutherford B. Hayes, Stanley Matthews, Manning F. Force and Mr. SpofFord, later Librarian of Congress. This club continues to be a cherished institution and in my girlhood it was the centre of all interest in literature and intellectual pursuits.

My father, John Williamson Herron, was a graduate of Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, and was in college with Benjamin Harrison. He was for fifty years a trustee of that institution and was devoted to its interests. My husband's father, Judge Alphonso Taft, was one of the Yale class of 1833, was for many years a member of the Yale Corporation, and had five sons who graduated at that university. My mother's brother, Judge Isaac Clinton Collins, and one of my two brothers also graduated at Yale, while my other brother graduated at Harvard, so it will be seen that both my husband and I grew up in the midst of strong collegiate traditions.

To write about one's childhood is not easy. Memories by the score come flocking up, but, dear as they are, upon examination they turn out to be quite commonplace and hardly worth relating. My memories are not sufficiently "early" to have any special value. The first thing that I dimly remember is sitting on the front steps of my home watching some sort of parade in which there were many soldiers, but I was too young then to know that it was a peace celebration I was witnessing at the close of the Civil War.

My father was a lawyer who came to the bar of Ohio in the 'forties. He was United States Attorney under President Harrison, was a State Senator, and twice declined appointments to the Bench because the salary attached to these positions was not enough to support his large family. I was the fourth in a family of eleven, eight girls and three boys. One boy and two girls died before I can remember.

Our house was one of a block of grey brick houses in Pike Street, at the east end of Cincinnati, which, at that time, was the fashionable residence section of the city. Pike Street runs down to the river on a rather steep incline and, as it was paved with cobblestones, my early memories are somewhat marred by an impression of the frequent clatter and clang of heavy wagons pulling their way up the hill from the river landing.

While our house was not particularly distinguished, being much like those on either side of it, across the street from us there were two very striking and imposing residences which lent distinction to the neighbourhood, and in which, as I grew up, were formed the pleasantest associations of my life. The one directly opposite was a large, square, red brick house which had an air of great dignity. It was the home of Mr. Larz Anderson. There were ten boys in the Anderson family and, though they were all much older than I and most of them had gone away before I grew up, I remember that it was a very lively household always. In my later girlhood we were specially linked to this family by the marriage of one of the boys, Charles, to my sister Jennie.

The house next to Mr. Anderson's, on the north, I knew as the Sinton home. A low, colonial structure, well set in a garden of green lawns and finely kept shrubbery, it is still one of the most beautiful residences in Cincinnati, and, indeed, in the whole country. Its architecture suggests that of the White House and it was, as a matter of fact, designed by the same architect, an Irishman named Hoban. The Sinton house is lower than the White House, being only one story high with a basement, but it has the same classic outlines and it bears, moreover, the stamp of time, which gives it a character all its own.

It was built about 1800 by a Mr. Martin Baum, but was purchased by the first Nicholas Longworth in the early part of the century and was the home of the Longworth family for a generation. Long before I can remember, it was bought by Mr. David Sinton, one of the most successful business men in Ohio, and to me it was always the Sinton home. When I was about twelve years old, Mr. Sinton's daughter Annie married my husband's brother, Charles P. Taft, and as they have always lived in this old house it has come to be known, since Mr. Sinton's death in 1901, as the Taft house. It is the only Taft house in Cincinnati now, the house where my husband was born having been sold after his father's death, and it has been the scene of many of the most important events of my life. It was there that my husband received the announcement of his nomination for the Presidency; it was there, in front of the house, that he made his speech of acceptance; and it was there that Charles Taft gathered a large party of friends on the night of November 6, 1908, to receive with us the election returns. And it is now to this house, where my husband's brother Charles and his wife dispense a generous hospitality, that we always go when we return to Cincinnati.

My girlhood days were spent quite placidly in Miss Nourse's school, which was known in Cincinnati as "The Nursery," and where all the girls of the Herron family, as well as Mr. Taft's only sister, Fanny, received their education. Miss Nourse was a Maine woman with a thorough New England education and with a thoroughly New England idea of imparting it. She insisted, especially, upon languages and literature. Much of my time, outside of that taken up in regular school work, I devoted to the study of music, and I practised my scales on the family piano with such persistence that I wonder the whole neighbourhood did not rebel. Music was the absorbing interest of my life in those days, the inspiration of all my dreams and ambitions.

Our house was none too large for the family, but as there was a wide difference in our ages it happened that my oldest sister was married while my youngest sister was still a baby in long clothes. Then, the boys went away to college and were gone the better part of each year, so it was not often that we were all at home together. Nevertheless, we had our share of the happy-go-lucky and somewhat crowded existence of a large family on a moderate income.

My mother was Harriet Collins, and when she was seventeen years old she came with her mother to Cincinnati, from Lowville, New York, to live with her brother, Judge Collins, who was my father's law partner and continued to be so for more than forty years. Her father, Eli Collins, was a Member of Congress from the Lowville district of New York. My mother was in many ways a remarkable, as well as a most attractive, woman. She had an exceedingly keen wit and a mind alert to the humour in every situation. With so many children to nurse, to scold, to sew for and, sometimes, to cook for — in a word, to bring up on a small income — she would seem to have had little timte for outside interests; but she was very popular in society and I remember that in her busiest years she went out a great deal. She had a stimulating personality and I do know that she made her family circle a very amusing and interesting one in which to grow up.

The only incident of my girlhood which was in any way unusual was my first visit to the White House as a guest of President and Mrs. Hayes. Mr. and Mrs. Hayes and my father and mother had been lifelong friends. Mr. Hayes was, at one time, a partner in my father's law firm. They had been closely associated for a great many years and had a very warm regard for each other. My youngest sister was born shortly after the election of Mr. Hayes, was named Lucy Hayes Herron, after Mrs. Hayes, and was taken to the White House to be christened. My mother paid several visits to the White House and after my sister Jennie was married Mrs. Hayes invited her and Mr. Anderson to stay a week with her and, to my intense excitement, she added that she would like to have me accompany them. I was seventeen years old ; I had never been to Washington and to me it was a very important event. I was not "out," so I couldn't spend my time in the White House as I would have liked, in going to brilliant parties and meeting all manner of charming people, but, fortunately for my peace of mind, the Hayes lived very quietly, so it was not so trying to have to devote myself to seeing the sights of the Capital like any other tourist.

I didn't meet my husband until I was eighteen years old. We had been born and brought up in the same town; our fathers were warm friends and had practised law at the same bar for more than forty years ; during that time our mothers had exchanged visits, and my sister Maria and Fanny Taft were schoolmates and close companions at Miss Nourse's, but the Taf ts lived at Mt. Auburn, a hill suburb of Cincinnati, and after Will finished Woodward High School he went for four years to Yale, so it is not at all surprising that we did not meet.

Judge Alphonso Taft was Secretary of War, and later Attorney-General, in Grant's Cabinet while his son Will was at college, but before the latter graduated, the family had returned to Cincinnati, so he came straight home and entered at once upon a law course in the Cincinnati Law School. It was at that time, when he was still a student and working as a law reporter on the Cincinnati Commercial, that I met him. It was at a coasting party one winter's night, I remember very well, when I went with a party of young people, including the Charles Tafts, to coast down a fine steep hill in Mt. Auburn. Will Taft was there, and after being introduced to me he took me down the hill on his big bobsled. After that we met very frequently.

A small circle of us went in for amateur theatricals with much enthusiasm and great earnestness. We launched ourselves in our histrionic careers in "She Stoops to Conquer" which we gave at the house of one of the company. Then came "A Scrap of Paper" in Mrs. Charles Taft's drawing-room, in which both Will and I took part. We had become very ambitious by this time and sent all the way to New York for a professional stage-manager to help us with the production. But it turned out a most nervous occasion. We were all overtrained, I suppose. One thing after another went wrong until at the crisis of the play, where the hero is supposed to find in the barrel of a gun the scrap of paper upon which the whole plot hinges, the amateur hero looked pretty foolish when he discovered there wasn't any gun. Another one of the company, in a fit of absentmindedness, no doubt due to overwrought nerves, had carried it off the stage, and just when the situation was getting tragic for the hero the culprit came creeping back with it and carefully put it where it belonged, for all the world as if he thought he were making himself invisible to the audience.

But our ardour was not dampened. I remember Mr. Taft especially in a burlesque of "The Sleeping Beauty," which, in its legitimate form, had been produced for charity at Pike's Opera House. The Unity Club, a most respectable organization of the young men of the Unitarian Church, decided to give their version of the same story, and it was a huge success. Mr. Taft played the title role and his brother Horace, who is six feet four in his stocking feet, shared with the Beauty the honours of the evening as a most enchanting Puck.

Then we had parties in the country, too. Many of our friends had country places that spread along the Madison Road and the Grandin Road on East Walnut Hills, and two of my closest friends lived out there in a great house, looking down over the majestic but tawny Ohio River, above the point where the sweeping curve begins that carries it by the amphitheatre in which the business part of the city is built. It was a long distance to East Walnut Hills and in my girlhood we had to go the greater part of the way in a clumsy old omnibus that clumped along over the unpaved roads at the rate of about three miles an hour. But such little inconveniences didn't trouble us, and many were the vaudeville and charade parties that we had, there being enough "talent" among us to get up an amusing performance at a moment's notice.

But in spite of all this gaiety, Mr. Taft was making very satisfactory progress in his career.. As a law reporter he showed his growing interest in the public welfare by meeting certain elements in Cincinnati politics with vigorous denunciation. There was a man named Tom Campbell, a clever criminal lawyer, who had something more than a suspicion against him of bribery and corruption of both witnesses and juries, and he had succeeded in organising a political machine that was running the town according to his directions.

Campbell was counsel for the defence in what was known as the Hoffman case and was strongly suspected of tampering with the jury, and Mr. Taft in reporting the case, took special pains to bring out all the fine points in the lawyer's character and methods, telling the truth as he saw it.

This brought him into association with Mr. Miller Outcalt, the Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, who represented the State in the Hoffman case, and when Mr. Outcalt succeeded by election to the position of prosecuting attorney he offered the place of assistant to Mr. Taft, although he had been at the bar not more than seven months. Mr. Taft served in this office for fourteen months and the experience he had in the rough-and-ready practice in criminal trials, in preparing cases for trial, in examining witnesses, in making arguments to the court and in summing up to the jury, was the most valuable experience he could possibly have in fitting him for trial work at the bar.

But this experience was shortened by a circumstance not of his seeking. Major Benjamin Butterworth was the Congressman from one of the Cincinnati districts in President Arthur's administration, and the President being anxious to relieve the Collector of Internal Revenue, called on Major Butterworth to suggest the name of another man.

Major Butter worth had been for a long time a warm friend of Mr. Taft, thought he had a good family name and was too young in politics to have many political enemies, so he suggested him and wrote to urge him to accept the appointment which the President immediately offered to him. He accepted the place and held it for a year, but it proved a serious interruption in his legal career. Lie resigned as soon as it was possible and began practice with Major H. P. Lloyd who had been his father's partner before he went to Vienna.

Mr. Taft went abroad in the summer of 1883 to visit Judge and Mrs. Taft in Vienna, and it was about this time, when we had all spent several years in frivolities, that several of us became very serious-minded and decided that we must have something I>y way of occupation more satisfying than dancing and amateur theatricals. I secured a position as school teacher and taught for two years, first at Madame Fredin's and then at White and Sykes, both private schools out on Walnut Hills. Then, with two of my intimate friends, I decided to start a "salon." We called it a "salon" because we planned to receive a company who were to engage in what we considered brilliant discussion of topics intellectual and economic, and we decided that our gathering should include only specially invited guests. Among these were the two Taft brothers, Will and Horace, and other men common friends of us all.