National Affairs: Second Lady

Last week Mrs. Hoover left the President alone in the White House and went South. Traveling by train to Charleston, S. C. with a few friends, she there inspected the famed Trumbull portrait of Washington in the City Hall. Then she motored out over dirt roads bordered with Spanish moss to see the Magnolia and Middleton Place Gardens, lush and lovely in early Southern spring. Back in Charleston the First Lady boarded the Department of Commerce’s inspection boat Sequoia to cruise Florida waters. Mrs. Hoover’s journey was saddened when she learned that Mrs. Howard E. Coffin, her good friend whom she was planning to visit at Sapeloe Island, had died of heart disease.

Mrs. Hoover’s absence left Mrs. Dolly Curtis Gann, half-sister of the Vice President, in undisputed command of Washington’s official society. But buxom Mrs. Gann was unable to take full advantage of her position as acting First Lady because of a pesky cold that kept her within the vice-presidential suite at the Mayflower Hotel. She was determined to get well quickly because she had new and important political duties to perform. The Republican National Committee had arranged for her to address the Federation of Republican Women’s Clubs at Detroit early this month. Soon thereafter the Business & Professional Republican Women’s Club of Boston would be waiting to hear her. The Second Lady had to get the frog out of her throat so she could give these audiences some of the oratory that lately has made her a big drawing card in the Midwest.

Political speechmaking is a new avocation for Mrs. Gann. Topeka, Omaha and Chicago have heard her. Women turn out to see “the girl who put Alice Longworth in her place.” In substance her addresses wave the U. S. flag, laud President Hoover, belittle the Depression and exude good Republican cheer. She returns to Washington to encourage national headquarters with reports that women everywhere are enthusiastic about a Hoover-Curtis ticket this year.

At the great Washington Bicentennial Ball at the Mayflower last fortnight, Mrs. Gann as No. 1 guest (the Hoovers did not attend) appeared in a Colonial gown of green taffeta with petticoat of white satin and lace. All her efforts to get Vice President Curtis into costume with a wig and sword were unavailing. Because of the dignity of his office, he insisted on wearing his ordinary evening clothes, watching the spectacle from his box. Chief Justice Hughes, who also attended, felt the same, would not dress up.