THE CONGRESS: Simple Ceremonies

In the early autumn of 1913, the Secretary of the Treasury was simultaneously trying to guide the Federal Reserves bill through Congress and court the youngest of the President’s three daughters. Because he, a widower with six children, was twice her age, he laid away his affection for her in the attic of his soul where, he said later, “one stores lovely but hopeless emotions.” Later he changed his mind, and one chilly December evening sitting on a bench near the foot of the Washington Monument he proposed. When accepted, he felt obliged to offer his resignation from the Cabinet. It was declined. In March his engagement was announced. On May 7, 1914 the Cabinet tendered him a luncheon at which he declared that his feelings were like those of the mountaineer who went out into the moonlight and fallingon his knees, cried: “Oh, Lawd, I ain’t got nuthin’ again’ nobody, no mo’.” The Senate sent a diamond bracelet and the House a silver service as wedding presents and that evening before 100 guests in the Blue Room of the White House William Gibbs McAdoo was married to Eleanor Randolph Wilson in a simple five-minute ceremony.

Last week in Los Angeles’ Superior Court a ceremony as simple and short as that of 20 years ago effected the divorce of Eleanor Wilson McAdoo, 43, from Senator William Gibbs McAdoo, 70. At 3:48 p. m. Mrs. McAdoo’s complaint was legally filed. A few minutes later Judge Allan B. Campbell heard her assent to its charges: 1) Senator McAdoo spent most of his time in Washington, where her health would not permit her to live; 2) his interests were political, hers artistic; 3) because of this incompatibility she had suffered mental cruelty. Her doctor confirmed the state of her health and her mental suffering. Eugene D. Flaherty, a family friend, told about her husband’s long absences away from the McAdoo yellow stucco house, overlooking the Pacific at Santa Barbara. A private property settlement supposedly giving her real estate and $6,000 a year was approved by the court. By 4:30 p. m. the McAdoo marriage had been legally and finally dissolved and Mrs. McAdoo again became Eleanor Randolph Wilson.*

Last time the McAdoos travelled together was in 1933 when they went abroad, she to put Ellen, 18, elder of their two daughters, in school in Paris,he to visit Russia. When she returned she spent a few days in Washington and then departed, not to be seen in the capital again. The Senator remained alone in Washington all winter, all spring. At 70 he is still almostas good a dancer as he was at 50. When one of the Senate pages, having spied him dancing at the Shoreham Hotel with Rose, pretty young daughter of U. S. Tariff Commissioner Thomas Walker Page, referred to him as a “dancing Senator” in the pages’ newspaper, angry Senator McAdoo got the paper suppressed. Another young lady with whom he was often seen was Lyla, daughter of Senator Townsend of Delaware. Social Washington will not be surprised if the junior Senator from California marries some young lady from the East. Last week, Senator McAdoo, in Los Angeles for a change, said: “Mrs. McAdoo correctly stated the reason for the separation. … I deeply regret it and devoutly wish that it could have been averted.”

*Woodrow Wilson’s other daughters: Margaret, who lives in Manhattan; Jessie, who died in January 1933, was the wife of Francis Bowes Sayre, Assistant Secretary of State.