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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 15, 1922)
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAX, PORTLAND. OCTOBER 15. 1923 en k U.S. President W John Adams Liked His Daily Dip in the Potomac A Woman Lobbyist Learned This, and Sat on His Garments Until He Prom ised the Legislation She Was After A Remarkable Historic Fact, Here Pre 8 sented for the First Time by Irving S. Sayford "D ON'T you do it! Don't! If you do, Mr. President, I'll scream!" The president of the United States was no tool. He knew things about Anne Royall. He knew she -would scream If So the president of the United States played safe. And it i3 sure that through out the ensuing hour, while the unhurry lng. river swathed him to the chin, John, Quincy Adams felt as lonely as ever he had in the senate of the United States; and knew himself to be far more hope lessly a minority against the unbeatable majority of a woman in possession of his personal clothes. She was putting it all over Great Britain in the game of "mak ing words do the work of warships." The. former plenipotentiary to the coui of the Russias this representative of "the best element in tHe politics and society of ,the United States" gazed, terrifjedly ihe who never had been made to ac knowledge fear) upon that brief, inter vening space of the Potomac, which made himself and his garments so un qpnterminous; and it was borne in upon Jlim. that he did not .love this female apostle of yellow journalism who sat possessively upon hjs dressing-gown and slippers on the White House shore and threatened to scream if he advanced in the shallow water, and who cheerfully promised to keep him there the rest of his life unless he yielded to ah interview on the state bank question. Her terms rr-unconditional surrender were indeed "such as are inflicted only upon a crushed adversary,' and the victimized gentleman from Boston had been, all through a fightful career, uncrushable. He looked upon the lady's self-assertion as ill-bred, and it soothed him not at all that this five-of-the-morning assignation was none of his making. To borrow Mr. Adams' own words spoken against an other, her conditions were "peremptory, and their language overbearing." A gen tleman of the old school, he was fussed of his modesty; he desired t9 be restored to the dignity of his status ante beivam. But he had no clothes. Had it been 100 years later, Anne would go Into national annals as retort ing serenely, "Nothing on me, Mr.. Presi dent, not one darn thing. You've got no clothes, I've got no interview yet. When do we swap?" What Anne did say, and what John Quincy did do, and how it all came about and fell out, are secret lore dug up and charmingly displayed by Edna M. Col man in a chapter of her forthcoming book, "Tenants of the White House, from Washington to Lincoln." For upon a sunny morning in the early nineteenth century, the chief magistrate of this country, wholly without benefit of trunks, while swimming in the Poto mac river, was held up by the pioneer of American newspaper women, and to t-ave his face and in general his person, chin-deep in his chosen bath-place, he dictated to her the grandaddy of all the presidential interviews for surrender of his clothes BY EDNA M. COLMAX. Adams' life up to the time he became president was rich in experience of travel nd foreign service, most of which were shared by Mrs. Adams. ; ' As United States senator in Jefferson's times, filling a six-year mission to Russia during Madison's reign; another mission to Paris until the treaty of Ghent was signed he Eaw the rise and fall of Na poleon and the exile to Elba. About 1815 he was sent as minister to . Ihe court of St. James, and was recalled '- to fill the post of secretary of state- to Monroe. 1:; In all of his adventures, which were -many and varied, none ever confronted Mm of a more unique or disturbing na ture than his treatment, when president, at the hands of Anne Royall, dubbed "Mother of Yellow Journalism,'' one of ihe peculiarly picturesque figures in American history. Many titles both de risive and abusive have been heaped upon the memory of this remarkable woman, . who was really a century ahead of her ay in her conception of what a news paper should be and in her methods of gathering news. She atarted her journalistic career at :he age of sixty, alone and impoverished utter a most eventful life of wealth, lux ury and adventure. Introducing the per sonal interview, she gathered her news first-hand, and it is said that during her career as editor and chief reporter of Paul Pry and The Huntress, her two newspapers, she interviewed fully 500 of the most prominent men of the land. Her dealings with President Adams were characteristic and drastic, and doubtless gave him the worst shock of his orderly, conservative life. Discovering or surmising that the president held views on the state bank question which he was not making pub lic, Mrs. Royall endeavored for months to gain admittance to the White House and speak with the chief executive. Meet ing rebuff upon rebuff, this indomitable old lady set herself to match the move ments of the nation's chief. Soon she became aware of his fondness for an early morning swim in the Potomas. and then she bided her time. And one morn ing while Mr. Adams was enjoying the most perfect combination of weather and water, he was hailed from the point on the shore where he . had hidden his clothes in some bushes preparatory to plunging into the stream. , To his con sternation he, stroking toward the shore, beheld Anne Royall seated upon his gown .and slippers all he had worn from the Whte House, a few rods away with her goosequill and ink-bottle beside her, ready for action. "Come here!'.' she ordered. Adams knew her, and knowing her, realized his doom. He swam toward her until he was only chin-deep. It was at this physio-psychological moment Anne decided . to threaten to scream. J "What do you want?" asked the be wildered president. "I'm Anne Royall," snapped the old lady. "I've been trying to see you to get an interview out Of you for months on the state bank question. I have ham mered at the White House and they wouldn't let me In. So I watched your movements, and this morning I stalked jou from the mansion down here. I'm sitting on your clothes as you see; and you don't get them until I get the inter view. Will you give it to me now, or do you want to stay in there the rest of your life?". "Let me out and dress," choked the president, "and I'll promise to give you the interview. Have the kindness to go behind those bushes while I maka my toilet." "No, you don't!" said Anne. "You are president of the United States and there are a good many millions of people who want to know, and ought to know, your attitude on this bank question. I'm here to get it. I SAID if you come out any further I'll scream. 'And I Just saw three fishermen around the bend." Adams was a statesman and a diplo mat; he knew when retreat was the bet ter part of valor. So he stood there to his chin In the placid water and submit ted to the rapid battery of questions, until he had given the first interview ever given by a chief executive of the United States. ' In the ordeal Anna wrung from him what no one of the- papers of New York or Philadelphia had been able to Eet the administration's ideas regard ing the long-drawn and bitterly-fought bank question. " Anne Royall'a resourcefulness and energy were always at height when she L Chief Jastice Cranch, who ordered a ducking stool built at the Washington navy-yard for punishment of Anne Royall. was in search of news. She fought all cf her life for the entire separation of church and state; for the exppsure and punishment of corrupt officials; for tound money; the establishment of pub lic schools everywhere, free of religious restrictions; for Freemasonry; justice to he Indians, liberal immigration laws, Sunday mail transportation, internal im provements, territorial expansion, just tariff laws, the abolition of flogging in the navy; for "no nullification," states' rights regarding slavery; and free speech. She was not an infidel. She believed in the divinity of God, and sought to free religious worship of sectarian lines. On July 2, 1854, she issued her last number of The Huntress, shut down her desk, and died within a few days, drop ping like an old wheel-horse, in the har ness. Her last editorial is worth note. For with all of the power of language she possessed, she analyzed the Kansas Nebraska bill, wrote a strong message on the tariff, and among other comments made these: - "We trust to heaven for these things: First, that members may give us means to pay for this paper, perhaps three or four cents a' member a few of them are behindhand in their subscriptions our printer is a poor man. We have only 31 cents in the world, and for the first time since we resided in this city 31 eara we were unable to pay our last month's rent six dollars. Had not our landlord been one of the best of men we should have been stript by this time. But we shall get that from our humble friends. ( "Second, we pray that Washington may escape the dreadful scourge, the cholera. "Our third prayer" (these were her last printed words) "is that the union of these states may be eternal." President Adams, from the famous Brady collection of photographs. Anne Royall's life from infancy to the day of her death at the age of 85 was mysterious and adventurous. She was born in Maryland in 1769. Her father, William Newport, reported to be the ille gitimate son of Charles II, was an un usually well-educated man, and he gave to' his eldest daughter a selected instruc tion in very early childhood which was superior to that of most pioneer children. During his lifetime his family lived in better surroundings than their neigh tors; he was supplied periodically with means from an undisclosed source. But after he died Anne and her mother and sister were in constant flight from the Indians. Mrs. Newport married again, and shortly afterward became again widowed". With her small son and Anne she wan dered, always in flight from Indian raids, until finally she reached Sweet Springs, Va. There they fell in with . Captain William Royall, elderly veteran of the French wars and of the American revo lution. He was so attracted to the bright little pioneer maid, Anne, that he made her education his task, and in a later . year he wedded her in Bateconrt County, Va. After sixteen years of sheltered luxury Anne found herself a widow, and her husband's relations contesting his will which left her practically all of his es tate. For ten years this litigation con tinued, and the case was finally decided against her and she was deprived of all her property, possessed and prospective, r.he legality of her marriage being the poiiU of revolvement. While the lawsuit was dragging. Mrs. Royall, accompanied by three servants, traveled luxuriously through the south, and gathered material which filled her first book. She wrote it when she was, at last, confronted .with the problem of earning her living. Coming to Washington with the view cf applying for a pension, she got as far as Alexandria, when her funds gave out. There an old friend, M. H. Clagett, pro prietor of the City hotel the building still stands, a landmark took her in and installed her as an honored guest of the house, for the winter. During this hos pitality she wrote her book, "Life, His tory and Manners In the United States; By a Traveler." In this and further works she mercilessly flayed the many communities of her visiting and their citizens for their sins of omission and commission as judged by the measuring rod of her own rigid standards, and by their differing treatment of her. Ten volumes recount her experiences and ob bervations; and they won for her national reputation as a clever, entertaining, ob servant, caustic writer. In the space devoted to Pennsylvania, (he university and Philadelphia come in for a bitter scoring. Anne wrote: "I never left a place with less regret Not that I was displeased with Philadel phia I was pleased that I had seen it" (she had traveled thirty hours by "fast stage" from Washington to Baltimore, thence come by boat to the foot of Arch street, and secured lodging with a Mr. Burns, 14 Arch, who in the ensuing days was called upon more than once to soak off Anne's shoes with hot gin. because Anne was low in funds and her feet swelled and blistered with walking to and from interviews, she' being a Spar tan). "I was pleased with It for it own sake, and above all I was pleased with en evidence of what human nature is capable of, and the effects of that capac- S - ' t ' , K . f v V 5 i . t T 1 V .. .. : f ', . V ' ' f I (Copyrig-ht by Leet. Bro.. Washington.) Mrs. Adams. She was a patron of Anne Royall and a subscriber to her publications. Mrs. Adams presented "the public nuisance" with a silk shawl. ity verified to a degree which ranks Philadelphia among the first-class cities in the world, ancient or modern, in all of its beneficence toward the human race; but in it I found but few of those courte sies which fasten upon the heart of the stranger." Anne Royall revolutionized the press of her day. She was the pioneer of both "modern" and "yellow" journalism. Her compatriots in the newspaper world of the Capital city were such brilliant stars as Francis Preston Biair, Amos Kendal, Jfffin Rives, Duff Green, Joseph Gales Bnd William Seaton. Her methods an noyed and irritated them, but sh waked them from their sleepy mortality statis tics, prosy editorials and third-band political opinions to a realization that they were not filling the requirements of the reading public at a time when a four-cprnered election had thrown John Quincy Adams . into the presidency through the house of representatives; when old Andrew Jackson was waging his Peggy O'Neill social war on his cab inet and on adciety In general . . . and when all of the political and economic elements of the young republic were forcing its emergence" from swaddling clothes into the growth or a nation by the most painful nd eruptive means. A whirlwind of invective, a firebrand of indignation, a torrent of abuse, Anne Royall was keen on the scent of every 1 bit of news . . . she kept prodding at 'the big issues with her nagging, stinging little sheet, hitting alike friend and foe . . . where her beloved land and its safety were involved. In the course of her re markably career she met and talked with every man who held the presidency from Washington to Lincoln, and as author and editor she interviewed every man and woman of consequence in the United States. She called down upon her head un limited abuse for her friendship for and defense of Mrs. Margaret Eaton (Peggy O'Neill). To her attitude In this famous case was attributed the bitterness of the clergy toward Anne and the fact that several of them were Instrumental In bringing about her arrest and trial on three counts as "a public nuisance." as "a common brawler," and as "a common scold." This trial, a great farce, wss the first of its kind to be held In an Anglo- 1 4 Mrs. Margaret Eaton (Peggy O'Neill) late in life. President Jackson's advo cacy of her in the celebrated national social war caused the disruption of his cabinet. Saxon court in nearly 300 years. Sena tors of the United States and the librar ian of congress were among the witnesses called. The learned judges unearthed an an cient British common-law statute which appeared to fit the case; but even after the jury of Bladensburg men had brought in the verdict "Ouilty," the court had not r.he courage to introduce the prescribed ducking-stool punishment in the capital. But she must be punished! So she was fined ten dollars (two hard-up nes papermen raised the sum) and required to give peace bond in $200 for one year. During the course of the trial a durklnjc rtool was constructed at the Washington navy yard by order of Chief Justice Cranch of the supreme court of the Dis trict of Columbia so certain was he of her conviction and the approaching necessity for Its use. Hosts of folks were disappointed upon learning they were not to see Anne "dipped." How much Anne did not love tier ene mies may be judged by this printed com ment of hers at the time: ' "Judge Cranch has a face with a good tieal of the pumpkin In It. Judge Thur Fton is about the same age, but If pos sible harder-featured- He is laughter proof. He looks like if he had set upon the rack all of his life and lived on crab apples. The other sweet morsel of a Judge who looks as though he I always sitting for his portrait has a fare that lesembles a country road after a passage cf a troop of hogs." And when the jury gave Its verdict Anne turned to the United States marshal and said: "The nexf time I'm tired, please sum mon twelve tomcats Instead of Bladens burg men." Not even death humored Ann Royall; poverty was her undertaker. I A SHOP WHDOW. BY MARGARET E. SANG8TER. He was such a little puppy. In the window cf a hop. And his wietful tyrt ltokfd at me. and hey me plie to olop And buy him for a widow's awful lonely, and folk pan And they make tran, ucly fact and rap aharply on the flaMl He waa auch a cunnlna- hracar. and Ma pawt were aoft and wld. And he had way of utandlng with h!e head held on one eld. And hie mouth Jupt s lchdy open, and he almost aeemed to rry: Take me from thla horrid window, 'rauea X m ready, moat, to die!" He cot tangled In my heart atronaa. mad me want to break away From tne leaee I elnd eo ladly waa It only yesterday? Said that do were not admitted He waa not a doc. not yet! .Only juat a tiny puppy and hi no til black and wet. Did you ever apeak unkindly of th friend you hold moit dear? Did you ever call out cro;y, (0 (hat by- atandera could hear! Did you ever pull a curtain to ahut out th amillnc day? That' how 1 fe'i but more o a I turned nd walked away! THY KA.MK. Thy nam come wMprtnc oftly All through my dy And I love to nir It elng In a thnunoi! f:f:iir ir). It 'In in between if,- o-d Even whn 1 n-i-l.lke sve y ! ' rr tr n ! ireai W':t ' grav KlJjr.IVli LVELVN SPENCE.