People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1896 — WHITE HOUSE BABIES [ARTICLE]

WHITE HOUSE BABIES

PAST AND PRESENT CHILDREN WHO WERE BORN THERE. There Have Been Only Six Genuine White Home Bttblea—The Unee of the Majority of Them Have Mot Been Happy—Three Died In Atyeet Poverty. It was afternoon. I waa walking •lowly along one aide of Lafayette square, wondering why Jackson’s statue was given the oonter, while Lafayette, the “rightful heir,” was driven with his statue into a far and grudging oorner of the plot. The grind of wheels attracted my attention. It was the White House carriage just turning out of the grounda Within were Mrs. Cleveland and the two older children, Ruth and Rather. Mra Cleveland looked a hit wont. She is growing very heavy these days—the scales say 186 pounds. As 1 glanced at the White House party in the carriage I noted that the two babies looked hale and well Why doesn't one see pictures of the White House babiea scattered through the land? Cleveland won’t allow any to get out. A picture of Baby Ruth or Baby Esther would be as hard to find as King Solomon’s mine and be almost as valuable. The* president is opposed to scattering the likenesses of his near and dear ones abroad in the general land. Speaking of babies bom in the White Bouse, Baby Esther was the last The first White House baby was also a girl and made her debut during the faraway reign of Jackson, back in 1880. There was the space of 68 years between the first aod the last White House baby. Who was the first? She was the dapghter at President Jackson's niece, who was the wife of Andrew Jackson Donaldson. This first White House baby, Baby Donaldson, grew np and married a Mississippi gentleman—onoo a congressman —named Wiloox. Goners 1 Wilcox has now been dead full 80 years, and Mrs. Wiloox, who was the first to try the White House as a place wherein to be born, has since Grant's time been a clerk in the treasury department Jackson's administration produced two mom White House babies, both Donaldsons, both children of bis niece. The seoond and the third White House babies were, respectively, John Samuel Donaldson and Haohel Jackson Donaldson—the latter named after the president's dead wife, for whom to the day of his own taking off the stern Jackson mourned like a lover. The world waited until President Tyler’s time for the next White House baby to be born there. This baby was Robert Tyler Jones, the child of President Tyler’s daughter Mary, whose husband, Captain Jones, was a South Carolinian. This, the fourth White House baby—practically the seoond, for tho two Donaldson babies, the seoond and third of the line of White House babies, died long years ago as children—grew up to be a soldier of the Confederacy. He served as captain in Armisfceed’s brigade and was wounded several times. He is dead now, and his grave is vary new. He passed away a broken, shattered man, in bitter poverty, only a year ago. Until Robere Tyler Jones was dismissed the onrioos, searching the treasury, oould find two White House babies —Mrs. Wilcox and Tyler Jones—earning their meager salaries at desks from whioh they oould overlook the great house they were born in, not a stone's throw away. But the great house had changed bands many times sinoe their cradle days, and the new tenants were cold strangers to them. The fifth baby was Julia Dent Grant, daughter at Colonel Fred Grant, who was born there while her grandfather, the silent Grant, was president. There is nothing to remark about the fifth White House baby, beyond the foot that she was christened in the blue room, whereas the Jackson babies had been christened in the east room. Old Hickory loved children almost as well as be hated the British. ’ ‘There cannot be too many children,” said Jackson—and never had one himself. The sixth White House baby, and the last one—to date—was and is Baby Esther. When she was born, her father was entitled to remark that at all the chief magistrates since the dignified days of Washington, in bookies and silk hose, he, Cleveland, vase Hoe first to become a parent daring his term of office. Thus it will be abserted the list of genuine White House babies is but a short one—only six tn all, Baby Esther the last of the line. Three of the White House babies are dead—the two Donaldson babies and Tyler Jones, who med in tbe coils of abject, savage want. Of tbs others, the first, gray haired and old, bends over her desk for tbe bread she eats. The last baby has life all untried before her. These is the reoord. Hot would it show that to be born a White House baby is any absolute advantage. The hovel baby may liee to be wiser, happier and better off.—Alfred Henry Lewis in New York Journal.