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Tyrant Tad: The Boy In The White House
by
Besides delivering the invitation, the messenger also asked whether Willie and Tad were there, as they had not been at home since breakfast time, although they had been traced to the Capitol, where they had been seen sitting in the gallery of the House of Representatives, and later treated to lunch in the restaurant of Congress by a gentleman whom the boys always amused, then they had been seen playing marbles with some of the pages in the Capitol, but now where were they? The messenger who was well acquainted with the truants, seemed more amused than alarmed over their disappearance, and soon carried back a note to Mrs. Lincoln accepting the invitation for Budd and Hally, provided the truants should be found! While Budd and Hally were excitedly helping to pack their clothes in a small valise, for the visit, in walked the wanderers. They carried a very large and much dilapidated umbrella which Tad said they had borrowed from the cook–doubtless a Southern mammy who took an endless delight in the boys’ pranks, and aided them all she could in their mischievous plans. Tad’s pockets were bulging with marbles, which showed how successfully he had played his game with the pages earlier in the day, and both boys had entirely forgotten that they had bad colds. All four soon set out in high glee together, while Tad gave a whoop of joy as they left the house.
“You bet we’ll have a good time!” he exclaimed, and from all descriptions of that visit, they certainly must have had it.
On the following day there was a review, and the boys all rode in the President’s carriage, looking as severe and dignified as if they had never had a mischievous idea, but, with a feeling of mistrust that such dignity might be only skin deep, a member of the Taft family went to the White House to find out what was going on. To her relief she saw that the building was still standing, but on being ushered in, she noticed that all the orderlies, soldiers and doorkeepers wore broad grins. Asking where the boys were, and being ushered upstairs she came upon Tad, who instantly called out:
“Oh, say, we’ve got a circus in the attic. We’re minstrels. I’ve got to be blacked up and Willie can’t get his dress on–it’s too big. Pin it up, will you? Hurry!”
The horrified question, “Does the President know it?” was answered impatiently by Tad.
“Oh, yes, he knows it,” said Tad. “He doesn’t care. He’s got some general or other in there. Come on–hurry!”
Willie was meanwhile struggling with the long, flowered skirt of a lilac silk reception dress of Mrs. Lincoln’s, and Budd was getting into one of her ruffled morning wrappers, while Tad began to sing at the top of his voice:
“Old Abe Lincoln came out of the wilderness—-“
“Hush,” cautioned Budd, “the President will hear you.”
“I don’t care if pa does hear, and he don’t care either,” said Tad. “We’re going to sing that in the show.” And sing it they did!
Another day when Tad was shouting out a campaign song at the Tafts’ about “Old Abe splitting rails,” Willie asked Mrs. Taft if she did not think it was disrespectful of Tad to sing such a song. Tad overheard what he said, and kicked a chair, as he always did when displeased, and said:
“Well, everybody in this world knows Pa did use to split rails!” But when Mrs. Taft explained to him why she thought he ought not to say or sing this, Tad said with equal decision:
“Well, I’ll sing John Brown’s body then.” However headstrong he seemed, he was really very affectionate, and willing to be convinced that he was wrong, if any one approached him in the right way.
There was much to occupy the boys’ attention in Washington, and they were especially interested in the models of locomotives and steamboats in the Patent Office, where they spent much time, and they were also sometimes to be found making a survey of the White House grounds under the guidance of a good-natured engineer. At other times they invaded the McClellans’ house, where they were allowed to play with the baby and where General and Mrs. McClellan were very kind to them, and of course they never missed a review, even riding in the staff, when the bridle of Willie’s horse was held by the Duc de Chartres and Budd’s by the Comte de Paris, while Hally and Tad rode in front of the aides, sitting as erect and stiff as if they were the chief features in the parade.