LADY OF WHITE HOUSE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 242, 12 October 1929, Page 4 (Supplement)

LADY OF WHITE HOUSE.

MRS. HERBERT HOOVER. A SPLENDID HOUSEWIFE. If I liad to pick, out one word to cover Mrs. Hoover's qualifications, writes Ruth L. Storiehain, of the lady who is entertaining the Premier of England and Miss Ishbel Mac Donald, I would choose "adequate," because the word includes intellectual ability, poise, tact, individuality and a.soi't of vealness that lias survived all the thousand casual contacts that make for artificiality in official life. Is "Adequate." She is a grandmother, and yet she plays tennis; she is a college woman and co-author of a book which bears the awesome name of ''Agricola de re Metallica," and yet she has made her home and family her career; she can attend to the infinitude of duties that fall on a Cabinet hostess and yet belong to a Girl Scout troop and plan walks and camping trips with them; she can greet 200' guests at a tea and smile without an effort at the last, departing guest; she's a miracle at remembering names; she «an accomplish as much in a day as would fill five days for the average* woman, and yet she never seems rushed.

That's what I mean when I say Mrs Hoover is so "adequate." She utilises that characteristic in running < her household. They call Mr. Hoover a "genius for getting things done," referring to the extraordinary efficiency with which he attended to the Food Administration job in war times; to relief work later; then to his job of running the Commerce Department, which is said to be the greatest business organisation in the world, and to the relief work for the Mississippi flood sufferers. Mrs. Hoover brings to her job the same brand of efficiency.

Her house is run like a business. She has a staff consisting of a cook, who is chief of the "below stairs" department; a butler who is responsible for the fir so floor; a maid who takes care of the second floor, and another maid who attends to the third floor, does the mending and the odd jobs. Likes To Shop. Everybody has his job clearly outlined, and Mrs. Hoover doesn't interfere so long ae that job is well done. There

is nothing she does not know about a house, however, from cooking a chop to making a bed, and her subordinates know that she knows. She picks competent subordinates, tells them what to do, and leaves them alone to do it. That's why she has so much time to enjoy the home after she has made it— unlike many home-makers who are so submerged in housekeeping details that -they "can't see the forest for the trees." Mrs; Hoover gets up bright and early in the morning, for the Hoovers breakfast at eight, and she always drives djvvn 'to the office with Mr. Hoover, drops him, and then goes on to market or shop, before the shops are crowded. She likes to do shopping herself, although, of course, she doesn't do it all the time, for she doesn't make a fetish of housekeeping. Her cook, a product of Southern Maryland, has been with Mrs. Hoover for years, and is thoroughly versed in the Hoover likes and dislikes in cookery, so she can handle things when Mrs. Hoover has other affairs on her mind. Mrs. Hoover like any other executive, has her business organised so that it can run by itself arid will not fall to pieces the moment .she takes her hand off it. •- When she is away the household goes on just the same. Living' is'so"'easy and pleasant in the Hoover home in Washington. Mrs. Hoover keeps the household wheels greased, But nobody ever sees her in the process of greasing them. She has a secretary who helps her in her.social,duties. From 4.30 to 6 .p.m. on Wednesdays she is at home to those whom she knows, and they drop in and out informally. In 'the-whiter there is the cheerful fire burning in the brown-panelled library, and in the summer there is the terraced garden behind the house where iced tea, lemonade, and /chocolate cake are available at any moment. Has Met i Difficulties. Mrs. Hoover's cookery, incidentally, is a compilation of the cookery of all the places where she has lived, and they are legion. She was born in lowa. Then she went to California, and there grafted the Spanish flavcjr on the prosaic Jiid-

die West basis. After she married her engineer husband she lived in Mexico, Canada, Australia, Italy, England, Africa, India, China and Russia, absorbing more or less of the cookery and housekeeping characteristics of each -country. Is it any wonder that a woman who has coped with housekeeping in thesu uttermost ends of the earth is not to be ruffled by anything Washington can present in the way; of difficulties. They say that when she was honeymooning in China she served meals to beleaguered Americans behind a barricade of sugar barrels and rice bags, and cheerfully picked out the silver lining by pointing out that, anyway, nobody, would starve as long as they could stick a bayonet into the barricade. She finds housekeeping more or less the same job all over the world. Cosmopolitan women have a habit of saying, "Oh, you can live so much more cheaply in- France," or this or that place. Mrs. Hoover has found that the same standard of living costs about the same everywhere. The simple meals of the Hoover family are indicative of the simple, wholesome life of the family generally. Mrs. Hoover is an outdoor woman. She loves flowers and -walking and outdoor games. Her radiant health shows in every movement. She is of medium height, neither slender nor stout. Her grey hair is wreathed around her head closely. If she uses make-up it isn't discernible. Her clothes are simple. One is not conscious of-her clothes, so they must suit her/bat they do not overpower her personality. Some official women make such a point of being "correctly" dressed that one is continually noticing their clothes. Hospitable. Her dresses are conservatively long, though by no means unfashionably so. She wears shoes with moderate heels, which perhaps accounts for her ability to come througli four hours of a reception with a smile. She does not run to bright colours. She never gives interviews—that is' understood. She is the most friendly, hospitable soul in the world, and loves company, but she dislikes publicity. Now she has moved to the White House. This will- be the thing ehc will find hardest. Everything, else she will be able to run with her left hand, but the castiron etiquette and pitiless publicity of the White House will be a sore trjal to her.

However, she is, as I said, in the beginning superlatively adequate, and she will do a good job at the White House, whether she likes all of it or not.—("Star" and A.A.N.S.) ■