HARRISON, CAROLINE LAVINIA SCOTT. 



331 



those markets. Tho inferior kinds, unwashed 



m<l sweepings, are exported to San Fran- 



jind are consumed in the United States. 



4 li:mirr of Administration. In the elec- 



r 11 President for the period from 1802 to 



Maria Reina Barrios received the 



majority of voles, and was confirmed by the 



National Assembly on March 15, 1892. The 



Cabinet of the new President was constituted as 



follows: Minister of Justice, Manuel Estrada 



Ca!>ivra ; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ramon 



A. Salazar; Minister of Finance, Salvadore Her- 



rera ; Minister of Education, Manuel Cabral ; 



Minister of Public Works. Jorge Velez, who was 

 appointed temporarily to the Ministry of War 

 also. (ion. Barrios promised to give his main 

 attention to reducing to order the finances of the 

 country, and declared that his administration 

 would not be purely partisan, like that of his 

 predecessor, but that he would seek the co-opera- 

 tion of the best men of all parties for the pur- 

 pose of securing good government and general 

 satisfaction and content. His selection of men 

 who had been his political opponents for some 

 of the high posts in the provincial administra- 

 tions comported with this declaration. 



H 



HARRISON, CAROLINE LAVINIA 

 SCOTT, mistress of the White House in 1889- 

 '92, born in Oxford, Ohio, Oct. 1, 1832 ; died in 

 Washington, D. C., Oct. 25, 1892. Dr. John 

 Witherspoon Scott, her father, was of an old 

 Pennsylvania family. Her mother, Mary Neal, 

 wiis the daughter of a bank cashier in Philadel- 

 phia. Mr. Scott studied theology and entered 

 the ministry of the Presbyterian Church, but 

 subsequently adopted teaching as his life work. 



CAROLINE LAVINIA SCOTT HARRISON. 



Miami University was founded in Oxford, Ohio, 

 in 1826, and a little later the Oxford Female 

 College was established in the same village ; Dr. 

 Scott became its president, and his daughter 

 studied under his tuition. Benjamin Harrison 

 entered the junior class of Miami University, 

 and an attachment soon sprang up between him 

 and Miss Scott, who was an exceedingly attract- 

 ive as well as strpng-natured girl. On leaving 

 college, Mr. Harrison read law for two years in 

 Cincinnati, and then, returning to Oxford, was 

 married on Oct. 20, 1853, and carried his bride 

 to his home at North Bend. There he com- 

 pleted his law studies, and the vouthful pair re- 

 moved to Indianapolis, Ind. They boarded for 

 a time, but on the birth of a son, Russell, began 

 housekeeping. The new home was one story 

 high, with three rooms and a lean-to kitchen. 

 Mrs. Harrison sometimes employed "help," but 

 was often her husband's cook and her baby's 

 nurse, while Mr. Harrison filled the water buck- 

 ets and the wood boxes before leaving for his 

 office. Of those days he says : " They were close 

 times. I tell you. A five -dollar bill was an 

 event." Two years later they had so far prospered 



as to be able to remove to a larger and better 

 house. In 1858 a second child, Mary, was born. 

 From 1862 till 1865 Gen. Harrison was with his 

 troops in the field, and his wife was doing her 



Eart for the cause with the other women at 

 ome. In 1881 Gen. Harrison was elected to 

 the United States Senate, and Mrs. Harrison ac- 

 companied him to Washington. During the six 

 years of their residence there she was especially 

 associated with works of benevolence and public 

 interest, while continuing to make the home 

 circle a charming one for friends and for such 

 strangers as had a right to enter it. The Gar- 

 field Hospital, of which she became one of the 

 first directors, largely owed its success to her in- 

 terest and efforts. 



In Indianapolis Mrs. Harrison was especially 

 well known for the brightness and pithiness of 

 the social meetings at her home, and her pro- 

 grammes for a literary organization were always 

 marked by originality and strength, while the 

 fair and the charitable meeting were greatly 

 helped by the influence of her sympathetic per- 

 sonality. She kept up her studies and pursued 

 art as a means of recreation and culture. A 

 friend of hers says: "The Harrisons have been 

 noted for their hospitality. They had always a 

 house full of company at their Indianapolis 

 home." During the political canvass that ended 

 in the election of her husband as President of 

 the United States, one little remark of hers sug- 

 gested the picture of the careful housewife. 

 Looking at the carpets of her substantial and 

 comfortable home after they had been trodden 

 by the multitude of callers, she said : " My dear, 

 if we don't go to the White House, wo shall 

 have to go to the poorhouse." They did go to 

 the White House, and among the women who 

 have presided there in republican simplicity 

 there is no more amiable and attractive figure 

 than that of Mrs. Harrison. She took such 

 pride in it as the nation's representative home 

 as few others have token, and brought from long- 

 hidden corners objects of historic interest or 

 beauty and set them in their proper relations. 

 She not only redecorated interesting rooms that 

 had been closed or little used, but had impor- 

 tant sanitary improvements made in the cellars 

 and kitchens. In a conversation between Mrs. 

 Harrison and Secretary Elaine, their views on 

 the inadequacy of the Executive Mansion were 

 exchanged, she pointing out especially the lack 

 of enough family apartments, of privacy for the 



