THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



209 



HELEN WADS WORTH YATES. 



The recent quadrennial elections 

 which carried into office the Hon. 

 Richard Yates as governor of 

 Illinois, carried also into the execu- 

 tive mansion a charming woman, 

 his wife. Of Mrs. Helen Wads- 

 worth Yates, the new first lady of 

 Illinois, little is now known by the 

 general public because her husband 

 is a new figure on the larger politi- 

 cal horizon. Previous 1 to her ac- 

 cession to the dignity of the first 

 lady of the state, Mrs. Yates led a 

 quiet domestic life in her delight- 

 ful Jacksonville home. She is now 

 in the fierce light that beats about 

 the life of political leaders and the 

 public in general, and the women 

 of Illinois especially are interested 

 in her. 



Mrs, Yates is fitted by education, 

 training and distinguished lineage 

 to .grace the proud position she 

 holds, and before her four years as 

 mistress of the executive mansion 

 are over she will add another bright 

 page to its history which other 

 brilliant women before her have 

 helped to make. Those who have 

 come in touch with Mrs. Yates and 

 felt the genial warmth of her gen- 

 erous nature, who know her tact 

 and have perceived her strong men- 

 tal grasp upon affairs feel that she 

 will add strength as only an able 

 woman can to the administration 

 that has begun so auspiciously for 

 her distinguished husband. 

 D Americans are proud to boast 

 that here a man stands upon his 

 own feet and that distinguished 

 ancestry [cannot put a man into 

 position his own merits cannot win. 



This is true. But the pride of an- 

 cestry is as strong within our 

 breasts as among the aristocrats of 

 the old world, and we point with 

 pride to those numerous examples 

 among our men of prominence 

 where the strength and power of 

 race has extended from generation 

 to generation. Gov. Yates, the 

 son of a governor, comes of no 

 more distinguished Hue than his 

 wife, who traces her ancestry back 

 through successive generations of 

 men distinguished in every line of 

 endeavor to a strong eld Puritan 

 who came to America when the 

 persecution of Cromwell's Ironsides 

 made England too small to hold 

 them, and beyond him through 

 English sires to the time when 

 another, and the first known, fight- 

 ing Wadsworth won a crest at the 

 battle of Aquicourt. Something of 

 the spirit that induced that stout 

 warrior to write upon his shield 

 Aquila non captat muscas, "the eagle 

 does not catch flies," has stirred 

 every later generation of Wads- 

 worth, who have never stooped to 

 small things. 



The first of Mrs. Yates' family to 

 land in America were William and 

 Archibald Wadsworth who landed 

 in Boston harbor some time prior 

 to 1632. William .became a man of 

 prominence in the colony and from 

 him Mrs. Yates' family descended. 

 The descendants of William and 

 Archibald successively took their 

 places in the young country as men 

 of affairs and helped to make its 

 history. When the Revolution 

 came on the Wadsworths took their 

 place in the army and added luster 



