Word: besse
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...when Abigail Adams left the comforts of Philadelphia to become the first mistress of the presidential mansion, to endure mud streets, the "lies and falsehoods of ... electioneering," and to keep 13 fireplaces going all day "or sleep in wet and dampness." But little more than a year ago, Bess Truman echoed Abigail's discontent. "This is a terrible life," she said. "We don't have any privacy at all. I'll be glad when we get back to Independence and can live like human beings...
This is not to suggest that either Abigail or Bess, or any of the 26 Presidents' wives of the years between, have been completely insensate to the privileges and perquisites of their position, or the bracing effects of power and applause. A few White House wives have enjoyed such heady successes that they left the capital only with the utmost reluctance. But the price of occupancy is always high. Last week, while still technically a private citizen, Mamie Eisenhower was discovering that even public adulation can be an overpowering, if flattering, experience...
...Bess Truman! She was not always posing for her picture . . . She had no sons who made the headlines with their shameful escapades. She never wrote a book or a column. Neither did she travel all over the world . . . And I'll bet she doesn't know what a demagogue...
...casting followed, amounting to nothing when the foundry executing the work went broke. Finally in 1937 the rhinos, one wegihing 230 pounds more than the other, arrived for their unveiling at the University. Miss Lane had baptized them in the foundry, naming one Queen Victoria and her companion Queen Bess...
Actors traditionally have trouble with prejudiced landlords, but the members of Blevins Davis' Porgy and Bess company are more sensitive than most to such snubs: all but three of the 65 in the cast are Negroes. From the American cast's point of view, one of the best things about Porgy's current triumphant tour of Europe has been the relative absence of discrimination. Then last month the Porgy company arrived in London, and became a prompt smash hit (TIME...