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Standing six feet, William Howard Taft weighed well over three hundred pounds. When he moved into the White House, a Taft-sized bathtub had to be installed. Like Roosevelt, he rode horseback—when told of a long horseback ride by Taft in the Philippines, Roosevelt’s secretary of state, Elihu Root, asked, “How is the horse?” Unlike Roosevelt, he did not >sh, hunt, or hike in Rock Creek Valley. Unsuited by size to tennis, Taft instead played golf enthusiastically and often. Roosevelt, who had refused to be photographed in his tennis attire, warned Taft not to be photographed playing golf, but Taft disregarded Roosevelt’s advice. He allowed the press to see and photograph him playing what was regarded as a “rich man’s game”—and, in fact, he played with some very rich men.1 William Howard Taft, always a reluctant president, preferred a judicial career to the presidency. While his wife Helen (known as Nellie) wanted her husband to become president, Taft himself longed for a seat on the Supreme Court. Before becoming governor general of the Philippines, he was a federal judge in Ohio and solicitor general in Washington. Nellie and her husband both got their wishes; Taft served as both president and chief justice. ★ Reluctant President, Ardent Golfer Before he was nominated for president, Taft was an ardent golfer. In 1908, vacationing at Hot Springs, Virginia, before the upcoming election, he disregarded Roosevelt’s advice to avoid gol>ng. Roosevelt, who believed that golf was an elite game not played by the common man, virtually insisted that Taft cease playing golf—at least until the nominating convention and election campaign were over. According to Nellie’s biographer, Carl Sferrazza Anthony, “ten reporters and one photographer chronicled the Tafts in Hot Springs, especially Will’s endless rounds of golf.”2 7 William Howard Taft A Large Legacy ★ ★★ ★★★★★ ★ ★★ In the winter of 1909, soon after he was elected (but before he was inaugurated ), Taft left Washington for Hot Springs to play more golf and to choose his cabinet at his leisure. But Hot Springs proved to be too close to home, and the president-elect was besieged with visitors. After returning to Washington, he decided to go to the less traveled, more remote site of Augusta , Georgia, not yet the home of the Augusta National or the Masters Golf Tournament. There he ran into the retired billionaire John D. Rockefeller, at that time possibly the most despised man in America. Taft persuaded Rockefeller to let him use his quarters, but on his wife Nellie’s advice, he refused the oil magnate’s invitation to play golf. Nellie argued that Rockefeller’s unpopularity might rub o= on him. Nellie Taft was the president’s closest adviser and con>dante. Bright and ambitious, Nellie had a lively interest in games that dated from her childhood. She rejoiced with her husband when he broke 100 in golf. She herself smoked, drank (but not to excess), and played poker for money. Her gambling itself was a potential issue in the presidential campaign, but the story did not come out until after Taft had won the election—or, as Carl Anthony puts it, the “period of rosiness toward the President-elect and his family that usually follows Election Day.” Taft’s golf stirred far more interest and controversy than her card playing. And, as it turned out, Nellie herself was soon to become the >rst misfortune in Taft’s ill-fated presidency.3 Almost from the beginning, storm clouds seemed to hover over the Taft presidency. In early May, two months after taking o;ce, Nellie su=ered a stroke that left her bedridden and speechless. Though she would begin walking and going on short excursions in the White House automobile within a few months, the president worried constantly about her health. Deprived of her advice and companionship, he turned more to Archie Butt, Roosevelt’s military aide, who now became not only his aide but also his constant companion . Soon after Nellie’s stroke, Taft and Butt were riding their horses near the Potomac River, when the president’s horse became frightened by the swiftly ?owing water. He wheeled and threw the massive president onto the ground. With the president lying on his back, Butt vaulted o= his own horse only to >nd the president convulsed with laughter. He looked up at Butt and asked him what he was thinking. “My only thought was, Mr. President,” Butt responded, “that the devil was...

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