WASHINGTON, June 18.—Nine months of courageous battling to repair the consequences of illness resulting from the profligacy with which all earnest men draw upon their balance in the bank of nature has neither daunted the spirit nor impaired in the slightest degree the splendid intellect of Woodrow Wilson.
Nine months of isolation while the orderly processes of nature, combined with tender and efficient care, restored nervous and physical tissues strained by too heavy demands on a physique never robust at best, have manifestly affected the flesh, but have not abridged the intense devotion of Mr. Wilson to the principles for which he fought with the grasping statesmen of Europe and political obstructionists of his own country.
The President has paid in the flesh. There is no doubt about that. But with sublime courage he fought while he lay almost physically helpless. Now that his complete restoration to health seems assured, he fights with determined purpose to bring America to what he considers its sense of duty to the rest of the world, with the fullest realization of his own duty to America. Mr. Wilson's vision and courage through these nine months of illness have but served to make him the more determined that justice and right (as he appraises them) shall prevail throughout the world if every force of influence at his command can accomplish it.
These are the outstanding impressions that the correspondent brought from a three-hour visit of Tuesday last, to the best loved and most hated man in the world, and of half an hour's call on Wednesday.
During the three hours I spent with the President I saw him transact the important functions of his office with his old-time decisiveness, method and keenness of intellectual appraisement.
Facility of Expression.
The correspondent heard him dictate his decisions on matters of great Governmental importance with facility of expression and directness of meaning that indicated no impairment of the efficient mental machine that has known only the hardest kind of work for 40 years.
The correspondent talked with him for upward of an hour, in which were discussed a wide range of subjects and concerning which he expressed himself, not only with Wilsonian vigor, but established the even more gratifying survival of the saving sense of humor.
The correspondent saw him walk from one apartment to another on Tuesday, and on Wednesday accompanied him as he walked with no other help than a cane, none too stout, from the elevator of the White House to his motor car. The cane upon which his right hand found support was the sort of stick he used to thrash through the turnip patches when he was president of Princeton.
His use of it on Wednesday accentuated the heritage of his long illness, yet the halting movement of the motor agencies of his left leg impressed me as being far less pronounced than that which characterized the movements of Gen. Leonard Wood.
There was no dragging of the left foot, as there would be if the President's left leg were completely paralyzed. There was a tendency to lift it a trifle higher and in advance of the sturdy right limb.
The best proof of the great improvement in the President's physical condition was provided when he mounted three improvised wooden steps and entered the motor car with only such assistance as would naturally be given to a person convalescing from serious illness.
In appearance the President seemed much the same as on his return from Paris. He has gained more than 20 pounds in weight during the last two months. His face is not distorted in the slightest degree, as some of the unfriendly versions of his illness have asserted. The Wilson face is much the same as it was, though it bears the impress of great physical suffering.
After he had worked, and we had talked for an hour, the President walked from his office chair on the balcony to the movies in the east room, slowly, cautiously, but with confidence. Mrs. Wilson, the President and the correspondent composed the small and select audience that witnessed a "Bill" Hart thriller in the darkened chamber.
Following the show Mrs. Wilson, the President, Dr. Grayson, Secretary Tumulty and the correspondent discussed luncheon and lighter phases of current events. The President's appetite appeared to be very good, and he was in an entertaining mood. He even attempted a limerick but was prevented by an interruption.
"Visit" to the People.