But the newspaper publicity was even more satisfying, for it centred attention unequivocally on her.  Columns of descriptive matter relative to her husband’s personality began to appear as soon as it became obvious that he was to be Governor.  These articles aimed to be exhaustive in their character, covering the entire scope of his past life, disclosing pitiless details in regard to his habits, tastes, and private concerns.  Nothing which could be discovered or ferreted out was omitted; and most of these biographies were illuminated by a variety of more or less hideous cuts showing, for example, his excellency as he looked as a school boy, his excellency as a fledgling attorney, the humble home where his excellency was born, and his excellency’s present stately but hospitable residence on Benham’s River Drive.  Almost every newspaper in the State took its turn at contributing something which it conceived to be edifying to this reportorial budget.  And after the Governor, came the turn of the Governor’s lady, as she was called.

Selma liked best the articles devoted exclusively to herself; where she appeared as the special feature of the newspaper issue, not merely as an adjunct to her husband.  But she liked them all, and she was most benignant in her reception of the several newspaper scribes, principally of her own sex, who sought an interview for the sake of copy.  She withheld nothing in regard to her person, talents, household, or tastes which would in her opinion be effective in print.  She had a photograph of herself taken in simple, domestic matronly garb to supplement those which she already possessed, one of which revealed the magnificence of the attire she wore at the President’s Reception; another portrayed Littleton’s earnest bride, and still a fourth disclosed her as the wistful, aspiring school-mistress on the threshold of womanhood.  These, and the facts appropriate to them, she meted out to her biographers from time to time, lubricating her amiable confidences with the assertion that both she and her husband felt that the people were entitled to be made familiar with the lives of their public representatives.  As the result of her gracious behavior, her willingness to supply interesting details concerning herself, and her flattering tendency to become intimate on the spot with the reporters who visited her, the newspaper articles in most cases were in keeping with Selma’s prepossessions.  Those which pleased her most emphasized in the first place her intellectual gifts and literary talents, intimating delicately that she had refused brilliant offers for usefulness with her pen and on the lecture platform in order to become the wife of Congressman Lyons, to whom her counsel and high ideals of public service were a constant stimulus.  Emphasized in the second place her husband’s and her own pious tastes, and strong religious convictions, to which their constant church attendance and the simple sanctity of their American home bore testimony.