Memory

1895

"I went into a big book store once," said a man, "to buy a book of which the sale must be very limited. In fact, I had some doubt as to whether I should find it. Have you got so-and-so?' I asked a clerk. He walked off down the store half or three-quarters of a mile and turned through an opening between two counters. The wall the length of the store was lined with shelves of books clear to the ceiling. He shifted a stepladder that stood against the shelves near where he turned in along a foot or two, walked up to the top of it, reached out to one side and took down a book. It was the book I wanted. They had it, and seldom called for as it was he knew exactly whore it was among those many thousands of books. Of course it was his business to know, and I suppose there must be some perfectly simple way of affixing the knowledge in the mind, but to me it seemed quite a feat." — New York Sun.


Adams and Jackson

John Quincy Adams was cold, reserved and a purist of the purists. When he and Andrew Jackson met at a levee in Washington after their memorable contest for the presidency, the crowd, seeing the two men approach, fell back in mute expectancy. It was possible that there might be a scene. But the defeated Jackson, with fine urbanity and manner, addressed the president elect in most cordial terms, and the victorious Adams, failing to respond to the proffered olive branch, gave expression to his preconceptions with formal iciness. — Noah Brooks in Scribner's.

Cutter At The Capital

1895

Long Island's Poet Laureate Sees a Whitehouse Reception.

(From the Washington Post.)

Bloodgood H. Cutter, the Long Island farmer-poet — he says so himself — has given a description of a White House reception which should not be allowed to pass into oblivion. Almost everybody in Washington has, at one time or another, attended this particular function. Bloodgood H. Cutter, therefore, can throw no new light upon its character. But not everybody has seen it through a poet's eyes, caught its subtle meaning, and tracked its more momentous suggestions to their hiding places. Of course, the farmer-poet begins upon us gently:

To the President, reception went
In crowds outside the people stood,
For several hours some did wait,
The rich and poor, the bad and good.

O what a trial it was then
To stand so long out in the cold,
And then the pressure was so great
Quite dang'rous to the young and old.

Quite ordinary persons would have seen things much this way — counted the hours in the same commonplace spirit and calculated the chances on pink-eye or influenza just as Bloodgood Cutter did. In the next verse, however, we leave the beaten track and wander among the daisies and the violets of thought —

We tried there to each other cheer
In a mild and pleasing way,
Some did verses and their lines recite
In many ways each had their say.

Next, in a rush and whirl of rhetoric unknown to Jenkins and his tribe, we effect an entrance —

About nine the policeman came
To get ready to open the door,
After a while they did it ope
And began the rush and roar.

It was very dangerous then,
When the crowd outside 'gainst us did push
I had hard work to free myself
Or 'gainst doorpost they would me crush.

The poet escaped, though, and once past the breakers and the rocks he floated pleasantly in tranquil waters —

Then as we near'd reception room
In single file through door did go
There President and lady stood
Both shook my hand as I went slow.

Then Bloodgood drew a good, long breath and looked about him. Then, with easy and flowing, but vivid touches, full of warmth and color, he immortalized the tableau —

Behind the grandee ladies stood
So richly clad in modern style,
To see so many necks all bare
Made some feel sad and others smile.

'Tis sad to think our ladies dear
In this way risk their precious lives;
Many in this way do catch cold
Depriving husbands of their wives.

About 10,000 said was there
On President that night did call,
It was indeed such a large crowd,
Could hardly get by them at all.

Through that large room I did pass through
Then with the crowd I gazed around,
Upon the nice paintings that were there
And other rare things that were found.

Why do not poets come oftener to these somewhat tedious celebrations, to beguile the hours of waiting with instructive discourse and to improve the opportunity for those who cannot attend in person? Why is not Bloodgood H. Cutter more numerous, more frequent, and more communicative?

A President's Old Shears

1895

Dr. W. F. Edmonds of Gate City, Va., has in his possession two pairs of scissors with which Andrew Johnson worked as a tailor at Greeneville, Tenn. Major A. R. Edmonds, the doctor's father, who died about eight years ago, was in partnership with Johnson at Greeneville, and the little shop in which they worked still stands with the sign, "A. Johnson, Tailor," over the door. When they dissolved the partnership. Johnson made Edmonds a present of the large scissors, and they have been carefully preserved. — Baltimore Sun.

Vice President King

1895

He Took the Oath of Office Abroad, but Did Not Live to Serve.

William Rufus King, born April 6, 1786, died April 18, 1853, was a vice president of the United States who never served in that capacity and one who took the oath of office on foreign soil, something which can be said of no other executive officer who has over been elected by the people of this country. King was an invalid, but his friends urged him to take second place on the ticket with Pierce in 1852.

Both were elected, but Mr. King's health failed so rapidly that he was forced to go to Cuba some two months before inauguration day. Not having returned to the United States by March 4, Congress passed a special act authorizing the United States consul at Matanzas, Cuba, to swear him in as vice president at about the hour when Pierce was taking the oath of office at Washington.

This arrangement was carried out to a dot, and on the day appointed, at a plantation on one of the highest hills in the vicinity of Matanzas, Mr. King was made vice president of the United States amid the solemn "Vaya vol con Dios" (God will be with you) of the creoles who had assembled to witness the unique spectacle. Vice President King returned to his home at Cahawba, Ala., arriving at that place April 17, 1853, and died the following day. His remains wore laid to rest on his plantation, known as Pine Hills. — Chicago Times.

Brass Tacks At Washington

1916

Judge Hughes and the Republican Party are challenged in the new Democratic National Textbook to speak out for or against the record of achievement made by President Wilson and the Democrats.

The challenge is issued in twenty-one brief, direct and pointed questions addressed to Judge Hughes and the Republicans by the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Committee. All the large issues, domestic and international, are treated. The questions carry the caption "Appeal for Light for Sixteen Million Voters: Let Mr. Hughes and the Republican Party Answer."

These questions are:

1. Do you favor repeal of the Federal Reserve Act passed by a Democratic Congress, recommended and approved by President Wilson, under which the danger of financial panics is forever banished from the United States?

2. Would you have protested against the violation of Belgian neutrality and have backed the protest by plunging America into the European carnival of slaughter?

3. Do you favor repeal of the Rural Credits Act, passed by a Democratic Congress, recommended and approved by President Wilson, which gives long-term credit at interest rates that promise an annual saving of $150,000,000 to the farmers?

4. Would you have recognized Victoriano Huerta as President of Mexico?

5. Do. you favor repeal of the Clayton Anti-trust Act, passed by a Democratic Congress and approved by President Wilson, which overthrew the principle that the labor of a human being is a mere commodity of commerce?

6. Will you, Mr. Hughes, recommend, and will the Republican Party in Congress support a law establishing universal compulsory military service in the United States?

7. Do you advocate repeal of the Federal Trade Commission Act, passed by a Democratic Congress, recommended and approved by President Wilson, which has given so much assistance to legitimate business enterprises and under which adequate protection against unfair competion is provided?

8. Mr. Hughes, would you have tried the policy of diplomatic negotiation as a means of summoning the moral force of law and neutral opinion to stop Germany's illegal use of submarines?

9. Do you favor repeal of the "porkless" Good Roads Act, passed by a Democratic Congress and approved by President Wilson, for the development of rural highways?

10. Would you, Mr. Hughes, have broken relations with Germany and sent our young men by the hundreds of thousands to nameless graves at the bottom of the Atlantic or in Flanders before the policy of diplomatic negotiation had had thorough trial?

11. Will you undertake to repeal the income tax, passed by a Democratic Congress, recommended and approved by President Wilson, which places a just share of the burden of taxation upon those best able to bear it?

12. Do you favor violating neutrality and risking the future safety of your country by placing an embargo on munitions of war?

13. Do you favor repeal of the Agricultural Extension Act, passed by a Democratic Congress, recommended and approved by President Wilson, which for the first time provides facilities for carrying direct to the farmer practical scientific knowledge of how to increase the profits of his farm?

14. Do you favor intervention in Mexico?

15. Do you advocate repeal of the Grain Standards and Warehouse Acts, passed by a Democratic Congress, recommended and approved by President Wilson, which aid commerce in the great staple cereals and enable owners of stored agricultural products to secure loans on warehouse receipts on better terms?

16. What is your attitude towards the disloyalists of your party who have attempted to prevent the enforcement by President Wilson, both on the part of the American government and by all American citizens, of an honest neutrality towards all the warring nations of Europe?

17 Inasmuch as the largest amount collected in any one year under the highest tariff ever enacted (Payne-Aldrich Act) was $333,000,000, what form of taxation would you substitute to pay a "Preparedness" cost of $630,000,000?

18. Do you favor the reactionary Republican plan of granting huge subsidies to favored corporations, money collected from the people by taxation, as the best way of encouraging the development of an American merchant marine?

19. Do you favor repeal of the Child Labor Law, the Anti-Injunction Law, the Seaman's Act and related social justice measures of high importance, passed by a Democratic Congress and recommended and approved by President Wilson?

20. Do you favor re-enactment of the Payne-Aldrich Act which betrayed your party's campaign pledge of 1908 and which has been repudiated by many Republican and all Progressive leaders?

21. Do you stand with those Progressives and progressive Republicans in Congress who voted for practically all the progressive measures mentioned above, or do you stand with the reactionary Republicans who voted against them?

In conclusion, the two Democratic Committees say,

"President Wilson and the Democratic Party submit their case to the American people on the record they have made. Broadly speaking that is the issue of the campaign. Upon the public survey and estimate of that record depends the outcome of the election.

"If, as charged by you, Mr. Hughes, and your supporters, that record is bad and does not justify the continued confidence of the country it will become your duty, if elected, to do all in your power to change that record. We submit that in all fairness the American people, for whose verdict you are contesting, are entitled to know how much of this record you and your party will attempt to destroy if placed in power."

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 8.

More Jokes

1916

The Short Course

When James A. Garfield was president of Oberlin college, a man brought for entrance as a student his son, for whom he wished a shorter course than the regular one.

"The boy can never take all that in," said the father. He wants to get through quicker. Can you arrange it for him?"

"Oh, yes," said Mr. Garfield. He can take a shorter course; it all depends on what you want to make of him. When God wants to make an Oak, He takes a hundred years, but He takes only two months to make a pumpkin."


Young Poultryman

The teacher had recited "The Landing of the Pilgrims." Then she requested each pupil to draw from his or her imagination a picture of Plymouth Rock.

Most of them went to work at once, but one little fellow hesitated, and at length raised his hand.

"Well, Willie, what is it?" asked the teacher.

"Please, ma'am, do you want us to draw a hen or a rooster?"


A Blunder

It was bathing time and from the bedroom of twin boys came the sound of hearty laughter and long crying. Their father went up to find the cause. "What's the matter up here?" he inquired.

The laughing twin pointed to his weeping brother. "Nothing," he giggled; "only nurse has given Alexander two baths and hasn't given me any at all."


Nothing Very Serious

Mrs. Casey — Och, Pat, whin the docther told yez ye had something wid a Latin name to it a yar-rd long, didn't it scare yez?
Casey — Faith, it did, Norah, darlint. But whin he only charged me a dollar, Oi knew it didn't amount to much.

Wilson's Legislative Program

1916

Washington, Sept. 10 — Whether President Wilson is re-elected or not, he has definitely outlined and will endeavor to put through the following program at December session of Congress:

First, a law patterned after Canadian industrial dispute act, providing that strikes shall be made illegal on semi-public utilities until there has been full investigation and report by an arbitration board to be established. It is his proposition that present meditation and conciliation board shall be strengthened and extended to take over functions of arbitration.

A bill to extend membership of Commerce Commission to nine members, to establish a zone system, and to generally revise powers of the commission so that wages may be taken into consideration is estimating what freight rates are reasonable.

Enactment of the Webb law, permitting co-operation among American manufacturers for export trade.

Additional legislation to be worked out by new tariff commission and to be submitted to Congress with a view to meeting trade conditions after the war.

No formal announcement will be made of this program before election, but the President has informally announced to members of his Cabinet that he intends to make a strong fight for constructive legislation at the December session, regardless of manner in which the election turns out. The President has expressed desire to devote himself in the next four years to more constructive legislation, taking the view that the way has been cleared by the past four years. If he finds he is not to have four years more, he will seek to complete his program at the December session, despite the fact that it is always difficult to get through any bill at the short session.

Incidentally, the President has expressed opinion that he hopes Mr. Hughes will continue to dwell upon the eight hour law, insisting that he will welcome this as an issue. Nevertheless, many advisers of the President are worried about this particular phase of the campaign.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 6.

President Wilson's Sister Ill

Sept. 1916

President Wilson received word late Sunday night that the condition of his sister, Mrs. Anne Howe, who is critically ill at New London, Conn., has taken a turn for the worse. The President immediately cancelled all engagements for Monday and announced he would start for New London early in the morning.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 6.

Suffragettes Disowned

1916

Atlantic City, N. J., Sept. 6. — The National American Woman Suffrage Association today decided to continue its policy of favoring both National and State legislation to bring about equal rights for women.

Virtually all the speakers declared for strict neutrality in the Presidential campaign and to continue the non-partisan efforts of the association to bring about equal suffrage throughout the United States.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 6.

Taft Flays Wilson Record

1916

"The Democratic Record" is the title of an article in the October Yale Review by William Howard Taft. In it Mr. Taft analyzes and points out the shortcomings of the Wilson administration, reviews the career of Governor Hughes and points out why the Republican nominee should be elected. "There are enough instances," he says, to justify the conclusion that Mr. Wilson has few, if any, convictions on the issues of the day which exigency in the field of politics may not induce him to give up. Nor does Mr. Wilson waste time in explaining in argument the reason for his frequent changes of view. His facility in this regard robs of special importance his public utterances as a basis for supporting him as a candidate.

"On the other hand, Mr. Hughes is a man whose convictions have always been the guide of his action. I say what the people of the United States know when I say that the chief characteristic of Mr. Hughes is the courage of his convictions in meeting the embarrassment of political opposition. He gives the reasons for the faith that his in him. He argues out his propositions, and he does not depend upon mere facility of expression, mere happiness of epigrammatic statement, mere graceful phrasing of a platitude to support his opinion. He carries conviction by his speech to his audience and he carries his own conviction into action. His strength before the people and the importance to them of his utterances and promises grow out of their confidence that he is not an opportunist, but that no political expediency will prevent his hewing to the line and fighting to the last for his principles. It has been said that there is little difference between Mr. Wilson and Mr. Hughes except that Mr. Wilson has had the presidential experience. This is as far as possible from the fact. Having in view Mr. Wilson's record on nearly every political question and Mr. Hughes's course as governor of New York, it would he difficult to find among the public men of the country, one who is less like Mr. Wilson than Mr. Hughes."

Beginning with the appointment of William Jennings Bryan to the Cabinet, the Wilson administration, Mr. Taft says, has made a series of blunders in foreign and domestic affairs. He points out the vacillating that was involved in our dealings with Germany and with Mexico, the weakness of our policy with regard to China, the emasculation of the Department of the Philippine government, the extravagance of the Democratic Congress and the surrender to the railroad brotherhoods. "The character of the Democratic party," he declares, "which has been manifest through many decades, is itself a reason for relieving it from its responsibilities in the face of such an emergency as the ending of this war is bound to present. It is not a constructive party. Its legislative leaders in a long period of opposition have acquired a habit of mind which looks to political success by criticism and destruction of constructive policies, instead of to the framing of measures for useful affirmative results. The consequence is that when they are thrust into power and devise legislation, they find themselves confronted by their own past arguments, and they injure all their measures by an attempt in each one to coddle some faction of voters and thus greatly impede the normal and legitimate object of the legislation."

Wilson Independent League

1916

Boston, Sept. 19. — With the announced purpose of furthering the candidacy of Woodrow Wilson for a second term as President, the Woodrow Wilson Independent League was formed yesterday by several prominent business men chosen from all parties. The headquarters of the new league will be at 338 Washington street. An appeal to the independent voters was set out by the league last night and it credits Mr. Wilson with the "achievement of practically all the beneficial legislation of the last Congress." In regard to his foreign policy, the appeal declares that President Wilson has "asserted and maintained without resentment, with almost infinite patience, and yet with firmness and success, the rights of both this country and all neutrals."

Charles H. Jones of the Commonwealth Shoe and Leather Company is president of the league, John F. Moors is treasurer, and Ellery Sedgwick, editor of the Atlantic Monthly is secretary. The executive committee of the league consists of Charles H. Jones, chairman; Edmund J. Burke, Francis J. Goodale, John F. Moors and Ellery Sedgwick. The vice presidents are: Charles W. Eliot, Harry A. Garfield, F. W. Taussig, Bliss Perry, Henry B. Cabot, F. Lowell Kennedy, Lewis J. Johnson, Ray Stannard Baker, Charles P. Hall, Meyer Bloomfield, Frederick N. Wier, Arthur M. Huddell, Roger W. Babson, E. N. Vallandigham, J. Porter Russell, Hector N. Holmes, Dr. George W. Kaan, Rev A. W. Vernon, R. M. Hull, Jacob DeHaas, E. T. Hartman, E. H. DeLany, John S. Codman, Henry D. Nunn, Joseph B. Eastman, Robert H. Schacht, Dr. Fred L. Abbott and C. Crawford Hollidge.

The Mystery of Woodrow Wilson

1916

Oswald Garrison Villard writes in part in the North American Review: There are many mysteries connected with Woodrow Wilson. But the greatest is the transformation the day he became President and was no longer governor. He left Woodrow Wilson, the accessible tribune of the people, and became Woodrow Wilson the least accessible and most secluded of all our Presidents. It was not merely that he was oppressed by magnitude of his new task; not that the office of President has grown enormously in routine duties since the days of the last democratic President; not that a private bereavement soon bore him down; not that a physical strength none too great must be husbanded, nor even that problems of state almost unparalleled in gravity and import took their toll of hours for waking and for sleeping. These all had their influence, but at bottom it was the policy that was changed.

He no longer worked in any degree in the open; he sought council of fewer and fewer; his door no longer stood ajar; even his cabinet knew him not for days and weeks, becoming often a mere chorus of ratification. Visitor and volunteer advisers were no longer welcome — more than that, they were under suspicion of some ulterior motive. The burden of proof that they were not secretly in pay of the magnates of Wall street rested upon them. Notably has this been the case with those having knowledge of Mexico. To have capital invested in that country is as effective a disbarment from the Presidential ear as to be doing business in Wall street itself. Our leading financiers have been denied a hearing — to their complete puzzlement. He will not stoop to smuggle captains of industry into the White House by the back door. They are beyond the pale and must be kept there. The President in a recent speech has made it clear that success in business puts one without the Presidential ken. He stated that he did not care to hear from men who had done well under present conditions; when he wished a real insight into conditions he wanted to hear from the little fellows who were bucking the tide and the currents that make against success.

But there are still other tests employed to keep men and women out of the White House. Can they interest the Presidential mind? Have they anything to give to one who communes so freely with himself and works out such vital problems of state on his little typewriter? If not, they may cool their heels in Mr. Tumulty's outer office as long as they please. It availeth them not. Some of the strongest and most loyal supporters of Mr. Wilson have been denied a word, and the sole explanation is the Presidential theory that they had nothing to give him. Here we have considerable light on much that is puzzling. The President seems never to ask what he can do for others, particularly those who have worked for him with complete and devoted enthusiasm. Their homage is accepted; but it never occurs to Mr. Wilson there might be a reciprocal obligation. He has been a stranger even to his own lieutenants.

In May, 1915, I met an official of high position in one of the departments, in whose hands were matters of the utmost moment. His confidential reports would profoundly have affected the whole country had they seen the light of the day. They were constantly placed upon the President's desk. Yet I found this official had never seen the President except to shake hands with him in the lineup at an official reception. Dozens of similar cases could be cited. Even diplomatic officers returning from positions on some of our international "fronts" with first-hand information have been thunderstruck to find their opinions were neither sought nor desired.

Take the case of the federal reserve board. A year after its appointment its members had never met the President save at an official reception to which they were not even invited until attention of some White House functionary was called. Toward members of Congress his attitude is similar, save that these are sent for when the President wants them to do something for him.

Being completely self-sufficient, it never occurs to Mr. Wilson that a word of instruction or inspiration or praise or just a bit of human interest would mean much.

It must be said in Mr. Wilson's favor that he plays no favorites beyond one or two intimates. Men who expended large sums for him in 1912, who nearly worked their heads off for him in New Jersey, have all experienced equality of treatment.

Sometimes, however, the President's refusal of himself to others has more important results. Thus there was a governor once, who, being in Washington, had to go his way without a glimpse of the head of the nation. I have always wondered whether the governor did not remember this when, a few weeks later, the President was asking him to spare the life of a convict of international interest, only to have his request refused.

The Cabinet does not come in for many special privileges. Some of his ablest ministers have known him only in so far as routine demanded his attention. One of the strongest assured me he had never been asked an opinion in three years save at Cabinet meetings — not even during the Lusitania crisis.

In the Lusitania crisis we can see clearly the theory of office of President maintained by the author of congressional government and constitutional government in the United States. The writer believes Mr. Wilson laid the country under lasting obligation by his successful handling of that situation, and that history will accord a high place to the extraordinary series of Lusitania notes. But even an admirer of this fine statesmanship may look with uneasiness upon a policy by which in so great a crisis the way out is found in almost solitary[*] communion. Mr. Wilson held no Cabinet meetings at that grave time save to lay before his constitutional advisers the fruits of his meditation. Mr. Wilson, in the midst of the crisis, went to Cornish and secluded himself absolutely for 25 days.

Wilson government is one-man government. It is not party leadership, but party dictatorship.

The democratic party has been committed by Mr. Wilson personally to various new policies. Until he swung the party to advocacy of a large army and navy, to government by protectorate of Haiti and San Domingo, to purchase the Danish West Indies, the party had always been the anti-imperialistic party. When Mr. Wilson decided the time had come to reverse his position on "preparedness," he neither took a vote of his Cabinet nor of the party leaders. He refused to receive a group of citizens, chiefly of his supporters, who wished to urge him not to change his position. This kind of leadership is not responsible party leadership. His changes of base on the trade commission, woman suffrage, a child-labor law, and the tariff itself — to mention only a few complete reversals — were made without party consultation. The President's policy appears to be purely opportunist as well as purely individual. Members of Congress have been afraid to utter the usual campaign speeches lest the President in his bed chamber change the party policy overnight.

The mystery of the change in Mr. Wilson is intensified by his treatment of Washington newspaper men. The first day upon which he greeted them they were to be his bosom friends. Unfortunately they had a habit of asking searching questions. Soon there were subjects about which correspondents were forbidden to ask — for state reasons. Next, the conference became irregular, and ceased in July, 1915.

It is now reported that in deference to political exigencies and urging of Vance McCormick these conferences are to be resumed. Nothing can make them a success, for mutual trust and cordial friendship are lacking.

What is true of these relationships is true of Mr. Wilson's life in the White House. It is reserved and retired, notably so in contrast to the Roosevelt regime. Mr. Wilson entertains but little. What his warmest admirers have kept on hoping for is that others besides themselves might have access to that bonhomie they enjoy, and thus be disabused of any idea that the President is a mere thinking-machine without any heart and interested in people only so far as they have something to give.

If Mr. Wilson's failure in these relationships merely affected himself, they could be dismissed as individual idiosyncrasies. But these Wilson traits have a distant bearing on the future of the democracy. They must be taken into account by any voter who would forecast the kind of President Mr. Wilson would be in a second term, when temptation will be behind him to lower the public service by bestowing offices for political reasons, by surrendering to organized labor, by frequently reversing his positions. They throw important light upon Mr. Wilson's attitude toward his office.

They explain why whereas there were once notable bodies of young Cleveland men, there has been no similar raising up of young Wilson men to carry on the standard in years to come. There was a beginning in early efforts to oppose Tammany Hall, but with surrender to Murphy, as illustrated by the Johnson case, no more is heard of a reform democracy in New York.

As for the leader in the White House, no fair man doubts his extraordinary ability, his frequent lofty statesmanship, his rare wit, his unbounded power to charm when he will but unbend. He can rise to great heights both in words and deeds. Despite many base anonymous rumors, his private life is all that it should be.

The tragedy of it is that there are those who ought to know who believe the President desires nothing so much as to be loved, not for what he has achieved, nor for his intellectual powers, but for himself alone.

Note: [*] The article used the word 'coliary,' which isn't a word so far as I can determine, and 'solitary' fits the context a lot better.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 26, 1916, p. 8.

Taft Baffles the Secret Service Men

1910

President Taft has thrown a bombshell into the ranks of that portion of the secret service which is assigned to the duty of protecting the chief executive of the nation from assassination. It is a soft job for the secret service men and often leads to something better, several of those who formerly guarded presidents now holding government positions that pay well and make the holder a man of some consequence in his home territory.

It is feared among Chief Wilkie's men that some of them will have to be looking for other jobs if the president continues to go out for long walks through the busiest streets of Washington unprotected. The president has "had the laugh" on several of the sleuths recently when, without making any announcement of his intentions, he left the White House and started out for a walk. Generally he has been accompanied by some cabinet official, but none of Wilkie's men was along.

On his last walk the president was accompanied by his brother, Charles P. Taft, the millionaire Cincinnatian. They walked up to the capitol and strolled through its wide halls.

So far as runs the memory of Alonzo Stewart, deputy sergeant at arms of the senate, and that is a full generation, it was the first time that a president has visited the capitol on the Sabbath day.

On another occasion the president walked through Pennsylvania avenue, Washington's most prominent business street. He was wearing a sack coat and a gray sweater.

"That looks like President Taft," remarked one man as President Taft passed the five-cent theaters on the avenue. Brig. Gen. Clarence Edwards, who was with the president, giggled and the president smiled. Mr. Taft did not look much like himself in his sack coat with sweater underneath.

The walk began when the president and the general eluded the secret service men at the White House. They walked briskly down to the Potomac flats, along the Southern railroad right of way and back through South Washington, around the capitol building and library. The return trip was down Pennsylvania avenue at dusk.

A president who walks the streets of Washington is too much for Washington. Mr. Taft's predecessors rode in carriages or took their "constitutionals" across country.

The Polka Dot

1919

Because in 1835 a Bohemian peasant girl danced a new step in a little village near the Polish border a Hungarian dancing master introduced it in Europe under the name of Polka, which is the feminine of Polak or Pole. By 1844, at the time James K. Polk was running for the presidency, the dance had spread to America and the name "Polk" and the word "Polka" formed a coincidence at once appealing to everyone. The manufacturers, merchants and designers immediately presented Polka hats, Polka shoes, Polka gauze and the "newest design in fabrics for gentlewomen."


Pretty Smart Chickens

A recent morning a Missouri farmer placed three crates of chickens and five bushels of potatoes in his trailer, hitched the trailer to his automobile and started for town. He was almost there when he discovered he had no trailer. He found he had parted company with it a quarter of a mile from home, and when he got back to it the crates were empty and the potatoes frozen.

He presumed, of course, the chickens had been stolen, and was greatly surprised when he went to the henhouse early next day after breakfast to find every one of the chickens there. Not one was missing. They had all returned home, but how they got out of the crates probably will always remain a mystery.

White House Wedding Superstitions

1915

Mrs. Champ Clark, wife of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, writing of the White House wedding scheduled to take place Saturday, says:

"Concerning President Wilson and the Select Lady (predestined in the councils of eternity before the foundations of the world, that is, if Calvinism still holds good) to preside over the social destinies of the White House in 1916, this much is apparent: neither is superstitious. Else in selecting the date of their marriage they would not have run contrary to the marriage day proverb, which says:

"'Monday for health,
Tuesday for wealth.
Wednesday the best day of all;
Thursday for losses,
Friday for crosses,
Saturday no day at all.'

"I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Saturday leap forward into popularity among the list of wedding days out of compliment to the high contracting parties. For the influence of the bride-elect is already manifest in the beautiful 'Edith pinks' lavishly displayed in all the department stores.

"However, among Mr. Wilson's predecessors in office there were several who were superstitious, notably among them General Grant, who tells in his autobiography the story of his own wooing and how it was affected by his pet superstition.

"General Grant says be was brought up to regard it bad luck to stop or turn back after you had stopped any place until you had arrived at your destination. So when he received orders to go to the Mexican War he suddenly realized that he was very much interested in Miss Julia Dent. He was on leave of absence at the time, but he rushed back with all possible speed to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, where he polished up his armor and brushed up his clothes and made himself as attractive as possible. Then mounting his horse he rode away, taking a bee line for Miss Julia Dent's house.

"Arrived at Gravoist Creek, a small, insignificant stream that ordinarily would not have had power to turn a coffee mill, he found it on the boom, out of its banks and making as much noise as the cataract of Lodore.

"But he was not to be stopped by a little old creek, even if it was on the rampage. So he plunged in and swam for dear life, the current carrying him down the stream, and if he had not been a country boy and used to meeting emergencies the story of Appomatox and its 'famous apple tree' would have had a different ending.

"As it was, he kept his own head and headed his horse persistently for the opposite bank. And got there safe and sound but wet to the skin and with no dry clothes on that side of the creek. However, he borrowed some clothes of his future brother-in-law, courted Miss Julia, was accepted, and four years afterward they were married and lived happily afterward, at least as much so as the circumstances would permit."

—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 6. The publishing date of this paper is the same day President Wilson and Edith Galt were married.

Old American Bottles

1902

In early American glassware the history of our national art progress has been written. Choice and precious indeed are the crude blue-green and brown amber bottles made early in the nineteenth century — the portrait bottles bearing busts of Washington, Franklin, Lafayette, De Witt Clinton, Zachary Taylor, Kossuth and Jenny Lind.

Local decorative subjects on many lines of idea were treated by the first American bottle-makers; and the most exquisite Venetian bottle cannot outrank in value, to a patriotic American collector, the primitive old flasks ornamented with Indians, Masonic emblems, the eagle, stars, flags, log cabins, cannon and steamships, or such outdoor themes as the seasons, birds, fruits, trees, sheaves of wheat, the fisherman, deer, the gunner and his hounds, and the first bicycle. The earliest American railway, with a car drawn by a horse, is historically celebrated on a glass flask, as well as the bold Pike's Peak pilgrim, with his staff and bundle. — The Century.


Frog Farming

After laughing at the French people for their frog-eating proclivity, the United States is doing very well in that line, for the Food Commission estimates that we catch in this country about 2,000,000 frogs.

These frogs, which have been hopping for years more and more into gastronomic favor, are sought for in all parts of the country, furnishing a paying industry, not only for the hunters of them in their natural haunts, but for scores of persons who have frog farms and raise them as they might raise chickens. To these persons the frogs mean an annual investment of $100,000, according to the report of the commission, and that means $150,000 to the consumers.

Mrs. McKinley's One Comfort

1902

"Her one comfort is in her daily visit to the tomb of her husband. She seems to be living only in his memory and for the purpose of honoring him."

The words were spoken of Mrs. McKinley by an intimate friend of hers. They tell in a nutshell the daily life of the woman who has not recovered, and never will recover, from the effects of the shock by the assassin's bullets that cost the life of her illustrious husband at Buffalo.

For her convenience at the vault a rocking chair has been placed in the house of the dead, near the McKinley casket. A heavy rug on the floor protects her from the dampness. When she enters the tomb she is always clothed with heavy wraps, so as to prevent any cold from getting hold on her system. The guards of National solders on duty have come to regard her daily visit to the vault as sacred, and they pay to the most profound sympathy and attention. — Philadelphia North American.

President Garfield's Assassin — A "Stuffed" Human Head

1896

All that remains above earth of the irresponsible crank who fired the shot which ended the life of President James A. Garfield is the skeleton, brain and stuffed head, which are now preserved among other ghastly relics in the Army Medical Museum at the city of Washington.

The skeleton was cleaned by the museum workmen immediately after the execution, and has since been kept in a glass case in an out-of-the-way corner of the great National repository of ghastly curios. Each bone is carefully lettered with indelible ink, probably as a means of identification should the skeleton or a portion of it be stolen.

The brain is kept in a large glass jar of alcohol, and, like the skeleton, its presence in the building is known to but few outside of the employes.

The most grewsome memento of the great tragedy of 1881 kept by the museum authorities is the mounted head of Guiteau. Before putting the body in the boiler for the purpose of removing the flesh from the the bones, the head was cut off and the skull denuded of its skin and flesh. After this had been done, the skin was sewed up and stuffed, so that it would look as lifelike as possible, and then pickled in alcohol.

After this ghoulish work had all been completed the flesh was cremated by those having the work in charge, this last act taking place on the night of November 27, 1882. — New York Advertiser.

The Lafayette Dollars

1900

Readers of The Companion have not forgotten the American monument to the Marquis de Lafayette, which is to be erected in the city of Paris by the aid of subscriptions raised by the school children of the United States. By an act of the last Congress, the United States mint was authorized to strike off fifty thousand silver dollars with a special design commemorating the setting up of this monument, and to turn the coins over to the association which has in charge the erection of the monument in Paris.

By this association the dollars will be sold for two dollars apiece. The sum of one hundred thousand dollars thus realized will be added to the fund for the monument.

On December 27, 1899, the director of the mint, Mr. Roberts, presented to President McKinley the first of these dollars which came from the mint, and Mr. McKinley announced his intention of presenting it in turn to the President of the French Republic, Monsieur Loubet. This, in fact, was done on the third of March.

On one side of the coin are the heads of Washington and Lafayette, and on the other is a reproduction of the proposed monument. Across the face of the monument is this inscription: "Erected in the Name of the School Children of the United States, Paris, 1900." — Youth's Companion.

Ruth Cleveland, Daughter of Grover Cleveland

Here's a pretty nice illustration of President Cleveland's daughter. This was really small on the page, about 2 inches across. Click the scan for a larger version.