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Show II FIERCE LIGHT THAT WILL BEAT UPON TAET Copyright, 1900. by Jolm Elfrorh Wntkins. I WASHINGTON, D. C. Feb. 27. Fiercer ihnn tlio proverbial fierce light that beats upou a throuo" is that wTiich glares upon the office into which Mr. Taft will be inducted Thursday next. No crowned ruler upon enrth is so much the victim of the inquisitive mob ns is the president of the United States; who cannot issue it mandate turning down the limelight that shines upon him, as did the liaiser that other day when ho curtailed the court bulletin. Mr. Tnft will bo the greatest show feature, the biggest drawing card in the land for the next four yoars. Thousands Thou-sands of men, women and children, in n snake-liket line two sqaurcs long, will wait outside his door to shake his hand when he gives a public reception. Everywhere Every-where he goes people will stave at him as though Tie wero tho Siamese twins or the sacred white elephant. Only when shut in behind guarded doors will he escape the gaping multitudes, whose staring eyes will haunt his very dreams. Long before tho end of his stay in tho "White House he will fully understand why his predecessor chose to lose himself him-self for a year; far out in the untenant- Icu iuugle or Africa. Mr. T-ift has already received his initiation. in-itiation. Since he became a presidential possibilit' every detail of his life has been press featured and magazincd. His ancestors have all been dug up aud carefully care-fully scrutinized, and had any of his grandfathers, even with a dozen greats, been ever on the stocks for stealing sheep we would have heard all about it long cro this. Already wo have been told all tho details of his religion, his anthropometric measurements, his diet, his clothes, even to the time of his daily shave and tho particular key in which ho snores at night. But his troubles have barely commenced, and enough money to make you or me independent for life will bo annually paid to a corps or circumspect gentlemen especially selected se-lected to act ns buffers 'twist him and tho elastic-necked throng to keep them from tearing the very outtous off his clothes, or even his "clothes off their voir buttons, in the eager grab for. presidential souvenirs. For the president presi-dent of tho United States has been l,it" against the whole nation in an endless game of hide-and-seek since the days when George Wushington himsolf littered lit-tered his lamentation that tho tourists surging through tho then presidential residence in New York stuck their in-c in-c uisitivo noses oven into Mme. Washington's Wash-ington's bedroom. Every Froa'i Will Seek Hlni. Every froak and phenomenon who rrops lip in the land will imagine that Mr. Taft is restless with impatience to see him. Tho accompanying picture mows in front of the White House- an old Oregon pioneer who drove all tho way acioss the continent to call upon Mr. Roosevelt. Mrs. Tom Thumb has called on every 'president since Lincoln. She came to soe Mr. h'oosevelt only a lew days ago. Another recent caller of his class was a man who was walking uronnd tho world on a wager and who wanted 'Mr. Roosevelt's autotrranh. i I which he got. I Then there are tho. lunatics, who pre-I pre-I fnt a problem much more serious. Every insano man with any imaginary grievance or a pet schenip for saving the country- will want to confide it to I be new president. Mr. Roosevelt, has been the drawing card for the largest ?ortmcui of cranks that have visited ny president in history. A few days ; ago a caller of this class presented ifis ; iard. on which was printed, ''"Acting! President Roosevelt," 3nd some time! b fore that there appeared a New York - : ; r, offering to sell his leg to the presi- ; j dent for $fc00. He followed a lunatic ' I who wished Mr. Roosevelt to remove a i "ln-prone snell" which had been put I upon him. The procession of cranks in- ' nases from year to year, in spito of the fact that each is promptly clapped "nt-o ''St. Elizabeths.'' the awesome' national bedlnm. and there detained nn- ! til his state authorities send for him. ( Constant Suggestion of Dr.ngor. Although the system of espionage which" will perpetually protect Mr. Taft from these cranks is as perfect as human hu-man ingenuity can now make it. it is doubtful whetner, when outdoors, he can ! er banish the suspicion that some! deluded person, hidden in tho cheering rowd or along the roadway where he i drives, may be laying for him. Since I Lincoln 's time, all presidents have ' doubtless felt thi3 dread, although none j would, of course, admit it. Mr. Cleveland Cleve-land was long haunted by it, and had a -ort of; superstitious dread of tho old Sjsth street station, with its brass star marking the spot where Garfield stood when shot. Mr. Cleveland for some time alighted from trains outside the .station yard, where his carriage awaited await-ed nm. Secret service espionage over Mr. Taft commenced as soon as he was nomi- nated. but its full force will not bo felt until ho rides in the inaugural, parade with detectives lining his carriago on both sides. But it will grow so oppressive oppres-sive that he will soon como to feel like a prisoner with a death watch set upon him, nnd thou he will try to kick over the traces and escape his guards. Onco he stops out of doors he will never bo out of reach of these inrjuiring eyos, for ovon if ho wishes to hike out for a solitary stroll in the, woods tho secret service men must keep watch on him whether he likes it or not. Such an iu-ccasn,nt iu-ccasn,nt suggestion of danger must indeed in-deed bo nerve-trying. Even within tho private confines of the White House there will be guards watching every corridor cor-ridor and hallway leading to tho room in which he happens to be. Should lie slip out into the sleeping-room corridor in the middlo of the night there will be a guard oven there to witness tho presidential pa-jama parade. Limelight's Perils to His Children. Mr. and Mrs. Taft have had to uervc themselves also to the realization that their children, too, will be continually in this limelight ularc for the nest. four I venrs. This danwr caused Mr. Roose- I volt considerable anxiety. When ho en- I (ored the White House ho impressed upon his children that they were in no wise superior to. any other youngsters. How this training took effect was shown onco in a roply by young Archie to a fawning society woman, who had asked him if he did riot disliko going to public school with "all those common littlo boys." Ho answered: "My papa says there aro only two kinds of boys good and bad boys." Again, when," Quontin was asked, "Aro you the president's son?" he replied simp v. "My father is Mr. Theodoro Roosevelt." Tho Taft children will bo followed about with camera and notebook. When Miss Roosecvlt slipped down on an icy pavement tho papers described the do- tails next day, and young Theodore's : arrest for a college prank at Tlarvnrd wns double-leaded all over tho count rv. ! Of course, all of this and such like was legitimate news, but when ono paper j published a canard describing alleged . cruelties iufiiclcd upon a White House t turkev by tho Hooseevlt children the j president tempornrilv suspended the ! press privileges accorded by government , offices to tho responsible correspondent. ( Target of "Rcfonnors." j Mr. Taft will find himself tho target ! of manv so-called reformers. There will I be constant public protests against the serving of wine at state banquets. Mr. ; Roosevelt, was censured by a temperance ! convention for allowing wino to be : served on board tho special Jrain carrying carry-ing him on one of his western trips. : Whether Mr. McKinlev drank wine or not at state dinuora was a constant topic for discussion nt temperance conventions. con-ventions. Once, when there was a convention con-vention of bishops in Washington, ono of them came to the White House and cross-examined Mr. McKinley as to this. He later reported, that Mr. McKinley McKin-ley had alongside his champagne glass a separate wine glass from which he sinned annollinaris and tho wine re mained untouched.. Once, when Mr. Mc- Kinley was nt the capitol signing bills. some raiuoral water was carried in to J him, and a spyiug temperance woman reported to a preacher that tho presi- i dent was guzzling wine, and the divine in turn continued to announce this at meetings until called down by an official offi-cial in charge of the president's room nt tho capitol. Mr. Cleveland was con-i con-i iinually harassed in this way. and once when a minister accused him of inter-nerance inter-nerance before a religious conference in Massachusetts, he issued a statement branding tho divine as "a disseminator of wholesale lies and calumnies not less stunid than thov are cruel." A French journalist who visited Washington some time since wrote a storv which set forth how Mr. Roosevelt, while seated with him in one o'f the' White House parlors, smoking a clear, was reminded by a j liveried lackey that smoking wns not j allowed in the apartment. This was I true, save for the fact that Mr. Roose-vclt Roose-vclt does uor smoke, and that thero are no liveried White House lackeys. And now various associations of busvbodies are pnsMug resolutions protesting against Mr. Roosevelt's shooting game in Africa. Calumny and Insult. Like all of his predecessors Mr. Taft must expect a generous share of insult and abuse. Some time ago tho postal inspectors were trying to ferret out the sender of n grossly obscene card mailed t to the president from Richmond. Wil- 1 lett. tho New York representative who 1 recently abused Mr. Roosevelt in the house, repeated a cruel calumny which had it that the president had angrilv struck the horse of a schoolgirl who had crowded him on the road whi'e he was riding. The house expunged this speech from the Record and tho mother of the eirl wrote a denial of the story. But this sort of thing has been -going on since President Washington was chnrped with overdrawing his account. Jefferson Jeffer-son was another of tho early victims, aud one of those who abused him worst was the Irish poet. Tom Moore, who , published some almost unprintable things about' the father of democracy. Our national resentment at these insults in-sults was emphasised a century later by the omission of Moore's nnine from the honor roll of poets inscribed on tuoiralls of the congressional library. I .. Advertising Value of Taft. ! Manufacturers, boomers and promoters promot-ers by the thousands will fall over themselves to oxploit Mr. Taft as an advertisement for their schemes. Real estate boomers will offer him beautiful i country homes by the score if he will 1 oply como and live in them in the sum- mef and lond his name to the com-' com-' munity. All of these men will want ! to use him as Harmon was used when i given his famous cottage at Cape May. j But; Harrison, when he realized that ho ! was b -Tig used as a real estate adver-tiserie.l. adver-tiserie.l. drew his personal, check for the value of the property. Even ns an ex-presidout Mr. Cleveland found that he noomed surrounding property, wherever wher-ever he bought. As soon as he settled in Princeton building lots thero took a sudden upward spurt. Dealers in every ev-ery article utider the sun will send Mr. Taft generous samples of their wares with the hope of receiving some word of praise which can be advertised as a testimonial. A mere acknowledgment I from the White Houso secretary will I suffice as a basis for a poster, "President "Pres-ident Taft, Uses Snooks 's Soap." Mr. McKinley, while in congress, once sent down from his hotel room a noto to the cigar stand asking for some per-feclos per-feclos of a certain brand. The shrewd dealer kept the noto until Mr. McKinley was elected and then h.ad facsimiles olectrotyped and pasted on each box of these cigars. A piano manufacturer once wrote to Mr. Cleveland that 2000 of his admiring workmen wished to. present a piano to the first lady of the land. The president accepted the offer, but when he learned that the 2000 workmen with a band marched with tho ' piano to the station, and that at ovcry point onrouto the piano was featured as 'J destined to be played bv tho fnir fingers of the first lndy of the laud," the Clcvehmds became disgusted and sent tho piano back. Scores of such experiences led to tho rule, now strictly strict-ly ontorccd, that tho Whito House stow-nrd stow-nrd shall buy nothing from a dealer who will not guarantco that tho presidential presi-dential patronage shall not bo used for advertising purposes. Mr. Roosevelt hns been strenuous also in rebuking all concerns which have used his portrait in advertisements. Some timo ago ho went so far as to request tho withdrawal withdraw-al of a booklet by. tho Spokane Chamber Cham-ber of Commerce using his portrait on tho title page Au order of 50.000 of tho pamphlets wns canceled and slops wore taken to call in thoso which had already gone out. This magic of the presidential name is seen wherever it is written or printed. print-ed. One of Mr. McKinley 's autographs auto-graphs on a piece of popcr otherwise blank sold at auctiou for $fi.25 a few weeks after his death. In another generation gen-eration it will doubtless bo worth ten j times ns much. Twontv-two volumes of the works of Theodoro Roosevelt, each volume bearing tho presidential autograph, sold for $3200 in Philadol- I phia in 1901. And ns soon as Theodore, Jr.. ontcrcd tho plant of tho manufacturers manufac-turers who lately employed him their business is said to have realized a boom on the strength of th'o magic of even his name. Will Trado on His Hoalth. Wall street will trado on Mr. Taft's pulse aud tcmpornturc. When they go up the stock market will go down. Tho daily procession of figures on tho tapes of the tickers will bo altered also by what he says and writes on industrial topics. Men will bo employed to guard tho manuscripts and proofs of his messages mes-sages and speeches against possible leaks which might allow some especially informed slock jobber to enrich himsolf at tho expens of those who have not had nn equal chance of informing themselves. them-selves. Whon Mr. Roosevelt mado his western tour in the. fall of 1007 ho took special precautions against, tho furnishing furnish-ing of advanco press copies of his speeches to Wall street publications and tho ticker service. His Province-towu Province-towu speech of the previous month hnd leaked in some way and advance copies had gotten into the handn of brokers, who profited by it. Mr. Taft is 'nearly nine years older than Mr. Roosevelt was when tho latter succeeded to tho presidency. But what ho may lack, by comparison, in physical elasticity is moro than compensated for by his far greater tolerance, Ho knows what is coming to him nnd will lose no slcop over tho attempts that will be mado to exploit, harrnss and insult him. But his proverbial good -nature is of tho sort which too often tempts imposition. imposi-tion. Rather lot us reward it by trying to be kinder to him thnu we havo been to his predecessors! .10HN ELFRETH WATKJNS. |