| Show GOSSIP abour THE PRESIDENT washington D C dec 2 1897 the most interesting man in the united states is president mckinley he is also the busiest he works about fifteen hours a day and then goes to bed and sleeps bleeps like a baby he rises at 8 a m and shaves himself he has no valet to help him with his toilet and he does not spend much time before the lookingglass looking glass still he is one of the best groomed men who have ever been in the white house he has a clean dark daak skin and he always looks as though he was fresh from his bis bath his clothes are better cut than were those of president arthur and his patent leathers seldom show a crack the president and mrs mckinley breakfast together they go down stairs at and their meal is eaten in the private dining room after breakfast the president smokes a cigar in mrs mra McKin mckinless leys boudoir anthe on the second floor while he looks over the morning papers at the same time he chats with the superintendent of the white house grounds mrs mckinless McKin leys physician comes in after this the coming social events of the day may be discussed or a private letter read his bis takes takee up his time until about 9 he then throws away the stump of his cigar and goes into his office the president is now at work from 8 0 until midnight urgent matters are attended to between 9 and 10 from 10 20 till 12 he receives senators represent octives and distinguished officials from 12 to 1 people who have no official title are disposed of at one he takes a hasty lunch and then goes back to his office the afternoon is spent in receiving congressmen and others who have special appointments and it is pot not until 4 that he gets a chance for a ride he is fond of horseback riding and he often takes a ride with his decre secretary tary he finds that the exercise keeps him in good physical condition and prefers it to par carriage rge riding he has good horses however and he now and then takes a i drive in the afternoon atter noon instead of i a ride returning he lies down for a few minutes then he takes a bath and dmd dresses for fop dinner by he is again in his office and from there the time until ten is often given up to special appointments with public men he may see a senator a cabinet minister fat r ot of a diplomat or some special zer caller from out of town at ten he begins to work on his mall the contents tents q of the most important letters are ewd before him and he directs mr porter borter how they must be answered ome very important letters he die dic ates mine himself but he seldom has a pen t to his hand band except to sign his name A large part of his work upon his messages sages to is done late in the evening this was the case with his last message he thinks well on his feet and sometimes dictates speeches and public papers to hip stenographer as he walks up and down the room he keeps him set so well in hand that he can dictate at any time his oration on grant was dictated after 11 one night after a hard days work and was delivered in almost the same words that he be rave gave to the stenographer the president tries to finish his work before the clock strikes twelve he wants to be in bed by midnight and usually phout about ele ht hours president mckinley has received at A least persons since he came into tw gast white house he has talked with alvr konoid in hla own office and he has hands with a vast multitude in the room I 1 watched one of his afternoon receptions this week the show was as good as the theater li came off at pm in the east room and the president shook hands with people in seventeen minutes A pen was made by arranging the sofas and chairs about the big door which opens from the corridor into the east room and until the president appeared the crowd was kept outside this pen then the door opened and president mckinley walked into the pen at a pace A brace of white house messengers opened the fence just wide enough to admit one man or woman at a time one of the messengers stood at each side of the opening and captain loeffler was at the back of the president on the lookout for cranks the crowd were rushing through as fast as they could walk and the president shook hands with each one of them as he passed his handshake in the east room is different from the one which he gives in his office above it is a sort of a pull you along shake it begins high and drags the party with whom he shakes on past him as the hand goes down As the president shook hands I 1 noticed that his lips moved and that now and then he spoke he paid especial attention to every boy giving him a hearty grip but he shied off a little from the women with babies he would not kiss the infants but contented himself with shaking their hands not a few of the callers tried to speak as they went by but the time was too short for much conversation and messengers hurried them one woman said mr mckinley they would not let me vote for you but I 1 am for you all the same an old man said god bless you mr president I 1 have faith in you with a high tariff and you the country will yet be saved now and then a aman man came who tried to tell mckinley where he had met him before the president said yes I 1 am glad to see you good day one woman I 1 saw worried him for a moment by saying you dont remember me the president does not like to forget anyone and he waited until he learned that he had met the woman at a wayside station where he spoke during a stoppage of the train when going through kansas and so it went on until the seventeen minutes were up when the president said goodbye good bye my friends I 1 am glad to have seen you all and rapidly backed his way out of the room of a hundred thousand people who have met president mckinley in the white house I 1 venture that have tried to flatter him more or less there Is no city in the country where toadyism is so rank as here the average man would be swamped in the adulation which is showered upon a president but mr McKin mckinless leys actions show that he to is still unspoiled he is absolutely democratic and simple he despises the vanity of some so called great men not long ago a very conceited character of this kind had an interview at the white house the man is oie one who is well known after he had left the president remarked to a friend in a rather disgusted way oh the littleness of great men just before president mckinley was inaugurated a preacher friend of mine warned him about the dangerous effects of flattery upon high officials and asked maj mckinley are you not afraid that your head will be turned by the adulation which is always showered upon the chief executive of the united states tates fi to this the future president replied 1 I think not the nearer I 1 get to the white house the more humble I 1 feel man to la such a very little thing in this world that he would be foolish it if he allowed his head to be turned by any position sit down with me in the presidents room and watch him receiving the office seekers and high public officials there are sixty three men and women who are waiting for him there axe are six united states senators and there are seventeen representatives all with one or more friends several colored men were present and a dozen ladies axe are sprinkled throughout the crowd what a democratic scene here we are in the house of the ruler ot of seventy million people in the office of one of the greatest presidents on earth how loud those men are talking you might imagine yourself to be in a depot or in the lobby of a second class clasa hotel that big man who is chewing a cigar is a member of congress and that friend of his beside him who is picking his teeth with a quill wants a position in one of the departments see that fellow go to the presidents desk and take a curious look over the papers I 1 dont suppose there is anything of importance there but the action is decidedly fresh onla the ladies seem to be nervous there is one of the colored men who acts as though he owned the house and several of the representatives axe are taking their friends about the room and showing them the pictures now the door opens and the president comes in how straight he stands A line dropped from the crown of his head would just touch the heels of his patent leather shoes his shoulders are broad his chest full and his medium stature is added to by his erect erectness that tall man he is talking to Is senator gear of iowa notice how he shakes hands he acts far differently than he did down in the east room he holds the hand high and tall as gear is he has to raise his liand hand to take it As gear begins to talk the president smiles but as her he goes on the presidents president s brow dax darkens kens his heavy comes up and you can see the doubt in his mind as to whether gears request should be granted or not A second later his face clears and he tells mr gear that the matter will be carefully considered As he talks the other people in the room stand about like the mourners at a funeral they have all risen and the most oi of them stand while tie the president stands only a few have the assurance to keep their seats and only one or two emsper together as the president talks now benr has left and the president mt is talking to senator foraker the two hoac hoen at enmity many times during their lives your would imagine them to be friends to look at them and perhaps they six are so now the president smiles as he talks forker foraker smiles in return and as the two part they both seem welt welb pleased now a third man has hold of the president it is the colored man ar 0 whom I 1 spoke as thinking he owned the mansion the president shakes hands with him as cordially ae aa lie he did with foraker and moves off toone ald side resting his arm upon the white mantel as he talks the colored citizen does the same putting his right hand in his pocket and vehemently urging his claim for a consulship to one of the west indies islands the president directs him to file his papers with the state department and they will wih be considered and then takes up another caller he does not all allow ow much time for any one but at the same time does not seem impatient As the time goes on he hurries his reception and I 1 time him by my watch there thera to is a man who wants a land agency in dakota he gets ten seconds thea next man ts is a senator from washington state he gets fifteen neconis now blair of new hampshire is talking you remember how lie he used to take up the time of the senate speaking for hours and hours at a stretch the president gives him three minutes which is five times as much as any one has had so far this morning and so it goes on ten seconds twenty seconds one minute sev seven en seconds ten seconds fourteen seconds five seconds and four seconds the last two are audiences with men who merely want to pay their respects and shake the president by hand As I 1 look I 1 wonder whether any mortal mind could hold impressions thus thas forced upon it the president has now been talking an hour and he has chatted with nearly a hundred different men on a hundred different subjects I 1 dont believe that a call of this kind is worth the value of a wooden toothpick the president cannot biot ni ot possibly remember the names of the people who call upon him much less their requests the probability is that he saves himself as much as possible and tries to forget each matter as soon as he passes upon it suppose he did otherwise he has been receiving in this way tor for almost ten months had he be allowed each taha to make an am impression upon the gray matter of his brain the matter would long ago have been pounded into the mush of insanity the president does an immense deal of business outside of receiving and talking with people he settles scores of matters every day by looking over he tells secretary porter papers hundred letters how bow to answer several with all his work he finds time to J special attention to his friends pay if a stranger whom he especially likes is in the city he is asked to th the white house to dine and it if as was the case with one of his old commanders he happens to get hurt while in washington the president is very sure to call him and see that he is comfortably upon situated one secret of mr mc abl y being able to do so much work Kin leys lies in the fact that he has a good dl di castion tion and a good conscience he never neve r worries he says if he did he would go 90 c razy crazy it is his rule to do the work of each day as it comes and result is that he does let it igo go th the e not fret he does not say impatient things and when he goes to bed he I 1 beholds he holds his own in the sleep cabinet cabin c can an et I 1 am told that he is head and shoulders above his secretaries as to most matters relating to the administration he grasps things quickly settles a knotty problem an and ld with a word the president is fond of society I ie hy e likes music and is especially inclined anclin ed 4 to singing methodist hymns and topical songs he is a good story teller and relieves his mind now and then in this he sometimes drifts into reminiscences wa way y inis bences of his army experiences the other nig night effit while out driving he told of a midnight journey which he had taken when h he e was a boy soldier in the army he had been ordered by his general to go ahead and find the location of a certain body of troops his regiment was almost surrounded by rebels and he had to ride very carefully for fear of stumbling upon a rebel picket H he e tells how lie felt as he trotted along through the darkness and how h his to heart jumped into hie bis throat when he heard the words to lp a pronounced oun ced southern accent H halt alt who goes he knew that no northerner ever pronounced the word there nd ad he ha turned his horse and rode rapidly the other way A few genf later he was stopped again but the voice ume ime UA had a yankee twang wo his words were halt awe tarl the president says that as soon as he heard the word there pronounced in that way he knew he was among friends president mckinley sometimes speaks of his parents both his father and mother have had a great influence upon him it seems to me that a great deal of his strength comes from his mother she was here you know at the time of the inauguration and the president tried to induce her to remain in the white V hause with him but she preferred to go back to her own home at canton she made a wonderful impression during her stay here every one admired herand her and the flattery which she received would have turned the head of the ordinary mother it did not overpower mrs mckinley you could tell from the way she talked about the ambassadors and the generals who called upon her that she realized that they were only men she realizes this about her son she loves him I 1 venture as much as any woman ever loved a son but she has not lost her head over him he is still only william mckinley to her be acre she left some one said 1 I should think mrs mckinley you would be very proud to have your son president of the united states she replied 1 I am proud of william and if he makes as good a president as he has been a son he will be all that I 1 can hope for him FRANK G CARPENTER |
