Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1865-11-14
SECOND EDITION.
GOVERNMENT SECURITIES.
WHITE HOuSE

This being Cabinet day, none but the heads
OF Departments were granted an interview
with the President. Were it not for the relief
from daily annoyances, afforded by the Cabinet
meetings on Tuesdays and Fridays, no physical
constitution, however strong, could endure the
exhausting labor performed by the President
of the United States. There is no office of the
Government so burdened with responsibility
and anxiety, and no man living required
to listen to such an endless recital of
private griefs, as unsophisticated visitors
pour into the Presidents ear at every
public interview. President johnson has
few equals in industry. He rises at six,
and until breakfast, which is served at half
past seven, looks over the newspapers I'm.
mediately after breakfast he goes to the Execu-
tive apartments and commences the labor of
the day. First there are bundles of letters to be
read and the replies dictated to the secretaries
Applications for appointments, promotions
discharges from the army and navy, political
advice, petitions for Executive clemency and
Innumerable other subjects are disposed Of
but before half completed the visitors have
commenced to flock into the ante rooms and
thrust their cards upon him. Pardon seekers
swarm on every hand. Former owners of con-
fiscated property pace up and down before the
door OF the Presidents room, and females with
indescribable efrontery insist upon immediate
admittance.
After the most important business of the
morning has been disposed OF the visitors are
admitted one by one, and the President SUBJ
mIts himself to the artesian process. This lasts
Till about half-past one or two, sometimes three
O'Clock, when the doors of his apartment are
opened, and the whole crowd admitted AT
such times, Col johnson, son of the President
RrQwninp no ri -
near the President, and takes memoranda
as dictated by him OH the cases
OF the visitors who succeed one another with
subjects for Executive action, like the dense
throng at the post office window. The Presi-
dents manner at such times is ALWAYS pleas
ant, and gives confidence to the most tImid
HIS decisions are quick, and each individual
who lays his case before the President learns
III half dozen courteous words the final de-
elsion. When all have been listened to. and
the nails are once more empty, the President
turns again to papers on his table, until four
o'clock, the hour for dinner. After dining he
returns to his Office, and there generally re.
mains until late hour, seldom retiring before
ii o clock.
In addition to all these duties it must be re-
membered that there are distinguished visitors
constantly presenting themselves. Represen-
tatives OF Foreign Courts, Governors, Senators
Generals, and hundreds of lesser magnitud.
must be received, each having some important
subject req uiring care and elaboration, while
over all towers the great and ever present prob
lem of reconstruction. Cabinet days and the
sabbath afford three days of rest from the pet.
ty and exhausting annoyances that beset the
President, but at no time is he free from the op
pressive weight OF national difficulties which
now, more than ever before, obscure the future