Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1869-09-30
Anecdote of President Adams.


A correspondent of the New York Sun
furnishes the following anecdote of one of
the early Presidents, as related to him by
an old citizen of Washington:
John Quincy Adams was in the habit
of breasting the bil!ow when be was Pres
ident. Instead of going to fashionable re-
sort, ne might be noticed very early in
the morning swimming in the Potomac
amid a ''school" of boys and youths, who
took their morning bath earlier then was
their wont, that they might swim with
the President of the United States. 1t
was with them as with John Quincy S
ancestor, ''sink or swim, survive Or
perish" they were bound to be afoat at
that particular time. Adams generally
selected place near the Long Bridge
quot Long Branch.) The boys annoyed
the ong-boatmen very much, Selling the
steering oar, &C., as the latter would be
rowing and polling their wood and coal
boats up the river, and they frequently
had to dodge billets Of wood, which the
vexed river mon would hurl at them.
Adams bald pate, meantime, would be
bobbing up and down in close proximity
to these scenes, and one occasion boat
man SHE'D missile at him with an ac-
companying admonition to the old bald
head to ''get away from there p
Mr. Adams had a sort of weakness for
the water On another occasion, in Conn
pany with his valet, "a Swiss, who had
been in Europe with him, he attempted
to cross the Potomac in small skitf to
Mason's Island, and when about in the
middle of the stream their craft began to
leak rapidly. Both were good swimmers,
and they stripped off nearly all their gar
ments, and tied them in bundles to be
ready for the threatened emergency. 1t
soon came. The skiff went under, and its
late occupants, each with his bundle,
spaniel-like, between his teeth, swan with
the force Of Leanders towards the nearest
shore. But the swiftncss of the current
compelled them to drop their packages,
and they reached the muddy shore of tie
island with but shirt and pair Of
drawers between them.
Adams stripped his remaining garment
to add to the wardrobe of his valet, who
thus coolly ACQUIRED for a summers day,
approaching the nearest habitation, Dor
rowed clothing for himself, and proceeded
round by distant bridge to the city
Having procured suitable attire for the
President and himself, he took a carriage
and drove back, to where the future ''old
man eloquent had been stark-nakcd for
some three hours in Potomac mud and
water. At that time the newspapers
could not Well report whether all was
quiet or notice this ripple on the Potomac,
and men then had not such pruriency
for notoriety. even when the joke was
favorable. This event was of course I'M
heraided.
The first thing President Adams did on
his return to Washington was to purchase
valuable gold watch for his valet to
supply the place of one which that faithful
attendant lost in the adventure.
Ludicrous as it must strike one to re-
alize the head of great nation in such a
predicament (and it is in strong contrast
for Republican simplicity to the habits of
later Presidents it is doubtful if the af-
fair did mot afterwards, as memory re-
called it to him. afford that eminently wise,
pure. and scholarly Chief Magistrate more
pleasure than the routine of dinners, races,
dances, and cigars has vouchsafed the
present (when shall we say , occupant of
the White House.