Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-01-18

The Presidents Daily Life.
The daily life of the President of the United
States is something in which everybody mus
take some interest. His habits of life, hi,
methods of informing himself and of declar
ing the executive will, the management of tn,
vast correspondence that demands his atten
tion, his dealings with his official subordinates
the domestic arrangements which form SC
considerable n feature of a successful admins
tHtion- all these things are of general inter
est, and yet few people know Just how the
| President lives and does business The
duties of the President are enough to over.
whelm any man who has not extraordinary
strength and powers of labor.
President Hayes is remarkable for the ease
with which he performs the Onerous duties of
his great Office, and the fidelity with which all
the details of the public business are cared
for by him. lie rarely fails to devote eight OF
ten hours day to the routine work of the
White House. Always in the best of health,
he is always an early riser, and he probably
| devOtes greater number of hours in the week
to his official duties than were usually given
to them by any of his recent predecessors.
lie often rises as early as o'clock in the
morning and IN this way manages to have an
! hour to himself in the morning. This time he
| deyotes to the reading and writing of private
! letters, or when the occasion arises. to the
| preparation Of communications which he may
have to make to Congress- He breakfasts be-
tween and ., and then has n little time to
| spend with his family. At . O'Clock his secre-
tares and clerks arrive and Office work begins
lie has then an opportunity TO communicate
| with them, and to give any direction as to the
! special work which he may desire to have done
by them At 10 o'clock the doors of the
White House are opened TO persons who have
business with the President The first two
hours, or until T. o'clock are by rule devoted
to the reception of Cabinet ministers and 9th
er officials of the government. and to Senators
and members of Congress- who may wish TO
see the President. After - o'clock the rules
of the White House are that the general pub
he will be received. The ante-rooms of the
White House usually fill up during the morn
ing with persons who desire TO see the Presi-
dent on the greatest possible variety of sub
jects. The bulk of callers are. of course. of
hce-seekers, but human ingenuity is the only
gauge of the objects for which persons try to
get interviews with the President. When the
hour for the reception of the general public
arrives some one of the attendants usually an
nounces that all the visitors who have come
simply to pay their respects will be received
first, and the doors Of the Presdent's room
are opened 10 these persons. who flock III all
then pass out. He afterward receives by card
those who have some business about which
they desire to consult him. These persons
usually indicate the object of their visit on
the cards bearing their names. and it is the
habit of the President to admit quite n num-
Der of callers at once. seat them around the
room, and listen to their communications in
turn. Thus there is n continual levec during
the first hours of the afternoon and often his
= I I'LL IL M
posed advantage of this process is that each
person will consume less time if he sees 9TH
ers waiting to speak with the President than
if he is allowed to have a strictly private in
teryiew. When the President wants to have
IA good talk rs the Indies say. with any
friend or caller, he usually makes an appoint
ment for some hour in the afternoon or eve
ming, and the person whom he wishes to see
presents himself at the proper time. The
President interrupts the stream of callers at
O'Clock to go to lunch. Generally. some
body who has dropped in during the day is
asked to remain to lunch, and there are near
ly always guests at dinner time Before each
meal the family assemblies in the library, ad-
joining the Cabinet room, and all go down to-
gether to the dining room, which is at the
front of the building on the first floor. The
library is the room where the official life of
the President Joins on. so to speak to his
family life 1t is noteworthy that the Hayes
family seeks very little diversion outside of
the White House Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Hayes
have ever attended "A regular dramatic per-
formance, so far as | know, since they have
resided in the Executive Mansion. They at
tended Mr.. W. w. Storys lecture on Art"
but don't remember their being present on
any other occasion of this sort. or to any 9TH
er public entertainment of the lighter sort.
In the summer, and throughout the warmer
season, the President rode and walked IA good
deal for exercise. He is not seen on Penn
sylvania avenue, however nearly so much as
President Grant used to be.
The Presidents management of his CORE
spondence is efficient and business-like From
20 to 100 business letters are received at the
White House every day, and they come from
every part of the country and relate TO every
imaginable feature of the public business
These letters are all opened by trustworthy
clerk, whose duty it is to make a record of ev-
cry letter received, This is a practice intro
duced by President Hayes, who directed last
March that every respectful communication
addressed to him during his term of office
should receive respectful RESPONSE thing
never known at the White House before
Each morning the letter clerk makes an alb
stract of all the letters received This abstract
is recorded. on specially printed blank pages
about ten inches square. The name of the
writer is given in one column the place of his
residence in the next, the subject matter of
the communication in the third column, and
the disposition made of the letter in fourth
column. When all the letters of the day have
been thus treated the several pages of the alb
stracts are put together with eyelets, and at 4
O'Clock each day, this document is laid before |
the President, who runs his eye over the
whole, sees about what he has been written to.
and from Nubp1, tha O,,J
what answers have been returned. If the |
subject is one of any importance to him, or
one to which formal answer cannot be Civ |
en-, of course, no answer is sent until he hns |
seen the letter, and, if any letter which has |
been answered seems to him to have any spe- |
cial interest, he sends for it and reads the |
whole. These abstracts are, of course pre-
served and, at the end of his term, will con-
stitute perfect record of all the correspond
ence that has occurred. In many cases the
answers returned to correspondents are mere
ly formal acknowledgements, There are a
multitude of cases where the latter is turned
over to some one of the departments, and in
all such cases the writer is informed where
the matter has been referred, and what officer
he should write TO for further information.
All this makes a great deal of work and in
wolves an increased expenditure for stationery
and clerical assistance, but it must be admit
ted to be a very praiseworthy thing i'll the
President to thus recognize the claims of the
people upon the office which he holds.
The making of appointments absorbs the
principal part of the Presidents time, and
luring session of Congress several clerks are
kept busy in the routine work connected with
.he exercise of the appointing power Appli-
cations for office are pouring in all the time
md these are filed with whatever accompany
ng recommendations may be received, for
he action of the President The principal
appointments are determined upon at the
Cabinet meetings. The member of the Cabi-