The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1880-10-09
SELECT LITERATURE.
"REMINISCENCES OF WASHINGTON
The Tyler Administration from Is4I to
I843.
(CONCLUDED.

When the extra session had ended,
President Tyler had some time to devote
to his family. His wife, Virginia lady
(whose maiden name was Letitia Chris
| tian), came to the Executive Mansion in
| feeble health, and did not long survive.
He had two grown sons, Robert and John;
two married daughters, Mrs. Jones and
Mrs. Semple: a younger daughter, Alice,
and a young son, Tazewcll, a bright lad
The wife of his oldest son, Robert, was a
daughter of Cooper, the celebrated TRACE
dian. and it is recorded in Charles Dick
ems Notes that she "acted as the lady
of The mansion. and a very interesting
graceful, and accomplished lady too
President Tyler, who was tifty-one
years of age when he took possession of
the Elective Mansion, was somewhat
above the medium height, and of slender
figure, with long limbs and great activ-
ity of movement. His thin auburn hair
turned white during his term of Office,
his nose was large and prominent, his
eyes were of bluish-gray. his lips were
thin and his checks sunken. His man.
ners were those of the old school of Nir-
ginia gentlemen, and he always invited
visitors with whom he was acquainted to
accompany him to the side-board in his
dining room and take glass of wine, or
something stronger. The ceremonious
etiquette established at the White House
by Van Buren, vanished, and the Presi-
dent lived precisely as he had on his plan
tation, attended by his old family slaves.
When Healey, the artist, was invited to
reside at the White House while he was
copying Stuart portrait Of Washington
for Louis Philippe of France, he was
forcibly struck with the absence of all
ceremony. The first day of the artist
ssiourn, he accompanied the family to
the drawing room, after dinner, and then
said, with a profound bow, Mr.. Presi-
dent, with your permission l will retire
to my work" my good fellow" re-
piled Mr.. Tyler, edo just what you
please
When one day the President .ioked Mr..
Wise about his little one-horsc carriage,
which he styled "a candle-box on wheels, -
the representative from Accomac retorted
by telling Mr.. Tyler that he had been
riding for month in secondhand car
riagc purchased at the sale of the effects
of Mr.. Paulding. the Secretary of the
| Navy under Mr.. Van Buren,, with the
Paulding coat-of-arms emblazoned on the
door panels. The President laughed, and
gave orders at once to have the armorial
bearings Of the Pauldings painted over.
President Tyler stopped the dismissal
of those clerks in the departments who
were Democrats to make places for Wings.
One day, shortly after he became Presi-
dent, one of the Secretaries had sent no.
tees to fifteen of the clerks employed in
the department of which he was the head,
that their services would not be required
any longer by the government. Jenny
Maher, the public gardener, heard of this
wholesale official decapitation, and see
ing Mr.. Tyler soon afterwards on the por-
tico of the White House, went to him
and stated the case. The President i'm
mediately sent for the Secretary, who
came, bringing with him, as authority
for what he had done, the record of the
political tergiversations of each dismissed
clerk. "That's all very WE'LL said Presi-
dent Tyler, when he heard the Secretary S
indictment, ''but you must restore these
men. If you don't, l shall have their
wives and children coming to me with
sad stories of their starvation, and | am
determined not to take part in making
people wretched." The dismissed clerks
were accordingly reinstated.
The great number of Wings who had
swarmed from Virginia into Washington
at the Inauguration of Harrison, in search
full, when Mr.. Tyler became President
were very importunate. Prominent among
them was "Old Dade," as he was called
by all who knew him, who was born near
the spot made famous by the surrender
of CORVALLIS, and who was an applicant
for the position of warden of the district
penitentiary. Before he received his APP
pointment, President Harrison died, and
''Old Dade y then began to importune
his successor One day Mr.. Tyler said
"Dade, | should like to appoint you, but
they tell me that you drink too much
SIS that all they say about me-" re-
sponded Dade. Mr.. Tyler smiled, and
observed, - think, in all conscience, that
is enough 'No sir- answered the in.
dsnant Dade. "When people talk about
me, want them to tell the whole truth
sir. They should have told you, sir, that
there is no gentleman in the city of Wash
ington so thirsty as am" Mr.. Tyler
in the goodness of his heart, could re-
sist no longer, and cold Dade' was com
stoned warden of the penitentiary. Wher
he took charge, he had all of the convcts
called up, and made this brief speech tt
them: Boys, I'm your boss. If you'll
behave yourselves like gentlemen II
treat you as such, but if you don't, II
turn every mothers son of you outr'
Junius Brutus Booth was OCCASIONAL,
the star at the Washington Theatre, ant
President Tyler used often to enjoy hi
marvellous renderings of Sir Giles Over
reach, King Lear, Shylock, Othelo, ant
Richard the Third Booth was short ant
compactly built, with classical features
which strongly resembled the portrait.
Michael Angelo, and his bearing was tina
of a monarch. \ slave to intoxicatin.
drinks, he would often disappoint hi
! audiences, yet his popularity RENAME,
3 undated. He resided on farm in Mary
: land, and sometimes he would abandon
the stage entirely for rural pursuits, APP
. pearing occasionally in Baltimore with
, wagon load of milk, chickens and eggs
! which he would peddle from door to door
Among the other eccentrcites, stimu
lated by drunkenness, was veneratiol
for animal life equal to that of a Hindoo
He would not eat flesh or fowl, or permi
its use in his family, believing as he di'
in metempsychosis. An eminent divin
used to narrate how he was summone,
by Booth to his room one night, an,
- found him there in great grief over sew