Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1882-12-21
THE PRESIDENT.
How Mr. ArtLur's Personality I'm
presses Careful Observer "A New
York Club Man in the White House
Wash. Cor. Chicago Inter. Ocean.

w ASH. Cor. CalcegO 1nter-UceaB.
Within the last few days the capitol
has changed its whole appearance.
The groups cOngregated about the de-
partments, and the hustle around the
hotels and boarding houses indicate
that congress is now in session, and
that the season has begun. Pennsyl-
vania avenue has dropped its air of
dull llstlessness, and, as if by magic,
has been transformed into 81 busy
thoroughfare.
Your correspondent was present at
the opening of the exposition in the
rotunda of the capitol on the afternoon
of the 25th ult.
During the presidents speech your
correspondent Jas this was the first
time that he had been present on a
state OCCASION, at risk of being set
down as starer, proceeded to "take
IN" the presidential party from head to
foot. The president, as his photo
graphs indicate, is what would COM
monty be called "good-looking'' man.
He is of good physique, and stands up
well. His appearance is neat, and his
manners, IN society parlance, elegant.
His hair is we'll brushed, his nails are
carefully trimmed into the most i'm
proved shape, and a glance downward
reveals q pair of brightly polished
boots. In short. he is a good, average
specimen of good average New York
gentleman, and as such has no more
aptitude for dealing with the great
questions which daily come before the
chief magistrate of the nation for his
consideration than a thousand other
New York gentlemen upon whom for
tune has showered her gifts with
more sparing hand. To that far way,
longing look, which was such marked
chara cteristic of Lincoln's face, Arthur
is a perfect stranger. Kind-hearted
man though he may be, and doubtless
ls, he is, nevertheless, cast in another
mold. There is more of the earth
earthly IN his composition, and he feels
not the power Of grand aims and aspi-
rat1ons-those great motives - those
unseen currents which have so power
fully influenced the lives Of our great.
est men, [ would not have it under
stood that the president is an inbecile,
or bad man. He certainly is neither.
His faults and failings are negative
rather than positive; his sins are sins
of omission rather than commission.
AS Touchstone says in response to
Corin's question as to how he liked
shepherds life:
Co"in-And how like you this shep-
herds life, Master Touchstone?
Touchstone- Truly, shepherd, in re-
spect to itself, it is good life; but in
respect that it is shepherds life it is
naught.-As You Like 1t. Act III,
Scene 2.
So We may say of President Arthur.
In respect to himself he is good man,
but III respect to the the mighty dead
who have occupied the presidential
chair, the influence of whose lives is
priceless legacy to those who live after
them-in respect to those "dead, but
sceptered spirits who sill rule us from
their urns," he is indeed naught, and
naught can be.
A few days [ noticed an item in one
of the daily papers which, to my mind,
throws much light on the presidents
character: president Arthur has had
a billiard table taken out to the SOL
oiOAo 1OhAC, al O1oCk w use DlIu50ll
when not engaged in official duties, for
the president is not a reading man."
The president not reading man! He
should be. Who more than the chief
magistrate of the greatest nation on
the face Of the earth; of q nation dedi-
Gated to the eternal principles of justice
and equality before the law; of nation
on whose perpetuity the successful
solution of the problem of self-govern-
ment depends; who, more than the
man entrusted with such gigantic re-
sponsibilities, needs to multiply his own
experience and receive the hoard of
accumulated knowledge enshrined in
the works of the greatest minds and
choicest spirits of every agel A
man who spurns such legacy should
be an intellectual Crosus. the lowest
motive man can have for reading is
its utility. and the president of the
United States feels not even this.