The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1882-11-22
Shop-Keeping i'm the White House

Mingled with his boyish simple
ity, Tad bad a great deal of native
shrewdness. The White House was
infested with a numerous horde OF
office seekers. From day to day
these men crowded the corridors
leading to the Presidents office.
Sometimes they We're so numerous
as to line the halls all the way down
the stairs. 1t was not long before
Tad found out what this assemblage
meant, and IT then became one of
his greatest diversions. when other
resources failed, Ia GO around among
the office seekers aud sympathetic
ally inqnire what they wanted, how
long they had waited, and how mu, b
longer they proposed to wait. To
some he gave good advice. telling
them to go home and chop wood for
a living. Others he tried to dismiss
by volunteering to speak to bis faith
er in their behalf, if they would
promise not to come again. Many
of these people were at the White
House for weeks and even months.
never missing a day, unless they
learned that the President was out
of town, or otherwise absent from
the house.
Tad levied tribute on the men
whose faces he had learned To know.
Once he mounted guard at the foot
of the staircase, and compelled every
passenger to pay an admission fee
of five cents.-''for the benefit of
the Sanitary Fund, as he explained.
Most Of the visitors took it in good
part, and some of the fawning
creatures, glad of an opportunity
TO earn the good will of the little
fellow. paid their wav with a
stamp" of some considerable value.
This venture was so successful that
Tad resolved on having one of the
Sanitary Commission fairs, then so
much in vogue ali over the country.
He placed a table in the grand cor
ridor, or entrance hall of the White
House, stocked it with few broken
toys, some purchases of fruit, sun
dry articles of food begged from the
family pantry, and lot of miscel-
laneous odds and ends contributed
by admiring friends. Before night
the sanitary fair of the White House
was closed out. No man who look
ed as if he had money in his pocket
was permitted to pass into the House
that day without first bEing some
thing of Master Lincoln's stock in
trade.
His success in this venture en-
boldened him soon after to branch
out in larger speculation. Hav-
ing saved up quite sum of pocket
money, he bought out the entire
stock of an old woman who sold
apples and gingerbread near the
Treasury building. A pair of tres
ties and a board, extorted from the
carpenters employed on the build
ing, gave the young merchant his
counter, add he set up his shop in
the grand, historic portico of the
White House, much to the horror of
some of the eminently respectable
people who passed by ana beheld
this most undignifed proceeding.
Before noon, almost every Office seek
er who entered had bought a lunch
con. under compulsion, from the
alert young shop keeper, who drove
a brisk trade as long as his goods
lasted. When Tad had sold out all
he had to sell, goodly lot of the
fractional currency of those times
was stuffed into his pockets, his bat
and his little fist He was the Pres
ident's son, aud that was enough
for the fiatterers, who were glad to
buy of him. But Tad was 100 gen
erous and open handed to be long a
gamer by any such operations. Be-
fore night, capital and profits had
been squandered, and the little spec
ulator went penniless to bed.-&
Nicholas for Nguenb9.