The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-12-29
The Presidents Mail.

The Presidents Mail.
One of the newspapers played what
amounted to practical joke upon the
President recently. though il was aot
intended as one. In an evil hour tie
thought struck one of Its creditors
that postal cards cost only cent
apiece. and that it was thus within
the power of every citizens to exercise
the right of petition to the President
for small sum in behalf of Sergeant
Mason and "Betty and the Baby"
1t may not be true that the President
saw the paragraph and pardoned
Mason on the spot, but il is fact
that the postal cards only began to
come in when the pardon had been
announced. They came in hundreds,
and continued for two or three days.
How many there would have been if
the President had not pardOned Ma
son it would be hard to guess,
The cards made an interesting coll
lection as they were stacked in neat
bundles on the desk of Private Sccre.
tary P.Iillips. A great many were
from women, educated, and unedu-
Gated a number from soldiers, Some
handwritings showed extreme age !;
others were from children, or signed
by whole families. Many showed
singular ideas Of etiquette in addres
sing the President, and said without
word of preface or politeness, PAR
don Sergeant Mason" Scores of cards
said not Il word more. Perhaps nine
out of ten contained request that
Sergeant Mason should be allowed to
eat his Thanksgiving turkey with
betty and the Baby" One writer
evidently felt that the President was
likely to grow tired of this refrain,
and summarized it thus. "Sir: Mer-
Observation-Disclosures.
Be just and fear not.o This was sign
ed by four members of a family. the
last evidently young boy. One card
gave Portals description of mercy.
One card, unsigned, bore this rather
pathetic inscription in a trembling
hand: please liberate Sergeant Ma
son, and answer the prayers of a gray
haired mother" ..
"Annie," evidently a little girl,
wrote: "Mr. Presidents: Please par
don Sergeant Mason. Blessed are the
merciful. for they shall obtain mer-
cy." A Philadelphia boys card was
more practical perhaps: "Ifyou want
to he winner in 'S4 you will have to
let the Sergeant brave eat Betty's
turkey dinner" Many cards ad-
dressed the President as sc. A. Ar
thur, Esq. Dear Sir" One of these
ran in this sharp fashion: "When do
you propose to give Mason his liberty
and have people think there is some
good in you ?"
From this showing it would seem
that the Presidents mail may, under
some circumstances, become bur-
den. Yet it is not so large as many
might expect. 1t often falls as low
as fifty letters day and seldom ex-
ceed 100, unless some specially inn
portant appointment or measure is
pending. Nine-tenths of these, it is
said, are apt to be ON Department
matters and ought properly to be ad.
dressed to the departments. Almost
every mail brings some letters from
"cranks," which are duly filed under
the head Of "Eccentric"-a subdi-
vision about as large as any in the
White House files.
Occasionally letters even come from
lunatic asylums. One of the interest
ing features of the clerical work O
the White House Is that the entire
time of one of the seven clerks is oc
cupied in reading the hundrends o
newspapers received. This is dont
simply TO keep the run of editoria
opinions, which are classified in scraI
books by their subjects and preserv
ed, thus making history in one way
/ of an administration. This system
. was begun under President Hayes
The clerical work of the White H0us,
is 50 well systematiled that Presi
dent has little labor with his letter
r and papers. The great drain uDoI
; his physical powers is in the stream o
= callers, many of whom come will
: affairs with which he is not Concern
: ed at all, and which he is obliged Il
e refer to the departments.-Ne,0 Yor,
Tribune.