The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1885-02-19
ritz PRESIDENTS AUTOGRAPH.
The Heavy Demand for Authur's Signature
=. Pages Who Do Profitable Business

,..The autograph hunters; writes d
Washington tortespondent to The St:
Louis Post Dispatch; are hard at work
again, It is a curious place; is Wash.
ington:., Everybody who comes here
must. carry away, he thinks, something
with him to remind him Of his visit
and to show to his friends that he has
rubbed against greatness somewhere:
If he can get a chip Of the Washington
monument he is content; or, if he
does not get this, he sets about secur-
ing somebody's autograph. In this he
Is quite successful, for scarcely any
body iii official life will refuse his au-
tograph to a respectable-looking per-
Son, except at the bottom of q check
or official document of some sort. OF
course the greatest demand is tor the
autograph of the president. Letters
come from every direction every day
asking his autograph. They are sffted
out of general Corn dependence by the
private secretary; who attends to the
reception, opening, and arranging of
his mail; and thrown aside III d heap1
each marked ON the envelope "auto,"
to indicate that it is request tor an
autograph. When The days mails
have been worked over these letters,
which are sometimes dozen or twen-
>ty in day, are laid aside, an oppor-
tunity awaited to present them to-
the president for his signature.
They are usually placed in the hands
of Charley LoeMer,. the president 9
usher, who watches the opportunity
when the president is not engaged or
tired, and obtains the coveted auto
graph, Sometimes the autograph is
affixed to the letter requesting it, but
usually it is written, or rather scrawl-
ed, on a card, which the experienced
Charley has read y, waiting the mo-
meut when he may catch the president
with sufficient leisure for this work.
Often a hundred or two of these re-
quests will accumulate before the
president gets time to attend to them.
Sometimes they will run even higher
than that, and often his hand gets tired
with the monotonous scrawl of "Ches-
ter A. Arthur which he has affixed
in an official way perhaps hundreds of
times during the day. It must not be
supposed. however, that the president
signs everything that bears his name,
or even that which appears to bear his
Photographs" There are probably
many people in this country, especial
ly in the west, who are fondly suppos-
ing that they have the presidents own
signature written by his own hand,
simply because the name, as signed to
some official document, looks like Mr..
Arthur's own signature. It would be
a physical impossibility for him to sign
all the documents required to bear his
name, and at the same time attend to
the more important duties of his office.
The land warrants alone, for instance,
are SO numerous as to take
constant signing of the president
name for several hours every
day. Then there are many other
cases of similar sort. So there are
certain clerks whoes duties are simply
to sign the presidents name for him:
And they fall into way of making a
signature like his, because it is his in
ali essential particulars, and so it
might as we'll be like his in appear
ance. The result is that thousands of
signatures of the president are not
written by him. This does not apply
to the question of autographs sent in
response to requests. Those are re-
garded as not the sort that may be
delegated.
1t is at the capitol, however, that the
autograph collector is in his glory.
There great men are to be met at every
turn, and autographs which are at
tractivo everywhere away from WASH
ington may be had for the asking.
The customary method of obtaining
them is through the services of the
pages in the house and senate and SUI
preme court. These little fellows are
bright and quick, and quite ready for
the opportunity to make a few dollars
by this process.
'We get from SIS to $40, or SIS for
getting an album filled in the house, -
said one of the pages of that body,
who, by the way, is the grandson of a
aoted member of the confederate cab
met. "The senate pages get about the
same for getting the autographs of the
members over there. If the album is
to have the autographs of the presi-
uCAUS OdOlACV O4ANCASs ouPAOuO NouA Y
justices, senators, and representatives
complete, we usually get 1926 for get
Sing it filled. How do we get them'
60 to the members when they are in
their seats, and ask them for their au-
tographs. They seldom refuse. Some
times, if they are busy, they won't do
It, but fellow with tact won't 90 to a
member when he sees that he is busy.
There are some who don't like it much.
There's Mr.. Belmont, for instance, he
doesn't fancy it very much, but he
usually signs, though. Then wher we
get the house we get some n the
senate to get the senator's Il and
then get the riding-page, or solne good
natured member to get the president s
and cabinet officers signatures for US. -
They are a curious study, these al
buns, after they have been passed
around and filled with signatures from
the white house down. Some of them
are not only passed, but repassed, and
passed again, until they contain the
autographs of two or three generations
of statesmen. It seems that when one
gets this disease he never RECEIVERS
lIO" IL, duu whichever GucIo COu1o LII q
lot of new statesmen the old album is
brought to the surface and trotted
round for more sign-manuals. So it
sometimes happens that one of these
albums has the autographs of two or
more presidents, of a dozen or more
cabinet officers, of a hundred senators
and ex-senators, and perhaps five hun
dred members and ex-members of the
house. The perusal of one of these
well-filled books is really interesting.
If a mans autograph is key to bis
character, as is sometimes claimed,
then some statesmen must have very
crooked characters. If bad penman.
ship is sign of greatness, then it is in
evidence that we have many great men
For the signatures are, many Of them
painfully bad. A few are 'artistic.
silly" bad, evidently written badly with
malice aforethought, but the majority
that are unreliable seem to be so be-
cause the writer can't do it any better,
l.