Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1885-10-07
PERSONAL HABITS OF THE PRESIDENT.

PERSONAL HABITS OF THE PRESIDENT.
One of the things that no doubt surprise
MANY of the friends of President Cleveland
is the regularity with which he keeps ur
correspondence with them. President Cleve
land did not have one unanswered letter
on his desk Sunday. Of course he does not
reply to all of the letters he receives, or,
indeed, one in every hundred he receives
but he takes particular pains to reply to all
personal letters. Letters regarding political
matters, appointments, &C., are opened and
disposed of by his clerks without being
shown to him at all. President Cleveland
generally writes his letters in the evening,
couple of hours after dinner. He is a very
careful letter writer, taking pains to have
every word written plainly. He is q master
at punctuation. He uses heavy American
linen paper of note size and 81 square en-
velope. Since he has been President he has
not used one sheet of government paper or
an envelope which he has not purchased
himself. Every word that he has written
since he has been in the White House has
been with the same pen-an ordinary steel
| pen 1t has broken down several times,
| but be has az often fixed it up. The holder
is plain and Of the kind that sells to school
children for one cent. There are several
strings tied around the pen to keep it in its
proper place He has tried several other
pens, but tore up the letters that he wrote
because they did not look right. A half
dozen fountain penmakers sent the Presi-
dent samples of their pens with request
that he try them, but he has not tried any
of them, and probably will not as long as
his favorite pen holds out.
In the past couple of weeks the President
has got in the habit oftaking unconstitutional
breather after dinner, and he has found itso
beneficial that he will probably keep it up.
AS general thing he takes his walk alone,
though on one or two occasions he was ac-
companied by a personal friend. His rule
is now to take dinner about six o'clock. BY
the time he starts out for his walk tits dark.
He is seldom recognized, for though he has
been with us six months he is not generally
known except by officials and politicians.
When any one does recognize him he ac-
knowledges it very courteously and bows.
When ladies bow to him he always gallant
" raises his hat The habit has been for the
President to walk about mile or q mile
and half Some evenings he takes turn
down through theWhite House grounds over
into the Washington Monument grounds
aad returns by way of Seventeenth street.
At other times he goes out Sixteenth street
or Connecticut avenue to Dupont Circle ana
back by some other street. The President
is told by his friends that he IS getting Il
trihe TOO stout, and be takes his after dinner
exercise to prevent getting an: stca;er, and
if possible to reduce himself somewhat Tie
President is not a natural or an easy "GlE-
err He il short coupled and his feet arc too
stumpy and fat. It is an effort for him 20
walk
President Cleveland has been exceedingly
fortunate in the matter Of health since he
has been the occupant of the White Housc.
He has not yet had occasion 10 call il!
physician. Once or twice ne had y slight
bilious attack, but he got rid Of it by taking
so,ne medicine which had been prescribed
for him while be was in Albany, small
quantity Of which he happened to have on
hand. In the past ten years President
Cleveland has not lost from his duties On
account of sickness more than fifteen days
There are several physicians in Washington
who would not mind that he had little
touch of sickness, provided they were call
ed in, for it is money, and good deal of it,
| to any physician to be known as the Presi-
dents physician not that he gets it out of
the President, but from the other patients
that have his services.
There has not been an outside physician
EMPLOYED in the White House for very
long time, probably not since Buchanan 3
time, excepting, of course, the Garfield
summer, when no one hardly was allowed
in the upper part Of the mansion except
physicians President Lincoln was at
tended by an army surgeon. So was Pres-
dent Johnson. The same surgeon, DR.. Nor
ris, now in San Francisco, attended General
Grant when he needed a doctor, which was
very seldom. President Hayes was never
sick, neither was Mrs. Hayes so the ques-
ton of physician never came up. Presi-
dent Garfield had no physician up to the
time he was shot, though DR.. Susan Edison, a
homeopath, had for some years attended
Mrs. Garfield and the children. During Mrs.
Garfeld's illness in the spring prior to the
shooting of the president DR.. Edison was as.
| sisted by DR.. Boynton, an Ohio relative OF
the family DR.. Baxter, the medical pur-
| veyor general Of the army, claimed on the
Sunday morning after the shooting Of Presi.
dent Garfield that he Baxter had been the
regular physician to General Garfield when
he (Garheldl was a member of Congress-
but DR.. Bliss refused to recognize any such
claim and ordered him out of the White
House. DR.. Bliss claimed to have acted as
he did on the request of Mrs. Garfield.
| The medical services that President Ar
thur needed were very slight and were
always rendered by his physician in New
York, upon telegraphic or written state
ment of his trouble. The army surgeon;
did not charge for their services when they
wero called in By the Presidents, thu:
knocking the regular physicians of the city
oft of many fat fees Washington Cor. N
7. Herald.