The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-04-22
THE HEALTH AND HABITS
OF Cabinet Ministers and How the!
Exercise and Work.
tenn,iol CorrpsDondencel

|
WASHINGTON, April 12-Secretary Mar.
uings illness is undoubtedly due to over
work. He came here from Albany the per-
sonifcation of health. His eye was bright,
his step steady and the joints of his ponder
GUS frame were well oiled. He had been &C
customed to walking good deal in Albany.
and his work was such as to keep him NOV
ing about. Elere he took no exercise what
ever, and he worked harder than even Folger
had done before him. He lived at first at
the Arlington hotel which is about two
blocks from the tomb-like treasury. His
carriage was called to carry him this
short distance, and on cabinet days
he rode to the White House, which
is situated Just around the corner and
whose front door is not 800 feet away from
the side door of the treasury When his
wife came here, and he moved out to Dupont
circle he took, for time, short drive after
he left the department, and Mrs. Manning
came down in the carriage for him almost
daily During the winter these drives were
often omitted, and not long ago Mr.. Manning,
feeling the need of more exercise determined
10 walk down to the treasury every morning.
, He did this for day or So The distance is
: about a mile, and had he continued it might
Wan
office seekers laid in wait for him and thai
: he could not get to work on time. He ther
went back to his carriage and worked OF
until he dropped
The treasury building is the darkest anc
gloomiest structure in Washington. 1t is {
great oblong stone building with big, dirty
Ionic columns running along its sides, and i
looks for all the world like the gigantic sar
cophagus of some antediluvian giant. 1t
massiveness is oppressive, and the only brigh
suots in it are the south rooms which lool
out toward the Washington monument ant
across the Potomac to Arlington and the Vir
pinia hills. Three OF these rooms on the sec
ond floor, constitute the offices of the secre
tarv of the treasury, and it is in these tina
Manning has spent the greater part OF tn
o past year.
? Let me give you his daily life. He ros
50 from his Ted at 6 o'clock and by or littl
- later his carriage brought him to the dt
~, nartment. Entering by the basement dool
. he would ride to his floor in the elevator, an
= Immediately begin at his mall with II
q stenographic secretary sitting on the opposl'
70 side of his big flat desk, and ready to tai
down his answers to the letters as he locke
- them over. This first mail would perhal
:, contain 300 letters, and most of these won
n reouire much thought. He would be answe
ht ing them when 10 or IL o'clock came, al
g with this hour throng OF callers, buslne
- men and office seekers. At first he recelv
~ these, as the president does now, admittn
= them TO his office and going around the ri
- talking to eacn and shaking hands WI
every cne This was also brain work, al
later on he found it took up too much OF
time. He then took refuge in his ante-roc
and admitted only such callers as had i
portant business. About o'clock I
callers would he shut off and
s, cretary would take his lunch. II
he would eat at his desk, and it
brought down by his boy from his home
him. 1t genel ally consisted of some fr
- and a sandwich of chicken turkey or tong
Manning would not even rest while he
eating it, but would have the departing
officials admitted and would discuss gu
tions of finance and would look over
no papers which they presented to him.
M would then go back to answering lette
&c, Besides the 500 of the first mail, he wo
'or now find, perhaps, that 100 or 200 additlo
me had come in later About o'clock
no1 number of letters and papers would
brought to him to sign, and / doubt not &
eat these often ran into the hundreds 1t wo
inc take thought to look over them, and wi
he was through he would again dictate lett
until about o'clock. Then his carriage {
Mrs. Manning would come, and he would
ont home. He did not come to the treas
at night, but he always took work nc
with him, and he often sat up as late as
1 . O'Clock in the morning. He worked III
a hours than the street car driver, and
". brain had less rest than the pendulum o
4OO-dav clock He raid little attention
society. gave not more than one or two
ners during the whole season, and went
inal none except those of the cabinet minis
first and the president. :,
~ II is mistake to say that Secretary n
va. ming has had these attacks before. He
soil been in good health up to his coming
der Washington, and has had no sickness
res sneak of since he was about 10 years old.
has this time | think he was connected with
lin printing department of The Argus De
a hemorrhage of the lungs one day, and
call doctors told his father that he would hay
me get out of Albany or die. His father W
ONE poor laborer, and he was for time n DIES
yitb az to how to raise the money He til
anti fixed it by sending the boy off ON sa
rch, Vessel TO Cuba. and am told that "