Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-01-04
STORIES OF W WASHINGTON.
PEOPLE WHO ASK THE PRESi-
DENT FOR A LOAN.

and Tender-H earted- Tabor Fooled in
an Attempt to Indelrfbly stamp MS
Name on His Desk-A Lawyers Ee-
tainer.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3.--.An old friend
Of the President said to me last night: Il
never knew in all my life more sener-
Gus man than Cleveland. You know, OF
course, how good he has always been to
his family. He has been their main stay
He has contributed to the support OF eY-
cry member of it at one time or another
and always in the most delicate and un-
destinations way. These constant drains
upon his revenues have kept him
poor. and compelled him to
make great sacrifices. 1t is
this which has kept him unmarried in
spite OF his domestic tastes. But apart
from his contributions to his family he
has always given literally to worthy
charities. He does so now. The Presi-
dent, like every other prominent person,
receives great quantities OF begging let
ters. The very fact that the President
has a salary of $500 year makes him
the object of appeals from all over the
country. People of all sorts and condi-
tions in temporary or permanent circum-
stances of want turn naturally to
man known to have a large income
for assistance. 'He has so much they
say to themselves, that he would never
miss the few dollars (or hundreds of dol
lars, as the case may be- that | need
People with all sorts of projects for
making fortunes, but without single
idea as to how TO make d living, write TO
him for the necessary capital to realize
their hopes. Men who have worked out 1.
a system by which the capital prize in
lottery or the capital in faro bank may
be won, enthusiastic but impecunious
inventors with substitutes for the tele-
phone and telegraph, with novel dynamite
guns, cotton pIckers and sugar-rendering
machines, with all the thousand and one
novelties that are constantly tumbling
ont of their over-crowded brains, write to
the President, as they did to Vanderbilt
and do to Gould, for the loan OF the few
hundred dollars necessary to enrich and
immortalize them, and make his admins
traticn famous to all time. Many of these
letters. of course, are never handed to the
President, but some which are, for some
reason or other, such as Col. Lamont
knows the President would like to see,
are placed on his table. Many of the
cases so presented to HIM he has inves-
tigated, and where il has seemed prop
.er has given such assistance as
ne could. In addition to this he quietly
contributes to charities in Buffalo and in
Albany, and is beginning to do the same
In Washington. Miss Cleveland is his
almoner in many of these cases.
The President, with all his strength and
courage, moral and ply sical, has a very
tender heart and is easily moved to SYM
patty by real distress. | know Of several
cases where he has recently assisted
ofiiee-seskers who had been lingering here
since March until they had been reduced
TO absolute want TO 80 TO their homes.
10 hac M rofhU with Oftipn-Gnpkp
but he has great pity for starving men,
as some of these were. | think 1t is safe
to say that Cleveland has always given in
= charity at least one-tenth of his income
every year, and that he is now giving
much more than that.
THAT HOwLING SILVER SWELL.
Ex-senator Tabor, of Colorado, whose
brief but gorgeous career in the Senate is
still fresh in our minds was here this week.
don't know whether he slept in his $3.50
lace-trimmed n.ght-gown this time, but
he had on his $40, 900 diamond cuff buttons
and shirt studs, and the same broad and
placid smile. He is said to be rich again,
ana the real estate dealers here are putting
their trust in the story that he proposes
10 buy a square of ground at 81 a foot
in the new northwest end OF town and
build bigger house than can now be
found in Washington. II he should what
larks his entertainments would be.
He would out-Stewart Stewart of Stewart
castle, and make our sides ache with
laughter. l heard something about Ia
boris Senatorial experience to-day which
j had never heard before, and which
seemed to nae very characteristic. You
know, perhaps, that no one but old Father
) 3assett, the 2ntediluVian doOrkeeper of
the Senate. knows the desks that Daniel
Webster, Henry Clay, Calhoun and the
other ante-bellum great men used when
they were In the Senate. Their desks are
still there, but they are just like all the
rest, and no one but old Bassett has kept
track of them, and he guards the secret.
like all the other information in his
possession, jealously-presumably he
is going to write book. |
OF course Tabor, who slapped
President pro tenn. David Davis on the
back the second time he talked with him
and called him sold hoss," before he left
the Senate had no delicacy about prying
into old Bassetts little mysteries. He
asked Bassett plumpIy one day which |
desk Daniel Webster had used. Bassett
colored crimson, stammered and suffered
out some evasion, but didn't tell, nor
could Tabor draw it out OF him. This
puzzled Tabor until some good-natured
old Senator told him about Bassetts
uueer desire to conceal all information
about the great men Of the Senate.
swell, by God.' said Tabor, "he won't
conceal me-" and he proceeded to scratch
with his diamond cuff buttons a line on
either side of his desk. Every day as
he sat there he drew his cuff
buttons over these lines until
he had made deep, wide marks on both
sides Of his desk. "Now," he said trium-
phantly to the good-natured Senator. ''if |
should come back here any time within
the next twenty-five years l could pick
out my desk, and after | die no one will
have any difficulty in finding it," But
old BasseLps eagle-eye was on those
scratches, and Tabor was scarcely out OF
the Senate before his desk was out OF the
Senate chamber and in the shop OF the
Senate carpenter, who, under old Bas-
sett's personal directions, carefully planned
away the offending marks, and then as
carefully polished and vanished the
place where they had been. When Tabor
goes TO the Senate chamber to look al his
desk he won't know where TO find it,
HEARD GOOD STORY TO-DAY
about q well-known patent attorney. in
town, whom / will call Pippin. An En-
glishman called on him recently TO en-
gage his professional services in procur-
Ass.ng a patent for an English invention
io9sATned by London syndicate. Pippin
nc 4 his charge would be $3.50 for re-
MI y. n and 500 day during his employ