The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1889-05-09


sacrifice were beginning to blossom. John
sons stormy career was cut short by death.
Grant met with political disappointment and
financial reverses which greatly distressed
him. Garfield was shot, dying after months
OF suffering, and Arthur lived but short
time after surrendering power, almost broken
hearted because rejected by his party for a
second term. Hayes alone moves down the
shady side of LIES hill surrounded by UNI
varying sunshine.
1T is not generally KNOWN" says an en-
ploye the White House who has been in
his present post for nearly twenty years,
that Hayes was the most liberal entertainer
we have had here in quarter of a century
There is common notion that he was parsi-
monlous and narrow. The fact is that he
gave entertainments more magnificent and
costly than any of his predecessors that l
know anything about, or any of his successors,
not excepting Arthur. Once year Mr..
Hayes served collation. at an evening re-
ception, issuing invitations to l 800 people in
official life, but nearly always having more
than 1900 guests You know how people in
Washington go where they wish to go with
out standing on the formality Of invitations,
and we could never think of a way of keeping
them out without offending those who were
invited. At these collations everything was
served that any one could ask for excepting
wine, and the cost ran above s., 900 for each
supper. know, because paid the bills my
self. No other president has served such
suppers. Mr.. Hayes saved very little out of
his salary. Grant saved nothing the first
term and not much the second. Lincoln
barely paid his expenses, while Arthur had
not much left after everything was settled
for. Mr.. Cleveland managed to save about
half of his salary. johnson was the most
economical of all the presidents ho have
been In the White House in my day."
There is some curiosity to know what Pres
ident Harrison has to say to his many callers.
Or course his remarks vary with the men
and the nature Of their business, but as
general rule he has very little to say. He is
already known in Washington as a man of
few words. Here is little speech which the
president has made two or three dozen times
a day for the last seven weeks: 81 will try to
remember what you say. File your papers
with the secretary. Good morning." The
president has made that little speech so often
that he laughingly says he sometimes repeats
it in his Sleep
George KEENAN,, the Russian specialist and
lecturer, lives in Washington, where he gets
a great many letters from friends in Russia
and Siberia. 1t is a singular fact that in his
correspondence he uses a dozen or more
aliases and as many different addresses
Some of his letters are, sent first to
New York, Boston and other American
cities and then resent to him here This
is done merely as a matter of precaution
The Russian government knows George
KEENAN, very well and likes him not at all
because he has told the truth about the
outrages Of tyranny in Siberia. Many of
Remnants friends in Russia dare not put a
letter in the post addressed to him, as the
government agents have habit of opening
such missves and making note of the names
Of the writers, who are at once placed on the
suspect list Imagine the government Of the
United States tampering with the mails to
find the names of citizens who do not approve
of the methods Of an administration
The Turkish bath is q fad among retired
army officers, of whom large number live
In this city. 1t is almost impossible to 20
into hot room in one of the bath houses
here without finding for neighbors on the
rattan chairs or couches three or four fat old
fellows who show their scars to each other
and talk Of the conflicts in which they were
wounded. Indian skirmishes and engage
ments, and the battles Of the war with Mex
leo and the Confederacy are fought over day
after day in a temperature of 100 degrees.
Army officers, men Of great activity and
much out door exercise In their youth, gain
rapidly in ayoirdupois on settling down to
the calm and well fed routine Of retirement
Thus they are induced to visit the Turkish
baths, and the hot rooms become snug little
dens of Renaissance and story telling. Sew.
eral army officers, retired or active, have
fitted up crude Turkish bathrooms in their
residences. Gen. Schofeld has such bath
room, and often invites his brother officers
to take bath with him.
There's an old fellow in Washington who
makes his living by asking congressman for
their photographs, queer means of liveli-
hood, surely. Every two years he prepares
congressional album, containing the photo
graphs of all the senator's, representatives
and delegates He is now busy getting the
photos of the new members of congress. of
whom there are about 1870, and as soon as he
gets them he will be ready to turn out al
buns as fast as he can get orders. He ar
ranges the pictures by states, and cuts out of
the congressional directory the biography of
each member and pastes it underneath the
photograph. A completed album like this
he sells for S25, and his customers, oddly
enough, are confined altogether to members
Of congress. Men who come to congress one
or two terms like to have an album of this
sort to preserve as an heirloom in their fam
lilies, and the price is low enough to tempt a
great many into purchasing. The old man
sells forty or fifty albums a year, and as his
expenses are very small he manages to make
living out of it.
Government clerks talk Of making an effort
to induce congress to start an annuity or pen
sion scheme for their benefit What govern
ment clerks most need is a law requiring
them to eat enough to sustain life. Such an
underfed, yellow, listless lot of fellows as one
sees in the departments here cannot be dupli-
Gated anywhere else in this country, About
half Of the clerks carry their lunches from
home, and Insignificant little lunches they
are, too. The other half go out to lunch
rooms, and invest or 10 cents in piece of
pie and glass Of milk. In most of the de-
partments restaurants are maintained, but
pie is the principal and altogether the most
popular article on the bill Of fare. Economi-
cal living is a fad Of government clerks,
though their economy is mainly practiced In
what they put into their stomachs. They
Al