Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-24

getting their papers; and the people who
address the president and receive no
answer, or else a note from Private Sec
rotary Halford, write to ask Mrs. Harri-
son to lay the subject before the presi-
dent. In every such case. whether
written or verbal, from oldest friend or
any one, the members of the president g
family absolutely refuse to prefer re-
quests for offices or favors to him. They
see how worn and harassed he is with
the all-day seige for offices, and they
will not spoil his little rest or peace in
the private part of the house by any
thing of that kind. Those who ask such
favors cannot and will not see the deli
caoy and the justice of the ladies course,
and with every such appeal made to
them, Mrs. Harrison and Mrs. Mckee
have a sinking at heart in fear Of an en-
envy made by their refusals.
The temperance people call and write
and exhort Mrs. Harrison as il she were
an abandoned sinner, and they talk to
her of Mrs. Hayes, and hold up Mrs.
Hayes as an example, until she must
soon dread to hear the name of that good
woman, who was in a way related to
her. If there were an open bar In the
White House some of the eXhorters could
not be more anxious and earnest. The
president and Mrs. Harrison, who are
temperate in all things, have only fol-
lowed established social usages, and set
before their guests what is usual and
proper.
Every charity and every begging
scheme appeals to Mrs. Harrison, and
three times the president 8 salary would
not meet these requests. From building
a tombstone for Mary. the mother of
Coz inn va
memorial temple, down to sending a
photograph, and a dollar to buy the
frame for it, to some strange correspond
ent, every one appeals to her. Many
OF the begging letters are from poor and
ignorant people, and are really prayers
addressed to- the highest earthly
power they know for help when their
other prayers have not been answered.
Every fair and charitable entertainment
within fifty miles begs her attendance.
Actors and artists call and ask that the
presidents family will attend their per-
formanoes, musicians and elocutionists
and infant prodigies want to be heard in
the White House parlors, and it is diff
cult to decline these kind offers that
would result in so much benefit to these
performers. All the cumulative methods
of raising money for charities have been
tried, by asking Mrs. Harrison to send
ten cents or a dollar, and mail the en-
closed blanks to ten or more people who
will keep on widening the circle Of con-
tributors by tens.
Mrs. Harrison s mail is daily curios-
ity, as well as an infliction. The cranks
in every part of the country write to her,
and some of the letters pass beyond
crankery. When the papers announced
that the White House was overrun with
ants, scores of recipes came for Kidding
the place of the pests, and in post
scripts the writer's suggested the rewards
they would like for thIs voluntary kind
nesss-S sum of money, a silk dress or q
postoffice. At the time of the rat inva-
sion recipes for rat poisoning and pack
ages of rat poison came daily. The let
ter writers are often impertinent. They
advise Mrs. Harrison not to sign her
name as Carrie, not to bang her hair,
and not to become worldly minded. The
petitions for autographs are equal to the
craZy-quilt appeals. Anxious mothers
ask her to make out list of books that
she would advise a young girl to read.
Another mother wrote that her promis-
ing young son had dreamed that Mrs.
Harrison had sent him violin. The So
luton of the dream was in the post
dreams coming true by giving full di-
rections for sending an express package
to their country cross roads. Boxes of
home made candy, and cakes, pickles,
and preserves are sent, requesting orders
for the White House table and an opinion
of their merits. A prize letter came
from the South at the time of the holi-
days, and when deciphered read:
"Pres. Mrs. Benjamin Harrison:
al AM very DESTROYS to get a New
Years present from Washington city and
CONSEQUENTLY have located on you for the
present, as [ give all the aid l could to
give Mr.. Harrison the president office.
My son, --, cast his first and only
vote for Harrison through my influence
and many, many others, and now a
New Years keepsake from you will be
highly appreciated. II you respond to
my desire please do not express it as
have vowed never to pay express again
unless 1 could get to see what 1 pay for.
So pay the express when you ship the
present SO that will not have to brake
my vow. A dress pattern, or anything.
''Yore true friend,
MRS. G. W. --.D
The women of some association or club
will write in a testimonial to Mrs. Rar-
ment goes from the White House, dis
cord and disunion has risen in the sis
terhood, and each faction writes her
their version of how things stand, and
berate one another warmly. ''She
ought never to have held the offce,'
wrote one club member of another.
''She has no social position, as her hus-
band is only a letter. carrier. - There
was fine bit Of Democracy and q fine
thing to send to the mansion of the chief
OF the land of the free, of liberty ard
equality! OF course four-ffths of Mrs.
HsrTison's mail goes straight to the
waste basket, and not all OF it even
meets her eye, as those who attend to
her mail know the signs of a crank in
tuitively. With the flood of such rub
bish coming daily, it has to be an excep-
tIonal bit, a gem of crankery, that is
saved for Mrs. Harrison 8 eccentric
file'' of letters.
Whatever the occupants of the White
House have done In this and in past sd-
ministrations, there is sure to be adverse
criticism. The same people, too, who
had so much fault to find when President