Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-10-11
THE PRESIDENTS DUTIES.
MIR. HARRISON THE HARDEsT-w0RKED
MAN IN THE COUNTRY.
Incessant Labor from Breakfast to Bed
time-What He Does in One Day
Pursued by Cranks.
Tst. Louis Globe-Demoerat.l

he President of the United States. Save
possibly, the New York City street-car
driver. whose day of service covers sixteen
hours. no man labors SO long and has SC
little time to become acquainted with his
family. Not one moment does the Presi,
dent get for himself, except when he is
asleep. and even then he keeps on toiling
as the hunter-dog continues to toll in his
dreams. He is public man in a degree
that no other citizen is. He has no pri.
vacy nor any private relaxation; not a
moment does he have to himself in
his personal capacity. Even his house
called the Executive Mansion, is nearly
all OF it an Office, the courtesy of the Gov
eminent permitting him to occupy a few
rooms in it for living purposes-so few, in
fact, that each Presidents wife complains
that she is situated, domestically speaking
as if she were in small fiat, restricted as
to her household quarters by the encroach-
ment of an ever-present shop.
Even when the President takes a vaca-
ton the shop follows him and his family
Mr.. Arthur attempted to get away from it
by exiting himself TO the Yellowstone
Park. but even there he was beset to the
point of destruction by reporters and tour
lists IN eager search of Presidents and other
curiosities. Even the fish he caught
seemed to know that he was catching them
in an official capacity.
CLEvELAND's HONEYMOON.
Cleveland sought refuge for his honey
moon in Deer Park, but the boundaries OF
his dwelling place were patrolled by news
gatherers, eager to send reports to all parts
of the United States giving the most minute
particulars as to his behavior as new
bridegroom. If he had permitted himself
to indulge in lovers endearment toward
his wife, outside of closed walls, Geographic
accounts of the manner in which the en-
dearment was administered would have APP
peared by Associated Press the next morn
ing. His first month of matrimony, sacred
for all other people, was spent In a cage, as
it were, through the bars of which the en-
tire American people were curiously gaz-
ing. When he sought refuge in the Adj.
rondacks reporters swarmed in his neigh
borhood as thick as the flies for which that
region is famous, with special wires to the
metropolis, whence the news of his latest
movement was distributed. Furthermore
his wife's affairs were considered to be as
legitimately open to newspaper scrutiny as
his own. Was she not, forsooth, the wife
of the President? She could not buy a
dozen handkerchiefs without gossip for the
benefit of 6e,000,000 people, nor could she
decline to shake hands with her husbands
open enemy without occasioning scandal
of national proportions.
President Harrison has fairly surren-
dered. He has not tried to escape from
his official cage. His Cape May cottage is
merely place to which he is permitted to
transfer his official cares. For you see
that the President is man from whom all
things emanate, and in whom all things
center, so far as the government of this
great people is concerned. He never has
any time to suck molasses candy, and was
never known to swing on a gate.
THE PRESIDENTS DUTIES.
Take, for example, his legitimate Official
work. To begin with, all the Department.
of the Government are engaged in prepar
ing matters for him to determine The
Secretaries Of War, the Navy, the Interior
State, Agriculture and the others, all come
to Mr. Harrison whenever anything i'm
portant in the executive way is to be done
All matters that come up in Congress
reach him, sooner or later, for his consider
alton and decision, and even on private
affairs the voters in this country regard
him as last resource for advice. Thou
sands of private letters on every conceiv
able subject reach him each week from al
parts OF the United States. How much
time does he have left for the routine O.
his official duties?
The duties of the Presidents office have
increased every year. Each year new
laws are made which are referred to him
for execution, and Congress never has the
slightest hesitation in putting additional
burdens on the Chief Executive. Funnily
enough, the President, whoever he may
be, always grows fat at his work; there has
not been a Presidents yet who has not
gained avoirdupois during his incumbency
at the White House. The next hardest
workers, after the President, are the
Judges of the Supreme Court, whose
longevity and hardness have become pro-
verbal. All of which goes to show that
the men who are elected Presidents of the
United States are not, as has been so often
alleged, very ordinary men.
Take, for example, an ordinary working
day Of the President of the United States
He breakfasts little before O'clock
Sometimes he goes direct from his bed to
his working table; but we will suppose
that he allows himself morning before
starting in to toll. On his workable he
finds his mail, which is merely selection
from the letters which have come in. Be-
fore this time the mail has been delivered
to his private secretary. The private
secretary of President of the United
States is never an ordinary secretary. He
must always be a man whom the President
has known for years-so intimately, in
fact, that the Presidents most private and
personal matters and circumstances may
be intrusted to his knowledge and conduct.
Thus we find Mr. Harrison employing as
his private secretary his old friend and
comrade, Elijah Halford, to whom he is
enabled to confide everything without re-
serve.
ELIJAH SORTS THE MAIL.
Elijah takes the letters as they come IN
the morning and sorts them over; they
are many hundreds in number. A few he
will recognize as private notes, and these
he will set aside All the rest he opens,
perhaps finding twenty among them that
need the Presidents immediate and per-
sonal attention. The letters Of this sort
and the private notes he places on the
Presidents desk, turning over all the rest
to the assistant private secretary, Mr..
Prudeu, who sees that they are properly
disposed of. Most of them, relating to
matters which may be referred to various
departments of the Government, are sent
to the different secretaries in charge of
those departments. Many of the letters
will be from cranks, and are thrown into
the waste-p paper basket. In this way such
epistolary matters are so disposed of that