The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-08-16

| ana employed q new COacnInan In MS
place. Naturally the fall has nearly
broken the old mans heart Hawkins re-
tires from his Office with much bitter
ness of heart and many interesting rec
objections of the White House and its
occupants. The trouble is to induce him
to talk
There IS not a newspaper man in
| Washington who does not know from
actual test how well Hawkins can hold
| his tongue. During the twenty-five
! years of his service In the White House
stables he has been besought many
thousand of times to give up bits of in
formation, apparently trivial in them
selves, but of prime Importance to the
chronichng craft. He has always re-
| fused. 1t has been said of Hawkins that
his own coach horses could not pull a
word from his lips concerning the move
ments or habits Of his employers. He
habituslly drew his lips as tightly as he
! did his lines, and thus drove calmly
! through twenty-five years of rough
roads. Hawkins is a large, coal black
man, whose hair is now silvered. He is
a positive character, strong in his likes
! and dishkes, possessed of fancies and
hatreds amounting almost to supersti-
tons. Mrs Cleveland was the apple Of
| his eye. To this day he is prone to talk
Of her sweetness, Of her beauty, of her
| kindness. He shed tears when she left
the White House, Republican though he
is, and it was the mention of Mrs. Cleve-
land that loosened the old mans tongue
"Ah," he exclaimed, ''that was wo-
man of million. That was the sweet
est woman that ever entered the White
House in my day. I shall never forget
| dear, sweet Mrs. Cleveland. She
All things earthly, even such honest
rhapsodies, must come to an end, and so
1 interrupted Hawkins with an inquiry
concerning his first days as the presi-
Dental COachm2n.
1T has been said of me-" replied the
dethroned whip, that 1 was in the
army with Gen. Grant, and that he
brought me to Washington as his coach
man. That is not true I did not enter
the service of the general till after he
was elected president. Gen. Grant was
the greatest lover Of fine horses we have
had in the White House in my day. He
liked a spirited horse, one that was fond
of plunging and rearing and of pulling
the carriage along by the bits. How my
arms used to ache driving the generals
fRvorite span over the country roads.
He never wanted to go slow, no matter
what the roads were. Often l used to
pull up On the hills and dangerous
places, but Gen. Grant would sing ont
to me. LET 'e-n go, Hawkins; they won't
hurt themselves" And so I let 'em go,
sometimes, it seemed TO me, at the risk
Of killing everybody behind them. But
Gen. Grant wouldn't let a horse of his
be abused. He wanted them driven
like the wind, but only for short time,
and then he wanted them taken care Of
like babies. | never in all my life saw
such particular nan as he was about
the care of horses, and. it wasn't easy to
fool him. either. Eo used TO come down
to the stables when he wasn't expected
and take look at things. and he knew
when the boys had done what was right
and when they hadn't. Hgwas power
full handy man to have about in case of
sickness in the stable, too.
1T has always appeared to me-" con-
tinued Hawkins, that people didn't
know Gen. Grant. For instance, don't
believe IT was generally known that the
general was so gentle and kind and so
hated to have any bother that the White
House was ruled by Mrs. Grant as with
a rod of iron. She managed everything,
and the general, along with ell the other
folks, gave waysto her. Mrs. Grant was
easily angered and when in passion
was regular whirIwind, but the storm
soon blew over, and then she was as
sweet as she could be. She seemed 20
be sorry for something she had said
while angry, and for week or two she
would actually be so meek in the pres
ence of the servants that they talked
about it And then, when they were
just ready TO imagine that they could do
as they pleased, she would flare up and
make their heads swim. Nellie Grant
was a sweet girl, enough like Mrs.
Cleveland to be her sister, and it made
me sick when she married that English
man. That was all Mrs. Grants doings.
The general was opposed TO it from
the first, and he was mighty badly hurt
over ii, can tell you. Ii it had been
anybody but Mrs. Grant that ne had TO
deal with on that occasion the wedding
never would have come OF Mrs. Grant
was the only person in the world that
could induce the general TO change his
mind after he had once made 1t up. she
ruled him completely. But she was a
splendid woman. anu we al liked her.
There was change when the Hayeses
came In. We had no more fine horses.
Mrs. Hayes was very popular among the
servants, but for some reason we did
not care much for Mr. Hayes. The
Grants seemed to be in the White House
for the fun there was in 1t. while the
HayeSes were more serious. President
Hayes did not care snap about horses /
and rarely rode out. 1t always seemed |
10 ne that he was averse to being seen |
in pubic. y crowd made him decided
ly uncomfortable.
"Pce>iJ2lt Ga-Eeld vas "a whole