Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-14
HARRISON WORN OUT.
The President Was Sadly in Need Of
the Outing at Cresson.
NO HOD-CARRIER WORKS HARDER.
Constant Pressure Under Which His Duties
are Performed.
THE SIX ATHLETIC BODY GUARDS
rconRrspoNpENcr OF THE DISPATCH.

CREssoN SPRINGS, September 13-
President Harrison is here to find rest. He
is a tired, indeed an almost worn-out man,
and high in the mountains he hoped to
escape the terrible nervous strain of his
office. But 60 where he will the cares of
position cling to him still.
Mr.. Arthur attempted to get away from
them by exiling himself to the Yellowstone
Park; but even there he was beset to the
point of distraction by reporters and tourists
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 sought refuge
for his honeymoon at Deer Park, but the
boundaries of his dwelling place were pa
trolled by news gatherers. eager to send re-
ports to all parts of the United States as to
the most minute particulars of his behavior
as new bridegroom. II he had permitted
himself to indulge in lovers endearment
toward his bride outside of closed walls,
telegraph accounts of the manner in which
the endearment was administered would
have appeared the next morning.
CAPTIVE IN A CAGE.
His first month of matrimony, sacred for
all other people, was spent in cage, as it
were, through the bars of which the entire
American people was curiously gazing.
When he soughtrefuge in the Businesses of
the Adirondacks, reporters swarmed in his
neighborhood 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 wiie's affairs were considered to be as
legitimately open to newspaper scrutiny as
his own. Was she not, forsoothl the wife of
the President? She could not buy dozen
handkerchiefs without gossip for the benefit
o! 60, 900, 900 people, nor could she decline
to shake hands with her husbands open
enemy without occasioning q scandal OF ma
tional proportions.
President Harrison has fairly surren-
dered. He has not tried to escape from his
official cage. The Park Cottage is merely
place to which he is permitted to transfer
his official cares. For you see that the
President is a man from whom all things
emanate and in whom all things center, so
tar as the government of this great people
is concerned. He never has any time to
suck molasses candy, and never was known
to swing on gate.
hAhDEh EdAN a hOJl OAhn1Ehs
1t is no wonder that Mr.. Harrison is tired.
No hod-carrier works nearly so hard as the
President of the United States. Save posi-
bly, the New York street car driver, whose
day of service covers 16 hours, no man Ia
bors so long and has so little time to become
acquainted with his family Not one mo-
ment does the President get for himself, ex-
cept when he is asleep, and even then he
keeps on toiling, as the hunter-dog con-
tinues to hunt in his dreams. He is pub
lie man in degree that no other citizen is
He has no privacy nor any private relations;
not 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 government
permitting him merely to occupy few
rooms in 1t for living purposes.
Take for example his legitimate official
work. To begin with. all the departments
OF the government are engaged in preparing
matters for him to determine. The Secre-
taries OF War, the Navy, the Interior, State,
Agriculture and the others, all come TO Mr..
Harrison whenever anything in the execu-
tive way is to be done.
INCREASING EVERY YEAR.
All matters that come up in Congress
reach him sooner or later for his considera-
the voters in this country regard him as a
last resource for advice. Thousands of
private letters. on every conceivable subject,
reach him each week from all parts of the
United States. How much time does he
have left for the routine of his official duties?
The duties of the Presidents office have in
creased every year. Each year new laws
are made, which are referred to him Tor ex-
ecution, and Congress never has the slight
est 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 President yet who has
not gained avoirdupois during his incum-
bency at the White House. The next hard
est workers after the President, are the
Judges of the Supreme Court, whose longev-
ity and hardness have become proverbial.
All OF which goes to show that the men
who are elected Presidents of the United
States are not as has been often alleged,
very ordinary men.
THE MORNING DUTIES.
Take, for example, an ordinary working
day of the President of the United States.
He breakfasts a little before 9 o'clock.
Sometimes he goes direct from his bed to
his working table; but we will suppose that
he allows himself morning meal before
starting to toll. On his workable he finds
a colossal mail, which is merely a selection
from the letters which have come in. Before
this time the mail has been delivered to his
private secretary. The private secretary OF
a President of the United States is never an
ordinary secretary. He must always be
man whom the President has known for
vears-so intimately, in fact, that the Presi-
dents most private and personal matters
dairo rncta ha Intr tad 10
knowledge and conduct.
Elijah Halford takes the letters as they
come in 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, per-
haps finding 20 among them that need the
Presidents immediate and personal atten-
ton. In this way the mail is so disposed of
that the President neither sees nor bothers
with the mass OF it.
HIS FIRST CALLERS.
The President manages with great hurry
to get through the perusal of his important
and private letters before 10 o'clock, realiz-
ing all the time that members of Congress
are coming in and awaiting an audience in
the ante chamber. There is not one of these
Senators and Representatives who has not
matters of more or less importance to dis
cuss, and the same remark applies to many
other callers at that hour, who are nearly all
men of prominence, who come from all parts
of the country, and who mostly have in
charge matters requiring immediate and
serious consideration, implying his express
assent or dissent.
While seeing all these men and trying to
remember what each one has said to him,
Mr.. Harrison is having all the time thrust
under his nose documents which must be
signed at once. And here he stays, UNDER
going the ordeal, until, three days in the
xaeE he is -ahlioed to 90 down stairs a md.