The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-08-11
HAWKINS REIGN ENDED.
After twenty-five Years a New
white House Coachman.
Correspondence of the Press.l

WASHINGTON, Aug. IAN unhappy
man is Albert Hawkins, colored; and no
wonder, for he has lost throne. Twenty
two years, has Hawkins sat supreme upon
the box of the White House carriage.
and he had long ago concluded he was
thus seated for life But for some reason
Mrs. Harrison has let the old man go,
and employed new coachman 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 troubles 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
chronicling 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
habitually 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 dislikes, 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. l shall never forget
dear, sweet Mrs. Cleveland. She"-
All things earthly, even such honest
rhapsodies, must come to an end, and SO
/ interrupted Hawkins with an inquiry
concerning his first days as the presi-
Dental coachman.
''It has been said of me" replied the
dethroned whip, "that l was in the
army with Gen. Grant, and that he
brought me to Washington as his coach
man. That is not true. 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 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
favorite span over the country roads.
He never wanted to go slow, no matter
what the roads. were. Often / used to
pull up on the hills and dangerous
places, but Gen. Grant would sing out
to me, ''Let em go, Hawkins; they won't
hurt themselves" And SO let 'em go,
sometimes, it seemed to me, at the risk
of killing everybody behind them. But
Gen. Grant wouldn't let 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. l never in all my life saw
such a particular man as he was about
the care of horses, and it wasn't easy to
fool him, either. He used to comedown
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. He was a power
full handy man to have about in case Of
sickness in the stable, too.
'It 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 all the other
folks, gave way to her. Mrs. Grant was
easily angered and when in passion
was regular whirlwind, but the storm
soon blew over, and then she was as
sweet as she could be. She seemed to
be sorry for something she had said
while angry, and for a 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 ster, 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
I III bo6
anybody but Mrs. Grant that he had to
deal with on that occasion the wedding
never would have come off. Mrs. Grant
was the only person in the world that
could induce the general to change his
mind after he had once made it up. She
ruled hin completely. But she was
splendid woman. and we all 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 it, while the
Hayeses were more serious. President
Hayes did not care snap about horses
and rarely rode out. 1t always seemed
to me that he was averse to being seen
in public. A crowd made him decided
ly uncomfortable.
President Garfield was whole
souled, hearty sort of man, good natured
and easy to approach. The family was
well ordered one, and inclined to have
some enjoyment out of life, though the
boys were not half so wild as the Grant
boys WERE Miss Mollie Garfield was
the pet of the White House during the
stay of her parents, and we were all very
fond Of her, though remember that we
had good deal of pity for her too, as
she seemed all the time to be struggling
along under a load of parental restraint.
Once in while she got over the traces
and showed us that she had spirit, and
a right lively one at that. I shall never
forget the morning President Garfield
was shot. had driven him and Secre-
tary Blaine TO the station, and they had
not been out of the carriage more than
twenty seconds when I heard the report
of the pistol. Though at that time did
not know what had happened, felt that
something had gone wrong with the
president In five minutes-it couldn't
have been longer-there were 10000 peo-
pie about that station. 1t seemed the
whole of Washington had suddenly gath
cred at Pennsylvania avenue, and the
crowd was so dense that it was all l
coulo to force my horses through the