Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-03-07
"THE INTERIOR OF THE SECRETARY"
Crude Ideas Of the Presidents ONCE Held
by Some Good Citizens.

Crude Ideas Of the Presidents Once Held
by Some Good Citizens.
TINE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Il gets pretty large mail every day, and it
is q most peculiar and diverse one, as STAR
reporter recently found out. Every American
citizen thinks he car make an individual I'm
preston upon tho chief magistrate by writing
to him rs though he was an old friend and
neighbor. Old soldiers call him 'Dear Gen
eraf' and recall instances that took place in the
war. Others mention that they met him dur
ing the presidential campaign, and as they shook
hands with him they have no doubt that he will
remember them. One man once cut the grass
in front of his house in indianapolis and thinks
fair compensation for the job would be a
place in one of the departments. Another has
called son after him and thinks this fact ri res
him right to lecture the President on matters
Of state. Many Of the Presidents letters are
from men who scorn to write to the different
heads of departments, but prefer to go to the
big boss direct. Some of the claimants for
pension think the President knows all about
each individual claim and they write and beg
him to give them a pension a. once. When
their letters are referred to a depart ment they
think it an outrage and they accuse the Presi-
dent OF being lazy man who won't take the
trouble TO 10 his duty They want to know
what they pay him for, anyhow.
The crude notions Of the far-of American
citizen as TO the Presidents Office would be
laughable. II they were not sad. The writer
was once travelling in Kansas and met laxative
hayseed on the train. 1t was just after Mr.
Harrison's Inauguration and the writer was
reading copy Of TIE STAR.
well, now. mister" said the Kansas man
who had taken in the heading of the news
paper. ''you must be from Washington, surely?'
Yes, come from Washington"
They've been havin' great time down there,
reckon, amt they?'
"Been putin Ben Harrison into the White
House, hey?"
''And who does the White House belong to,
1T belongs to the people. You and I have
Don't sesso! Well, now, and Harrison lives
there?"
"Yes, the President always lives there"
And say. stranger, there's Cleveland. He
war President; does he live there, too?"
This excellent citizen, who voted and paid
taxes, had an idea that the Presidents. past and
present, all lived in the White House The
Hayes family lived in one part. the CIevelands
in another and the Harrisons had been recently
squeezed fn-such was his impression. The
question OF what to do with our ex-Presidents
has always been Puzzling one. 1t would be
the Executive Mansion. The house is too
small for one family, as things are now, it is
true, but then the families might double up"
and it would be a charming thing to think Of
that two Presidents slept in the same bed.
correspondents that showed as much ignorance
as the Kansas man who thought the ex-Presi-
dents all lived in the White House. This man.
knowing nothing about the Indians, got ex-
cited about the Indian outbreak in the north
west and wrote to the President Offering his
advice and assistance in settling the difficulty.
His letter was referred to the Secretary of the
Interior and the writer was SO informed. He
hew into rage and wrote to .'B. Harrison.
esq" asking what he meant by not attending
to the letter himself. He thought il was an
outrage that he couldn't attend to his duties,
and above all things he couldn't see any sense
in the President of the United States referring
the communication of a sovereign citizen to
the interior Of the Secretary Verify this is
great and glorious kentryn'