The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-04-12
THE TOURIST SWINE.
How They Make Life : Burden
to the President.
4 STORY OF Mr.. HARRISON,
Mrs. Cleveland's Communien Cap and
washingtsn City sighssesss-Lacky
Literary Men II the Capital.


wAsHIxGro. Crrr. April Especial
Correspondence - Washington City is
now swarming with tourists, and the great
American hog and the great American
boor IS At large on our wide streets and
avenues. He has brought his wife and
children with him and the famous cour-
tesy Of the national capital is tried TO its
utmost The American hog among tour
lists Is no respecter of persons He has
crowded into the funeral asse1nbIages Of
the noted men who have died recently,
and has pressed himself even up to the
collins of the deceased. He goes to
churches to see the great men who attend
them and President Harrison's church has
been thronged Sunday after Sunday with
his kind in drovcs. These men and women
come into the church and at once begin to
crane their necks and ask questions as to
where the president sits, and whe-
Their he comes regularly. They. are
anxious to get near him, and
after church is over they rush around
to the side door out of which he usually
goes when he returns 20 the White House.
and stare and criticize his personal appear
ance as though he were prize hog at
county fair. President Harrison is very
fond of walking. lie generally comes to
church on foot with springing step. and
IN going home he sometimes walks around
in order to increase his constitution. Last
Sunday he walked home alone, and saw
him as he was going at a rapid pace up
Massachusetts avenue towards Thomas
Circle About block in the rear Of him
noticed party whom at once sized up
as fair specimens of our tourist hog.
There was great, big. long-whiskered Jay
at the head of them, who, with very long
legs, was making very long strides to
shorten the distance which lay between
him aud the president. Behind him, and
tagging on to his coat tail, was q very thin.
and very fat and dumpy woman. who
evidently belonged to the very long man.
Those were also on a fast walk. but the
president seemed to walk faster than
they did, and they gained but little. As
the president got TO Thomas Circle
the long man turned TO the short woman.
said word, and then broke into a run.
He soon got up to the president. and nut
ting his hand on his shoulder caused him
to stop and turn around. The president
was surprised and / was near enough to
hear the man say that he was from Him
ois and had come to see Washington and
he wanted to see the president. Upon this
he stuck out his hand, and the president.
with the nearest approach to q scowl /
have yet seen on his face, reached out his
gioved hand and took it. The man
grasped it with the grip of John L. Sulli-
van. The president attempted to release
IT but the man stuck and said that he
wanted the president to see his wife and
daughter, and with the other hand he
beckoned violently to. the fat. dummy
woman, calling her Mary Jane and telling
her to hurry. By this time the women
had gotten up, both painting and out of
breath, and the man from Illinois pre-
sented them. The president said a few
words which could not hear, and then
bowed and went on. As he left. the man
and Mary Jane looked after him with open
mouths and delighted eyes, and they win.
I've no doubt, tell how the president
stopped them on the street and spoke 10
them.
PRESIDENTIAL CHURCH TRoUBLEs
This sort of boorishness seems to grow
worse and worse every year. It was such
that Arthur seldom went out except in a
carriage, and President Cleveland took
most OF his walks back of the White House
or In the country about Oak View. Mrs.
Cleveland was imposed upon wherever she
went. and both she and the president were
looked upon as free circus whenever thew
went to church. At one time q marty Of
tourists sat near them when the commune
ION was administered. and there was dis
gIaceInl STRIFE among them as to who
should get chance at the communion
cup after Mrs. Cleveland. Mrs Harrison.
even now, has to do much of her shoppiny
away from Washington City, and she goes
TO Baltimore to get away from the crowd.
II Is only upstairs in the White House
and at one end Of the second door that she
can have any seclusion whatever, and it is
aquestion as to whether we are not en-
tireiy too democratic. The president and
his wife should certainly be treated with
as much common decency as other Amer
leans.
SOME LUCKY LITERARY MES.
Speaking of George Kennan, he has
made \ fortune out of his Russian exper-
fences. He gets about $50, 900 for lecture
season, and his Investments in Washing.
ton real estate are growing in value. He
bought 5000 feet of ground on Sixteenth
street year ago, intending to build a
house on the lot, but he nnds that he must
be away from Washington so much that
lac has decided 10 wait. In the meantime
he has been offered an advance of about
5000 on his lot and 1t will soon double in
value.
The property that John Hay bought on
the corner o. Sixteenth street and Lafav.
cite park is worth twice what he paid for
it, and all Washington thought he was
wild when he bought il for 50 a square
foot. He has made at leas. half the
amount OF the presidents yearly salary
out of the increase in the value of the
ground. His biography of Lincoln is,
understand. selling well, and though he is
several times a millionaire, he is getting
considerable money from his pen. The
Hon. Aiasworth X. Spofford. the librarian
OF congress, bought house few wears
ago on Massachusetts avenue for, think.
SlS.o0e This house is worth $4,000 today.
Mrs. Burnett's home, for which she paid
sd, COO has increased about $40. 600 in value.
and Blaine. who may also be called q lit
erary man. has made a big thing out of
the house in which he Is now living.
When he rented il at the beginning of this
administration. &c was with the privilege
OF purchasing the property at the rate of
$40 per square foot. The ground has prac-
ticaily doubled in value, and he bought it
the other day, paying somewhere between
$4,000 and $4,000 for il. Lolita, the
actress, has been buying Washington CITY
property, and there are great many out
Ga 10 y,ssfs1fR Of fa,