The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-02-19
WHITE HOUSE HABIfS.
how Presidents Care for What is Said
About Them in Newspapers.

Row Presidents Care for What is Said
About Them in Newspapers.
From the NeD Orleans Picayune.
Although occupying q position of the
highest dignity and Importance, the Presi-
dents of the United States have never been
above feeling wholesome interest ia what
their fellow citizens thought and said about
them. No President, down to Andrew
Johnson's time. however. is known to have
Systematically kept record of the COM
ments passed by the press upon his admin
instration. Mr.. johnson used to laT aside
those newspapers in which he .found
anything that particularly caught
his fancy, whether complimentary
or otherwise, and, when he
had accumulated enough to make q volume
of considerable size, have them bound TO-
gether. He also regarded the whole litera-
ture of his office. SO to speak, as his personal
property. When he left the white house he
caused all the papers he had collected
printed and written, bound and unbound,
public and private in character, including
letters, dispatches, memoranda, messages,
proclamations and everything else which
could be Of the slightest use for political or
historical purposes to be bundled into
wagons and carried off, no one knows
whittier. 1t is presumed that he had
in view a literary work of some
magnitude, consisting chiefly OF q
defense of his administration, and that he
gathered up these data on account of their
value as original sources of information:
but the effect of his action has been to put
historians of his era to incalculable trouble
and annoyance, and to confine their re-
searches almost wholly TO departmental
records and the old newspaper files stored
here and there in libraries. So thoroughly
did he carry out his plan that when Presi-
dent Grant came into the white house there
was not a scrap of paper the size Of a cop
per cent TO be found in any desk or cup
board or drawer in the building.
Grant had q different practice. He did
not care great deal about the "cross
roads" press, but he had more or less regard
for public sentiment in the populous centers,
as reflected in the few newspapers of high
standing, east, west and south, and especi-
ally in New York city. Their editorial
leaders we're cut out by his orders and laid
on his desk every day. After thus much Of
tribute to the authority OF journalism his
mind would often feel so relieved that he
would not give the matter another thought.
and the pile of clippings would be swept off
and carried away in the waste-bRsket I'M
read. At other times he would glance them
over TO see what acts of his administration
these pesky editors had found to pick flaws in
that day. On still other occasions, buttheSe
most rare, he would carefully read through
the whole lot, and take enough interest in
their statements to make some inquiries Of
his subordinates concerning affairs men-
toned in them. 1t lie believed that his habit
of commonly ignoring the newspapers and
making up his mind Tor himself was largely
the cause of the fact that so many of the
conspiracies against the good repute of bis
administration reached giant proportions
before attracting his attention-the friendly
warnings uttered by the press passing by
him unnoticed till too late to check the
growth of q scandal.
1t was Hayes who first introduced into
the white house the scrap books as we ind
them there to-day. He did not care for
general discussions of the state OF the coun-
try but he wanted every little scrap or
item. either news or editorial, which re-
ferred to him or Mrs. Hayes. When be
retired from office be had to hire men by
the day to box up his treasures and ship
them to Fremont Unless he has since de-
stroyed them he has, perhaps all told, the
most remarkable collection OF personal
memorabilia that was ever got together by
any one in American public life.
President Garfleld's term in office was SO
short that be had hardly time TO develop
any definite plan for the preservation OF the
history Of his administration or the popu'