The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-06-01
THE PRESIDENT AND THE PEOPLE.

IHE PRESIDENT AND II PEOPLE.
The President is back in Washington
from his Rochester trip. the journey
having been concluded without the
least unpleasant incident. There is
nothing which President Harrison en-
joys more in the occasional trips he
makes from Washington than coming in
contact with the people, with men and
women who are glad to take him by the
hand and wish him well without any
selfish motive. More than Once he has
referred in his speeches to the relief he
experiences in getting, for a little while,
out of the official and artificial atmOs-
phere of Washington and looking. into
the faces and eyes of people who are
full of honest, good feeling, who have
experienced no political disappOint-
ments, and who have no official favors
to ask. This man, who is charged with
being cold and unsympathetic and de-
void of personal magnetism" actually
CLOVIS with good feeling when he gets
out of Washington and IN in con-
tact with crowds of people who under
stand him as ne is and appreciate him
for what he is worth and not for the OIL
cial favors he can dispense. The
try knows by this time that President
Harrison is a man of rare intellect, but
it has not yet fully learned that he also
possesses a great heart, full of generous
impulses and warm emotions towards
every worthy cause and individual.
1t would be claiming too much to say
that the large crowds which everywhere
greeted the Presidents train during the
trip just closed and the immense con-
curse of people at Rochester wero
wholly and exclusively q personal Ova-
ton to him. Something must be al
lowed to the natural curiosity of all
classes to sec "a. live President" and
something also to the disposition of
many to shOw their respect to the chief
magistrate of the Nation, irrespective
of politics. And yet it was very appar-
ent that these ~outpOurings of the people
did partake in q very large degree of
the nature of n personal tribute to Pres
AuOib AAoAA Az pOpptO
wanted not only to see him, but to get
near him and to hear him say something
which they might regard as q personal
message. There is no part of this
great Republic where the Presidents
fame as an orator has not gone,
and wherever he goes the people
want to hear him speak. The peculiar
ity of his speeches is hat no matter
how commonplace his theme, he always
dignifes it, always says something
felicitOus, and never makes O bad break.
His alertness of thought and his quick
ness at utilizing passing incidents were
shown by the use he made of some ones
remark concerning the Susquehanna
river, that the Creator did not make
everything for commercial uses alone,
and by the readiness with which he used
the blunder of some one who introduced
him as William Henry Harrison to tell a
bright anecdote with a personal applica-
ton. And so wherever he went the
people pressed near to him and he got
near the people. AT Rochester. although
he had requested that he might be per-
mitted to attend church as quietly as
possible. and walked thither with only
a few friends, the entire congregation
rose when he entered, and hardly
restrained themselves from breaking
into applause. There is no mistaking
the meaning of these demonstrations,
and it is idle to attempt to undervalue
them. They mean that President Har-
rison has a very strong hold on the peo-
pie. that he possesses their confidence,
their respect and their admiration in a
very high degree, and that they would
gladly see him continued as President
four years longer. If the question of
his denomination were left to the rank
and file of the Republican party the
anti Harrison schemers would not be in
1t at all. And We do not think they are,
any way.