The Portland daily press., 1892-04-02
WASHINGTON GOSSIP.
Everybody in the Capital is Talking
Of Presidential Timber.
Harrison Is Not Talked of So Much as
He Was a Year or Two Ago-Senator
Hill Receives Much Attention-Stories
of Palmer and German.

he w as a ear OF Two A{sO-ScudtUE
Hill Receives Much Attention-stories
of Palmer and German.
Especial Correspondence
WASHINGTON, March 31.-Here at the
tapital we don't talk Of much save the
coming presidential election. We have
so many candidates right here under
our eyes that we naturally find ourselves
dissecting them. We carve up their
mental parts, place their characters
under a microscope and put newspaper
detectives on their past. They are an
interesting lot of men, these presiden-
tial possibilities. There is General Har-
rison, the man of the White House
We don't hear as much of him as we
did year or two ago. Then he was
new and fresh; now he is an old story.
President Harrison is not a man Of
whom much gossip is tittle-tattled.
There is not much color in him. His
daily life is as commonplace as that Of
any private citizen. He neither makes
brilliant remarks nor does queer things.
We used to have gossip about Grant and
Arthur and even Hayes. But Harrison
runs along on the dead level Of plainness
and evenness. It is not the common
place, however.
Here in Washington we have all
agreed Republicans, Democrats, Farm
ers' Alliance and Mugwumps-that Cen
eral Harrison is a remarkable man. He
has the most acute powers Of mental
ANALYSIS seen in the White House since
Lincoln. He reads men as well as
things. His lawyers habit Of taking up
any given case, studying it in principle
and detail, uncovering the secrets and
sophistries in which it is enveloped,
stands him in good stead now. Witness
his messages to congress, his diplomatic
papers in the Chilian and Behring sea
matters. There are some things about
Harrison which even his friends don't
like, and he has qualities which even
his political enemies greatly admire.
Probably the candidate most talked
about just now is Senator Hill. We are
just beginning to know him in Wash
ington. The governor rather startled us
when he came down here. His frank
discussion of his chances to be president,
his talk of the means and the methods
by which he, hoped to win the nomina-
ton, was something new here. where
we have had hundreds of presidential
aspirants, every one of whom subscribed
to the old fiction that the Office must
seek the man, etc. At the capital we
have become accustomed to the little de-
ception practiced in the interest Of dig
nifty by men who were spending their
days and nights scheming for the presi-
dency, and yet pretending to know moth
ing whatever about it. Governor Hill
doesn't believe in that sort of thing, and
he was not long in letting every one
know it.
Some Of the grave and reverend sena-
tors were 80 shocked by Mr.. Hills
bluntness that they have not as yet re-
covered; and merely state fact ap-
parent to us all when say that the new
senator from New York is not popular
among his colleagues in the north end
of the Capitol. He doesn't appear to
mind that any more than he does their
Struggling shoulders when he tells them
how he is going to win the presidency.
In all his methods of work Senator
Hill is businesslike. He IL regular,
punctual. methodical, orderly in every
thing he does. He has magnificent par
lors at the Arlington, the finest hotel in
Washington, where lie is surrounded by
clerks and friends His rooms are open
to all callers. No man is more ap-
proachable than Senator Hill. He has
a way of making every one with whom
he talks feel that the conversation has
been of a specially confidential char
acter. The caller nlarvels at the frank
ness Of the man, but when he goes away
and thinks over what has been said he
finds it is not of any great Importance
after all. At precisely 11.30 every day
Senator Hill starts for the Capitol. At
$50 precisely he leaves the Capitol for
his hotel. He breakfasts, lunches and
dimes punctually at certain hours, and
always-nearly always-retires at sharp
midnight.
regret to say that Senator Hill does
not like women. The manner in which
he shuns the society of the fair sex is so
obvious as to cause much remark.
When the senator first came to Wash
ington some of cur newspaper CORE
spondents played a joke on him. They
took tho head waiter of the Arlington
one side, whispered in his ear that Sen
ator Hill was great admirer of comely
women, and that it would doubtless be
many a five dollar bill in the head
walters pocket if he would seat the
pretty women near the senator's table.
The head waiter was not long in acting
on this suggestion. At the very next
meal Governor Hill was surprised to
find himself surrounded by pretty young
married women and blusEing brides, OF
whom there is always great plenty at
Washington hotels.
All of these interesting creatures
soon knew who their neighbor was, and
they watched him with so much interest
that it was difficult to say where the
greatest number Of bushes was-on the
fair cheeks of the brides OF in the pale
face Of Senator Hill. The governor erl-
dured this torture-for torture it obvi-
ously was-for just two weeks. Then
he gave the head waiter ten dollars to