Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-10
TllllllillllI

llAlTu1 around him. Pres
E- ident Harrison j:
llIl1l1ailNb guarded by messen
gers and secreta
ries at every point and every Cabinet Min
lister has a messenger sitting before the
front door of his Office and secretary oil
two through whose hands the visitors have
to pass before they get to the greet 81 Am
within.
1t is the same with regard to letters as If
is with persons. These men receive thou
sands of letters month and these all have
TO pass the argus eve Of the private secre-
tary. If they are important they reach
him. If they are foolish, cranks or impu-
dent they are consigned to the waste basket.
President Harrison's mail contains at least
800 letters every day, or more than 1000 a
week and over 100, 900 a year.
Distributing the Presidents z-ail.
If he answered these letters himself it
would take all his time merely to read them
and to dictate replies, and the result is the
mail is weeded out again and again before
it reaches him and only the really import
ant matters are called 10 his attention.
These letters are brought to the White
House by special messenger They are
first given into the hands of the executive
clerk, Mr.. E T. Tibbott, who opens them
with a steel paper-cutter and rapidly reads
their contents. As lie goes over letter he
passes upon iUs importance and decides its
fate as far as its probable future is con-
cernei.
II it is a request 10 President Harrison to
look up pension case he marks the word
pensions upon it and it goes to the Pen
sion Office. If it affects Treasury claim it
goes TO the Treasury Department, and if it
is a request for an autograph or money it is
dropped into the wastebasket. The i'm
portant letters are laid aside and are carried
into Mr.. Halfcrd, the Presidents private
secretary, who uses his hoe on the epistolary
garden and cuts out all letters but those
which the President must see.
Harrison Sees but Half His Nail.
By the time the mail gets to the Presi-
dent, it has been cut down q half or two
thirds, and he rapidly disposes of the bal
ance by dictation. Mr.. Tibbott is his con-
fidential stenographer, and he goes to the
Presidents room from time to time during
the day when Mr.. Harrison is at leisure
and takes his answers to his mail He tells
me the President dictates very rapidly,
rarely changing q word or a sentence, and
that he rapidly looks over his letters after
they are presented 20 him in typewriting
and signs them himself
The begging letters which come to the
White House are numbered bv hundreds
every week. The come from all. parts of
the country, ard number are received
every day from foreign lands The major
NJ 3 la j
States are from foreigners and fhe only
ones OF any account that come from native
Americans are appeals for aid from churches
and charity organizations Some of these
begging letters are full of pathos, ard
the majority of them are from
poor and ignorant people. The Prcsi-
dent is addressed III all sorts OF ways. His
correspondents call him "His Higness,"
"His Excellencv," "Mr. Ben Harrison"
''The Hon. Ben Harrison" "His Godhead.
the President and the letters are full of
the rudest Of spelling and writing. About
half of the envelopes are marked Private
Personal, or Fer the President only"
and some cf them are SEM in care Of Pri-
vate Secretary 8alford.
Use 5Irs. Harrison as Medium.
a large number are sent in care Of Mrs.
Harrison, or are enclosed in envelopes adj
dressed 10 Mrs. Harrison with a note that
size present them to the President, and all
sorts OF pious dodges are resorted to to get
the Presidents eve The worst of all are
the autograph iends. Boys and girls, men
and women all over the country when they
start collection write, telling the President
they want his name first in their book, and
they send cards Tor him on which they ask
him to put his autograph. They want pres
ents OF his photograph, locks of his hair
a nd Of Efr, a
crazy quilts
There is one Ohio man who has written
regularly for something OF this kind every
week since the President was nominated.
The day after the convention he wrote for
two photographs pretending they were for
Harrison Club in his town. They were sent
and week or so later the man wrote that
they must have been lost in the mails and
asking FOR more. Other lodges were
attempted as to other things and the man is
probably an autograph peddler as well as an
autograph collector None of these auto
graph letters are responded to, though some
begging letters, and letters On business of
various kinds, receive an answer signed by
one OF the Presidents secretaries stating
ohat has been done with them.
A Western Girls Winning Plan.
Some of the letters received by the Presi-
dent are very iunny and some are so witty
that they command an answer in spite of
the demon of the waste basket. This was
the case with letter from young Western
girl last week VINO wrote her screed in
poetry and asked for something that the
President had worn, for patch in crazy
Quilt 10 be sold at church fair. Her letter
fell into the hands of one of the young
ladies connected with the White House and
she was so much amused by 1t that she got
neck-tie of the Presidents and sent it to the
girl. The letter is so clever that give the
first stanza verbatim. 1t reads:
NY dear Mr.. Harrison,
know it's shame
To bother you now
But I'm not to blame;
At least not so much
For Jack is tile one
Who first put me up |
To the thing have done.
He told me last night |
IT'D make for the fair |
A crazy patch guilt |
And put in q square |
or something tlat Harrison !