St. Paul daily globe., 1892-03-12
DAILY HABITS.
An Early Riser and Strictly Tenn
perate in All Things.

Gov. Boies gets out of bed at his tenn
porary home in the Savery house, Des
Moines, early enough to breakfast at z
a. III. He sits at table in corner of
the hotel dining room. Seats are re-
served there for him and his daughter,
and others of their family or friends
who may be in town. Yet it may hap
pen that stranger who has just regis
tered may find a seat at that table.
The governor takes light breakfast
and, rain or shine, walks briskly to the
capitol on the hill. more than mile
away. He puts in ten hours of work at
the executive Office, breaking the day at
noon for midday dinner at the hotel.
Again he walks to and from the hotel
and by o. IN. is at his desk again. 1t is
a square-topped folding desk, and the
papers in it are in order. 1t stands out
from corner and the light falls over
his left shoulder. His private secre-
tary, Capt. c. D. Ham, a very capable
young man. a graduate OF Yale, 'S3. is
in an adjoining room with a stenog-
rapher. In another office is corps of
clerks. The governor has no electric
button with which to summon mes
senger, but on his desk is silver
plated call-bell, such as you see on a
teachers table. The man whom he
generally wants to see is his secretary,
Ham, and touch of the bell is Suffi-
cient.
A revolving bookcase is at the gov
ernor's right. State volumes and ref
erence books fill it. Also to the gov
ernor'S right are chairs for callers.
They are shrewdly placed, for the light
falls full into a visitors face and gives
him means to study callers face. The
chances are that after he has scanned
his visitors countenance he will notice
the strong light and ask to change to
the one chair Oh the other side of the
desk. Then the caller has a better
chance to see the governors face.
There is little red tape about the eX
ecutiye chamber, and a card for the
governor generally gets to him direct
and insures quick audience. He list
ems attentively, answers briefly and
stops. There is no unnecessary talk.
He is not curt, yet he is businesslike
and has the faculty of limiting con-
verSation to the actual questions in
yolved. Then it ends, and the ordinary
caller, believing that to tarry would be
to steal a busy state officers time, de-
parts, feeling nevertheless that the gov
ernor has paid him every attention and
been courteous and genial wlthal.
The governor gives personal study to
details. He hears pardon cases and ap-
peals with the care of a judge. Work
over state papers that he can perform
himself he does not throw off to others.
In some senses he is slave at his desk.
He prefers to write, and uses a stenog-
rapher only about once In two months.
His writing is almost straight up and
down, the letters being rather long, with
curves, without flourish, and quite legi-
BILE.
He remains at the capitol until nearly
p. M, and then walks to the Savery
house. Although he eats only moder-
ately, he fingers quite long at the table
and chews his food very deliberately.
He likes to have some one there to
talk with when his daughter is
away. But he seldom asks any one to
dine with him. That is because he is
diffident This shyness manifests Itself
when he enters the lobby .uI the hotel.
On the street frrcC,n the capitol he has
poWea - scores. perhaps been stopped