The Portland daily press., 1893-11-03
NOTED AUTOGRAPHS
Furnished by the President and Others to
the Public-Senatorial Signatures and
the Prices that They Fetch.


the Prices that They Fetch
The obligation to give autographs is
part of the penalty which greatness
inflicts. Mr.. and Mrs. Cleveland both
grant them freely to correspondents who
send respectful requests inclosing stamps
Of course they must draw the line some
where, as the President did the other
day, when woman wrote to ask for
nine specimens of his signature-one for
each of her children.
Mr.. Cleveland's autograph just after
he was first inaugurated was worth from
81 to IS. It will still fetch So, written on
card, while his signature and that of
his wife on the same card represent a
value of IS in the market for this sort
of curios. Gen. and Mrs. Harrison gave
their signs manual generously to petiti-
oners. Most Of the Presidents have done
the same.
Much of the Presidents business con-
sists in signing his name, which must
be attached to all appointments, commits
sions, promotions and thousand and
one other documents. So exacting is
this part of his duty that he cannot per-
form the whole of it, One employe of
the government gets $1,000 a year for
writing Mr. Cleveland's name on land
warrants. He does nothing else but
that.
There are other officials in Uncle SANS
employ, by the way, who do nothing
else practically but sign their own names.
This is almost the sole duty of the regis
ter of the Treasury, who is kept hard at
work signing documents from a. m. to
4 p. m. every day. The assistant treas
urer of the United States is another
slave to his own signature, which he is
perpetually engaged in affixing to war
rants for money.
Message to Congress.
Mr.. Cleveland's messages to Congress
are all written i'll autograph originally.
He does all his writing with his own
hand. Such documents he produces on
foolscap with pen and ink, turning off
sheet after sheet with scarcely a correct
ion. An Interpolation is rare in his man
uscript In this fashion his most finished
speeches are evolved.
The literary. method pursued by Presi-
ueuo harrison was Wholly olHerent. he
found it very hard to write with pen,
and SO he would keep by him pad of
paper and soft lead pencil. With
these he would jot down notes from time
to time during leisure moments and
from the memoranda thus made he
would afterward dictate to stenograph-
er. The messages sent to Congress are
careful copies from the originals.
Senator Edmunds, while presiding
offer pro tenn. of the upper house, refused
to receive typewritten message from
the President. He claimed that the law
required message in writing,n and
that typescript was not writing in a
proper sense. This ruling established
precedent which has been followed ever
since. Nevertheless the famous Gillian
message was sent to Congress in type
script by President Harrison.
This was done because it was desirable
to save time, the document being anx-
iously awaited by the nation. Suisse
quently written copy was substituted
in the files. The same thing has been
done on few other occasions. OF
course the point involved is purely one
OF red tape. A message from the Presi-
dent goes to the public printer before it,
reaches Congress, and the clerk of the
Senate reads it to that body not from the
original, but from a certified printed
copy. Gen. Harrison's signature was
always the same, as if it were printed
from copper plate. Mr.. Cleveland's auto
graph is small and cramped, as if the
work of writing was difficult. Mrs. Cleve-
lands, on the other hand, is large, open
and clear. Dan Lamont's handwriting
is beautiful, the best in the cabinet.
Secretary j. Sterling Morton does not
take his pen off the paper from beginn-
ing to the end of his name. The sigma
ture of Attorney General Olney is large
nd hoo hot ,f n. lo; T.
and old fashioned, while Hoke Smiths
is very plain and business-like.
Pages Do a Good Business.
The pages of the Senate add largely to
their incomes by collecting autographs
for all sorts of people who are victims of
that hobby. The business is we'll recog-
nized industry at the Capitol. Persons
with the mania furnish blank albums
to the boys, who gather the statements
signatures by contract. The prices OBJ
tanned for these memorabilia are surpris-
ingly low. Five cents a name has been
the quotation hitherto. but, perhaps on
account of the hard times, only three
cents name is asked now.
the autographs of the entire Senate. A
prominent man from New York paid $40
the other day for the signatures of
thirty members of the upper house, but
that was fancy price. The Senate and
Supreme Court together may be pur-
chased for SIS. Double price is obtained
for book of photographs with the au-
tographs written on the margins of the
portraits. Of course the buyer supplies
the book aud the likenesses. A complete
album of the House Of Representatives
has never been secured, because some of
the members are always absent Collec-
tors usually content themselves with the
signatures of the best known men on
both sides.
Nearly all of the legislators for the ma
ton are liberal with their autographs.
Even the most dignified Senators are
amiable enough in this respect. The
pages say that the most difficult sigma
ture to get is that of Senator Coke of
Texas His name they can ordinarily Sc
cure only by means of some subterfuge.
One method OF theirs is to persuade the
caroaa N f. nj. tn offer. tho olJ,,,,,, +,