Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1893-09-20
Exclusive Dan" lamont.

w NOuiu lOt SApcSt tuap VIC Illus
exclusive member of the cabinet won {
be the man who once sold newspaper:
upon the streets of the capital city o
New York. But such is the case. Sec
retary Lamont is the most exclusive
member Of Mr.. Cleveland's cabinet, and
keeps more to himself than has any
Secretary of War for many years. There
was little State formality in the Wal
Department in the days of dry-humor
ed, kind-hearted Secretary Proctor, OF
in those Of bluff, hearty, vigorous Sec
retary Elkins. Under the Eudicott re-
gime, in the former Cleveland admins
tration, there was q great deal of frieid
courtesy and strict attention to official
etiquette. But under the Lamont
sway there is even more than under the
reign of the man from Massachusetts,
and the City of the Witches.
1t is harder to get an opportunity to
see Secretary Lamont than it is any
other cabinet officer. You can walk
without reserve into Gresham's room
and be sure Of hearty western greet
ing; you can gossip with Carlisle over
persons and things but you can do
none Of these things with Lamont.
There is covering of reserve
about him that it is impossible
! to break through He has combined
air of business and mystery that makes
familiarity n stranger. He always has
the appearance of man who is too busy
to talk with with you, and who regards
you as wasting every moment Of his
time during the while you are with
him. He has been the confidential
man of so many prominent men, Til
den, Cleveland, and the rest, and so
accustomed to keep their secrets locked
upiasti in his breast that he has repressed
his feelings so long in his efforts to be
studiously diplomatic, that natural cor
dinlity he has lost.
Lamont is in his office less time than
any member in the Cabinet. He is
not so much Cabinet officer as Mr..
Cleveland's confidential advisor. He
never was more thoroughly the Presi-
dents private secretary than lie IS to-
dav. He does the private secretary's
thinking, while Mr.. Thurber holds the
position and attends to the routine.
Thurber is the clerk and Lamont the
secretary. What is more, Lamont is
the power behind the throne. Demo
Gratis of national reputation from al!
parts of the country can come to the
White House and lay down their bur-
dens Of advice; leading inanciers can
come with their solutions of the hard
times problems friends of the admin
igtralion can point out what men should
Ge appointed and what ones should
not but little word from the Secre-
tarv of War will make their efforts
valueless. Whenever there is a qucs-
ton in the Presidents mind as to what
should be done it is to Dan" he turns
for advice, and Dan" is always ready
with solution.
Lamont is the politician of the ad-
minislration, and his real title is "secrc-
tary of politics and eXpediency".
He was put into the cabinet for this
purpose. This was why he refused to
be Postmaster General. That office
would require too much attention; he
preferred the war portfolio, for in that
department matters drift along easily
and quietly, and practically run them
selves. He is good executive officer,
that he has shown and is showing; but
above all he is politician. All his life
has been devoted to politics, aud he
was a politician as soon as it was pos
sible for him to he one. His fathers
store at the little cross roads in New
York State was his primary political
school, and good one it proved. AT
% years of age Lamont was sitting side
by side with Tilden in that famous
Rochester democratic convention
and helping the democratic chieftain
to cut the Tweed cancer out of the
body of the democratic party.
lie carries his eXclusiveness into his
private life. He lives at the Arlington,
but is seldom seen either in the office
or in the public dining-room. He takes
his meals in his own rooms, and keeps
by himself through most of the day.
He IS the one person to whom the door
OF the White House is never shut and
whom the President is never too busy
TO see. He is in daily conference with
Mr.. Cleveland. Taking to politics as a
duck does 10 water, Lamont has busted
himself ln all the campaigns in New
York from 1873, the year that Tilden
cut loose from the old politicians of the
State, TO the present. Heknows every
democrat OF any prominence in the
State, and is the Presidents oracle on
matters relating to them. He does not
care for society, and goes out only for
the sake of his wife. He reads books
much; but he is fondest of newspapers
and retains the ability of q journalist
to read all the papers without perform
ing the work of actually reading one.
He uses nei her tobacco nor liquor, DO
: matter what the occasion. On one oc-
clsion he said all his people were Pres
byterans, and that he was brought up
in that faith. "And do you attend a
Presbyterian church in town ~ he was
asked. My wife does," said he-an
answer that was the fruit of twenty
years of training in politics. Lamont
is . quiet and unobstrusive man, slow
aud quiet in speech and modest in de-
; meanor. He is good story teller with
a wonderful knack at turning the ex-
!, periences of his friends to narrative ac.
5 count He is always well dressed, with
preference for what are called ''busi-
ness" clothes, though he gives but lit.
lie thought to his appearance. In every.
thing except his abundant humor he is
, an intensely practical man, who looks
upon the world as a workshop in which
| lie has enough TO do to keep him busy