The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-02-16

early OF you'll never get IN at all. Al
roads lead to the White House. Every
possible avenue by which influence may
be brought to bear is worn smooth. NO
one is satisfied to see the cabinet officer IN
whose department. the business belongs.
Your hustling, pushing American citizen
always wants to go straight to headquar-
tiers.
Mr.. Cleveland may try as much as he
likes to save himself time and annoyance,
but he can only mitigate the evil; he can
notremove it. The system has. grown
up with the government, and it cannot be
put down in day. If the president had
100 ears, so brains and as many spinal
columns, and there were 2,400 hours in
stead Of "a in the day, he would still be
wornout every night when he seeks rest
on his pillow.
Many and many time, I fancy, Mrs.
Cleveland will find it necessary long
after midnight to go to her husbands
room and coax him off to bed in order
to prevent him killing himself with over
work. She used to have to do that when
she was mistress of the White House
and when the demands on her husbands
energies were not nearly SO great as they
will be in few weeks. The constant
tendency against which Mr.. Cleveland
has to struggle in the performance of his
duties as president Is that against which
every president who does not want to
kill himself must contend-the habit of
catching up at night with time lost dur
ing the day.
If president spends all his hours of
the day listening to callers, consulting
with the members Of his cabinet, dictat.
ing letters and attending to the routine
of his Office, when is he to find time for
consideration of the questions of state
which are ever demanding attention?
When is he to study complex problems,
look up authorities and records and
ssprepare his case'' with care and DELHI
Grafton, as a good lawyer loves to do?
There is no time left but the night, and
presidents, being mortal, cannot burn
the candle at both ends and escape the
penalties thereof any more than the rest
of us. If Mrs. Cleveland does her duty
in the next administration-and think
she will-she will watch Grover with a
Jealous eye and yank him off to bed at
the first sign of overwork.
Mr.. Cleveland will have much tempta-
ton to sit up with the midnight lamp.
Look at the mighty questions already
pressing forward and sure to harass him
in the early days of his administration!
There is tie silver question, on which
Mr.. Cleveland has some positive views,
and which, he thinks, must be settled i'm
mediately in order to avert danger of
panic. There is the ever increasing
friction with England arising from
the Canadian, the seal and other fish
cries, and now the Hawaiian ques-
tions. There is the Nicaragua ca
nal matter, which may involve us in
complications with several European
powers, and of course the tariff question
now mixed up with the difficulty Of
finding enough revenue with which to
carry on the government = must be
speedily determined. These are only a
few of many very important matters
with which the new president must deal.
What new questions fully as important
and possibly more portentous--if for
eign war may arise at any moment no
one can say.
But am quite sure that Mr.. Cleve-
lands pathway is not to be strewn with
the roses of ease and leisure He will have
to work for his salary as hard as any
other man in the country works for his.
He will try to do more than he should
do, he will fail to exercise, he will have
his soul narrowed up, his digestion will
deteriorate, and he will miss half the fun
of being a free and independent Ameri
can citizen.
Poor Grover! I am sorry for him and
would not exchange my job for his. I
would rather write than be president.
WALTER WELIlMAN.