The morning call., 1893-03-06
PRESIDENTTANA.

The pictorial record OF the Presidents of
the United States which THE CALL pub
lshed on Sunday is a history of manners
and customs as well as politics. Even In
the small matter of cos. ne and personal
appearance it illustrates the fluctuations of
taste and fashion. Presidents are too busy
10 concern themselves about such trlfes;
they make up" after the pattern of the
average citizen of their day, and thus their
portraits tell us what substantial people
looked like during their respective presi-
denotes.
Their hirsuts adjournment is a history of
the American beard. or the twenty-three
Presidents whose portraits were given in
The CALL twelve. to wit: Washington, the
two Adamses, Jefferson, Madison. Monroe,
the elder Harrison, Polk, Tyler. Pierce,
Fillmore and johnson, wore smooth faces,
every hair having been removed by the
razor; four, to Wit: jackson, Van Buren,,
Taylor and Buchanan, wore side whiskers
four. 10 wit: Grant, Hayes, Garfield and the
younger Harrison, wore their full beard;
two only, Arthur and Cleveland, wore
mustaches; one. Lincoln, wore a collar of
beard. without mustaches; not one wore
the chin whiskers or goatee, with which
Brother Jonathan is generally depicted by
humorous artists. The fashion Of smooth
faces went cut with the war; Americans
then divided between those who let their
beard grow where nature had placed it and
those who adopted what then became the
distinctive American fashion of wearing
hair on the upper lip only.
From the period of Washington to that Of
jackson the long and many folded neck
cloth Of white cambria prevailed, with a
coat collar rising behind so as to hide the
neck. With Van Buren, the shirt collar
arose, sometimes to a prodigious height,
and round it the throat was circled with
neektie, which the wearer sometimes tied
himself, ard which was sometimes tied by
the maker, when 1t was called a stock.
Such stocks were worn by the elder Harri-
son, Tyler, Fillmore, and occasionally by
Lincoln and johnson. Mr. Buchanan wore
voluminOuS white necktie of which the
ends flutteIed down his shirt front. Grant
wore plain cheap tie, which he knOtted
himself, as does Cleveland. Arthur was
particular about his ties, as he was about
his dress generally. Benjamin Harrison
affected one of those ties with long lapels
which hide the shirt.
The habits of the Presidents differed as
widely as their costumes. Washington lived
in state; after his retirement he lived the
life OF lordly proprietor Of broad acres,
exacting Difference to ceremonial etiquette
IN his household. jefferson and Madison
were plain farmers, and looked after their
farms as if they had been hired by the day.
The Adamses, on the contrary, never forgot
that they were types of New England arts
tOcracy, and were very pnnctiliOus on the
subject of ceremony. jackson was another
type. He had been brought up in what was
raaifHr q wild nd W. Wasf Whan
he was in the White House his fayOrlte re-
sort was a room in the basement, where he
sat with his feet on a kitchen stove. smoking
a corncob pipe and gossiplng with the men,
bers of his kitchen cabinet. Mr.. Lincoln
lived in his Office. be was careless of his
dress and OF his food his whole soul was
wrapped in his work; visitors often found
him sitting on a table, with his long
legs dangling, and jackknife in his hands
with which he whitfield the table.
The Presidents differed in their table
habits. Washington and the Adamses
drank fine old Madeira. but with modera-
ton. jackson, Johnson and one or two
others always kept a whisky bottle on the
shelf, and somewhere near was glass and
a pitcher of water. Buchanan took his
wine at dinner, but rarely INDUCED after
ward. Lincoln was as Indifferent to what
he drank as lie was to what he ate II he
had preference it was for snnnd mid rye
Grant and Arthur were fond Of champagne;
the latter was compelled by his health to be
careful not TO indulge freely. Polk and
Hayes were teetotalers and reyeled on toast
and water. Mr. Harrison took little wine
at dinner. but very little, and he was partic-
ular about It's nnality- At the banquet IN
TINS city a special wine wss ordered for him.
Mr.. Cleveland was some time ago ordered
by his doctors TO be careful of his living,
and now, while he is not total abstalner,
he rarely drinks anything hut water IL is
curious that Of ali the Presidents we have
had there has been but one who was ever
seen drunk