The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-08-12
ALWAYS IN HARNESS.
Presidents Get Little Time for Sum-
mer Vacations.
Different From Old Days-Late Execu-
tives Have Not Been Extensive
Land Owners--Differenc in Tastes,


From the Washington Star.
It seems to be a law Of nature that the
average man cannot work twelve months
out of the year. 1t is true that some men
do it for some years, but they succumb to
overwork in the end, and, perhaps, have to
take vacation Of a year or so in order to
recuperate- Yet there is one man in the
United States who is supposed to work
all the time, and who frequently does not
see a real vacation from one years end to
another He is the President of
Of the United States, and no
man pays as dearly for a high
position as he. Wherever he is, he is
on duty. Whatever he does has an effect
beyond himself. If he has a sore throat,
the whole world knows it; if he plays a J..
game of cards, everybody wants to know
why he does it. Some of US have SER
wants, all of US are the servants of others,
but to be the servant of 60000,000 of
eXacting people is hard position for any
one to fill, yet that is the Presidents
position. Every one of the 10000, 600
thinks it is his duty to follow the Presi-.
dents life carefully, and to approve or
disapprove of everything that he does.
II must be strange feeling, if the Presi-
that there are $4,000, 900 of opinions about
you. We concern ourselves a good deal
to know what our few friends or neigh
bors are saying and thinking about US,
but if the President were to have a similar
solicitude. he would go crazy at once, be-
cause of the immensely of the subject, for
everybody in America thinks about him,
and so does large proportion of the rest
of the civilized world.
TnN-r
Yet Presidents have to think for them
selves sometimes, and it is when over
work has become so unbearable that they
realize that some slight rest is necessary
or there will be crash that they take a
so-called vacation. Very rarely is this
vacation complete, but it is the best that
can be done, and it is somewhat of a re-
taxation. although it is not the relaxation
that they want
Benjamin Harrison when he was Pres
ident, went to Cape May, carried one or
two clerks with him, had a telegraph
wire near by, and transacted public bust
ness for some time without much diff
Guilty 1t was not the same as if he had
been in the white house For one thing,
personal interviews with him could not
be had; and it is one thing to conduct
business by telegraph and another thing
to transact 1t by word of mouth. But
still he was close at hand in case of an
emergency, and could be summoned back
to Washington at moments notice.
Presidents vacations are very different
things now from what they were in the
early days.
When President Washington went to
Mt Vernon he was completely cut off
from the seat of government, which was
in New York. No mail could reach him
within four or five days at the least, and
he was free, of course, from the bother of
kilograms. Yet he always transacted
some public business when he went on
his vacation.
MIR Blaine tried to carry on the state
department from his cottage at Bar Har-
Dor. kilograms flew thick and fast to
and from Washington. The mails carried
documents for the Secretary of States
signature, and his orders were obeyed on
few lines flashed over the wire. 1t was
quite an interesting experiment. made
necessary by the state of Mr.. Blaine's
health, but 1t was not precisely successful.
Too many subjects requiring immediate
attention from the head of an executive
department arise for it to be safe for him
to be away from his desk long To ex-
plain the condition of affairs by telegraph
adequately is impossible, and the wrong
orders may be issued because of imperfect
understanding of the facts.
1t has got TO be law so far as the exec
utiye servants of the government are con-
cerned that they shall take no more than
one months vacation each year. There is
a statute to that iect that governs the
ma ,ority of them, but the higher officials
are subject to such rules as they choose to
make for themselves. But they rarely
take more than the month that their sub
ordinates get, and in many cases they do
not get so much.
1t is curious to notice the different tastes
81 Tfv.n \ -, = Z
their vacation. Grover Cleveland thinks
he has about as good time as a man can
have when he is quietly sitting on the
porch OF the cottage Gray Gables" at
Buzzard's Bay. When he gets tired
of this he likes to get into yacht
and go out to sea, where no one can
reach him. If he sees a sail in the dis
lance he can look at it without fear, for
here he is safe from being boarded by Of
fee seekers. 1t is the only way he has
of getting ride of them. They follow him
out to his place on NUOdley lane, they
swarm about the White House, they even
penetrate his retirement at Gray
Gables" But they have not yet taken to
hiring tug boats or pilot sloops to follow
the President when he goes to sea. 1t is
not by any means certain. however, if the
President continues TO take so many sea
trips that they will consent TO leave him
alone. He may yet be confronted with
the smiling countenance of the candidate
for collector of a port when he comes up
the gangway, the candidate having
slowed himself away in the hold as run
away boys sometimes do.
ON AMERICAN SOIL.
There is curious tradition about Pres
,ldential vacations which it would be hard
for any one TO explain. 1t is against the
unwritten rules for a President of the
United States ever to leave american soil
while he is in Office. Kings and queens, as
every one knows, travel about extensively,
and so do the other heads Of government,
If they choose to do so, but our President
dares not spend his vacation under any
other flag than the stars and stripes. 1t
has been said that President Arthur vio-
lated the rule twice, once when he dined
or breakfasted on board British man-of-
war at Newport, and the other time, when
he was fishing in northern New York, and
took a short excursion in search of fish
Just across the border. In the fishing eX
petition he may have gone outside of the
United States unwittingy, but when he
went on the British warship he put his
loot through time-honored custom.
Now, precisely why this custom exists
no one can say. One explanation is that
a fear exists that the President, being
without his own jurisdiction, might be