Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1894-07-05
THE PRESIDENTS VACATION.
He Must Hide Himself in Order to OBJ
tain Needed Rest.

tain Needed Rest.
When the President is finally convinced
by his friends or his physicians that he
really needs rest and recreation, he is
obliged to hide himself. He can shut
out the public at the White House, but
he hears it clamoring about the doors.
He can have some of his old friends from
home. or who have been his familiars
during his earlier public career; but he
remembers through the short hours of his
recreation that he must bear the light
again very soon, and come out or nus
happy seclusion. When he goes away he
must go where he cannot be followed.
He cannot travel in public conveyances,
or stop at hotels, or try to take a rest at
places which are frequented by others
and, to that extent, happier people.
Washingtonians forget what the presi-
dents before the war did with their bret
vacations There was an attempt made
when Gen. Grant began the practice OF
spending his summers at Long Branch to
find a tradition that the old presidents
considered it improper to quit Washing
ton at all, except for brief time, and on
most urgent and important business. But
Gen. Grant did not care, nor did he seem
to care for the public's curiosity seeking
intrusion upon him. He grew used to it.,
and finally the public grew used to him
at Long Branch, as it did on Pennsylva-
it bothered his more retiring successors.
1t was in order that the President
might travel with some degree of comfort,
and with some of the privacy that is en-
joyed by millions of his sovereigns, that
the dispatch boat of the secretary of the
navy began to be used for his conven-
fence. Persons whose love of democratic
simplicity leads them into eXtravagant
utterances have denounced this practice,
and have stigmatiZed the unoffending
boat as the royal yacht Gradually
these stern patriots have worked them
that the ship itself shall not be main
tanned. The ship, however, is of great
use. 1t runs on the secretarys errands
from navy-yard to navy-yard. In time OF
war it would be absolutely necessary. In
such a ceremony as the international
naval review, which was held in the har-
Dor of New York in April, 1893, it per-
formed a conspicuous duty; and, to sum sum
up, it is a poor SOUL one that is sadly
wanting in the redeeming grace Of gener-
osity. who snarls at the Presidents use
of the boat, either for his pleasure or his
comfort.
The dispatch boats Of recent years
have been the Tallapoosa, the Despatch
and the Dolphin. The first two are at
the bottom of the sea. and the last is
the largest and best of them ALL With
it's new banquet hall, constructed for
the festal purposes of the Columbian
celebration, it is adequate for eXacting
social demands. Great festivities have
made the hours pass quickly and pleas
antly on the decks of all these ships.
Many distinguished foreigners have been
carried by them down the Potomac to
the tomb of Washington. Europeans
and Asiatics and islanders from the Pa
ciic have been entertained in their cab
ms. And the President has often es-
capped on them from toll to quiet and
recuperative hours.
When the President does go sailing on
the Dolphin, or when he goes a-fishing
on some lonely and remote spot which
the reporters of the daily newspapers
cannot reach without rowing. he takes
his best friends with him. He chooses
the man who can tell him the best
stories; the man whose skill at cards
is just great enough to make the accom-
plishment of his defeat interesting; the
man who can make the best salad or
cook some other dish the best; the man
who can sit up latest; or who is willing
to go to bed earliest; the man who
is most familiar with the kind of poetry
that our fathers loved to quote; or the
man who has mastered the realism of
Ibsen, and who can make the President
understand the new departure during the
trip; the man who understands theology,
or history, or whist, or backgammon, or
eating-anything but government and
law.-Harper's Magazine for July.