Morris tribune., 1897-03-03
CAPITAL ITEMS.

House. They have packed uI
everything they intend taking
from the presidential mansion, but
they have stacks Of gifts to dispose
of. During the past four years
they have been deluged with gifts
of all sorts from all kinds of ad,
mirers, and some from people who
are not admirers, but who simply
desire to have the president use
some particular kind of fishing
tackle, or to have his wife use some
particular kind of article which
they desire to advertise. A great
portion of these presents were en-
tirely undesirable and were piled In
the great attic of the White House.
What to do with these gifts lsaa
problem which confronts every out
going president at the end of his
term, but the Cleveland's have
more to dispose of than was ever
before collected II this famous gar
ret. Eighty per cent of these pres
ents have never been opened, but
Mrs. Cleveland insisted that every
one of them must be inspected by
the president IL order that they
might be disposed of properly. As
there were fully 5000 of them, it
was job that Mr.. Cleveland did
not PARTICULARS care for, but he
could veto bills and turn down the
senior senator from his native state
with greater ease than he could
veto his wife's order that he must
properly clean up that garret. He
mas completed his job of vetoing
bills as well as garret cleaning and
the White House garret is now
ready for the deluge of unwelcome
gifts Mr.. Mckinley will surely re-
ceive.
Enough patent medicines to stock
a good sized drugstore were sent to
the White House, in the hope, pos
sibly, that the president would use
them and give a testimonial. Pho
tographs by the thousand, espec-
tally of babies named after the
president were received. Hundreds
of gifts of fishing tackle, guns, and
sporting goods. Stacks Of photo
graphs of men who think they
look ike the president. crazy.
quilts, rag carpets, cigars, left hind
feet of graveyard rabbits for
luck, are among the queer things
received at the White House.
It is contrary to the ordinary
rules of politeness for the receiver
of a gift to make present of it to
another, but this is the olly way
the White House garret can be
made ready for the Mckinley del
uge, and the servants of the presi-
dent come in for a goodly share of
these left overs.
The arbitration treaty will not
be ratified this session. This is the
opinion of senators and they are
not backward in expressing 1t.
Senators Teller and Daniel are
largely responsible for the delay.
Senator Teller is paying little on
his old score against Senator Sher-
nam by blocking the treaty upon
which the senior senator from Ohio
so much desires a vote. Senator
Daniel, the orator of the senate,
made a most eloquent speech
against the treaty, last Saturday
and while incidentally gibing the
Ohio senator. Senator Gallinger
declared that the treaty would not
be ratified, although he expressed
himself as in favor Of it.
The billion dollar congress will
be eclipsed by the present one.
81, 1,o40, 00o,O0ois the total appropri-
alton of the 54th congress.
Speaker Reed and Chairman Can
non of the committee on appropri-
ations have used every energy to
keep down the appropriations but
they have failed. Mr.. Reed has
made personal enemies i'll refusing
to recognize members on bills
known to contain appropriations
which were not absolutely neces-
sary. $4O.000,000 more than was
ever spent by any other congress.