The age-herald., 1901-12-19
Washington Day By Day

denI ffOOSeVells III speohihe ~ eS
 gressmen who call upon him. addresses each by the title Congressman, practice that may be accepted as being due to either the oddity of genius or to his in- ability to remember names and ne names to faces. for it is said no other President ever did the like. c
 Congressman. I am glad you called he will say. in addressing even famous member of the House.
 Congressman what was 1t you wished to say?''
 And so he runs on, laughing expostu- lating "bouncing around like a rubber ball." as one member described him. and doing many odd things and things not odd taking good care all the while to make no promises. He not only promises noth- ing-he tells nothing-gives out no infor- nation.
 For about five hours a day he Is con stantly in the presence of from ten to twenty or thirty callers, Senators and Congressman and their friends, and what is said to him or what he says to any one visitor is heard by all the others presence He positively refuses to be cor nered. No onet can get him aside from the general company to whisper conf- dences. He won't have condolences.
 The old-timers of the capitol are un- able so far, to get used to this new Presi- dents new ways, while the new members look upon him with honest and frank amazement. No one of the National law makers has ever before had to confront just such a man, or any man remotely re- sembling him in the White House.
 His visitors form kind of circle about him in the reception room, and he hurries around, shaking hands with everybody, saying some kind speech, and apparently eager to get quit of the whole business, though all the while smiling or laughing outright like schoolboy might, as if he wasn't quite sure it wasn't a sort of a
 joke. He will pause before Congress- man, grasp his hand as if le were long lost brother returned, listen to a few words-very few-respond with one or two short. sharp quick sentences. and then he bounds across the circle, grasps some other Congressmans hand with the same result, and proceeds to keep 1t up. Thus he goes on for some five long hours daily. And through it all he is urbanity's very spirit incarnated
 MT. Roosevelt is president, mind you He is as thoroughly, as fully, as com pletely the personal ruler as Cleveland ever was. He is master here, and none other disputes his constitutional absolut- ism. His cabinet officers are simply his clerks, as the constitution and the laws meant them to be, and he fails to keep them informed as to his purposes in mak- ing appointments at any rate.
 'I will make appointments to office upon my own responsibility and as I deem proper" he is quoted as saying and nobody who has studied the char acter of this most extraordinary man will entertain any doubt that he made that declaration.
 He has already ventured falls with Mr. Hanna, MT. Fairbanks, Mir. Platt MT. Elkins, Mir. Scott, and others, alto- sether a dozen Senators of his party A distinguished Alabama member of the lower house who was present in the reception room when Senator Hanna called the other day closely remarked the oemeanor of both the President and the national Republican chairman. Tt was as cold as a refrigerator filled with ice,' was the Congressman's com- ment when he came away leaving MT. Hanna surly and the President splendid ly, Jelly, smilingly cold.
 How odd How intensely refreshing! How thrillingly interesting to the great outside public to know that such man is master here!
 And he is going it strong on morality, if you will pardon little vulgarism of speech-gone clean daft, as the Scotch say. Vows he will not knowingly ap- point to office any man who drinks liquor
 to excess or Is otherwise immoral: graver sins in any form.
 Why-bless the sinners!-this new Pres | ident with old-fashioned morals and new-fashioned mind appointed a South | Caro1inian to office one day and with | drew the appointment within twenty | four hours because he learned that the | man celebrated his good fortune by get ting intoxicated during the intervening | nighti
 Another man he named to high of | fee one day was cut down and cast out | the following day because this master | in the White House ascertained that l the honored one did on the previous night hold carnival in a class of house | it is not polite to mention in this place! Again, how odd! How intensely re- freshjng. How thriilingly interesting! There is a real President in the White
 House. truly Behold the man! Alabama-it Is always Alabama here. good fellow travellers towards public of- | fee and toward practical work and busi- ness! Alabama afforded the President a good laugh yesterday and greatly amused | the numerous callers in his reception room. as you have been already briefly | informed. At Il o'clock Congressman | Richardson of Alabama called and was | cordially received with the habitual. "Congressman, I am glad to see you" Now it so happened that Congressmen | Underwood. Clayton. Wiley and Thomp-
 son had preceded Judge Richardson in seeing the President In respect to Ala | bama appointments. and when the dig- nifed and amiable member from the | Huntsville district began his briet re- .~...ixo ..,,tb +ba axceedingly familiar