Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1903-05-20
A COSTLY PRESIDENT
Lavish Expenditure Of Peoples
Money.
THE PRIVATE YACHT "MAYFLOWER"
White House Expenditures Increased S75O,OOO
Per Annum.
THE PRIVATE YACHT "MAYRLOWER"


have a strenuous President in the
White House, and he also is very
costly proposition when YOU come
to count the dollars he has cost the
taxpayers of the country since he
entered the mansion of the chief
executive of the nation. Aside
from the half million dollars it
has cost to repair and refurnish
the building during the past year,
the cost of maintaining the estab-
lishment has increased enormously.
There was $65, 900 spent ON pre-
sidential Office building, directly to
the west of the White House. and
members of Congress who have
expressed an opinion of il say that
it looks like n stable. Ii certainly
is about the orneriest looking affair
for the Office of the chief executive
of Il great nation to have cost SO
much money that any man ever
saw. On first beholding it nearly
every man says To himself that if
that little cheese box cost 500. 900,
then some man certainly got i'm his
graft good and hard. Then there
there are other expenditures that
the people of the country never
heard, in connection with Roose-
velt's short occupancy of the
White House. There has been an
increase in the running expenses
of the White House, since the
Roosevelt advent, of over S25, 900
year; new furniture and fittings
for the "Mayhower' 1.-THE Presi-
dents yacht over 800, 900: the
cest of keeping the "Mayflower'
in commission for two months last
year, about $4,000; repairs and
refitting the "Mayhower" last
year about $34, 900; repairs and
refitting the "Mayflower" this
year about $4,000. All this with
the half million dollars spent on
the White House makes approx
mately about $3.50, 900 that the
strenuous President has cost the
taxpayers of the country more
than he or any man in his position
should have cost them. There
were a few thousand dollars left
over from the appropriation To fix
up the White House uneXpended
after the work was finished. and
plans Immediately were put in
operation To get rid of this amount
before the end of the fiscal year.
June 80, next. 4 lattice wire
screen was erected to hide the
Roosevelt family wash from the
vulgar gaze, a double tennis court
is i'm progress of preparation, al
though the President never plays
tennis and by the time it is finished
the Roosevelt children will all be
over at Oyster Bay for the sum
mer. Fine imported green hay
trees costing over $500 each have
been placed on top of the east en-
trance to the White House unit
it resembles nothing so much as I
beer garden on a roof ia the height
of the season. Great beds of high
price flowers of many kinds will
be set out and that part of the
White House grounds used by the
Roosevelt family and their friends
will bloom with the luxuriance OF
the tropics. There amt goin
to he no core to this apple" wher
the President gets through will
that appropriation. 1t will be al
in" and the people will have paiC
a pretty penny to crafty the aes
thetic tastes of the strenuous Pres
ident. The Presidents yacht, tn,
"Mayfower," is the most gorgeou:
craft that ever fioated in salt water
1t was built by Mrs. Ogden Goele
and was about completed when tn,
government bought it for S430, 900
at the time war was declared witt
Spain. 1t is officially classed as
cruiser and is about the size of tn,
Cincinnati" or the Boston.
In the assignment of ships of tn,
navy she appears ION special ser
vice." She is really at the dispo
sal of the President at all times
and was fitted up at enormous ex
pense for his enjoyment. Tn
King of England or the. Empero
of Germany does not travel il
more imposing style than does Mr.
Roosevelt when he is aboard hi
private yacht, for the "Mayflower'
is nothing less than that. AS