The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-07
THE INAUGURAL BIBLE
USE OF HOLY WRIT IN SWEARING
 IN THE PRESIDENT.
Kisses No Picked Passage-BOok is Opened at Random by a Clerk, and After Oath is Administered, 1t is
 Held to the Presidents Lips.

Washington Post.
 With each recurring inauguration paragraphs float through the newspa- pers about the use of the Bible on which the President-elect takes his oath of office. In most of these para graphs it is made to appear that a se- lection is made In advance of some passage at which the book is to be opened and that the President is ex- pected to kiss. To grave mind this would naturally savor of nockery, if not puerility. It may be stated, as a representative of The Post is informed, with the utmost assurance of fact, that there has never been at any time, at any ceremony of inaugurating Presi- dent, any particular passage picked out to be signalized by kiss
 The ceremony of administering the oath is one of the utmost simplicity and dignity. When the officials have assumed their stations the clerk of the Supreme Court advances with a Bible to The Chief Justice of the United States and the Presdent-elect, the clerk himself opens the Bible at random and raising it, the Chief Justice and the President-elect place their right hands upon the open volume and the oath is then administered. When the President kisses the open page he does so. and invariably has done so. in a beftting manner and not by scanning the lines for pregnant passage.
 Used on Former Occasions.
 Naturally. there are few records that show precisely how the Bible used on these occasions was selected, and what, in fact, were the precise passages kissed. When General Grant was in augurated the first time the Chief Jus tice of the United States. Salmon P. Chase. provided a Bible. The clerk of the Supreme Court provided the one used March f. 1873, and the volume. casually opened by the clerk himself, fixed the salute of the Presidential lipe on the second chapter of Isaiah verses and 3. When MT. Hayes was inaugurated the Bible was provided in the same way and opened in the same way. the passage this time being found to be Psalms 11S, verses II, 12 and 13 The first two of these are:
 II. They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about; but in the name of the Lord l will destroy them. 12 They compassed me about like bees: they are quenched as the fire of thorns; for in the name of the Lord will destroy them.
 When the present clerk of the Su- preme Court, then the deputy clerk of the court, on the next day took the Bible that had been used to the White House. Mrs. Hayes exclaimed at his en- trance with the prized volume, and in sisted on his reading the paragraphs aloud. She was not awed by hearing so much about the destroying practices foretold by Bible lots for her husband. and laughingly called out: 70 he will not destroy anything!"
 The Cleveland Bible.
 MT. Cleveland took the oath, both in 1885 and 1893, upon a small red Bible his mother had given him when he started out in the world for himself.
 The Bible on which MT. Mckinley took the oath the first time was fur nished by number of colored bishops, the President assenting to this selection as q courtesy. It was opened casually, as on all previous occasions, and the lot fell on II Chronicles, chap ter l, V. 10. On the occasion of his second inauguration the clerk had pro- Vided a new Bible, and this time chance indicated 18th Proverbs, 20 and 21
 By a curious coincidence, these are the identical passages read aloud by Lord Melbourne to the young Queen Victoria when she assumed the crowd of Great Britain. They are:
 20. He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good; and whoso trusteth in the Lord happy is he.
 21. The wise in heart shall be called prudent; and the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning.
 The lines little bespeak the worldly wisdom of Lord Melbourne, but quite fairly indicate the affectionate tender ness with which for many years he guarded the footsteps of the young Queen.