Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1906-04-21
lis A RICH GAME OF GRAFT
People Of Oyster Bay Prey on the
Summer Visitors.
ALL OFFICIALS ARE HELD UP.
While the Newspaper Men are Com
PEELED to Pay Dearly For Being
Near the President

PEELED to Pay Dearly For Being
Near the President
Washington. d. c., April a. Word
has reached the White House that the
quarters over Moore's grocery store at
Oyster Bav, are ready for the usa Of
the Executive staff and Secretary
Loeb will sign the necessary papers
with the proprietors within the next
few days. 1t is quite probable that
the Moore brothers will adopt their
usual hold up tactics this year as
they have ON former occasions in the
effort TO force the President to pay
more rem for the summer capital
offices.
"Those fellows down there, = said
Secretary Loeb. commenting on this
annual stand -and-deliver game, raise
the rent on us every year. They
never get what they want for they al
ways want about two or three times
wnat the offices are worth. But they
tia ink because they have the most de
sirable offices in town that they ought
to get New York rental for them. Ii
the president did not go down there
! to liven things up, I'd like to know
what the town would amount to? 1t
is only because the president does go
down there that the town is ever heard
of at all. Ii ii were not his home
town, not one person in a hnndred
thousand would know it was on the
map
The graspingness displayed hv the
Moore brothers is not confined to
that particular family in Oyster Bay.
for every enc who goes down there
with the president pays tribute to the
Yankee instincts of the residents
Board that is fit to eat cannot be
obtained for less than $12 u week IN
priva te boarding houses and the only
hotel the place supports collects 50 a
day from TIE newspaper men and
secret service detectives who follow
the chief magistrate to his vacation
rest. Common little red apples that
are sold to the VILLAGERS at 10 cents a
qaurter of a peck, leap to a cent apiece
when one of the "summer ~boarders'
come to buy, and the iiverymen who
ordinarily collect fifteen cen,s from
drummers for a trip to the hotel from
the station INCREASINGLY demand 80
cents for the same service from the
opulent newspaper correspondents.
"You fellows are making a lot OF
money down here, and we are going
to get our share of it" remarked
one of the livery stable keepers. who.
by the way. gloried in the name OF
Sniffen, "The charge to Sycamore
Hill will be SO. So" The ordinary
rate to the presidents house and back
from the village is 81. 90, SO you may
imagine that the merry VILLAGERS are
glad to see the summer residents come
to town
Although no date has yet been set
for the presidents departure from
Washington is il understood that he
will leave for Oyster Bay about June
25 or 26. He will be accompanied
by the same sta fl that represented
the White House last year, with the
exception of Assistant Secretary b.
II. Barnes, who will not go. Mr.
Barnes has been nominated for the
Washington postmastership, a job
that pays So, 900 a year, just twice
what he is getting as assistant sec
retarv. Another change thai will be
noticed will be the substitution of
James Sloan for Frank Tyree as chief
secret service guard. Tyree was re-
Gently appointed United 1t ties Mar
shall for the southern distric of West
Virginia, at Huntington. Senator
Elkins is credited with pulling off
the appointment for Tyree, al
though the faithful work he performed
as the presidents body quad for five
or six years had probably more to do
with the plum falling into his lap.
The summer s%ojourners a e rejoic
ing over the fact that another hot |
viii be opened in Oyster Bay this
year. Thier jnbilation is kept in
hounds, however, bv the recollection
that the same runor has been hoated
for several springs without any tang
lille result. The new hotel has been
standing three.f0orths completed on
Main street. for nearly four years
The projectors D short of money n
were still short according to latest
accounts. It is to be hoped that they
made q raise. If they have and will
be able to furnish room and thee
meals, more or less square, to the
hungry follower s of the president and
the politicians and social callers
who are Obliged from time to time to
visit the dismal little village on the
| SO1ud.