The Huttig news., 1907-11-23

The only piece of really pure litera- ture ever officially issued from the White house is the proclamation ap- pointing a day of thanksgiving. All other papers written by the president are business documents, the phraseol- ogy of which is technical; but this an nual message to the people is always a painstakingly worded and grateful composition. A fairly illustrative ex- ample will be found in MT. Roosevelts s proclamation setting aside the last Thursday of the present month for the Thanksgiving Of 1906.
 It is the duty of MT. Loeb (who runs the machinery Of the presidents busi- ness, arranging all his engagements for him) to call MT. Roosevelt's atten- tion to the fact that Thanksgiving ap- -preaches,-and to remind him that a proclamation must be written. Of course, it requires considerable time to do this, and so busy man as the
 
 excusable if he handed over the task to some subordinate, contenting him. self with affixing his signature. But custom demands that the work shall be performed by the president himself
 Accordingly, when the proclamation has to be prepared, the president de- votes some time to thinking out new shape in which to put the more or less stereotyped ideas which are to be ex- pressed, and, as he does so, jots down a few memoranda in pencil on paper pad. Then, touching buzz-button, he summons one of the dozen stenograph- CTS who are always in attendance, and dictates to him carefully the wording of the document. It is short-not more than 400 or 500 words-but daintily and tersely phrased. This, however, is only a rough draft. It is copied in typescript by the stenographer, with lines twice the ordinary distance apart, so as to be convenient for corrections and interlineations, and in this shape is handed back to MT. Roosevelt. He alters it a bit, modifying a sentence here and changing a word there, until if suits him-whereupon fair copy is made, again submitted for correc- tion. and finally sent over to the de- partment of state.
 At the department of state the proc lamation is beautifully engrossed on
 of Q clerk highly skilled ill this kind of pen manship. It is considerable task. and occupies some days, at the end of which the document is sent back to the white House to receive the presi- dents signature, and is thereupon re- turned to the department to be signed by the secretary of state and sealed with the great seal of the United States.
 This seal, by the way, Is sort of federal fetich It is the most sacred of all things that belongs to the gov ernment; and no print of it is ever al lowed to be given away or sold though, of course, 1t is attached to all military and naval commissions, and to various other executive documents. If was made by New York jeweler at a cost of $10,000, and is kept in a beautiful rosewood box at the state department In order that it may be used for stamping the Thanksgiving proclamation, a printed order to that effect must be signed by MT. Roose- welt.
 The department of state is the per manent depository of executive procla- nations. All the Thanksgiving proc lamations ever issued by the presi- dents of the United States are filed away in it's archives-back even to 1795, when George Washington set aside the 18th day of February, in that year, as a date on which the people should thank God for exemption from foreign war and from insurrection." '" Consequently, the engraved proclama-