The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-05-07

disguised himself in other ways to es-
cape detection, as he supposed, on the
part of those whom ne came to warn
against OF course, he was stopped by
a secret service man, to whom he was
finally induced to unfold his tale of
overhearing band of bloodthirSty an
archists plot to assaSsinate the preSi-
dent He begged to be allowed TO guard
the president personally and even to
sleep outside his door.
An embryonic muckraker once called
upon the president and insisted that
everyone in the United States should
be renamed; that the hymnal of the
Episcopal church should be changed
completely and that a new ritual should
be made compulsory in the Masonic
order
1t is not always that these cranks are
harmless, however. In 1904 a Swede
from the middle west journeyed to
Washington in a freight car for the
purpose of obtaining aid from the pres
ident against people who, he said, were
trying to steal his patents guaranteed
to reyolutioniZe several prominent
American industries. His dress was
peculiar, his conversation suspicious
and his demands to see the president
somewhat alarming. Policeman Ciscle,
of the White House squad, told him he
would usher him into the president
private office Immediately. BY this
pretense he was led into the guard
room, in the basement of the east front
Of
summoned Just as the big Swede
was being showed into the cab he evil
IDENTIFY smelled a rat, for he drew a
large revolver and opened fire on the
officer. His aim was wild, and the
bullet inflicted but a SLIGHT flesh wound.
The policemans recovery was slow,
however, as the crank had evidently
prepared the bullet with some sort of
poison. After firing the shot the luna
tic was overpoWered and placed in the
station house In due time he was sent
to the government hospital for the in
sane, but later taken charge of by some
of his friends in the middle west.
President Roosevelts guards were
once confronted by two woman suf-
fragists." They made the modest de-
mand that the president retire from
office Immediately in their favor. One
of the women had even gone so far as
to choose her own cabinet to assist in
the discharge of the duties of the ma
tons chief executive. Nor would she
stop there. The admiral of the navy
should no longer be q man, but q WO-
man. The other woman claimed that
President Roosevelt had boldly usurped
her place as the peoples choice. After
a short incarceration in the govern
ment hospital for the insane, both Wo-
men were sent back to their friends.
Another type of unwelcome visitor is
the man or woman of the inventive
mind. All of them have inventions that
VII lit rally reverse the forces of ma
ture and even change the positions of
the sun, the moon and the stars. All
of them are more than willing to let
the president in on the ground floor of
the fabulously capitalized and mirac
ulously successful stock companies they
have organized in their own minds. One
inventor from Colorado declared ne had
an invention that would utilize the
forces of gravity for almost any pur-
pose. Railroads might nc run by it.
automobiles driven, airships kept alOft,
millWheels turned and manufacturing
plants operated. Outside of the large
block of stock he wanted the president
to take, he begged the chief executive
to compel the commissioner of patents
to grant him patent on his invention.
Another inventor, who did not believe
in trusts, had marvellous scheme to
transport ice from the North Pole. in
order to force the ice kings into pow
erty and starvation. All that need he
done, he argued was to obtain con-
gressional appropriation for the cut