Weekly journal-miner., 1909-10-20
TOUR OF PRESIDENT SI|RS UP OLO
 OFFICERS
Historians Disagree Re- garding Incident During
 Hayes Visit


 the historians are mixed up and fu- ture generations are given a "bum" steer, says the Phoenix Republican. General Adna R. Chaffee at the re- ception of the president in Los An geles took occasion to spring a little story about the time President Hayes passed through Maricopa on a presi dentisl tour, accompanied by General McCook, then of equal rank with General Chaffee, with a company of soldiers stood on the platform to greet the party when it came. Ae- cording to the story the train did not stop and McCOok gave Chaffee the horse laugh from the rear end plat form.
 That the aforementioned president ial party did pass Maricopa in the winter of 1880 is attested to in many ways and General W. T. Sherman was also along, but that General Chaffee got the laugh from General MeCook on that occasion, is said by living witnesses to be a mistake in the rec ord. It must have been some other time, and some other station that Chaffee got his snubbing for though Chaffee was at Fort Mcdowell about that time and was probably at Mari copa with his men, the train stopped and the president shook hands with everybody on the platform, a proceed ing that is shortly to be described The story of that incident is thus related by Colonel McClintoek of this city who was then an impressiOnable youth and for the first time in his life saw real president and remem- bers the particulars of the incident vivdly.
 Col. McClintOck, his brother and mother, and the late Captain William A. Hancock and Mrs. Hancock form ed a party that drove to Marieopa solely to see the president, the Mari eopa of those days being about five miles west of the present station of that name and almost due south of Phoenix. The colonel says he. even remembers in considerable detail how the train looked. There was no avail able water at that time between the old Sweetwater tank in the vicinity nf Iaaa GranAa an1 Clio Ran1 perhaps even west of that point, and all trains carried huge water tank cars. There were two of them on the front end of the presidents train, and as usual they were covered with Indians who were then carried free whenever they chose to ride, which was most of the time.
 When the train came to a stop the president and Mrs. Hayes appeared on the platform and the former ad- dressed the little knot of perhaps thirty or forty people, citizens, h. dians, freighters, etc, that had gather ed, beside the company of soldiers from Fort Mcdowell that was lined l up in an attitude of "present arms" later carrying their carbines to the | shoulder. At the conclusion of the | speech the president suggested to the officer in charge that as the soldiers were so far out on the | frontier and away from civilization | they would doubtless appreciate his a usual custom and | shaking hands with each of them. They did, of course, and were so instructed when the president got off the car and passed along the line. What impressed MT. McClintoek was the awkwardness of what occurred. Instead of the men being ordered to parade rest or move their carbines to some position in their left hands, as the president approached each one he had to salute with his left hand, then hastily clutch his weapon in the left hand, shake with his right and bring the gun back to his shoulder again.
 Another incident of the same oe- ,asion that the colonel remembers was related to him on the trip back to Phoenix by Captain Hancock. Gen sral Sherman stood at the other end ,f the presidents s car, or the next ,ne to it. Captain Hancock having been something of a military officer himself was really as pleased to see Sherman as he was the president and walking back to him engaged him in General Sherman after the landscape from the plat form moved down on one of the ;teps and looking away in the direc- ion of Phoenix, soliloqnized .audibly, What a hell of a eountryi" The ,aptain told hlm of this beautiful 'i