The National tribune., 1909-03-18

President Taft's inaugural addres:
was over 5000 words in length, the
longest on record, excepting William
Henry Harrison's and Polk's. There
have been six Presidents who exceeded
the 4.000-word limit, namely, Monroe
Van Buren,, William Henry Harrison
-Polh, Benjamin Harrison and Mckinley
William Henry Harrison holds the rec
ord for length. however. His inaugural
address contained $500 words Thint;
of sitting in the snow and slush of last
Thursday week, listening to nearly 10,-
900 words of ali inaugural address, The
briefest inaugural addresses have prob
ably been, without exception, the long
est remembered. Among these Were
Washington's and Lincolns. Johnson
and Arthur also come in this class. Lin
coins second inaugural contained bu;
750 words, but its splendid prophecy
will never be forgotten while the Eng
lish language is spoken.
Vice President Sherman. who was
Chairman of the House Committee on
Indian Affairs, received from his col
leagues a magnificent card case in solid
gold just before he retired from the
House. The presentation was made by
Representative Phil Campbell.
When one sees Miss Torrey. the
once realize why he thinks So highly of
maiden aunts' Miss Tofrey is 81
years old, white-headed, serene looking,
and with the air of the We're de We're.
Mr. Taft says of her that she is the
only representative OF his family of the
last generation, and the dearest wo-
man in the world" Miss Torrey was
the sister of President Taft's mother.
Right now is a good time to make
the remark that President Taft does
not smoke, does not use tobacco in any
form whatever. In this he and ex-
President Roosevelt were of one mind,
tobacco is a filthy weed President
Taft does not indulge in liquor drink
ing. Some harmless old ladies are al
ready petitioning the Presidents wife
to abolish wines from the White House
table. While il is more than probable
that the glasses of every member of
the Presidents family will be turned
down for everything, except possibly
sauterne and claret, which is the wine
for the stemach's sake" of which St.
Paul speaks, it is not at all likely that
wine will be abolished from the White
House tables. The Tafts cannot be
keepers for the appetites of the guests
they entertain. II is proper to say right
here, however, that the drinking"
habit has been entirely abolished in the
w
that is meant that Spirits" such as
whisky. brandy, gin and that sort of
thing. are never seen on a fashionable
table in Washington. This kind of
drinking faded away years ago. Light
wines are served on many tables, but
they are so light as to be almost nom
intoxicant.
Save the mark. but ex-President
Roosevelt must have a strong stomach.
His medicine case for Africa contains
1900 tabloid doses of half a hun
dred medicines. and 40 per cent of it is
'keeneen," as the over-nice pronounce
1T. but really just plain quinine. The
medicines are mostly such as are taken
to ward off diseases prevalent in equa-
torial Africa. These include chemicals
to make swamp water palatable and
sure cures for snake bite-and there is
not a liquid among the whole lot, mind
you There are, however, some stimu-
lants and opiates, also knives and band
ages, and all are packed in unbreakabIe
and air-tight bottles of vulcanite COM
position and all fitted into an aluminium
case.
Ruth Bryan Leavitt has got her de-
cree of divorce. She is probably re-
membering now how much opposed to
this match her father and mother were.
some heed to their parents objections
SO hasty marriage.
Mrs. Taft is going to do things diff
ferent." In the first place. she isn't
going to have policemen opening the
front door to her guests. Second place,
she isn't going to have a steward of
the White House. Third place, she isn't
going to have Social Secretary.
Great big colored butlers will open the
historic doors of ti>a White House TO
guests during the Taft regime 1t is
more than likely that they will get
mixed up with all sorts of undesirables
and taboos in the process, for it stands
to reason that men who have been
trained thru long years to watch and
understand the vagaries of the Wan
sering Willie" pubIic-and that includes
d lot of would-be society men and wo-
men-are going 10 have a great deal of
discrimination as 10 whom shall be ad-
mitted. and colored buffers won't. The
steward has been a White House insti-
luton for many years, and he now gives
way to a "housekeeper," which sounds
right funny for Washington. All the
big state dinners are prepared outside
the White House by caterers, however
SO that will not make any difference
1t would be impossible with White