Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1912-02-22

LdICuy anu DdL1Si webster COuQSC-
ton Herewith.
President Harrison's inaugural
message proved the duration of his
/ attachment to PlutaTch. Plutarch's
heroes would have appeared therein
in still greater numbers but for an
untimely fate that kept them out.
TT was said at the time that the
morning before the message was de-
livered the secretary of state elect
CWebster) was met by a friend walk
ing in the vicinity Of the White
House in no little apparent perturba-
lion.
What is the matter with you this
morning. Mr.. Webster? inquired mis-
friend; you seem agitated.'
'Agitated, sir! and who would not
feel agitated, that had committed the
murder 1 have this morning.
'MurderI Mr. Webster?'
Aye, sir, murder; murder with
malice aforethought, Of I know not
how many Greeks and Romans
It may have been Of benefit to Har-
rison's- writing style that Webster
was merciless copy reader.
Remove White House Police.
Finally the order relieving twenty
two policemen from duty in and about
tie White House has gone into effect
The president and his household still
are pretty well guarded, but the diff
Guilty will come when the spring in
fiux of sightseers sets in to Washing
ton. From the middle of February
until the first of June Washington is
crowded with sightseers, a large part
/ of whom are brides and groonns. The
most Of them insist upon their inner
ent right as American citizens to go
| to the White House ito see the presi-
dent"
A good many policemen are neoes-
sary to handle White House crowds
in the springtime They act as ush-
ers more than as police officers, and
they have their hands full. President
Taft is much easier going in the mat
ter of receiving people than were
some Of his predecessors.
Just about one-third of those who
| come to Washington ask to be intro
duced to the president, and as no
representative dares to decline to do
| the honors for fear of losing votes,
he takes his home people over to the
White House and gives them the Op-
portunity to say Good morning" to
man who, 10 matter how he may
| feel, makes each visitor believe in
his or her heart that the president
of the United States would have been
| desOlated if he or she had ventUred
to leave Washington without making
a personal call at the White House.
Midshipman "Pete" Russell.
William E. Russell is the envoy
extraordinary and minister plenipo-
Tertiary of the United States to the
Dominican republic Mr. Russell is
one of the picturesque men of the
governments foreign service. Once
| on a time he was our minister to
Venezuela when President Castro
was in all his troubling glory. When
the officials of the department of
state and naval officers happen to get
together they find stories of William
w Russell appealing, for the envoy
extraordinary is as well known in
naval circles as he is in state circles.
Mr.. Russell is a grave diplomat
with a light in his eye that neither
gravity nor position can put out.
But he was not always a grave one
burdened with the affairs of state.
Once upon a time he was Pete"
Russell, midshipman in the United
States Naval Academy. William was
changed into Pete" the minute
that he reported at Annapolis, but
truth compels the statement that
neither the official archives nor the
middies' archives disclose the reason
for turning William into Pete Suf-
fice it to know that the middies
would have it that way, and that way
it went
Midshipman Russell had a way
with him, and the middies and the
authorities were not long in finding
it out. Pete had difficulty in re-
straining himself on occasion.
Breakers Under His Bow
One Sunday at Annapolis the chap
lain preached long and droningly
The listening middies were tired out
with the heat Of the day and the bur
den of the sermon, which lasted one
hour and ten minutes. The sermon
over, a soloist in the choir, started
in to sing Sun of My Soul" He
went through the first line untrip-
pingly and then struck into the sec
ond 1T is not night" he sang.
Then he repeated "It is not night"
and repeated it again. The sermon
and the song got on Pete" Russell's
nerves. He stood up, whistled melo-
diously but very loudly the tune &C
cOmpanying the third and fourth
lines of the first stenza of Sun Of
sly Soul" and then before the Devil
dered and shocked officers could put
in an interference, he calmly de-
manded the soloist to get a move on
him.
They grabbed Pete out from the
middle pew seat and marched him
down the aisle under guard. When
the corps was dismissed and was
marching back to the barracks Pete
was going in the opposite direction
headed for the prison ship Santee,
with his books and his blanket swung
over his shoulder AS he passed the
marching middies and the officers in
command he was heard loudly solilo-
quizing. with his head we'll down in
counterfeit abjectness:
Poor Pete, poor Pete, breakers
right under Pete's bow