Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1914-03-25
scription.
Holds Grip on Himself.


ternoons and ask me questions, know
what is in the back of your heads ami
! could tell you something more than
l do tell you, but do not tell you any
1oore than l am sure of. try to keep
a grip on myself The other day, the
last time we were together the nat
ural man got to the front of the stage
and | had to talk to you as an individ-
ual and not as the President Of the
United States l wish there were more
occasions when l could do that, be-
cause l have this feeling, gentlemen
In between things that l have to do
as public officer l never think of my
self as the President of the United
States, because l never have had any
sense of being identified with that Of
fee. feel like person appointed for
a certain length of time to administer
that Office, and feel just as much out
side Of it at this moment as l did be-
fore l was elected to it. feel just as
Imuch outside of it as l still feel out
side of the government of the United
States. No man could imagine himself
the government of the United States;
but he could understand that some
Part Of his fellow citizens had told him
to go and run a certain part of it the
best he knew how. That would not
make him the government itself or the
thing itself 1t would just make him
responsible fer running it the best he
knew how. The machine is so much
greater than himself, the Office is SO
much greater that he can ever be, and
tie most he can do is to look grave
enough and self-possessed enough to
seem to fill it.
Feels Like Giving the Wink.
Z can hardly refrain every now and
again from tipping the public the
wink, as much as to say, IT is only
me" that is inside this thing I know
perfectly well that l will have to get
out presently. I know that then l will
look just my own proper size, and that
for the time being the proportions are
somewhat refracted and misrepreser:-
ed to the eye by the large thing l am
inside of, from which I am tipping you
this wink
For example, take matters Of this
sort: will not say whether it is wise
or unwise, simple or grave, but certain
precedents have been established that
in certain companies the President
must leave the room first, and people
must give way to him. They must not
sit down if he is standing up. 1t is q
very uncomfortable thing to have to
think of all the other people every
time l get up and sit down, and all
that sort Of thing. So that when | get
tguests in my own house and the pub
lie is shut out, / adjourn being Presi-
dent and take leave to be a gentlema1 1.
II they draw back and insist upon my
ioing something first, l firmly declin .
There are blessed intervals when for
ret by one means or another that l am
resident of the United States. One
means by which l forget is to get a
attling coed detective story, get after
ome imaginary offender, and chase
i'm all over-preferably any continent
lut this. Because the various parts OF
his continent are becoming painfully
,uggestive to me. The postoffice and
many ether things which stir remin-
iscence have 'sicklied them DER with a
pale cast of thought There are post
offices to which l wouldn't think Of
without trembling with the knowledge
o. the heartburnings of the struggl1
there was in connection with getting
somebody installed as postmaster.
Now if l were free, Id come not
infrequently up to these rooms. You
know l never was in Washington but a
very few times and for a very few
hours until l came last year, and I
never expect to see the inside Of the