Evening journal., 1914-03-24
News News Of Yesterday
A Curious Fact Concerning
American ex-PreSidents
BY HoH.nd.

a year or two after Abram s. Hewitt
finished his term as mayor OF New York
city J spent am hour with him at a
time when he was disposed to be remi-
niscent and reflective. ! asked him If he
remembered conversation hc had in
1889 as we rode together from his Wash
ngton home, near Jackson Square, to
the capitol Mr. Hewitt was at that
time a member of the Lower House of
Congress. lie asked me TO what / refer
red aud ! said to him that had called
his attention 10 a paragraph in a news
paper in which Mr.. Hewitt was recon-
mcnded as a Democratic candidate for
the Presidential nomination Of 1854
do YOU remember what you said
TO me when ! called your attention 20
this paragraphs" ] asked him.
Tie said that he had not the slightest
recollection. ] then told him that he
said: ~ am the last man who ought TO
enter the White House ~ President
The responsibilities and annoyances and
confusion would kin me within three
months. They Killed President William
Henry Harrison in one"
Mr.. Hewitt smiled grimly and then
said:
NO doubt ! thought so then. But
now know that any man of conscen.
tious purpose who is able to serve az
mayor of New York for two years with
out breaking down completely would be
able to live through Presidential term.
81 am astonished sometimes when /
think of the mental and physical
strain / endured during my term as
mayor of New York. In my opinion
II a mayor Is absolutely conscientious
and is anxious to be something more
than a mere igurehead, the Office is
the most trying one any American
citizen can hold"
He was silent for a few moments
and, | thought, was about TO revert
to some of the grievous annoyances
and the difficult encounters with the
bosses which were a part of his eX-
periences as a mayor. Instead OF
that he spoke of an entirely different
matter, saying: Il wonder If il has
ever occurred to anyone but myself
what a brief term of life the great
majority of our Presidents, at leas'
since 1860, had after they retired
from the. White House. This thought
occurred to me one day and so forci-
bly, that I determined to look into
the histories of ex-Presidents. I
found to my astonishment that while,
with the exception of Monroe, all of
the Presidents between Jefferson and
Van Buren, lived several years after
their retirement from the presidency,
a strange mortality appeared to cut
short the lives of almost all of those
who served in that Office after James
K. Polk died.
Monroe lived only a few years
after he retired, and / have been told
that one of the chief causes of his
early death was the sense of hu-
initiation that he should have been
compelled to rely somewhat upon
the benefaction of others for his sup
port
POLK lived only short time after
he retired from the presidency. Mil
lard FILLMORE survived longer than
almost all the the others. | remem-
ber to have seen Martin Van Buren,
early in 1862. He was then vigor-
GUS, although he had been twenty
one years out of the presidency.
ANDREW Johnson had only short
time TO live after he retired from the
Presidency. General Grant retired
in 1877 and died in 1885 Arthur lived
a little over a year after he retired,
in 1885. President Hayes lived
twelve years.
81 find myself wondering whether
the very great strain TO which a
President is subjected, at least in
these later days of our intense ac-
tivity, did not tend to sap their
strength / don't know whether this
is so or not, but. but l do know that
the average years remaining for an
eX-president of the United States, at
least since 1850, have been not much
over ten Did you ever think how
few the number of living ex-presi-
dents has been? That thought has
very often occurred to me-"
Copyright, 1914. by h. j. Edwards
All rights reserved)
Tomorrow Mr. Edwards will tell
What Might Have Happened to Col
onel Watterson."