The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-04-16

having said goodby to the man to whose hands be had intrusted the dear est enterprise of all his life, he turned back to his desk in the little office room, and throughout the long and heated day, following a night spent wholly without sleep, he remained en- gagged in his usual labors, which were the heavier in his secretary's absence.
 He was an old man now, but giant in frame, giant in mind, giant in industry as we'll. He sat at his desk absorbed, sleepless, with that steady application which made possible the enormous total of his lifes work. He was writing in a fine, delicate hand legible to this day-certain of those thousands of letters and papers which have been given to us as the record of his career.
 In what labor was the president of the United States engaged on this par ticularly eventful day? It seems he found more to do with household mat ters than with affairs of state. He was making careful accounts of his French cook, his Irish coachman, his black servants still remaining at his country house in Virginia.
 All his life Thomas Jefferson kept itemized in absolute faithfulness list of all his personal expenses, even to the gratuities he expended in travelling and entertainment.
 As to the code of official etiquette which we have seen to exist in Wash ington, the president himself was re- sponsible for it, for we have, written out in his own delicate hand, the fol lowing explicit instructions:
 The families of foreign ministers. arriv- ing at the seat of government. receive the first visit from those of the national min isters, as from all other residents. Mem bers of the legislature and of the judicta- ny, independent of their offices. have right as strangers to receive the first wis it. No title being admitted here, those or foreigners give no precedence. Dlnerence of grade among the diplomatic members gives no precedence.
 At public ceremonies the government in vites the presence of foreign ministers and their families. A convenient seat or station will be provided for them, with any other strangers invited. and the fani- lies of the national ministers, each taking place as they arrive and without any pre- cedence.
 To maintain the principle of equality, or of pellmell, and prevent the growth of precedence out of courtesy, the members of the executive will practice at their own houses and recommend an adherence to the ancient usages of the country of gen. tlemen in mass giving precedence to the ladies in mass in passing from one apart ment where they are assembled into an- other.
 And so on through reams and reams of a strange mans life records.
 Why should we care to note his cu- rious concern over details? The an swer to that question is this: Obvious ly Thomas Jefferson's estimate of man must also in all likelihood have been curiously exact. He did not make public to the world his judgment of Colonel Aaron Burr, at that time vice president of the United States. But in his diary, written in frankness by himself for himself, he put down the following:
 I have never seen Colonel Burr till he became a member of the senate. His con- duct very soon inspired me with distrust. habitually cautioned MT. Madison against trusting him t.o much. I saw that ender General w. and MT. Adams. where q great military appointment or dlplo- matic one was to be made, he came post to Philadelphia to show himself, and in fact he was always in the market if they wanted him. He was indeed told by Day ton in 1900 that he might be secretary at war, but this bid was too late. His elec- tion as vice president was then foreseen. With these impressions of Colonel Burr there never has been any Intimacy be- tween us and but little association.
 A certain plan of this same Colonel Burr now went forward in such fash ion as involved the loyalty of Meri- wether Lewis, the man to whom, of all others of his acquaintance, Thomas Jefferson gave first place in trust and confidence and friendship-the young man who but now was making his un- ostentatious departure on the great ad- venture that they two had planned.
 His garb ill cared for, his hair un- kempt, his face trifle haggard, work ing on into the day whose dawn he had seen arise, the tall, gaunt old man set aside first one minor matter, then an csaer, leaving them all exactly finish ct. At last he wrote down for later forwarding the last item of his own knowledge regarding the new country into which he had sent his young friend
 Gro be continued.)