Evening star., 1922-08-20

OF a dozen or more Presidents and
he comes to offer his good wishes
and to pledge his allegiance to the
present occupant of the White House.
Twisting. turning in sinuous
stream, led by the member of Con-
| gress from their district and the
female principal of their school, is a
delegation of senior high school
girls. who have for year or two
| saved their nickels and dimes In or
der that they may come TO Washing
ton some time during this summer
and call upon the President of the
United States. Giggles cease. and
as each miss steps forward to place
her little hand in that of the Presi-
dent of this great nation, blush
steals over her cheek and the little
formal salutation which she had been
carefully composing for the past two
years disappears, while the conven-
tional Il am pleased to meet you,
Mr.. President" takes it's place When
this aggregation of young American
women is finally shooed out again
into the grounds surrounding the
White House. there is class moD'
meeting. Each undergraduate must
simply at once give vent to her feel
ings and say what she thinks of the
President, or else she will bust
right then and there
A T this moment Secretary Christian
brings in a man of just beyond
middle age. He is one of those
among the crowd of bigger boys"
that lived in the same town that
Warren Harding did. The President.
whose memory is remarkable. re-
MEMBERS him and they chat for
few minutes about the earlier and
perhaps happier days. He is quite
unlike another style of person. who
perhaps has met the President once
in Ohio about thirty or forty years
ago, and who loudly proclaims. when
he comes to the White House that
there will be no doubt about the
President seeing him. He generally
phrases ii in a manner like this:
''Oh. just tell Warren ! am here. We
know each other so we'll he will see
me at any time"
The President who really dislikes
to hurt any ones feelings. generally
lets this kind of individual do most
of the talking. and treats him cour-
teously. but you can bet your last
simoleon that the White House at
taches mentally index the man who
claims to be such an intimate friend.
and if he becomes frequent visitor
to the executive mansion, generally
skunt him off to one side.
Along come another member of the
House of Representatives. He has
two constituents in tow. one of them
bitter partisan who never has and
never will vote anything but the
| democratic ticket When the Presi-
dent grasps his hand he gets all f1us-
cred, and. not knowing what to say.
blurts out: Il didn't vote for you last
time, Mr.. President. but I'm going to
vote for you the hext time you run
When this party passed into the open.
his old-time democratic conscience
gives him twinge. and he mutters:
Il wonder if he will remember that
promise His friend from back home
says not word. but is simply biding
his time until they get back to their
native city. and then at some poker
gathering he will tell the story of
how Ed" turned republican after he
met the President
Then there comes the near-leader OF
society. who gushingly informs the
chief executive that she has been
sent down here as special repre-
sentative Of the Ladies' Civic Inn
provement League to invite the Presf-
dent to attend a meeting of their
organization on Thanksgiving day OF
this year. and that she simply can't
return home until the President has
promised that he and Mrs. Harding
will visit their city on that date.
THESE and numerous others con-
stitute. in part, some of the
visitors that come to the White House
each workday every week They come
from far and near, and whether or not
their mission is crowned with success
or dimmed by failure, they return to
their native heath with the impress
sion that the President is a genial.
human American. In this opinion they
are correct. for Warren G. Harding,
like William Mckinley, does like to
mingle and to grasp the hand of his
fellow countrymen.