The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-06-02
Pants Pressing Royalty

MIR. COOLIDGE once was photographed stomp
IV1 ing about the grass on snowshoes in summer
and Mr.. Harding was induced to pose for a pic
ture with a fat lady in the costume of an oriental
kootch dancer, who was represented to him as an
Egyptian princess, travelling with her court officials.
When the photographs dropped onto the picture
editors desks in New York one member of the
suite was recognized as a former pants preSser and
the other as a former book agent, both of whom had
a strange passion for dressing up in military uni
forms which they obtained from a masquerade
house and pretending to be foreigners of high rank.
The White House is crashproof now and Mr..
Roosevelt's aversion to that type of newspaper art or
publicity which Al Smith described as baloney pic
lures, undoubtedly has caused great distress among
the press agents who used to arrange many anus
ing scenes. It must be especially hard on the Indian
politicians who could always count on a President to
sit for a picture in a headdresS Of chicken feathers,
pulling on a cold pipe, as the chief of the tribe pro-
nounced hocuS pocuS. over him and indicted him into
the tribe.
The citizens sent Mr.. Roosevelt ffty-fve cakes on
his last birthday, weighing from five to 500 pounds
and they might be interested to know that he tasted
no part of any of them because the Secret Service
would not let him. These sentimental contributions
were sent to local institutions whose inmates could
afford to take chances on the presence of poison or
ground glass.
No Pie Eating
I IKE a sport writer, Mr.. Roosevelt is not sup
IL posed to accept gifts of value, and rejects all
such on the ground that if he were to keep one
the donor presently might drop around to remind
him of it and ask a favor.
At Thanksgiving or Christmas they might keep a
turkey or two out of the many which are received,
but the majority Of these fowl are distributed among
the sick and poor and no President has yet been
allowed to gnash a tooth to any Of the colossal
apple pies and cherry pies which Chambers of Com
merce in various fruit-producing regions have sent
across country, sometimes by air, with their COM
pliments.
The gents and ladies Of the cinema who have
paid their funds for fan letters with which to i'm
press their employers would envy the President. of
the United States on days when he has been on the
air with an address to the citizens and the public
response is beginning to appear in the mail bags.
But a statistician has reckoned that if he were
to answer his mail in person, giving three minutes
of his time to each letter and telegram, the job Of
attending to one days batch of 5000 would keep
him busy $50 hours. 1t is more time than he can
spare from his other duties which ordinarily keep
him going from g a. m. to midnight, including seven
or eight hours at his office desk so most of the fan
mail is acknowledged by form letter and all but
the more promising communications are thrown
away.
Not all of the people who write to a President
are nuts, however, and every mail brings ideas which
are worth sending over to the state department, the
treasury, or some other branch for consideration.
Copyright. 1884, by United Feature Syndicate. Inc)