The sun. [volume], April 28, 1912, FOURTH SECTION MAGAZINE, Image 41

About The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916

Image provided by: The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation

                
FOURTH SECTION
TWENTY PAGES
MAGAZINE
NEW YORK, SUNDAY, APRIL 28, 1912. Copyright, HI!, bV th Sun Printing and PMttMno Ato:iHon.
Harry Fiibniss & white poust
ftR. TURKISH
. CflTCKEb A VIEW
At.. WORK.
Washington', April 27.
HARRY FUKNISS. the English
artist and caricaturist, visited
tho White Houso while In Wash
ington making sketches for
Thb Son. Mr. Furniss was fortunate.
H got an interview with President
Toft on a Cabinet day and while in
tlio Executive offices had an opportunity
Lot only to make for Tun Su.v's readers
r, sketch of the President but also to jot
i.n paper Ills impressions of Vice-President
Slierman and Attorney-fieneral
Wickersham.
This was not the first time tho EnglMt
tutlit had been received by a President
(.f the United States He sketched.firover
Cleveland at the White House and also
President Harrison. For many years
Mr Kumiss In his Illustrated lectures
Tor he takes to the platrorm when h got
tired of sketching-told English nudi-j
trices of his Interview with President '
Harrison. He Used to throw on the j
screen a caricature of himself in Die net J
ft interviewing President Harrison. He ,
ud to tell in great detail what he said te
President Harrison, how he urged him to
promote closer rolations between the
I mtcd State and (treat Rritaln and coun
selled him generally on affairs of inter
niilon.il importance. Then when his
niilienee was eagerly anticipating Presi
dent Harrison's reply Mr. Furniss used to
i ''mark1
- tn,l thpn President Harrison utlit tn
fit. "
At this point a blank slide was thrown
,.r. tho screen and Mr. Kumiss suddenly
ii-sumnd his lecture on other features of
American life. Hut, as Mr. Furniss him
.!f acknowledges, the funniest thing
iiiiout this feature of his lecture is that
isany In the English atldlenees always
Mppd up to him later and asked &eri
i.mlv
Well, what did the President say to
Vijll''
If this question is ever put to Mr, I'ur
run in regard to his interview with Presi
dent, Tuft ho certainly will be obliged not
o linvo a blank elide pushed into his
lantern. Mr. Taft acknowledged to tho
l.uglHi artist that ho had had many n
hearty laugh over his caricatures. Mr.
FuroUs assured Mr. Taft that he intended
to make a perfectly serious sketch of the
PnMdent of the United States, and Mr.
Tatt, with a characteristic twinkle in
hii eye, wanted to know if It was possible
fir Mr Kumiss to make such a sketch
hi-n his subject lent himself so easily
l' the caricaturist's pencil.
It was a typically busy morning at the
White Houso when Mr. FumlsH called.
Ih" l.nglish artist was amazed at the
itmnii(ts made on the President's time
on.l the potty details which forco them
selves upon his icrsonal attention. In-
ill lew Americans appreciate the dally
io- 'inn through which the President
of tho I'nitod StatoB has to struggle for
nine or ten months each year. The man
woman who visits Washington and
li.iks hands with the President goes
tuiiio with only a very meagre concop
mil "f the tax that this privllogo alouo
uopwii iiion tho time and energy of tho
1 alf hteuutivo.
Ltarns of President's Day.
v it Furniss was intent between
Ifuft lies upon learning everything ikjs-
il u in regard to tho routine of the Prcsl
""in s tny in tho White Houso. It was
awn id o'clock in the morning when
l'i" K.ighKh artist reached tho executive
"" In the plainly furnished corridor
' i-.u s..ciiitary Wiles office twenty
i" ' i'iuv-llve persons already were
"'i I 'I hey had all been passed by
ii,m . rci uorvke men at tho door of the
lion... Mr. Furniss himself had
i ji'cied to the usual keen scrutiny,
l" t aiii'.ireiitlv he was inorii interested
' ni mt MM'vicn men thun they went
sketched 5v
HARK1? VURW3&.'
Why. vjr.hcrmw ts caused sunny am.
their (innual convention in Washington.
Here and there appeared Congressmen,
obviously intent upon vote making. The
standing rules of the White House provide
that Senators and Representatives having
constituents whom they desire merely to
present to the President will bo received
II- ntoiiDod In have a word or
mi-iii about Ihelr duties,
' i' Dim cullers heated III the tor-
i 'I- women, Daughters of the
Aiufi m devolution, who were holding
from 10 to 10:30 o'clock in the morning, I in comfortable seats arranged along the
except on Cabinet days. 1 wull. It was with these early visitors
This was a Cabinet day, but apparently that Artist Kumiss wax admitted to the
thoKepresentativeshadjibtninedappecial ' President's ofllce, and with the quick
dispensation, as many of them do, and ! eye of an artist he immediately began
were being received outside Uio regular to take in not only the President himself
I
Vice
SHEfcWfiN .
ON, DUTY.
VARIOUS
EXPRESSIONS
square mahogany deskr tho doors are
opened for tho visitors from Capitol Hill
-Senators and Representatives -who
have H;cia! appointments with him.
They are shown into the President's
private ofllce, the one containing the big
mahogany desk, and take their places
but ulso his surroundings ami the callers
who had come for interviews with, the
Chief Executive.
When his iM'iicil wasn't busy sketching
the President ami some of those who
called to see him Mr. Furniss was jotting
down his Impressions of tho room Itself,
The room in which Mr. Taft transacts his
most important business is very attrac
live, It is circular and looks out upon
tho While Hoiiko garden and a spot made
the democracy of these arrangements
and to contrast them with the red tape
that invests Interviews with high oflicials,
not to mention the King, in England.
Mr. Furniss was particularly interested
in a iortrait in a mahogany frame on tho
President's desk. It is practically the
only ornument except tho vase of flowers
that Mr. Tuft lias on his desk. It is tho
picture of l.loyd W. Rowers, his old class
mate In Vale, who was appointed Sollcitor
Oeiierul by him and who died after ho had
made a notable record in that ofllce and
was about to w appointed to the Supreme
Court. Mr. Taft has had Mr. Bowers'
picture on his desk over since the latter's
death.
There are only two other pictures in
the President's ofllce. One is that of his
father, and the other, strange to say, is
that of Col. Roosevelt. Many persons
have been watching for a change in tho
picture arrangement in thU ofllce, but Mr.
J Taft apparently believe that ho owes it
day
The reception hall of tho executive
offices is divided by a high screen. A few
minutes before l'i o'clock heavy steps on
the other side of this screen and the open
ing uud closing of the door leading to the
Cabinet room disclosed to tho initiated
that tho President of the United States
had oome over from the Whito House
proper by tho back way and hod settled
down for his day's work.
The chances are two to one that before famous ns tho "court of the tennis ( abl-, to his predecessor, at least as a mark of
entering tho executlvo offices tho Presi-1 not in tho days of Tlit'odoro. In fact, courtesy, to have tho picture in his private
dent had had some statesmen at the i the Prebident s ottlce, which was newly ofliou.
breakfast table. He sits down to break- built at l ho coming of the Taft Admlnls-' Constitution There Now.
faHtatuhoutHiaOo'cloekundoftcnlnvltesitrntlon. stands partly on this ground. I ....,.. fatur nf tho u-i.ito Houu
his friends or Cabinet advisers to get an ' A large bay window faces the south AmU ier rwuro or tho v, I ute Hmr-o
' i. n...ui.i... u...,..., i, iT .1... ....i,. i.., I,!., i... l offices Is of greut Interest to visitors who
for this meal. Before he lakes his seat at I do' that tho President holds his inter- i Hi which President
the breakfast table the President UMlully 1 views with callers. The lrcnidont's office , the walls of President Tuft's ofllce ani
lias hud a little exercise in the grounds is Miiall and whenever Mr. Taft raises shelves, enclosed in glass, and on thMt
back of the Whito House, and before 1 his voice a little above the ordinary tone, shelves uro the revised statutes of the
entering the executive ofllces he umially I of conversation he can be heard by nearly ttJrfeS
glances through copies of the morning I everybody In the room. Whenever a (,.il lloo'evelt's private ofllce. It is re
papers that have been specially marked Cabinet ofllcer enlers or Mr. Tuft Iiuh t-alhil that William l.oeb. .Ir., who was
by his secretary anil delivered at the something of u i oiillclenll.il character . secretary to President Hoo-evelt, was
White House. thai be Wiea to comniunicat.i to his ' coiiHiderably embarrassed the duy alter
' .. i... i .i .! i i. ... .President I aft lihil enleied the lillo
f. ft. nr WHior lit' eiifM mi ooietf alii u v les . : i ,,. r, n i i f. .
Air. Taft in His Office. . . i i . .i l ouse, when Mr, I aft called h iiu i i to in
"", '"J "' Hi" caller into an anteroom between the 1 ,,i,,.. ,lti,.,,i ,,-,.,,.,,,...
, , , , .... ihih ii mtii i.nni.w ivi lavi'i'v ,ri ,,,it,,iiri-
IMPRESSED MR fURNT&Sj'
sisilor
lie
As so in lis the I'rerHlelil is waled tn(ollic and IIih I aliinel rnoni, 'Iho eye tulion. Mr. l.oeb hunted around in the
his ofnee in his big urmclutir lit a large of the English artist was quick to uotu ' Executive cilice and finally acknowledged
with a smile that he couldn't find one. These const ittitents usually tiln through 1 and paper making u sketch of him for
I The llrst half hour in the President's ' the President's office while h stands Si n lenders.
'ofllce day, except on oeeuslons when the near one of the doom wilh a handshake Viced'reMdent hhermni) and Attorney.
Cabinet meets, is given over to Senators , ami a cheerful word for euoli. It wi i. ner.il icltershnm both lialtod Ht the
and Representative, who come to the while the President was grouting a dele White House to cliut with Mr rurnUjt,
'White House with constituents whom 1 gutloti of I). A. It. women In this way which gave him it good opportunity W
I they deslru to present to the President. 1 that Mr Furniss wa busy with his pencil , put his uupietelOM of toetn ou paper.