MR. TAFT'S HANDSHAKE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 118, 21 May 1910, Page 10

MR. TAFT'S HANDSHAKE.

*> Extraordinary scenes were witnessed on 23rd March at the White House when a deputation of New England schoolteachers and pupils, numbering nearly two thousand, forced their way into the building for an audience of the President. Mr. Taft had promised to receive them during the day, stales the Washington correspondent of the Chronicle, but owing to State business had been detained rather longer than he expected. The deputation had been waiting about two hours when their patience became exhausted, and a tumultuous rush was made for the doors. The police were quite powerless to control the surging crowd, and the eager delegates swarmed into the White House by doors and windows, regardless of dignity. The invaders, who included many women, reached the President's ante-room in a most dishevelled and battered condition, and several women fainted in the crush. Ready assistance was lent by the White House officials and police, who through-, out preserved the utmost good humour, and the President soon appeared upon the scene with apologies for keeping his admirers waiting. He spoke a few cordial words of welcome, and then had to undergo the ordeal of shaking hands with each of the delegates, but after exchanging handshakes with over one thousand seven hundred he was compellel to abandon tho task exhausted. During the reception the nsual entrances to the White Houso were absotutely blocked by the New Engenders, and official callers, including Senators and foreign Ambassadors and Ministers, were compelled to make their entry by the back doors.