WOES OF A PRESIDENT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12260, 10 June 1914, Page 8

WOES OF A PRESIDENT.

j- MR WILSON'S DAILY .MASK. I A remarkable address was delivered l>y President Wilson to the Washington Press Club. He contradicted tile descriptions of liiiiiKolf which lincl been made ever since he inaugurated, such as that ho v.a:- cold ;ui(j without human . warmth, and that he pos.-essed an intellectual m;tchine instead of a heart. 'I ho : address was privately delivered; but at the earnest solicitation ci the ne-.vtpaprr correspondents he [:':n/i;!"'':d its publication. The President s-aiil: "I tremble to think of the variety and falseness of the impressions 1 make', that I am a cold and removed ],ei.-,on who has a thinking machine which lie di.es >iol allow to be mu\ :-d by affection <;;■ emotiv l !!. 1 am nor. aware of having a detachable apparatus inside me. Oil the contrary, my constant "inbanacsment is to restrain niy emotions. \oti may not'believe it. but I sometimes feel like fire from a volcano, and if the, lava does not seem to lipill over it i» because you are not high enough to see into the basin and see the cauldron boil. "Ii" I seem circumspect it is because I am so diligently trying not to make any colossal blunders. Ii you calculate "the number of blunders a fellow' can make ill 24 hour.T if he is not careful and dees not listen more than he talks, you would see something of my feeling. 'lhat. I daresay. is what gives the impression of circumspectiiess. lam listening diligently, trying to collect all brains that arc borrowable, in older that I may not make more blunders than it.is inevitable that a man should make who lias great limitations of knowledge and capacity. "Arid* the emotion uf the thing is so great that I suppose I must have i»m«' kind of mask to conceal if. I really leel as ii 1 were masquerading when I catcli a picture of myself in some printed description. I can hardly refrain from tipping the public the wink every now and again, as much as to say it is.only 'me' that's inside this thing, and I know perfectly well I have to get out presently. •'Certainly precedents have been established that in certain companies people must give way to the President, and must not sit if lie stands. It is very uncomfortable to have to think of all the other people every time I get up and sit down and all thaL sort of thing. So when I get guests in my own house and the public is shut out, 1 adjourn being President andtake Ifave to be a gentleman. _ If they draw back and insist upon my doing __§pmsthing first, I firmly decline. There" are blessed intervals when I forget by one means or another that I am President. One means by which I forget is to get a rattling good detective story, and get after some imaginary. offender, and chase him all over.

"If I were free I should come frequently to these rooms. I never was in Washington but a very few times and for a very few hours until I came last year, and 1 never expect -to see the inside of the public buildings until niy term is over. The minute I. turn up anywhere 1 am personally conducted to beat the band. The curator, assistant curators, and every other blooming official turns up, and they show me so much attention that I do not see the building. I should have to say: 'Stand aside and let me see what you are. showing me.' Some day after I am through witli this office I am coming back to Washington to see it. "I have sometimes thought of going to a theatrical costumier's and buying an assortment of beards, rouge, and c'olourings.. If I could disguise myself and not get caught I should go out and bo a free American . citizen once more, and have a jolly time. I might then meet some of you gentlemen and actually teli vou what I ■really thought."