THE TROUBLES OF THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT'S WIFE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 11739, 12 September 1890, Page 3

THE TROUBLES OF THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT'S WIFE.

, Whatever may bo tho advantages of boing President of tbo United States— and they should be great, considering the vehemence with which the struggle for j the position is carried on — the President's wife seems to have a hard timo of it. The lady who now fills that exalted position, Mrs Harrison, has just disclosed to a sympathetic visitor a few of her trials, and the Daily News republißhes the woeful 1 story at largo, for the benefit of whom it may concern. Mrs Harrison, it seems, finds the want of privacy one of her greatest trials. The only private sittingroom devoted to tbe family use is a draughty little place at the end of a |long corridor. Every time the President has his hair cut, or his wife changes horgown, the event is recorded in the newspapers. Then the unfortunate lady is made the constant target for innumerable questions, some of them of -a very perplexing kind. In the midst of the presidential campaign some one went to her to know if marriage was a failure. A woman -went all the way to Indianapolis to ask her "if the bustle was to go." Another wanted to know if she approved of women proposing instead of men. She has had any number of applications to ask what blossom she prefers for the national flower. A man called not long ago, desiring to know if the iPresident was fond of pie. The " crazy quilt people," we are assured, are worse than all. They apply by the hundreds to Mrs Marrison for scraps of her dress. Scores of them send her bits of silk, on Which she is requested to write her name, the autograph being intended to form tho centre-piece of a crazy quilt. If she does not immediately comply with their demands, they write and beg' of her to hurry up. Dress reformers make her life a burden to her. She is flooded with temperance literature, and not content with this, temperance enthusiasts call and harangue her by the hour on the evils of strong drink. They could not do more, she pathetically remarks, if she were a drunkard of the most abandoned type. Infant prodigies ure constantly being brought to "White House, and Mrs Harrison and her daughter are expected to witness their performances. Begging letters, of course, arrive m shoals. One person wrote, stating that sl-e had " located " on the President's wife for a New Year's gift, and adjuring her to he sure to prepay the charge, as the applicant has fully made up her mind never again to pay anything on a parcel that she has not seen the inside of. "So pay the express when you ship the present, so that I will not have to break my vow. Your truo friend, Mrs G. W." Needless to say the President's wife is favoured with tons of advice. One lady requested . her not to sign her name " Carrie," as being in the writers opinion undignified. Another hopes that she will not " bang" her hair, that is, wear it in a fringe on her fore-head— probably . the most sensible of the lot. Wheh the Presidential coachman's livery was changed to dark green, quite an avalanche of letters couched in terms of angry protest, descended on poor Mrs Harrison's head If American young ladies are wise they will not fix .on budding Presidents as the partners of their joys and sorrows, unless they wish to have an undue share of tbe latter