A Snapshot at the President (Henry)
A reporter from Austin, Texas, was sent to Washington D.C. to interview President Cleveland. The reporter carried a small wooden sphere, painted dark and adorned with a twisted pendant, as an emblem of his newspaper, The Rolling Stone. Upon arriving in Washington, the reporter went straight to the Capitol and encountered several people who, upon seeing the sphere, fled in fear, thinking it was a bomb.
When the reporter finally met President Cleveland, the President initially mistook him for a dynamiter and prepared to die for his country. However, the reporter quickly clarified that he was a journalist from Texas, and the sphere was merely an emblem of his newspaper.
I’m no bum,” I said, with spirit. “I represent The Rolling Stone, of Austin, Texas, and this I hold in my hand does the same thing, but, it seems, unsuccessfully.
Relieved, the President engaged in conversation with the reporter, discussing various aspects of Texas, its politics, and its people.
During the interview, the reporter asked President Cleveland about his thoughts on the political future of the country, to which the President responded with a lengthy and complex statement. The reporter then asked more personal questions, but the President declined to answer them, stating that his private affairs did not concern the public.
You Texans have a great representative in Senator Mills,” he said. “I think the greatest two speeches I ever heard were his address before the Senate advocating the removal of the tariff on salt and increasing it on chloride of sodium.
Before parting ways, President Cleveland expressed his interest in visiting Texas and learning more about the state.
When you get back to Texas,” said the President, rising, “you must write to me. Your visit has awakened in me quite an interest in your State which I fear I have not given the attention it deserves.
The reporter then left the White House and returned to Austin, albeit with some difficulty due to losing his return ticket.