Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1881 — Presidential Hand-Shaking. [ARTICLE]

Presidential Hand-Shaking.

Our Presidents ought, in self-dofenoo, if for no other reason, to decline to shake hands with all the world. Why should the people subject a President of the United States to absolute cruelty ? At least, we ought to have the good sense to defer the torture until ho lias done sdmething to deserve it. Few porsons have the least idea of the misery that is involved in a man’s standing three hours, while 2,000 people file past him, each giving the victim’s right hand a wrench proportioned to the warmth of his patriotism, or the heat of his politics. There is also the still weightier objection of profaning—as a meaningless form—one of the symbols of devoted, manly friendship. Upon the whole, this White House handshaking is a custom that should bo more honored in the breach than iu the ob-. servance. -