Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 90, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1903 — JOKE HARRISON ENJOYED. [ARTICLE]

JOKE HARRISON ENJOYED.

Bnt Jnatice Field, on Whom It Was Told, Failed t« fee the Fun In It, For all his ice and chilly quietudes President Harrison owned a sense of humor, and would now and then get hold of a Joke and treasure it as a schoolboy might an apple, having it frequently out of his pocket to exhibit and adniire. One such, says a writer in the Saturday Evening Post, is a story he was ever quick to tell on the austere Justice Field, who didn’t like it. Complaining letters of all sorts come to a President. Ope day a Western marshal grew querulous because an item in his accounts, by which the government wjg charged with a carriage furnished Field from his hotel to the court, had been disallowed. The grief was made tbe sharper since his fellow-marshal of an adjoining State had likewise furnished a carriage for Field when he held court within his district, and the charge had been allowed and paid. Commonly little attention is given to these cries of the wronged beyond what is required to shunt them upon a “proper” oflicial—usually the one against whom complaint is lodged. But In thltf Instance Harrison asked his secretary to discover the truth of the trouble. Wbff was one charge allowed and thq other refused? The secretary took a look Into the riddle and learned that the fortunate one had been sagacious enough to Include the carriage for Field In his item of expense “For care and transportation of prisoners,” In that way it was allowed., lit used to give Harrison mtith pleasure to relate this yarn; Field, however, saw nothing funny In it-,