Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 140, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 December 1904 — WHITE HOUSE GIFTS. [ARTICLE]

WHITE HOUSE GIFTS.

How Manta Claus Comes to the President's Family. vVagon loads of gifts are received at the White House at Christmas time They come from ail parts of the country, the majority of them from persons unknown to the President and his wife. These miscellaneous articles are the private property of the recipients, nud the numerous parcels are placed in one of the family rooms for examination. They generally contain the names of the donors, and to all these notes of thanks are sent. On Christmas eve all the employes of the house—the clerical staff, the ushers and the domestic servants —are given, through the established munificence of the President, a fine fat turkey. Fifty fowls, selected from the best in the market, are purchased for this event, so that everybody about the famous mansion has reason for rejoicing. No one expresses his happiness with a more beaming couutennnce than does Jerry Smith, the old colored man who has been a member of the presidential household since the beginning of Grant’s first term. Jerry was President Grant’s cook, but in these days he dusts the offices of tho White House and keeps things tidy there ns the traditional pin. The presidents and their ndviaera are usually men of advanced years, and it is to the second generation from them that the White Houso looks for the frolics of childhood on Christmas day,—. Woman's Home Companion.