MediaWiki API result

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        "totitle": "William Howard Taft Humor & Anecdotes",
        "*": "<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-lineno\" id=\"mw-diff-left-l1\">Line 1:</td>\n<td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-lineno\">Line 1:</td></tr>\n<tr><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"\u2212\"></td><td class=\"diff-deletedline diff-side-deleted\"><div><del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">&lt;strong&gt;MediaWiki has been installed.&lt;/strong&gt;</del></div></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">William Howard Taft Humor &amp; Anecdotes</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td class=\"diff-marker\"></td><td class=\"diff-context diff-side-deleted\"><br/></td><td class=\"diff-marker\"></td><td class=\"diff-context diff-side-added\"><br/></td></tr>\n<tr><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"\u2212\"></td><td class=\"diff-deletedline diff-side-deleted\"><div><del class=\"diffchange\">Consult the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Contents User's Guide] for information on using the wiki software.</del></div></td><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-added\"></td></tr>\n<tr><td class=\"diff-marker\"></td><td class=\"diff-context diff-side-deleted\"><br/></td><td class=\"diff-marker\"></td><td class=\"diff-context diff-side-added\"><br/></td></tr>\n<tr><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"\u2212\"></td><td class=\"diff-deletedline diff-side-deleted\"><div><del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">== Getting started ==</del></div></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"\u2212\"></td><td class=\"diff-deletedline diff-side-deleted\"><div><del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">* [https</del>:<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">//www</del>.<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">mediawiki</del>.<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">org/wiki/Special</del>:<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">MyLanguage/Manual</del>:<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">Configuration_settings Configuration settings list]</del></div></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">'''Taft Funny'''</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"\u2212\"></td><td class=\"diff-deletedline diff-side-deleted\"><div><del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">* [https://www</del>.<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">mediawiki</del>.<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">org/wiki/Special</del>:<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">MyLanguage/Manual</del>:<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">FAQ MediaWiki FAQ]</del></div></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"\u2212\"></td><td class=\"diff-deletedline diff-side-deleted\"><div><del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">* [https</del>:<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">//lists</del>.<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">wikimedia</del>.<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">org/postorius/lists/mediawiki</del>-<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">announce</del>.<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">lists</del>.<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">wikimedia</del>.<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">org/ MediaWiki release mailing list]</del></div></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">Yes, the Taft administration did keep a cow at the White House. Two actually, as Mooley the cow died in 1910 and was replaced by Pauline. Nothing funny about that!</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"\u2212\"></td><td class=\"diff-deletedline diff-side-deleted\"><div><del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">* [https</del>:<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">//www</del>.<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">mediawiki</del>.<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">org/wiki/Special</del>:<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">MyLanguage/Localisation#Translation_resources Localise MediaWiki for </del>your <del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">language]</del></div></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">----'''About Taft's humor from contemporaries'''</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"\u2212\"></td><td class=\"diff-deletedline diff-side-deleted\"><div><del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">* [https</del>:/<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">/www</del>.<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">mediawiki</del>.<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">org/wiki/Special</del>:<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">MyLanguage/Manual</del>:<del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">Combating_spam Learn how </del>to <del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">combat spam </del>on your <del class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">wiki]</del></div></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">\"His sense of humor carries him over a good many pitfalls, and sometimes there is a touch of Lincoln in the way he makes use of anecdotes to illustrate a point.\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">- Capt. Archie W. Butt, 1910 (Taft's Aide-de-Camp)</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">His laugh, his friend Jack Hammond wrote, was \u201ca form of physical enjoyment. It would start far ahead of the point of an anecdote, when he began to think of something that amused him and was making up his mind to tell it. It began unexpectedly and softly, grew in volume and repetition, and was used to punctuate his sentences. This chuckle startled chuckles in his hearers. One of the most exciting memories of anyone who ever heard him make a speech was his ability to throw huge audiences into spasms of delighted laughter. This was neither a pose nor a trick. Taft was a great lover of laughter \u2013 and he liked to share his enjoyment.\u201d</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">----'''Classic Taft'''</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">Taft was accused of a rehashed, ten year old rumor. In reply he told the story of a restaurant patron to whom a waiter had to explain that oxtail soup came from the tail of the ox. \"Neighbor,\" the man said, \"don\u2019t you think that\u2019s goin\u2019 a hell of a long way back for soup?\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">A news article told a Taft tale from his early days as a reporter</ins>: <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">\"There was an alleged society publication in the town of Cincinnati whose principal function was to print infamous libels on everybody who was prominent in Cincinnati. There was no use in suing it for libel, and the only remedy was to thrash the editor whenever he was to be reached. This remedy had been tried by numerous aggrieved and muscular citizens without producing the least effect. Finally the sheet published a libel on Judge Alphonso Taft, the young reporter\u2019s father, who had been a member of Grant\u2019s Cabinet. Taft, Jr., saw it and did not like it. He hunted up the editor and asked if he were the editor. That person admitted it. \u2018My name is Taft,\u2019 said the large young reporter, \u2018and my purpose is to whip you.\u2019 Then wherewith he drubbed the libelous editor. That person had been drubbed before, as already narrated; but the drubbing administered by Taft was so monumental, cataclysmic, cosmic, and complete that on the following day the editor suspended publication and took himself thence</ins>. <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">Cincinnati saw him no more</ins>. <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">As for Taft, after thus purging the community, he washed his hands, and went down to the City Hall after an item for his paper.\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">Even by 1905 this story was old, but as an article that year noted, \"It is such a good old story that it can never be printed too often\"</ins>: \u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">When Taft was Governor of the Philippines he explored the mountainous islands. After a particularly arduous trip, he cabled to Secretary of State Elihu Root, \"Rode forty miles on horseback to-day; feeling fine.\" Root wire back, \"Glad you are feeling fine; how is the horse?\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">Of his military service Taft said that he was \"too young to fight in the Civil War and too fat to take part in the Spanish War.\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">A favorite Taft joke was of the girl dancing the waltz</ins>: <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">\"Momma,\" she said, worried, \"should I keep time with the music or with the boys?\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">----'''President-elect Funny'''</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">A newly elected President receives all kinds of attentions, requests, gifts and honors</ins>. <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">Many senders got a personal reply from Taft, including a Mrs</ins>. <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">Fanny Francisco, of Grogan, Ohio</ins>: <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">who found in her mail this item from the President-elect</ins>: \u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">\"My dear Madam, </ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of January 9th and to thank you for naming your baby after me. I hope he may have a long and prosperous life.\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">When Taft toured the Democrat-dominated South, he was applauded and feted everywhere. At Richmond, two men who witnessed him speak said to each other</ins>: <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">\"Taft is simply a bully fellow,\" declared one, \"He is the kind of a man you love.\" Replied the other, \"You bet he is. But by the way, are you going to vote for him next time?\" \"Vote for him? Vote for him?\" exclaimed the first, \"I\u2019d rather see him in hell first.\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">The City of Atlanta threw a tremendous \"\u2019possom\" dinner, for which the Georgia Governor ordered that the largest specimens be hunted down. \u2019Possum turned into a theme over which Taft quickly tired. He was given \u2019possum banquets and huge opossums were sent to the White House. A man even tried to present him with a live one during a speech. Taft finally let it out that while he appreciated the \u2018possum dinners he \"doesn\u2019t hanker for it.\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">People named \"Taft\" wrote to the new President, usually to celebrate in the name-sake\u2019s newfound glory, but sometimes to ask a favor, a job, or to expound upon policy. A cousin of some sort from Gloucester, MA, sent a fifteen-page letter of distress over some legislation. Taft replied, \"I am very sorry that you think so badly\u2026 If I thought it was as bad a thing as you do, I certainly should not advocate it; but I believe you are frightened with ghosts.\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">The day of his inauguration the city of Washington, DC, was covered in ice</ins>. <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">\"Even the elements protest,\" Taft joked</ins>.</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">----'''No News is Bad News'''</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">Two weeks into the Taft presidency reporters clamored for news. They had been accustomed to Roosevelt\u2019s non</ins>-<ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">stop P.R</ins>. <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">operation and felt that Taft was holding back</ins>. <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">On this and the general complaint that Taft was not enough like Roosevelt, Taft declared, \"The people of this country elected me, I believe, and, damn it, I am going to give it to them whether they like it or not</ins>.<ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">In 1910, a reporter complained to Captain Butt, \"Only this afternoon he killed four good stories</ins>: <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">one that there was going to be a shake-up in the Cabinet; another, that he had not received one word from Mr. Roosevelt; another, that the Cardinal had called to talk about the incident in Rome; and the other, that he would lead off with a campaign speech at the Ohio dinner Saturday night.\" Butt replied, \"What your going to write, then?\" \"Nothing,\" came the desperate answer</ins>.</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">Taft took much grief from the newspapers and magazines, but he dished it right back now and then</ins>. <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">To a gathering of editors he talked about the criticism he was under in early 1910: \"I had a letter the other day from a man who said</ins>: <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">\u2018I don\u2019t like the tariff bill which was passed and which you signed. I don\u2019t like your association with Joe Cannon. I don\u2019t like your association with Aldrich. I don\u2019t like what you are doing with respect to the magazines and the periodicals and suppressing free speech. I don\u2019t like anything about </ins>your <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">administration.\u2019 Well, I sat down and dictated the following:</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">'My dear Sir</ins>: <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">You are in a bad way.</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">- William H. Taft.\u2019</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">About 3</ins>/<ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">4-the way down a copper mine, President Taft called to a group of reporters who had descended first, \"How are you fellows down there.\" They called back, \"We\u2019d kind o\u2019 like to get out.\" Taft laughed, \"Well, I don\u2019t know so much about that, I think I have you safe where I want you at last.\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">'''Presidential Examples'''</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">When a Reverend told Taft that he \"prayed for the President of the United States every Sunday,\" | Taft replied that he hoped these prayers would continue, for, \"My experience is that these prayers are needed.\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">During a horse back ride, Taft's party came upon a little boy who was fishing. Taft rode up to the boy and asked if he had caught any fish. \"Not any yet,\" answered the boy. \"Then what are you fishing for?\" asked the President, smiling. The boy look up \"quizzically\" at the President for a moment, then said, \"Is you Mr. Taft?\" \"Yes,\" said Taft. \"Well, then I\u2019m just-a-fishing to be a-fishing.\" The President laughed and said \"I guess that is the way with most of us. \u2018Just a-fishing to be a-fishing.\u2019\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">To a complaint from Congress over a special session he had called, Taft declared, \"Senator Depew has sung his song with great beauty\u2026 It\u2019s a little bit like the husband who had an invalid wife, and who wished she\u2019d get well -- or something.\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">In early 1910, the stock market went to the bears. Panicked investors and editorialists demanded that the President do something. \"They don\u2019t frighten me at all with the cry of panic,\" Taft declared. He had no more patience for the outcries of businessmen than he did for that of immoderate reformers, all of whom he derided as peddlers of hysteria. Of the nation\u2019s financiers Taft concluded, \"Wall Street, as an aggregation, is the biggest ass that I have run across.\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">Of the presidential power of pardon, Taft wrote, \"When a convict is near his end, it has been the custom to send him home to die. So, after having all the surgeons in the War Dept. examine them to see that the statements made to me about them were correct, I exercised the pardoning power in their favor. Well, one of them kept his contract and died, but the other seems to be one of the healthiest men in the community today.\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">On the death of a former Senator Taft said, \"One of the troubles about getting beyond fifty is that so many men begin to fall about you. You think one year is an exception, but it is the same the next and then you begin to realize that you are among the eligibles yourself.\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">----'''Big Bill'''</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">A reporter once asked War Secretary Taft his weight. \"I won\u2019t tell you,\" Taft replied, \"But, you know, when somebody asked Speaker Reed that, he replied that no true gentleman would weigh more than 200 pounds. I have amended that to 300 pounds.\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">On a visit to Hong Kong War Secretary Taft was ported by coolies in a sedan chair that collapsed under him</ins>. <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">The American consul demanded a sturdier chair</ins>. <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">The contracted manufacturer voluntarily or otherwise swore to uphold the Secretary of War during his next visit</ins>: <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">\"I, the undersigned, Yu Wo\u2026 agree to make a sedan chair for the American consul general\u2026 This chair is to be used to carry the American giant, the Honorable William Howard Taft\u2026 it would obviously discredit this nation if the chair should disintegrate\u2026 To avert international complications of this sort, I, Yu Wo, assert my skill as a chairmaker.\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">\"What are you going to name it when it comes, Mr. President?\" asked Senator Chauncey Depew as he patted Taft\u2019s huge stomach. \"Well, if it is a boy I\u2019ll call it William,\" replied Taft. \"If it\u2019s a girl, I\u2019ll call it Theodora. But if it turns out to be just wind, I\u2019ll call in Chauncey.\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">Taft\u2019s narcolepsy is about as famous as his oversized White House bathtub (which, legend has it -- a story your author doubts -- that it had to be installed after he became stuck in one). He fell asleep anywhere</ins>: <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">standing up, at church, during meetings, at the dinner table\u2026 The naps were usually momentary, and the President would generally pick up right where he left off, mid-sentence, sometimes. The disposition toward inadvertent slumber increased with his weight and anxiety, which went hand-in-hand, but it was also a tool which Taft used to keep up his workaholic pace. In 1911, amidst Taft\u2019s usual race of New York excursions and other trips, his military aide wrote, \"How Mrs. Taft stands the strain is more than I can see. The President stands it because\u2026 he has no nerves and sleeps while the rest stay awake. He has no conscience about taking naps when he is tired. If sleep overpowers him while he is talking with the Chief Justice or anyone else, he promptly closes his eyes and takes cat naps between sentences.\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">President Funny</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">After a late night dinner at the White House the\u00a0 President left his guest, Speaker of the House\u00a0 \"Uncle Joe\" Cannon, to receive a Senator. He\u00a0 soon returned to find the Speaker, Captain Butt\u00a0 and General Clarence Edwards smoking and\u00a0 listening to the \"vitriola\" record player. \"The\u00a0 President at once began to waltz around the\u00a0 room by himself, and I was astonished to see\u00a0 the ease and grace with which he did it,\" wrote\u00a0 Butt. Cannon, whom Butt and Taft called, \"The\u00a0 Evil One,\" jumped up and \"capered around in a\u00a0 sort of ragtime shuffle.\" The officers kept their\u00a0 military dignity as the two most powerful men in\u00a0 the country danced about the room. Taft's military aide, Capt. Archie Butt loved his\u00a0 full dress uniform. Once, while getting a shave while wearing his gold-braided outfit, the barber\u00a0 didn\u2019t say a word. Finally, he could not contain\u00a0 his curiosity. Drawing his breath he spurted out,\u00a0 \u2018Say boss, do yo\u2019 mind telling me what\u00a0 band you lead?\u2019\" Captain Archibald W. Butt Taft had no problem confronting unfriendly audiences or telling friendly audiences things they didn\u2019t want to hear. Addressing a gathering of labor men, presidential candidate Taft said, \"\u2026as this discussion seems to involve some issue as to whether I am a deep tyrant, deep at heart an oppressor of labor and otherwise, I have got to submit evidence that I do not eat a laborer every morning for breakfast; that I am not engaged in fighting that which is the backbone and sinew of the nation, the laboring classes.\" To an invitation to join a barbers\u2019 union Taft\u00a0 replied that he wasn\u2019t eligible, for\u00a0 \"I shave myself.\" </ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">With politicians Taft could be forthright -- and at times brutal. When Senator Tillman gave a speech on race issues in the U.S. and Cuba, Taft followed with a vicious cut. \"My friend, the distinguished Senator from South Carolina, I have known well, have been glad to know, have been honored by his friendship, and I want to assure you that he is a good deal better fellow than you sometimes think, from what he says. He is not always one who sits and talks, thinking about the race question and that sort of thing. He does have other thoughts, but when he gets on his feet and starts on that slippery subject, it requires a good deal of force or a good deal of poise to keep him from going further than he really wanted to go himself.\"</ins></div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div>\u00a0</div></td></tr>\n<tr><td colspan=\"2\" class=\"diff-side-deleted\"></td><td class=\"diff-marker\" data-marker=\"+\"></td><td class=\"diff-addedline diff-side-added\"><div><ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">On a visit to Santa Fe in 1909 Taft was subjected to a critical speech by Albert B. Fall, who told the \u00a0audience not to trust the President\u2019s promise to seek statehood for New Mexico. Taft replied with the story of a lawyer in court. The judge said, \"I don\u2019t care to hear from you, I am with you,\" to which the lawyer demanded, \"It is my constitutional right to be heard on this motion and I propose to be heard.\" The judge cut him off again, saying, \"I have listened to you for an hour, and despite what you have said I \u00a0am still with you.\" Speaker Cannon wanted a political appointment from Taft. \"Now, Mr. President, let me look you straight in the eye and ask a favor.\" Taft replied, \"Look me in the eye, always, for it makes it\u00a0 easier </ins>to <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">deny you anything.\" Cannon was bitter about a Taft initiative that the President forced </ins>on <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">the \u00a0Congress at the end of Cannon\u2019s final days as Speaker in early 1911. A few months later Taft encountered the former Speaker at a restaurant. All but Cannon greeted the President. Taft paid him no mind and proceeded to his table. Afterwards and bolstered by drink Cannon approached the President\u2019s table and gave an exaggerated bow. Taft looked up with complete disinterest, paused, then continued his conversation with his guests. Cannon left humiliated. Of the incident Major Butt wrote, \"When the President cuts anybody, that body is cut, and there is no explanation to make. That ends it.\" Western Senators who were furious at Taft\u2019s land conservation policies railed at the President. One angrily said, \"Then, Mr. President, as we are to understand it, you are going to do as you damn please without consulting the interests of those states mostly affected.\" Showing what Captain Butt recognized as \"that little glint\" in his eye that meant anger, as well as a bit of Lincoln, Taft calmly told the story of \u00a0cantankerous\" and \"irate\" farmer who complained to the school teacher over a punishment his son was \u00a0given. Said the farmer, \"It appears to me that you expect to run this school as you damn please.\" Taft repeated to the Senators the teacher\u2019s reply: \"Your language is coarse, </ins>your <ins class=\"diffchange diffchange-inline\">manner offensive, but you have grasped my idea.\" At a campaign stop a cabbage was tossed towards Taft and landed at his feet. \"I see that one of my adversaries has lost his head,\" was his sublime retort. \"Let him wait,\" Taft told \u00a0Captain Butt regarding the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador\u2019s impatience over a delayed appointment. \" A man with the name of Hengelmuller should not want me to leave my lunch.\" Taft did lack one of the primary skills of a politician: the ability to remember names. Again, it was as much because he didn\u2019t care as for an inability. Besides, he grew most adept at sidestepping the name thing, anyway. When he was Secretary of War he greeted White House visitors in a receiving line. Captain Butt asked a man for his name in order to present him to the War Secretary. The man refused, stating he and Taft were old friends and there was no need for introduction. The Captain insisted, without success. Meanwhile, the line progressed, and Taft found himself facing a stranger. Taft looked pleadingly at the Captain, who could only shrug. Seeing that the situation was helpless, Taft reached his hand out high and sweepingly drove it down and firmly into the stranger\u2019s hand. Then he turned to his wife and said, \"You remember our dear old friend here,\" and before Mrs. Taft could say anything to the contrary, Taft had moved the man past him and was on to greeting the next person in line. Impressed by the magnanimous greeting, Mrs. Taft asked who he was. Taft replied, \"My darling, I have not the faintest idea who he is, but I saw he was an intimate friend by the way he stood poised on one foot waiting to be recognized.\" Later, the unidentified man approached the Captain and proudly said, \"I told you there was no need to present me!\" Butt wrote that when Taft calls someone \"Old man\" or \"Old boy\" it meant that he had no idea who the person was. \"He makes great use of a slap on the back, a confidential push, and always in evidence is that broad \u00a0genial smile which simply envelopes one.</ins></div></td></tr>\n"
    }
}