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Grover Cleveland: Rat Problem

   
 
 Odds 
&
 Ends 		 There was apparently a rat problem in the White House during Cleveland's second term.

More...

 The White House doorkeeper told this story about Mrs. Cleveland [11a]:
She was very fond of canary birds and mocking birds. As I was making my rounds on one occasion near her room, her canary was near the window sill. A great rat had forced his way into the cage, had just killed the poor little canary and was going to have a feast on him, when I arrived in time to make for him. He burst through the door and made his escape, and Mrs. Cleveland was very sorry for it. I took the mocking bird downstairs where I could have my eye on him for fear the rat might return again. Afterwards Mrs. Cleveland had her pet canary stuffed and put in her room.
This occurred during Cleveland's second term in office.
     Resources[Top]
Disclosure: Doctor Zebra gets a few pennies if you click & buy from Amazon.
  1. Boller, Paul F. Jr. Presidential Anecdotes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981. ISBN 0-19-502915-1 @ Amazon   [a] p. 178

  2. Brodsky, Alyn. Grover Cleveland: A Study in Character. NY: St. Martin's Press, 2000. ISBN 0-312-26883-1 @ Amazon   [a] p. 315 [b] p. 310 [c] p. 4 [d] p. 312

  3. Bumgarner, John R. The Health of the Presidents: The 41 United States Presidents Through 1993 from a Physician's Point of View. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland & Company, 1994. ISBN 0-89950-956-8 @ Amazon   [a] p. 136 [b] p. 137 [c] pp. 136-137 [d] p. 140
        Devotes one chapter to each President, through Clinton. Written for the layperson, well-referenced, with areas of speculation clearly identified, Dr. Zebra depends heavily on this book. Dr. Bumgarner survived the Bataan Death March and has written an unforgettable book casting a physician's eye on that experience.

  4. Dugan, James. Bedlam in the boudoir. Colliers. 22 Feb. 1947; pages 17, 69-70.
        Credibility is dubious. Just before a list of Presidents, the article states: "Twenty of the 32 Presidents ... are proved or believed on a thick web of circumstance to have been nocturnal nuisances in the White House."

  5. Howe. M. A. DeWolfe. George von Lengerke Meyer: His Life and Public Services. NY: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1920.   [a] p. 397
        Meyer was Postmaster General under Theodore Roosevelt and Secretary of the Navy under William Howard Taft.

  6. Keen, William Williams. The Surgical Operations on President Cleveland in 1893. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co., 1917.
        The corresponding magazine article was published in the Sept. 22, 1917 Saturday Evening Post on pages 24-55.

  7. McElroy, Robert. Grover Cleveland: The Man and the Statesman. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1923.   [a] pp. 327-328

  8. Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (ed). Burke's Presidential Families of the United States of American. 2nd ed. London: Burke's Peerage Limited, 1981. ISBN 0-85011-033-5 @ Amazon
        Enumerates the ancestors and descendants of American presidents up through Ronald Reagan.

  9. Nevins, Allan. Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1933.   [a] pp. 162-169
        Won the Pulitzer Prize for biography.

  10. Nevins, Allan (ed.). The Letters of Grover Cleveland: 1850-1908. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1933.   [a] p. 1 [b] p. 615

  11. Pendel, Thomas F. Thirty-Six Years in the White House. Washington: Neale Publishing Company, 1902.   [a] pp. 146-147
        Pendel was door-keeper at the White House from the time of Lincoln to the time of Theodore Roosevelt. Full text is available on-line at loc.gov. It's a rather dry book, and reads as if it were written by an old man. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?lhbcbbib:1:./temp/~ammem_rEou::

  12. Pringle, Henry F. The Life and Times of William Howard Taft: A Biography. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1939.   [a] p. 1072

  13. Stoddard, Henry L. It Costs to Be President. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1938.   [a] p. 215
        Stoddard was editor and owner of the New York Evening Mail from 1900 to 1925.

  14. The Grover Cleveland web page at the White House.

  15.  (22 matches when checked in November 2003)
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