Waterbury Democrat

WISE WHITE HOUSE EMPLOYE.
Does Quite a Profitable Business in Disposing of Kittens of the Official Cat,

Evidences of prosperity exhibited by one of the colored employes of the white house, best known as George, have made him the envy of his associates. He recently appeared in a new suit of 'store clothes.' When they saw him bring a little kitten into the white house the other day, says a correspondent of the Toledo Blade, and subsequently hand the little pet over to a fashionably attired lady who was riding in a trap the secret came out. Not long since the official white house cat gave birth to 12 kittens-an even dozen and no more. The old cat and her family were in George's keeping. When the event became known in official and social circles there was a great demand for kittens born beneath the roof of the executive mansion. Learning that George was their keeper, society girls sought him out and each wanted the prettiest one in the lot. Each was promised the 'prettiest' one. When a dozen customers had been supplied the demand was as great as ever. As some of the kittens had brought as high as five dollars each, George could not think of retiring from the cat business. He went among his friends in South Washington and discovered other kittens. They were just as pretty as the white house ones and passed readily for the genuine article. When a customer was to be supplied George would take one of the South Washington born kittens to the white house and from there deliver it to the fair one. It may never be known how many kittens are being tenderly cared for about the city and pointed to as having been born in the white house. Nor will it ever be known just how much revenue the cat industry forced upon the colored employe yielded him.