ARTHUR, 21st, 1881-85

Chester Arthur, a machine politician from New York, looked like a President — he was over six feet tall, courtly, always stylishly dressed and trimmed to the perfection point. He did not like to dress himself but preferred to be dressed by boys. He kept 80 pairs of pants in his wardrobe and changed pants several times a day.

Woodrow Wilson described him as "a nonentity with side whiskers."

He spent large sums for flowers and never forgot to place a fresh bouquet before the photograph of his dead wife, Ellen Herndon. Ignorant of "Elegant Arthur's" pronouncement that he would never marry again, four young women proposed to him on the day he left office.

Publisher Alexander K. McClure wrote, "No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted, and no one ever retired ... more generally respected." The one-time Collector of the Port of New York earned the moniker "The Father of Civil Service."

In 1882, various people close to the President noticed that he was becoming increasingly depressed, irritable and lethargic. A cousin described Arthur as sick in body and soul. He was diagnosed as suffering from Bright's disease. His terminal illness was kept secret from the American people.

He told a friend: "After all, life is not worth living. I might as well give up the struggle for it now as at any other time and submit to the inevitable." Arthur expired exhausted by the strains of office.

d. November 18, 1886 (New York, New York) at 57 of a massive cerebral hemorrhage.