Show THE WHITE HOUSE I The Important Question Now on at Washington SHALL THERE BE A NEW ONE A Plain Practical Description of the Home orPresIdent Harrison and Baby McKee WASIHXGTON larch 27 1S90Special correspondence of THE HERALD All houses Wherein men have lived and died Are haunted houses Through the open doors Tho harmless phantoms on their errands guide With feetthatmake on sound upon the floors There are more guests at table than the host i Invited the Illuminated hall Is thronged with quiet Inoffensive ghosts As silent as the pictures on the walk SHALL ra HAVE SEW WHITE HOUSE All Washington is talking about It Mrs Harrison has expressed her senti merits as to the cramped condition of the present structure and a subcommittee of the Senate with Spooner at its head is considering plans and investigating the condition of the present structure There 3s a strong sentiment against changing Iho present building and the ghosts of the presidents of the past are whispering framing words into our statesmens canS can-S they walk to the Mansion Fat pussy aldheaded John Adams in knee breeches nd gaiters is giving his experiences as be opened the building in 1SOO and his prim wife Abigail protests against the mutilation mutila-tion of the East room in which she dried herhusbaods shirts Redheaded freckled faced Thomas Jefferson seems ready to jump out of his frame In Elijah Haldords room when the subject is mentioned in his presence and the ghost of Dolly Madison Madi-son in high red turban and gorgeous gown han es its features form pleasant to severeSt severe-St the thought Tho White House Is a part of the history Bf the country Within it John Quincy Adams schemed with Henry Clay against Andrew Jackson and before the same fireplaces that now warm the shins of Harrison old Hickory sat In wrapper pnd slippers and smoked his corn cob pipe It was here that the Presidents grandfather grand-father passed his last hours and here foxy dapper scheming Martin Van Buren laid his plans for a reelection which he didint pet here Frank Pierce told stories and hero James Buchanan strutted throucrh his four short years of greatness It was here that the great Abraham Lincoln lived upon these walls are photographed the words of Grant and GarMeld It was here that President Cleveland showed himself a man and here today President Harrison Is making the history which Mil Hx the fate of his party at the next presidential election Ko I The ghosts of the great statesman as yell as those of Presidents and theirwives protest against the doing away of the White House It may be added to or it may ho turned into the business offices Df the President but it will never be destroyed de-stroyed Thero is no doubt but that it is malL When John Adams occupied it the i country had a population of little more than live millions The United States has now nearly seventy millions and the business bus-iness of the Presidents office has so grown that nearly the whole of the Executive Mansion is occupied by it When Abigail Adams came into it she had too much room Mrs Harrison has barely space to turnaround turn-around in and she has to receive her friends in one of the halls THE WHITE HOUSE TODAY Is like a big hotel and President Harrison Is the landlord Every man and woman who comes to Washington thinks ho has aright a-right to enter his house without knocking They tramp over his carpets with their muddy boots ask all sorts of impudent questions of his servants and the chances are that they carry away a bit of the furniture Every now and then a piece as big as your hand is clipped out of one of the lace curtains by a relichunter and during President Lincolns time a woman was 5aught in the very same act of cutting the costly curtains of the East room Mr Lincoln looked at her sorrowfully and told her that the best thing she could do Was to leave the city It is the same with the cushions of the furniture and It is by no means safe to let sightseers move about save under the eye of a guide These ruidcs are the Presidents servants and they have all they can do to keep the zrowds out of the most private parts of tho house Not infrequently visitors want toe > to-e the kitchen and all the home 1 ire that Mrs Harrison gets must come from k little space on the second floor Let me give you A PLAL PRACTICAL DJSCRIPTIO of the White House as it is The Presidents Presi-dents grounds cover many acres They are surrounded by an high iron fence with great iron gates and tho grounds are ailed with fine old oak trees On one side of them is the Treasury sombre and tomblike tomb-like and on the other side is the biggest granite building of the world the thirteen fnilliondollar structure known as the tate way and navy department To the fcouth and back of the White House beyond be-yond wide park flows the muddy Potomac Poto-mac and in front runs the busy street of Pennsylvania avenue The White House covers a third of an acre It is a long rectangular almost squatty twostory structure with a wide porte cochere having hav-ing a floor as big as that of the average two story house This porte cochero is Upheld by Ionic columns as big around as the largest oaks of the forest and its roof supported by these is of the Grecian order Around the roof of the White House there Is a marble fence about as high as a table and made of round marble pillars tho size of a baseball club The building has abasement a-basement under it and two rows of big rectangular windows look out of the tories above this The basement windows win-dows are square and the most of them look PC thnnrrVi t int nppi1pi1 TtacMYir TVMn walks lead up in the shape i of a half moon from Pennsylvania avenue to tho White House and you walk half the length of the House before you get to to the front door As you do so you can look right flown into the basement and if your eyes lire sharp about every other day of the week you will see number of colored girls iere with irons in their hands polishing the Presidents shirts and putting finishing finish-ing touches on baby McKees unmentionables unmention-ables If on leaving the mansion yon walk ever toward the state war and navy depart Jnents your nostrils may be saluted with the ho and hominy whichis being cooked Jho Presidents kitchen and you may see ihe Presidents colored lady chief produc ihg those exquisite dishes which are making I mak-ing state dinners so famous In other 1 words you see directly into the kitchen off of-f the White House It is not half big Enough for an establishment of our President Presi-dent and it has none of the modern conveniences con-veniences for keeping dinners warm which the best restaurants of tho country contain There is a big range at one side of the room and there is another little range in the scullery beyond The cooking cook-ing utensils are of copper and the walls are plastered and not tiled E aJ i The entire front of THE BASEilEXT Or THE WHITE HOUSE Is taken up with kitchens and laundry The back has the store room a furnace und whisper it low in the car of our Methodist Metho-dist brother a billiard room Billiards have been played in the White House ever since the day of John Quincy Adams and President Arthur could handle a billiard cue equal to Slosson John Quincy Adams bought the first billiard table that was tvcr used in the White House and his ex lravagant in this respect was mado a campaign cam-paign issue and eventually paid for the table out of his own pocket I dont know that President Harrison plays but the fable is there in the basement and he can IfhowilL Let us look at THE FIRST FLOOR OF TIlE WHITE HOUSE Guards stand at the doors and a giant I Apollo in the shape of Colonel Dlnsmoro Inspects every man who comes in The doors are on mahogany and the knobs areas I are-as big almost as the head or a baby Your I urn them and on brass tingestho great 1 doors turned inward and you are In the tiled vestibule at the back of which there is a wall of mosaic of beautiful stones andcolored glass which remind one of the jewelled palace of Fredrick the Great at Potsdam This wall is made by Tiffany It cost many thousands of dollars but one old lady who looked at it last week told the guard she was glad to see President Harrison had become economical and that be had saved the country money by making mak-ing a glass wall of old broken bottles and its real purty too the old woman said and you wouldnt think it home made ItisherethatthoMarlneband playsat the Presidents receptions but there is nothing home like about the vestibule It is so big that you could build an eight room house in sids ot it and thirty men could march abreast through it without touching their elbows Just next to this at the left is a hall with stairs leading to TIlE PKESIDEXTS OFFICE I and on the other side of this hall Is the mighty East room You never see Mrs Harrison or any of the family upon these stairs They are the property of the public pub-lic and the ceaseless tread of the countless crowd which besieges the President goes its muffled way UP and down them The East I room belongs to the people It is always i open to visitors and the only use that President Pres-ident Harrison gets from it is in crowding his callers into it at a big presidential reception re-ception It is one of the most beautiful roomsin the world Its walls are painted insurer and gold and Its ceiling is three times as high as thatof an ordinary room It takes 442 yards of Brussels carpet to cover it and the velvet into which your feet sink is of the color of Etruscan gold The most wonderful thing to me in this room is the chandeliers Each one of these is made of 6000 pieces of Bohemian Bo-hemian glass and they cost 3000 apiece There arc eight massive mirrors each as big as two billiard tables set into the walls about the room and when the chandeliers aro lighted these pendants are reflected like diamonds in these mirrors and the scene is indescribably brilliant Still you might as well furnish a barn or a bowling alley and call it a parlor as to think of using this big roomier the Jiving room or the home life of a private family and if President Harrison Harri-son wanted it he couldnt get itf or the people peo-ple have monopolized It by the precedent generations It is the same with the Green room the Blue room and the Red room They arc FULL Of BEAUTIEs IN PDHSITCRE and hangings but they are as much shutout shut-out from the everyday life of the President as the parlor of a New England farmers wife which Is dusted every day but never usd except for company It is In the Blue room that President Harrison with his wile standing beside him shakes the hands of the multitude at a big reception The room is oval in shape finished in blue satin and its diameter diame-ter is about that of a country church Still it is hardly largo enough for this purpose and when the crowd is out of it it is too big for common use There are many dining rooms in Washington larger than the state dining room and I can count on my fingers a dozen which are more beautifully furnished furn-ished There are none of the conveniences for serving a great dinner and the thousand thou-sand dollar feasts which the President gives have to be largely gotten up outside of the house and hired waters have to be brought in to pass the victuals The dining din-ing room used by the family or the private dining room Is at the right of the vestibule I This has to be turned inside out at every I big reception for the table must be removed re-moved and shelves put around the room to hold the hats and coats of the guests At such receptions the state dining room becomes be-comes a ladies dressing room and more fuss is made in the Executive mansion every time the President receives than you make n your own home when your daughters daugh-ters are married Not long ago there was a mantle bed in the reception room opposite oppo-site Elijah Haifords office on the second floor I passed through this room yesterday yester-day and noticed that it was there still but whether it is used or not I do not know Think of thePresident of tho United States being compelled to have a wardrobe bed in one of his parlors It is true no one knows what it is but it makes one think of the occupant oc-cupant of a second class boarding house who is trying to keep up appearances and pretending to have a suite of rooms when he gets along with only one There is a general plan about the White House which when once understood makes THE BOILDIXG SIMPLICITY ITSELF If you will take a rectangular covering one third of an acre and bisect it lengthwise by a hall eighteen feet wide you will have the general plan of the building On the ground floor at the end nearest the treasury the great East room cuts off a part of this hall and runs the whole length of the building build-Ing The vestibulemud the private dining room and the dressing room are on the north of this hall and on the south are the Green Blue Red and state dining rooms All of the rooms of the building thus go oil from this hall and are of the same length viz about twentyeight feet At the extreme ex-treme nd of tho lower floor is a great shed of glass covering the arena of several ordinary ordi-nary houses and making up the conservatories conserva-tories of the White House This is no part however of the original stiucture and it need hardly be considered as connected with it THE SECOND FLOOR is on the same plan All of the rooms are big and threefourths of them are made up of offices The living rooms of the President Presi-dent are at tho west end of the second floor and Mrs Harrison has only four goodszed bed rooms It takes abouta hundred yards of carpet to cover each one of them and she has turned the lower hall into a sitting room and the children arc using the little private office at the northwest corner of the building where President Arthur used to receive his most Intimate friends In addition addi-tion to these four bed rooms two of which aro in the north and two on the south side of the building there is a little bed room which was originally intended for a dressing dress-ing room on the southwest corner and a servant is lodged in a hall bed room just over the vestibule which is seven feet wide end eighteen feet long There is an eleva tor leading to this floor and tiizre are two or three bathrooms huddled together right over the big entrance halL The larger bedrooms bed-rooms have no bath rooms connected with them and this is the case with the Presidents Presi-dents bed room which opens into the office or library vjhere he receives his callers THE BUSINESS OFFICES of the White House take up the whole of the eastern portion of the second floor Entering the big front door you turn to the left and march up a pair of stairs about live feet wide You note that though the carpet is new the tread of the office seeker has worn off its nap and at any hour of the morning you pass the most noted men of the country on the stairs They stamp along as though they owned the building and most of them think they do When you reach the second floor you find that your surroundings are those of a business I establishment rather than those of a private residence Two colored gentlemen stand guard the door and a grayhaired German Ger-man short and squatty sits before a little i desk as ua enter the ball I He rfs ai in the corner made by the partition which has been run across the hall to give the Presidents Presi-dents wife a sitting room and as he looks at you his back is turned toward the door of the room in which tho Cabinet meets This man is Sergeant Looffier He is the Presidents messenger and ho has been here for almost a score of years He Is in measure the watch dog of the President and ho carries all the cards of noted vlsi tars into Mr Harrison He sometimes to deal with cranks in case these pass by theTpant form and blue eyes of Colonel Dinsmoro below Sergeant Loeffier makes about the ijixth guard you have to pass since entering the White House You are motioned by him to the left and turning your eyes you see a couple more of colored guards one of whom is the watch dog of the private secretary You go by these Into a big reception room which is over the end of the East room and which is filled with I very ordinary furniture It Is here that office seekers cool their heels until the President is ready to receive them and it is hero that Colonel Crook the cashier of the President sits In a little room beyond be-yond this there is av telerraph office and here the President has ifelephono connections connec-tions with all the great departments Next to this there is another office in which clerks work and tire lower end of the big ball has been partitioned off and made into an office In the southeast corner of the building tho executive clerk Mr Pruden makes up with his line Italian hand the commissions thatthe Provident gives to of 0 TT7T2 liners and next to this office and opening Into the hall is the private secretarys room This is one of the blgroomsof building It takes 103 yards of carpet to cover it and it has windows which command a beautiful view of the Potomac A cheery wood fire burns on one side of it and in front of the windows and behind a big flat desk sits the little fivefoot eight anatomy who renro sents to most of the callers the President of the United States The private secretary secre-tary of the President holds an office fully as important as that of a cabinet minister and Colonel Halford fills it well He is a darkfaced blackeyed sober young man of about forty years of age He does not weigh over 125 pounds and his face is of an intellectual cast His forehead Is broad and full his nose thin and his cheeks rather hollow than full Ho dresses well but has not the rough and ready Democratic air of his predecessor Colonel Lament There aro no quarters for his accommodation in the White House and he must come here often in the evening I and consult the President upon the business busi-ness of the hour THE CABIXBT JIOOM lies between the private secretarys room and the library in which President Harrison Harri-son sits This room Is almost entirely filled with a long dining table which runs from i one end of it to the other Around this table are nine highbacked chairs and there are writing materials placed at different stations upon It There is abig globe in one corner of the room and it is around this that the President Secretary Elaine and the other ministers s and while they discuss international questions The cabinet cabi-net meet here about every other day and they usually spend several hours at a session ses-sion The room is of such a nature that it cannot be used for anything else than the meetings of the cabinet and it is a business office pure and simple In it have beer held all the cabinet meetings for several administrations though President Lincoln used to hold his cabinet meetings in the room now used by Colonel Half ord TUB rRESIDE > TS OFFICE is in the library This room is a big oval requiring 141 yards of velvet Brussels to cover its floor It has windows looking out upon the Potomac and it is fiftynine feet wide and twentyeight feet long The Presidents callers are seated on chairs about the room and ho usually stands with head bent over as he talks with them He receives nearly every ono who has business with him and he is i besieged be-sieged by a host of congressmen nearly every day It is this room which forms his home and his business is aways with him His bed room is next to it and the ghost of work undone must hover over him as he sleeps The President of tho United States nevergets through with his work and there ought to he some arrangement arrange-ment by which ho could get away for a certain time during the day from tho car or his office lie ougnt not nave to eat ana to sleep bathed in the perspiration of office seeking applications and there is no other business man in the United State who would endure such surroundings as the environments of our President THE ATTIC OF THE WHITE HOUSE might be supposed to furnish some room It does not The roof is so low in most places that you cannot stand upright under it All the light comes fromthe skylights sky-lights and the placa is fit for nothing but a lumber room Init are stored President Harrisons trunks baby McKoes castoff cast-off clothes and the old furniture of the executive mansion Rats and spiders are about the only inhabitants and the top ot tho Whito House is more like a country garret than the attic of a tvostory house covering a quarter of an acre and situated in one of the great cities of the United StatesTHE THE TRUTH ABOUT TilE MATTER is that the executive mansion would do very well for the private residence of the President or for his oBics It will not do for both and the statesmen appreciate it i In 1882 Senator Morrill had a bill which passed the Senate appropriating 300000 to build an extension to tao White House and Mrs Harrison has said that there ought to be two wings added to it bh would remodel the conservatory udl a hall of painting and statuary aPj1 ROuld leave the present building as itjl sandwiched between the ends of these two wings In this way the historical associations of the building would be preserved and Mrs Ha I 1 sons ideas are much better than that of Senator Ingalls who wasin favor of adding a story to the buildinjrThe White House has cost already about two million dollars It took 300000 build It nearly one hundrell years ago and more than 1700000 lllwe since been spent upon it It is full of beauties in the way of furniture and pictures pic-tures and through it ccsts us more than 12o000 a year to pay the Presidents salary and keep up his establishment we aro rich and can afford it 1 FIUXK G CmrrTEH I |