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Show IT'S DIFFERENT NOW AT THE WHITE HOUSE Things are quite different in Washington now as compared with the time, of the first president to live in the Capitol City, and housekeeping in the White House was a much different problem than now, according to the National Republic, which has an interesting interest-ing article on the subject under the title, "The Worries of the First Mistress of the White House." In speaking of this change at the White House, the writer says: In the time of Mrs. Adams, the presidential mansion was lighted with sputtering candles that smoked things up and blew out every time a door or window was opened. It was heated with cord wood, which was difficult to get, and was generally wet. Going to bed and getting up in the morning was anything but a picnic. You either waited until a sleepy-headed servant came and nursed up a fire in your room on a cold wintry morning, or hoppsd out and shiveringly dressed by the heat of a 'tallow dip.' "The cooking and baking were done in a woodstove that threw out enough heat in 'the, good old summer time' to cause a constant shower of perspiration to splash from the brows of the kitchen help. When Mrs. Adams desired the attention of one of the maids, she was obliged to call up or down stairway, as the case might be, or out of one of the windows. If, perchance, she wanted a spool of thread, a jug of molasses, a nutmeg, a dozen eggs,, a cake of soap, or a new hat, a trip to the store was necessary no ordering order-ing of things by telephone. "There was not a sidewalk or paved street in Washington when the Adams family became the first occupants of the White House in 1800, when the seat of government was moved from Philadelphia. Philadel-phia. This, of course, resulted in the interminable tracking of mud into the new dwelling, despite the efforts of senators, representatives representa-tives and others to scrape their boots against the trunks of shade trees before knocking on the front door. "The drying of the family wash, however, was the most serious seri-ous problem of all. This particular worry became a thorn in the flesh of Mrs. Adams. Cattle and goats were permitted to stray wherever they wished in the newly laid-out District of Columbia. They were free agents. There being no fence around the White House lot, the animals decided to be neighborly and made frequent fre-quent calls in that locality. Fearing that the goats might devour the presidential lingerie, the first lady of the land was obliged to rig up an indoor clothes line. |