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Show Things I Never Knew About the White House: I Truly a product of the melting pot j Is the White House . . . Charles Pierre L'Enfant, a Frenchman, chose the site . . . James Hoban, a Dublin Irishman, designed and built It . . . Whites and Negroes representing repre-senting 11 different countries had a hand in its construction. It cost the gov't just $50, the price of a gold medal, to have the White House designed . . . Congress sponsored spon-sored a national contest for the design. de-sign. Hoban won it . . . The prize was either the $50 medal or $500 In cash. Hoban patriotically chose the medal ... In his 42 years of subse-I subse-I quent work in Washington, Hoban never designed another building. No one today can tell where the cornerstone of the White House is placed. Successive layers of white paint, from which the mansion gets its name, have effectively concealed it from sight and knowledge-. . . Part of the money for building it came from lotteries. George Washington, who helped supervise the construction of the White House until the week of his death, always referred to it as the Federal Palace or Mansion . . . With typical modesty, which should be a lesson to seme of the politicians of our day, he never called the city of Washington by that name ... To him, whether in public or private, Washington was always the Federal City. The sit-down strike is neither new nor novel ... It was tried way back in 1800 by the crews working on the White House. They were ordered to move out of the shacks on the White House grounds in which many lived with their families, so these unsightly unsight-ly structures could be razed . . . They refused because they had nowhere no-where to move and staged the first sitdown strike in protest. Diplomats new consider Washington Wash-ington the prize pest ... It wasn't so in the old days. Washington Wash-ington and particularly the site of the White House were considered con-sidered so unhealthy the British gov't decreed its representatives should be awarded additional pay for serving there ... It did ' not become the White House officially of-ficially until Theodore Roosevelt moved In. He ordered that simple sim-ple name engraved on his official letterheads after it bad been almost al-most completely rebuilt. The White House staff has never been known to betray an Important secret . . . Woodrew Wilson, whose life Is being dramatized dram-atized on the screen by Darryl F. Zanuck under the title, "Wilson," "Wil-son," inadvertently made known his decision to declare war en Germany to at least two members mem-bers of the White House staff, but not a word leaked out In advance ad-vance of the official declaration . . . gome members ef the staff also knew of his plans to wed Edith Boiling Gait well in advance ad-vance of the event but kept the secret well. Gruff old Andrew Carnegie during his lifetime saw to it that the White House had plenty of Scotch, no matter mat-ter who was President . . . He'd order it in kegs from Scotland and have it sent directly to Washington and the Chief Executive with his compliments . . . President Wilson, however, refused to accept the Scotch, and Carnegie discontinued the practice. Andrew Jackson, for sentimental reasons, turned the White House around by putting the formal entrance en-trance on the north side, facing Pennsylvania Avenue. He wanted to save his goad friend, E. P. Blair, some steps. Blair had built his house en the opposite side of the avenue to be near the President, and Jackson reciprocated by putting the entrance that much closer for his boon friend. The busiest phone in the White House is not the President's . . . The chief usher gets many more calls because of the innumerable duties and functions which fall to him . . . Petty pilferings are higher at the White House than In any other official bnilding in the world . . . Individuals high In public life have been known to filch knives, spoons and forks for souvenirs . . . Lesser fry will grab anything for the same par-pose, par-pose, even to snipping off tassels from draperies or cutting out pieces of tapestry from chairs. All packages and gifts sent to the 7hite House go automatically to he White House garage 8 blocks iway to be meticulously and scien-ifically scien-ifically examined against any at-empt at-empt on the Chief Executive's life . . The White House has under-lone under-lone innumerable changes and mod-6cations mod-6cations and has been completely ebuilt twice. Tradition and circum-tances circum-tances have given the White House iractically a living personality. It s constantly being quoted in the lewspapers as "the White Houst ays" |