The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1858-12-30

| The truth is, that up to the time of Mr..
Polk the White House was not decently fur
nished. Congress then made an appropria-
! ton, which, being judieiously expended,
| improved things somewhat. After that no
considerable appropriation was made till the
year 1853, when some fifty thousand dollars
were appropriated for heating, ventilating,
painting, enlarging and refurnishing the
house. The responsibility of applying this
| appropriation to the purpose intended by
Congress was deyolved on Captain Lee then
of the Typographical Corps of the army, and
we think the money was expended to the
satisfaction Of everybody. For the first time
| the house was made comfortable to live in.
The appliances for warming the house by hot
water, and which were furnished by Wal
| worth & Mason of your city, cost, it is said,
more than ten thousand dollars including
| expense of putting up. The furniture oft
house is substantially the same, carpets and
all, as was purchased by Captain Lee i'll
1853. The silver in the house, l am told is
| mostly that bought in Paris during the adj
ministration of Mr.. Munroe.. There are but
two or three pictures in the house. One in
| the red room, a portrait of Washington,
which was cut from the frame and secured
by Mrs. Madison when Washington was oc-
cupied by the British during the war of 1872.
Another, in the Presidents office, a portrait
of BoEver, the South American patriot
There are no household ornaments about the
| house, except vases scattered here and there
on mantelS, and articles brought from Japan
by Commodore Perry. The White House,
in word, is furnished more like first class
hotel than first class private residence
There are articles of use in abundance, rich
and massive, but no article of art or adorn-
ment
What docs it cost tine President each year
to keep up the Executive mansion2
First, the President receives twenty-five
thousand dollars salary. Next, he receives
house, garden, and stable free of expense
The house is furnished and the garden cul-
tivated by the government. Every article
OF furniture necessary is, furnished by the
United States. The government also lights
and heats the house. 1t pays for steward
to take care of the public property, and
fireman, and for no other domestic servants.
The Executive office is in the Executive
mansion, and for the former the government
provides a private Secretary, clerks to the
secretary two messengers and aporter. For
all domestic servants, however, except stew
ard and fireman, the President must pay out
of his own pocket He must pay for, his
cooks, his butler, his table servants, his fe-
male servants, his coachman and grooms,
&C., &c, as any other person does who en-
ploys such retinue of servants. He sup
plies his table, with the exception of garden
vegetables, as any other private citizen does,
by his own purse. So with his stable. In
short, the only things furnished by govern
ment are house and furniture, fuel and lights,
steward and fireman, garden vegetables and
flowers. All else is matter of private ex-
pensc.
With these items as basis of calculation,
any gentleman who keeps eighteen or more
servants of both sexes, who keeps a stable
filed with horses, as does Mr.. Buchanan,
who dimes persons, besides his own family
every day, and once week gives dinner
to forty invited guests, can form some idea
how much out of twenty-five thousand dol
lars remains at the end of a year.