The Cleveland leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1865-1865, 1865-05-23
me white House and iIs L:
mania

pants
Georre Alfred Townshend writes " the
New York World an interesting descrip-
ion of the White. House and s5me remin-
SCIENCES of Mr.. Lincoln, from which We
extract the following:
1 am sitting in the Presidents Office.
He was here very lately, but he will not
return te dispossess me Of this high backed
chair he filed 80 long, nor resume his daily
work at the table where ! am writing
There are only here NJ jof Hay and the
friend who accompanies me. A bright
faced boy rms in and out, darkly attired,
80 that his fob chAin Of gold Is the only re-
lief to his mourning gGrb. This Is little
Tsd, the pet of the White House. That
great death, with which the world rings,
has made upon him only the light impress
sion which all things make on childhood.
He will live to be man pointed out every
where, for his fathers sakei and, as folks
look ct him, the tablesu of the murder
will seem to encircle him.
The room is long and high, and SO thick
" hung with maps thst the wall cannot
be .discerned. Tue Presidents table, st
which sm seated, sdjoins window st
the farthest corner; and to the left Of my
chair, as if reclining in it, there is longer
table before an empty CRATE, around which
there are many chairs, where the cabinet
used 70 assemble. The carpet is trodden
there, and the brillisnce Of its dyes is lost
The ferniture is of the formal cabinet GLASS,
stately and semi-comfoFtsblej there are
book cases, sprinkled with the sparse libra
~ of q country lawyer, but lately plethor-
ic. like the thin body which has departed
in its coffin. They are taking away Mr.
Lincoln's private effects, to, deposit them
wheresoever lis family may abide, and the
emptiness of the place, on this sunny sun
day. revives that feeling Of deaolation from
which the land has scarce recovered.
There is but one picture on the marble
msntle over the cold grGte-Jchn Bright
photograph.
I can we'll imagine how the mind of Mr..
Lincoln often went sIsr to the face OF
Bright, who said so kindly things Of him
when Europe was mocking his homely
guise and provincial phrsseology. To Mr..
Lincoln, John Bright wss the standard
bearer of America and Democracy 10 the
old world. He thrilled over Brights bold
denunciations Of petr and privilege" and
stretched his long arm across the Atlantic
TO tske thai daring Quaker innoyator by
the hand.
see some books on the table; perhaps
they have lain there undisturbed since the
readers dimming eyes grew nerveless. A
parliamentary manual, thessuruS and
two books Of humor, 'Orpheus @. Kerr,
and HArtemus Ward" These last wess
Rad BY Mr.. LincCln in the pauses of hii
hard days labor. Their tenure here beari
out the popular verdict of his partially
for good joke.
An acquaintance of mine-a printer
once went TO him 10 plead for q mans life
He had never seen the man for whom hC
pleaded, and hal no acquaintance with the
mans family. Mr.. Lincoln was touchec
with his disinterestedness, and said *
him:
"If I were anything but the President
I would be certainly working IS you have
| done"
The literary coterie of the White Houst
got little Aattery, but its members wert
treated IS agreeable citizens. and not q
The architects of Anybody's fortune.
Willis went there much for . while, bu
yielded to his old habit of goesiping abou
the Wallpaper and the tea-POts. Emerson
went there once, and was deferred to as j
be were anything but philosopher. Ye
he so far grssped the character Of his hosi
Us to indite that noble humanitarian eulo
gy upon him, delivered at Concord
and printed in the World
It will not do to say definitely in this no
tice how several occasional writers viEiteC
the White House, heard the Pfesidenti
views and sssented to them, and AfterwsrC
abused him. Butthese attained no remem
brance nor tart reproach from that least re
tsliatory omen. He harbored no malice
and is said to have often placed himself OF
the standpoint Of Davis and Lee, and sc
counted for their detection while he coulc
not excuse it.
He was q good reader, and took all tht
leading New ork dAilies every day. Hi
secretaries peruscd them and selected 81
the items which would interest the Presi
dent; these were read to him and consid
cred. lie bought few new books, bul
seemed ever alive to works of comic value;
the vain of humor in him was not bolster
Gus in its manifestations, but touched tht
geniality of his nature, and he reproduced
sll that he absorbed to elucidate some new
issue, or turn away argument with laugh