Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1874-07-09
JOTTINGS BY THE WAY.

From our own correspondent.
Leaving the Smithsonian Institute,
we hurry over to the "White House, u
of historic repute; everybody goes
there; everybody has read descriptions
of il; we will, therefore, be brief. The
building, a plain, rather Old-fashioned
structure, of marble, with some heavy
columns supporting kind OF reception
vestibule on its northern front, two
stories high; stands at the western end
of PENNSYLVANIA Avenue. The Capt.
tol is at the eastern end of this street.
The surroundings of the Presidential
mansion are in good taste, without any
special evidences of extravagance. Let
us take glance inside. We enter the
general waiting room which commu-
nicates with the east, blue and red
rooms. The Presidents Office is up
stairs. The east rooms location is in
dicated by its name. The size of the
room is $50 feet long, 40 feet wide,
with ceiling % feet high. The cell
ing is divided into three equal parts,
with heavy eorniee of white and gold,
separating the divisions. The central
ceiling is gray ground, with small
blue and gold stars. The other two
are gray, with gold centre-pieces and
and boz dering. From the three CEN
tres are immense silver and crystal
chandeliers, each with forty burners
and fine cone-shaped reflector under
meath the burners. The effect is daZ-
zling. There is all around the room a
cornice above, and chair-boarding
from the floor A inches in depth, which
is white and gold. Between the di-
/ ora Cnr;pfhiap oOl1popC of
white and gold, while the walls is
what is called mache; that is, papered
with velvet paper, the raised design
! of which is painted over with gold
leaf. The carpet is a warm-looking
| velvet carpet, in which crimson pre-
| dominates. The curtains and furni-
ture are Of gray reps, with bordering
of crimson velvet. There are six i'm
mense mirrors in the room, each sup.
| ported by q nlantei or pier-table of
white and geld. The slabs of the
mantels are highly polished mahoga-
ny, those of the pier-tables Of gray
marble. The effect is very novel and
beautiful indeed. Never before, it is
said, has so much white and gold been
attempted in the decorations of a sa-
loon. The men worked, We were told,
incessantly, night and day, to COM
pIete all before the New Year recep-
ton. The present finish of this. and
the adjoining rooms, is something new
under the sun in the White House, and
the whole get up is entirely different
and in marked contract with the FORM
er arrangement in these rooms. The
"Blue Room" is also freshened. The
walls and ceiling are newly tinted, land
gilt furniture regilded and covered
with blue damask silk. The life-size
portraits of Washington. Lincoln, Fill
more and Scott, are in the sgresn par
lor.' Scott is the private property of
Gen. Grant. The portraits of Tyler,
Polk, Pierce, Adams and Van BuTen
are in dining hall, which runs parallel
with the drawing rooms. But little
change has been wrought 10 the red
room,' except general freshening up.
and the predominant color brought out
more conspicuously. We admired this
room more than any other. There WAS
a magnificent grandeur and freshness
aacuI the east room,' but the red
room excelled it in beauty of its col
ors, to ,ossr eye, and its charming adorn-
ments. Ws can conceive of nothing
pleasanter or more bewitching in do
mestic affairs than the impression of
this lovely drawing-room. AS we
stood in this famous house, our
thoughts naturally recurred TO other
times, other incidents. and other men.
When first we stood in the vestibuie OF
this stately mansion, the immOrtol Lin
coin was going in and out before the
nation. Then next Andrew johnson
was disgracing its halls with his un-
righteous tread. We saw VIM, III.
Seward as he left the White House for
the last time as the great premier of
the nation. And now we stand in the
same halls deserted forever by the feet
of these men, and another is on the
throne, and we wonder and wonder
who'll tread these rooms, and what
will be the destiny of my native land
away in the dim future? Will we be
free or slave, properous or brrthened
with misfortune, beacon-light or
fallen star, whose lustre has gone out
amidst the crumbling fragments of the |
dynasties of the old world?
protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our Kingl"
But let us away to the Capitol once
more, and then bid adieu TO the city |
which has afforded US so much enjoy
ment. We pass hurriedly through the
galleries, and take our measure Of the
notables of the Sena,e, prominent |
among whom was Sumner, Sherman,
Shurz, Logan and Boutwell,. The tru-
ly great men in this august btdy are
like angels visits, 'few and far be-
tween.' With all his demagoguery |
Schurz, outside of Sumner, had, in our
Judgment. no peer in that body as
debater, and intellectual giant. In one
corner sat form we saw in the days
of the Rebellion, Parson Brownlow. a
mere bundle of nervous paralytic tre-
NOR. Seldom speaking, but sitting
and shaking and shaking, and sitting
day after day. We felt, in looking at
the eccentric old fellow, that there was
wisdom in his creation. AS Andy
johnson was made, it tseemed not good
that he should be alone, so Brownlow
was made, or vice verSd, as the case
may be; and, like Chang and Eng, in
life they are joined in Tennessee, and
in the other state somebody will have
their hands full. We left the Senate
chamber feeling that, after all, it was
mediocre body. A glance at the House
will satisfy anybody that it is not re-
markable class of men. Noisy, bois-
ferrous, ill-mannered, ill-advised; no
wonder it would talk, in connection
with the Senate, all winter, to the in
finite disgust of a whole nation about
things of which it knows nothing.
There are many remarkable faces in the
House, and doubtless many superior
men; but they are few, and could not
regard the appearance of things as of
much credit to anybody. There were
two characters there that attract
prompt attention-the observer looks
first for one, and then hurriedly for the
other. They sit near together, and