The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1881-09-02
The White House.
How THE PRESENT OCCUPANTS HAVE
JARED SINCE LIVING IN IT.

How THE PRESENT OCCUPANTS HAVE
JARED SINCE LIVING IN IT.
A special correspondent of the Phila-
delphia Times says: No wonder the
President has grown restless under the
confinement Of the sick room at the
White House. The room itself is as bare
and gloomy almost as barn. When
the carpet was taken. up the chamber
was completely denuded of ornament.
fhe lace curtains were taken down, the
pictures and other articles of virtu re-,
moved. When the work of stripping
was done nothing remained but bare
floor, bare walls, bamboo canesseat
settee, and few light bamboo chairs,
the patients narrow bed and the doctors
table. There was literally nothing upon
which tired eye and mind worn out
by introspection might rest. Any hospi-
tai ward is as ,cheerful-perhaps more
cheerful, for absence OF things from their
accustomed places is more conspicuous
then if they never had been there. The
room itself is so extraordinarily large and
the ceiling so high that the effect is mats
urally more depressing. However, the
Presidents room does not effect his
mind SO much as the idea that he ls in
an unlucky and sickly place, though it
serves constantly to remind him of it.
From the hour he entered the White
House he has had nothing but round
Of official worry and family sickness.
First it was old Mother Garfield, who
was taken i'll while ON a visit to her son.
The old lady was in bed for quite a long
time, land at one tizie actually believed
she was going to die. As soon as she
was able to travel she shook the dust of
"the abominable place." as she termed
it, off her feet and fed the musty stone
walls and the perils of French cookery.
She has since formed repugnance for
the place and has given it wide
berth. While sick she constantly moan
ed that if she could only get out of there
and TO her old plain home in Ohio she
knew she would get well. The next who
fell a victim was the Presidents wife,
and the cause of her illness led very,
very near to deaths door. She expert
.enced the same morbid feeling of dread
while lying under the national roof. She
was continually haunted by the super,
stition that some way or another the
White House to her and her kindred was
an unlucky place. AS in any woman an
idea of this sort soon becomes convic>
ton, she was hurried away as soon as
possible. The subsequent assassina.
ton and long suffering of her husband
has not, as may be easily imagined,
changed their views, but has merely con.
firmed them. 1t is safe to say that for
the last six weeks the most ardent friend
OF General Hancock could feel no more
regret at his defeat in the recent cleo
ton than Mrs. Garfield has felt. All her
former forebodings have come back to
the unhappy wife and mother with dou~
bic force. What are earthly honors to
them now? Though the nations of the
earth combine to lay their sympathy and
respect at the feet of her suffering hus.
band she would gladly forego them all now
and forever, for one hour upon his strong
arm and their modest country home in
Ohio. "If / only could have him away
from here" she cried, wringing her
hands in brief paroxysm of grief, on
the occasion of his recent relapse. 81
know he would get we'll I'm sure of it,
This place is hateful to me. It breathes
noxious odors day and night. The sew,
erage is positively dreadful" That this
sentiment is shared by the President is
well understood. His isolated condi-
ton has contributed, together with the
gloomy surroundings of his great, bare
chamber, to aggravate this lonesomeness
and morbid state of mind.