St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1881-09-23
The White House.

1892, under the superintendent of
Captain James HObOn, an Irish archi-
tect direct from Dublin, who accepted
the award of $500 (then thought to be
"A large amount) for the design.
He is buried i'll the Catholic cemetery
at Washington, and his descendants
still live in that city.
The British destroyed the building
in the year 1914, but it was rebuilt by
Captain HObOn, and was first opened
for the reception of visitors on Janua-
ry l, 1918.
The porticO of four lofty columns, on
the north side, was added i'll 1899, dur
ing the administration of President
jackson.
1t is lofty building, two stories in
height, with frontage of one hundred
within the front door is fifty feet long
which was finished fifty years ago, is
eighty feet long, forty feet wide and
twenty-five feet high.
Eight large mirrors and three chan
deliers, of crystal and silver, adOrn the
room. The walls are covered with
gray paper, and the furniture is velvet.
With the exception of our public halls,
it is the largest in the country, and for
its size it is certainly the handsOmest.
The Presidents office, which is on
the second story, and which is the
Cabinet-roOm also, is not very large.
1t is thirty-tive or forty feet long and
thirty or thirty-five feet wide, with Il
ceiling about twenty feet high. In the
middle of the floor is a long table, sur
rounded by leather seated chairs long
lambrequin curtains of dark, blush
gray color adorn the windows and the
carpet is of a red tint, with large fig
ures, and large map of the United
States on the wall.
Washington is government crea-
ton, and the White House is chiefly
memorable on account of the men who
have lived in it. Every one of our
Presidents except Washington has re-
sided in this famous house.
The original cost of this building in
1892 was about 1895, 600, and the total
cost up to this time is about 81 ,S00,O
-[GOlden Days.
Facts Curious and Interesting.
This free and enlightened people
burned up more than 567 ,000, 600 ciga-
rettes last year.
Sixty drops of water fill the same
measure as a hundred drops of laudan-
UNI.
Carpenters were originally makers of
cdrpentG or carriages.
The ancients always harnessed their
horses abreast, never lengthwise.
The ancient British used buckets
without hoops, cut out of solid timber.
Some of the Egyptian mummies are
encased in bandages more than one
thousand yards long.
The wheel, as torture among the
Greeks, consisted in whirling the Grim
inal round till he expired.
The heroes of HOmer's time used
after meals to wipe their hands on a
piece of bread and throw it to the dogs
Carrying a saddle from one place to
another was an ignOminiOus punish
ment among the old German nations.
A single pound of cotton has been
spun into thread seventy-six miles in
length the same quantity of wool,
ninety-five miles long.
Twenty-fOur thousand eggs of the
silk worm weigh It ounces. For 739
pounds of mulberry leaves seventy
pounds of cOcOOns are obtained. One
hundred cOcOons give 81 pounds OF
spun silk. One pound of cOcoOns pro-
duces a single thread $4,000 fathOms
long.
Till the discovery of the stereoscope
naturalists were puzzled to account foI
a single image resulting from double
vision, and some endeavOred to eX-
plain it by the suppOsitiOn that one
eye only was active and that nature
had given us two merely to provide
against accidents.