Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1882-07-06
The W hite House
ASST WAS, Is, AND WILL BE

for expanding 100000 in re.
pairing the white house, passed both
houses last week, was duly signed by
the President, and workmen are al
ready engaged in excavating for the
improvement. The idea is to give up
the present building entirely to Offices
and public rooms, and to have the new
part a private residence in which the
marauding foot of the sight-seer will
be stayed. As it is, the President has
no privacy, for while he does not dine
with the multitude watching him
through a railing, la Louis XIV, the
multitude are there waiting for his back
to be turned, and the usher to UNI
lock the door and show them through.
One of the ushers has been taking
sight-seers through the parlors and
state apartments of the first floor since
President Lincoln's time, ana the sim.
pie narrative with which he Was wont
to point out the features of each room,
has now grown to sing song speech,
exactly after the manner of the guides
to foreign palaces. Mrs. HAYES was all
good nature and shability to the sis 1t.
seers and strange callers, aud invari-
ably sent them through the corservo-
tory and babe the gardener give them
a posey or palm branch as souvs.
mir, but few ven;ured 10 ask that they
might see the upper part of the house
where the family rooms are situated.
Since President Arthur has been
the master Of the house more people
have prowied around the private bed
rooms than ever before, and being a
man, and good-natured one besides,
he can seldom refuse such requests
when made to him, or brought to him
by friends. The ladies of the congress
sional and official circles were perfect
ly beset to see the upper rooms this
winter, and there was hardly day
or an evening that more or less
distinguished danes were not peeping
into the cerulean chamber, and the
pretty cabinet where the President
holds his midnight council Of friends,
and dispatches the heavy work of the
official day. They have all examined
the dainty articles on the bureau, the
ivory backed brushes the scent cases
and the delicate satin handkerchief
cases, with its little sachets embroider-
ed with the traditional words and
mottoes in pale blue silks. The elder
down bed quilt, with its blue satin cover
surrounded with border of Kate
Greenaway's little folks in outline
stitches of gold fioss, has had its adj
mirers, and the rich and simple ar
rangement of the canopy curtains
strung through an immense brass ring
fixed to the ceiling has commended it.
self to many honsekeepers as model
for their own star chambers. Inso the
room where President Garfield lay and
suffered, the privileged ones gaze with
a certain awe. The White House has
been inhabitated continuously since
1900 ; and during that long line o
presidents there has been constant
tinkering and repairing of the premises.
The roof has leaked from time inn
memorial, and fortune has been
there, and now comes a
sanitary engineer with proposition to
expend like sum on the plumbjng and
drainage of the basement, Careless
servants have at times let the place GO
to rack and ruin, and at other times the
ladies presiding over the mansion have
exercised n minute supervision over
every part of the premises. Mrs. Sto-
yer, the daughter of Andrew johnson,
was most thorough and excellent
house wife, and by the perfect order
and management of the establishment
f,,. col o.
that New England matron might Ell.
Wy. Mrs. Grant vas altogether the best
housekeeper TIE mansion ever had, and
the most Of Ler eight years were spent
in devising how to patch, turn and
make presentable the we,l-worn fur
nishings, since so much Of the annual
appropriation went to the roof, the
water spouts and the plumbing. Mrs.
Grant left the house in the most perfect
condition, with everything spick and
span, scrubbed, cleaned and pol
ished about it, and gave . written in
ventory of every article from
the kitchen traps TO the rags and
crippled furniture of the garrett, Mrs.
Hayes left things more to the care Of
the servants during her four years, and
during the illness of Mrs. Garfield, and
afterwards the death siege Of President
Garfield. the place ran itself. 1t was
like cleaning the Augean stables to
bring the house to a proper condition
fer President Arthur, and that fastidi-
ously neat gentleman gave some very
decided orders when he first inspected
the white house from top to bottom
with a view to residence. When it was
scraped and secured, cleaned, papered
and furnished afresh, President Arthur
entered into his domain with some rea-
sonable mplacency. He was ushered
into his own private room, a poem OF
carefully blended tints Of rcbln's- egg
blue and maroon, touched with gold
and bronze, and then it was found that
there was not a towel in the white
house stores. The stock had dimiE-
ished and then disappeared after Presi-
dent Garfeld's illness, and his success
ore first official act was to command
the purchase Of these necessary APP
p!ianc-s Of civilization before he could
dry his hands.
other CapitoI.N0tes