Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1883-08-24
EDGEWOOD'S EMPTY HALLS
Mrs. Kate Chase Leaves Her Fine
Mansion Tenantless for Five Years.
Washington Letter in the Baltimore Ameri-

can.
'Edgewood,' as it is called, is tenant
| less, while it's owner roams in Eurobe,
She left here little over month ago,
| with her children, for five years tour
abroad. The grounds are kept in toler-
able order by the faithful servant in
whose charge they were left by her.
! But the great house, with its rich fur
! nishings, stands precisely as she left it.,
| and the broad acres of the magnificent
| estate lie uncultivated. It is a character
| istic Southern mansion, set in the mag
| nihcent forest which enriches the hills
| north of the city. From the bread YER
andas which grace the front of the build.
! ing the visitor looks through al. open
| ing in the woods down upon the CITY of
Washington, with the white dome of the
Capitol cleaning in the sunshine or the
| mellow moonlight, as the case may be,
| all making a beautiful picture.
"How is it?'' was asked of this friend
of the fair proprietress, "that this fair
! estate was left idle?" ''That," was the
! reply, lis what no one knows. Certain
| ly Mrs. Chase is notso we'll off financial
~ as to be able to throw away such a
place. She is, however, very peculiar
| woman, and if she can't get what she
| wants for it she is not likely to let it go
| at all. She has been offered $3.50 a
! month, and unless she gets that prefers
| to let it stand idle. Queer? Well, it's
about on par with most of her perform
| ances. Now, here's an estate worth $780,
0O0--she has been offered that for it
! and yet she will not make any use of it.
Why, she wouldn't allow it titled when
she lived here. She kept two or three
men employed in keeping it in order,
but wouldn't allow the ground titled.
The place brought her in debt every
year. The taxes are something enor-
NOUS"
@'But," suggested the correspondent,
sit has been stated that congress has re-
lieved the estate from taxation"
"That," continued the gentleman re-
ferred to-, lis like many other things
that have been said about this family.
1t is only partly true. Congress did
relieve it from certain taxes, but those
| were from back taxes altogether. The
place, you know, belonged to her faith
er. He bought it long before the war.
After ahis death it was found that some
$40, 1000 taxes were due and unpaid on 1t.
Well, Kate was pretty shrewd. She
of it to advantage. She proposed to the
other heirs that she would take the es.
tate just as it stood, providing for the
taxes herself, giving up to them, I sup
pose, a certain part of the other proper
ty. They agreed to that The property
was transferred to her, in her own
name, and after while little bill
made it's appearance in congress remit
ting the taxes then due. That, howev-
er, does not effect it now"
The old servant now in charge tells
many stories illustrating the peculiari-
ties of the mistress. She wouldn't let
him plant cabbage anywhere near the
house, because she could smell 'em"
Last spring she engaged man at very
high price and set him to ploughing up
the fields. She said she was going to
make the land of some use to her.
But, bless you, be hadn't got it ploughed
before she called him in one day and
told him to stop all work on it, that she
was going to Europe, to be absent five
years.