Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1884-05-22
LIFE IN THE WHITE HOUSE.


der the Roof OF His Court HOuse-The
Need Of q Mansion.
| President Arthur does not like any of
! the plans that have been proposed for
| the new executive mansion. saws a Wash
1ngton letter to the New York Sun. He
| OBJECTS to the scheme to erect one on
| columbian heights, outside of the city
| limits, because it would compel people
who desire to see the President after of
ice hours to go to the expense of a car
rage, and would be inconYenient in 9th
er respects. He thinks the President of
the United States should be accessible at
all times. The President does not like
the plan which was proposed by Senator
Morrill, and adopted by the Senate last
year, to build duplicate of the present
White House few rods south of it, and
connect the two buildings with a corri-
dor, because it would still retain the dis
agreeable feature of residing in your
office. For the same reason the Presi-
dent objects to the enlargement of the
! present building. 1t has been proposed
to raise it and build another story below,
and it has been proposed to add another
story to the top for the private use of the
Presidents family; but he argues against
all these plans that the President as well
as his sOverelgns requires a change of
scene and change of atmosphere. No
man can rest so well inside the walls in
which he works as he can outside them,
and no man can work as we'll where ne
does his resting. He compares his pres
ent situation to that of a lawyer who
lives in his Office, or a judge who lives
under the roof of his court house.
/ 1t would be thought very queer if the
Secretary of State or Postmaster General
were to be required to live in their
offices, and the President thinks it is
quite as unreasonable to ask him
and his successors to do so.
Until the war the White House
was purely a residence, with two rooms
devoted to the private secretary and his
assistant, and third to the President
for his Cabinet meetings and the recep-
ton of congressman and other callers.
When Andrew Johnson was at odds
with the Secretary of War and other
members of his Cabinet, he called around
him from the Executive Departments a
force of clerks which has since remained
there, and has been growing larger as
the business of the Government has in
creased.
The President nowadays receives as
many letters in a week as Thomas JEFF
ferson or Andrew Jackson did in a year,
and the clerks are necessary to him.
Their work will grow larger instead of
less, and they will continue to crowd the
official work of the White House more
and more into the private portion, until
the President will have to be bachelor,
like Mr.. Tilden, in order to live there at
all.
The entire portion of the White House
that the President is now able to reserve
to his family consists of six rooms, din
ing room and five chambers. The Pres
ident's family cannot 60 to dinner with
out passing through that portion of the
house which is always visited by tourists
and is generally full of them. There is
no sitting-room for the ladies, although
the President has made one by means of
a screen at the west end of the corridor.
There is no seWing-rOOm, no mushroom,
no smOking-roOm, and there are no par
lOrs except those in the official portion
Of the mansion. If the President wants
to visit with party of ladies, he is COM
PEELED to see them either in the official
parlors, where he is liable to be inter
rupted by curiosity hunters, or give them
seats in the hall. Mrs. McElroy has no
place to receive her friends, no place to
do her sewing, except in her chamber or
in the public parlOrs, and the Presidents
daughter has to take her music lessons
in a bedroom or 60 out of the house to
do so. There is not even place for her
nurse to sleep.
When the President wants to enjoy a
cigar with friend he must either go to
his bedroom or sit in one of the official
apartments. He generally avoids either
and goes down into the hall leading to
the conservatory, where he has a few
comfortable chairs, and the marble table
upon which Andrew Jackson used to
play "Old sledge." The smoke keeps the
| l0IJCrS off 81 / jc hin irfI Of
cessity.
When President Arthur came into the
White House there was only one bath
room in the whole building, and the
guests who happened to be visiting there
had to go to bath house or carry their
bath tubs around with them He has
had two more baths put in. When he
came there there were no sleeping rooms
for the servants, and for several months
he spent the nights solitary and alone in
the house. except for the presence of
the night Waterman in the vestibule be-
low.
No ornament of any sort, no books or
fancy articles can be left in the public
parlors, because the tourists carry them
off. There are some gaeat bronze shields
and china pieces, to be sure, but they
weigh a hundred pounds or so, and the
relic fiends would have to bring a wagon
to get them away. There is not sport
able article" in the whole house, except
in the chambers and in the kitchen.
Everything has to be kept under lock
and key or not kept at all.
The President has partitioned off a
part of a hallway to make a dressing
room for himself, but it is the only one
in the house. When he wants to enter
, tain friends he has to send them to a
hotel or turn his family out of their
chambers. When Mrs. Hayes was mis-
tress of the White House she used to
!, have a good many visitors, and they
often had to sleep three in bed. Presi-
dent Arthur does not encourage that fea-
ture of the Ohio plan.
The President says the Government
should purchase the square of ground