The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1885-04-22
THE EXECUTIVE MANSION.
LOOK AT THE WHITE HOUSE r1r
IT'S VARIOUS BRANoHHs.
The Great VoStibule and Its Orna-

nentatlOh-Ih East Room aud
Its Costly Chandeliers.
The Washington correspondent of the
CNeland Leader gives the following in
teresting 1scription of the White House
The Presideks house is long white
rectangular buildinAaf two stories, with
many large windows in reSt looking out
at Pennsylvania avenue and thsheautiful
park opposite it, and with porte ts5ere
like the entrance to Greek temple, 1ns!
ting out over its front door and support
ed by a number of Greek pillars as white
like conservatory is attached as a wing
to its western end and the building
stands several hundred yards back from
the street, and it is surrounded by twenty
acres of lawn and trees. In the front of
it the ground slopes by an easy grade
down to Pennsylvania avenue, and an
iron fence with gold headed points sep
arates it from the wide sidewalk. At
the back, the house looks out on the
Potomac, and over the river on the hill
may be seen Arlington, the home of
Washington and General Robert i. Lee.
The lawn back of the White House is
rolling and it contains many forest trees,
q beautiful fountain, and near the house,
in summer. gardens and flowers.
The wide walks or drives lead in q
winding way from the street to the big
porte cochere, and this is so arranged
that several carriages can stop under its
cover and their passengers get out with
out danger from the weather,
The White House covers about one
third of an acre, and it has cost up to
the present time about 81, 100000 1t is
modelled aftera castle in Dublin, and the
architect, who was South Carolina man
named Hoban, got $500 for drawing the
plans. When it was first built, away
back in the nineties, it cost $780, 900,
but the British burnt out its insides, and
its cost has since added to that sum
about $1,700, 900. IN it all of the Presi-
dents since Washington have lived, and
each has added to its beauties and its
expenses. l think 1t was John Quincy
Adams who bought the first billiard
table which was used in it. But in John
Adams time it was only half furnished,
and Abigail Adams used to dry her
clothes in the big east room. Year by
year, however, the furnishing has gone
on, until now it is sort of a museum of
art and beauty.
face like statesman and form which
would have made him a member of the
giant guards had he lived years ago in
Prussia, opens wide the doors for us.
They slide back easily on their hinges of
polished brass, vnd we step in upon the
tiled floor of a great vestibule, the back
wall of which is a mosaic of beautiful
stones and colored glass, looking much
like one of the walls in one of Frederick
the Greats palaces at Potsdam, Prussia.
There is room in this palace of Fred
erick's walled with such a mosaic of
Jewels. 1t cost an immense sum and
was built by Frederick to blind the eyes
Of the other monarchs of Europe to the
real state of his purse. He was hard up
and his fellow kings supposed that he
was so. He bluffed them in this way
and so kept his credit good as they
thought no one would undertake such an
expense with anything less than billions
to draw upon.
These stones in the wall of the
White House vestibule are many of them
set in the rough, in beautiful shapes, and
they look something, so said visitor,
like the broken wine bottles of the White
House beautifully cemented together
Tiffany made this wall and the govern
ment paid well for it.
This vestibule alone covers the space
which would be covered by good sized
eight-room house, and thirty men could
march abreast going from one end of ii
to the other. 1t has doors at each end
and in the middle and end of the glass
wall. In it the Marine band plays at
great receptions, and here gentlemen
throw off their overcoats and leave them
in the hands of their footmen while they
see the President within.
At the left is the entrance to the hall
leading to the upper story, where the
President spends most of his time, and
| Just off of this is the east room. 1t is
probably the largest parlor in the United
States. 1t is eighty feet long and forty
feet wide, and was originally intended
for banquetng hall, but is now used
for receptions. The walls are of en-
bossed paper of white and gilt, and the
ceiling is beautifully finished in oils. 1t
is very high ceiling, three times as high
as ordinary, and has great girders or
beams richly decorated running across
it. Massive chandeliers with thousands
of glass pendants hang from it. These
chandeliers cost $5, 600 each. and each
contains 5000 pieces of the finest of Bo
hemian glass. When they are lighted
the eight massive mirrors, each as large
as two billiard tables, reflect their bril-
liant rays, and the whole brings out tho
richness of the fine furniture of old golo
satin and the beauty of the moss-ike car
pet.
Between these mirrors hang some fine
oil-paintings which are set like the mir
rors into the walls There is one O
Gilbert Stuart's Washington's, life size
and as big as one of the mirrors, which
cost two thousand dollars. 1t is the
picture that Dolly Madison had Gu
from the frame when the British invaded
the capital, and carried it off with her
A little further along is a fine portrait o
Martha Washington, which cost So, 900
1t is the same size as that of George, anC
70 me it looks fully at well. The cas-