The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-03-21
The WHITE HOUSE.
Inc Executive Mansion an Undesirable
Residence for a Ouiat Man.

A@AONSNFo manBlOn an undesirable
Residence for Quiet Man.
The White House with all its beauties
is BY no means very desirable resi-
dence for quiet man. 1t is a great
hotel with none of great hotels privi-
leges. Its occupant has no privacy, and
such moments as he has are always
spent with guards at his doors and an
unavailing clamor from those who want
abundance, but must necessarily be re-
fused. The President 5 every action is
watched. Crowds come to his back
doors and peep into his kitchen, they
interview his servants, and the good
public has the right at any time to walk
through his great palace and make their
remarks abou. his furniture and the
way he keeps it. Cranks come and they
are also often admitted. In most cases
these are harmless, but now and then
one thinks he has mission and then
the President is either bored or killed.
The tull half of his big house is given
up to offices and he has his work always
with him. He can't get away from it,
and 1t haunts him day and night. He
has alsp to entertain, and at his enter
talnmehts, which he pays for out of his
own pockets, he has to invite people for
whom m doesn't care a straw, and peo-
pie Will ct his terrapin and drink his
champagne tonight, and straightway
go of aad plot to break down his repu-
tatiSI. H,>Nir. Editor, the President of
the United States has no enviable posi-
ton, and his head, as it sleeps on the
soft couches in the second story of that
great white palace, rests as uneasily as
that of any monarch in Europe.
But let me tell you how the Presidents
house looks. 1t is a long white rec
triangular building of two stories, with
many large windows in front looking
out at Pennsylvania Avenue and the
beautiful park opposite it, and with q
porte c0ckere, like the entrance to a
Greek temple, jutting out over its front
door and supported by number of
Greek pillars as white as the house
itself. A long greenhouse-like con-
servatory 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 goldheaded 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 Z. Lee
The lawn back of the White House is
rolling and it contains many forest
trees, beautiful fountain, and near the
house in summer, gardens and flowers
The wide walks or drives lead in a
winding way from the street to the big
! porte c0chere, and this is so arranged
that several carriages can stop under its
cover and their passengers get out
without danger from the weather
The White House covers about one
third of an acre, and it has cost up to
the present time about $4,000, 900 1t
is modelled after a castle in Dublin, and
the architect, who was South Carolina
man named Hoban, got $500 for draw
ing the plans. When it was first built,
away back in the nineties, it cost $780,
900, but the British burnt out its in
sides, and its cost has since added to
that sum about 81 100000. In it all of
the Presidents since Washington have
lived, and each has added to its beauties
and its expenses. l think it 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 a sort of a
museum of art and beauty.-Cor. C2eUe-
land Herald.