Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-12-29

| TAPESTRY, AND. HEIBLooMs-HANDsoME FUR
NIsHISGs AND rSBOUSDED HOSPITALITY
To write the annals of half the dining-rooms
of Washington would be to make a most inter-
esting volume Of historic and romantic incl
dents. complete description of the details
of the rooms and their contents would exhaust
the united vocabularies of an art critic, a
china and crystal connoisseur, and an expert
sayant. The dining-room naturally plays a
prominent part in entertainments in this city.
The social gatherings at the capital are COM
posed Of both young and DID, and of
people the beginning of whose per-
| sOnal acquaintance with each other is
| liable to be of very recent date. Nothing
! bridges over a small or great embarrassment
so gracefully or solves so readily difficult
! question at issue between cOnversatiOnalists az
| the general mental abstraction manifested by a
| company when the dining-room doors are
! thrown open at an evening reception. The
/ grand promenade to the refreshment table is a
I great promoter of brotherly feeling. The din
ing-rooms of Washington probably receive
more active wear by people outside of their
| own portals than those of many cities Dur
/ ing the half of the year that the folks are in
! their homes luncheOns. teas and dinners to
| invited guests are of daily and nightly Occur-
renee. One sees the interior of an acquain-
/ tance's dining-room in this town oftener than
/ that of an intimate friend in another place. A
/ STAR reporter recently visited a number of
| these rooms.
SECRETARY wHITNEY's DINING ROOM.
! The dining room which is best known to the
| grand roundsman who makes all the official
| calls every week In the season, well as to
/ the friends upon their visiting list, is that of
/ Secretary and Mrs. Whitney. 1t is not the
same room in dimensions in furnishing in
which the family of the late Secretary of State.
/ Mr.. Frelinghuysen. dispensed their gracious
d has al NV ha ODD
| tiOn of a beautiful bay window the whole
/ length of the room. The windows are draped
| with red silk damask brocade into which is
woven a conventional geometric pattern, and
/ the only other decorations upon the walls are
some old PLAQUES of hammered brass and
others of Hispano-NIoresque, and over the
sldebOard hangs a rare piece of tapestry that
antedates the fruit of the famous looms of
| Belgium. 1t was made in Nuremberg,
and bears date of 1925. The story told
by its curious legends and figures has never
been deciphered, although several learned
Germans have bent their energies to read the
tale OF the tapestry. 1t is story of some
ancient Germanic feud between two baronial
castles, and the shepherd with his pigs and the
hunter and his dogs and the serfs of the soil
are fastening to join the forces engaged on
both sides of the irrepressble conflict that
ragged in those far-off days of the Reformation.
The floor is covered with warm carpet of
crimson wool, and the tables and buffet and
chairs are of old inlaid mahogany the latter
upholstered in leather. The mantel is decked
by two high vases of quaint oriental Nankin
ware. in blue and white. and in the center
stands pilgrim jar of a very rare old Chinese
shape. Some of the silver upon the tables and
buffet are of great historic value. There are
pair of loving cups of an old pattern no longer
/ 10 be purchased. silver pitcher that belonged
| to Mps. Andrew Jackson. and has her monogram
engraved upon its sides. The cake-baskets,
| egg-nOg bowls. and a pair of pitchers bear
date of 1850, and have an old English coat of
arms engraved upon them. They have been
in Secretary Whitney's family for generations.
There several pieces of hand-hammered
silver coffee pitchers and bowls that date back
10 the seventeenth century. Mrs. Whitneys
dinner-service is of white china. gold banded.
quaint device is the use of an old-fashioned
wine cooler for fower-stand, and it is always
banked with growing, blooming plants.
cozY ROOM.
Captain and Mrs. John F. Rodgers have one
of the most delectably cozy dining-rooms in
the city. and the host and hostess have the fac
ulty of making their guests happy all the time
| they are in it. The room is octagon in shape,
and has a wainscoting of cherry that meets
walls of peacock-blue in a satin finish. The
walls are further adorned by set of litho-
graphs illustrating the opening of the ports of
Japan TO American commerce, which were
brought home from Japan by Commodore
Perry to his sister. who was Capt. Rodgers
mother. The western windows are painted in
a design of figures and fruit. The fireplace is
adorned with yellow tiles, and the mantel
| forms fireplace cupboard with glass doors.
and the shelves are filed with rare and beauti-
full china and glass. Dresden plates. Sevres
cups and saucers Bohemian glass dessert sets
and Persian wine glasses. The heavy square
table is of carved mahogany, and the carved
chairs are upholstered in Pompeiian red
/ leather. The sidebOards are of antique ma
hogany, and the inlaid floor is covered with
Smyrna rugs IN pale gray and crimson.
| FULL OF HISTORIC TREASURES
Mr.. and Mrs. Hornsby have a dining-room
that is decked with historic treasures MANY
of the young people who crowded its halls
| last week at the pretty tea given for the debu-
/ tsates of the season, were brought into the
| palpable presence of things they thought be-
! longed only to the pages of their text books of
history. A curious set of China plaques on the
walls picture some scenes of the French revo-
luton as they were conceived by the artisans
and rude artists whose heads had not vet been
removed by the guillotine. Among the portraits
| Is one of Mr. Hornsby, over the mantel; fine
steel engraving of Judge jeremiah s. Black of
/ Buchanans cabinet drawing of Thomas JEFF
/ ferson. who was a distant cousin of MIR. Horns
| by; steel engraving of Mr.. Walter Forward
| of Pennsylvania. who was Secretary of the
Treasury under President Tyler in 1S4l The
/ picture is taken from portrait in oil in pos
/ session Of Mrs. J. S. Black, whose uncle he
was; portrait of Gov. Skunk. of Pennsylvania
who was the grandfather of Mrs. Evans, who is
/ Mrs. Hornsby daughter; and there is also upon
the wall copy on white satin of the inaugural
/ address of Gov. Findlay. of Pennsylvania in
1877, who was the great grandfather of Mrs.
Evans. Two quaint cabinets with glass doors
are filed with family china and glass. The
sideboard is of old inlaid mahogany and the
chairs and square table and side tables are of
/ polished mahogany. The silver service dates
from period before the Revolution. and has
been in the family for several generations.
| MRS. sHERRILLs NEW HOUSE
| on Massachusetts, avenue contains one of the
/ handsomest dining-rooms in the city, II ia a
pure Octagon in FORM and is finished in Eng
lish oak. The buffet of oak is built across one
of the corners and has bevel-edged glass doors
to irregularly sized square compartments, that
are occupied with beautiful cut crystal, silver
and china. The room is 25x19 feet The oaken
mantel Is high and is exquisitely carved. and
over the door and the two large window frames
| of oak are heavy shelvings. The table is
| heavy, square one. with the legs carved into
J dragons legs, and the chairs are upholstered
| with tapestry. In order to secure uniformity
/ IN the wood, samples of it were sent by the
| builder to the firm that made the furniture of
! the room. Two settles of CHARTERED oak are
| upholstered to match the chairs The windows
are draped in white dimity and heavy tapestry.
| and the rug upon the floor is Persian in soft
| grays and blues. Palms and ferns in yellow
| pots shade the yellow tiles Of the fireplace.
| and the light falls from daintily-colored glass
| from a central chandelier.
CAPT. AND MRS. BUCHER
are to be heartily congratulated on the artistic.
| <f.l.. L.