San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-07-26
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent
WASHINGTON, July 10, 1889.

Daily LIGHT:
The utter inadequacy of the White
House for the purpose for which it is
used has long been felt and frequent
" expressed Its uses are two-fold.
First, the White House is the resi-
dence of the President and his fami-
ly; and second, it contains the exec
utive offices, where all who have bus
mess with the President and his
clerks have easy access at stated
hours, and where the deliberative
meetings of the Cabinet are held.
In such building as the White
house actually is, these two uses are
not compatible with each other. AS
a residence it lacks the proper room
repose. 1t is not adapted to the care
free, familiar, uninspected life of
household, and in it the family of the
President must have at all times an
unhomelike semi-consciousnes that
they are occupying a quasi-public
building.
Col. John N. Wilson, Commission
er of public buildings and grounds,
in recent report suggests a plan
which while secondary to the one of
erecting a new executive mansion, if
carried out would result in a radical
improvement. He recommends the
remodeling of the White House in
such a way that the official quarters
of the President would be wholly sep
arate from the residence portion
the building. To effect this he would
remove the greenhouses now stretch
ing to the west and build on their
site wing to accommodate the trans
action of executive business. On the
east he would construct wing
which should contain an art gallery
and a conservatory and winter gar
den. This would leave the White
House proper for the occupancy of
the Presidents private household.
Colonel Wilson, in securing these re-
suits, would also endeavOr to obtain
such architectural effects as would
relieve the badness of design of the
present structure.
When Hadji Hassien Khouli Khan
Mohamed ell Vesare-which, by the
way, is the full name of the late min
lister to this country from Persia-left
for New York last week with the in
tention of sailing for Europe, never
to return to the country of unmnzzled
newspapers, he gave no official init
nation of his decision beyond an
nouncing that he had been granted a
leave of absence. Therefore it is that
the State Department archives con-
tain nothing to indicate that this
country Is automatically severed
from the land of the shah, for Hadji
Hassien, ETC., had no letters of recall
TO present when he had made up his
mind to go. He will meet his SOW
ereign in Paris, whittier the latter has
gone as a counter attraction to the
Eitfel tower, and will there re-
late to him his woes and show him his
scrap book containing the nice things
the American papers have said about
them both. Hadji will no doubt be
sent to more cOngenIal cline, and
perhaps in the shah's own good time
another envoy extraordinary and min
lister plenipotentiary from Persia to
the land of the Christian will be sent
from Teheran, armed with credentials
and also with Hadji Hassein's letters
of recall, which will be presented to
the president together. But until
then the diplomatic list will continue
to bear the sinuOus name of the late
departed Hadji as the representative
of the shah.
The gun shops at the Washington
navy yard are rapidly approaching
completion and the improved ma
chinery necessary to perform all the
work successfully of the larger calibre
guns is being put into place. All of
the six inch guns are completed, or in
such forward state of construction
that their final adoption is but a
matter of a few weeks. With the
eight and ten inch guns it is differ
ent. Two ten inch guns for the
double turreted monitor Mientonomah
have been completed, and one has
been successfully fired and tested
at the naval proving ground.
The other ten inch is also there
but for some reason has never been
fired When the other forgings are
received work will be started up in
earnest. The new appropriations for
the ordinance bureau are now availa-
BILE and it is expected that in the
course of the next few weeks large
force will be put on. Commodore ST.
card stated to your correspondent
that he intended to personally super
intend all the improvements in the
gun shop, which he intends to make
the finest in the world. r.