Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-06-01
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exactly at $3.50, Mrs. Harrison sees the steward,
McKim, and gives him the orders for the day.
This means that she tells him whether there are
to be guests, and whether she whistles any
changes made in the decorations of the private
dining room. He arranges the entire menu for
the day, does the marketing and oversees the
servants. Unless it is the Ihouse-cleaning
season that is all the time Mrs. Harrison
gives to her kitchen, but you may be sure she
has Just as mach interest in everything going
well as young matron when giving her first
dinner, and she says that the only difference be-
tween he cares now and when she was private
citizen wife is that she does not need TO worry
over the preparations for entertaining. She
has introduced numbeTless changes which give
home.like air to the private dining room.
One of these is TO have the table for breakfast
and luncheon spread with napkins instead of
with one large cloth. 1t gives the table, which
is large round affair of very light oak, dainty
effect. Every dish has pretty doyly and in
the center there is always bowl of fresh flow
ers. There are six or eight covers Ia d as 8 rule
for these two meals, although for luncheon this
number is often extended to ten or twelve, the
president bringing in any one with whom he
wishes TO talk beyond the hour set for luncheon.
Those who usually sit down are the president
and Mrs. Harrison, DR.. Scott, Mrs. Mckee,
Mrs. Russell Harrison and Mrs. Dimick, Mrs.
Harrison's widowed niece. A high chair Is al
ways on hand for Master Benjamin Mckee.
THE WHITE HOUSE DININe-RooYis.
The table has little history, 1t was meant
by President Arthur to be used temporarily to
take the place or the cumbersome one which had
been in use during the Hayes administration.
and which was magnificent affair, lacking in
only one particular. One could sit down st it,
but not to it, for It was Sc heavily carved that
the one who sat 1T the corner could as easily
have bestrided a bucking horse. President Ar
thur claimed that dining table should be
round, so that people could sit near each other,
no sharp points and angles intervening. Out OF
patience with the superb affair then in use, he
had this round table put in makeshift until
something more elegant could be made. The
other he ordered cutup into side tables to hold
the silver and china, Tor which there was no
sideboards, put in by Mrs. Hayes, and richly
lcarved. They are the handsomest pieces in the
private dining room, although there are two
unique sideboards there which date back to JEFF
ferson's day. and do not in the least suggest the
simplicity for winch that president was noted.
made to match the other furnishings of the
room, which are all of mahogony and richly
carved.
how THE CHINA IS CARED FOR.
wonder if this country has any idea where its
china 5 kept. There isn't Gentlemhn's house
in the land that has not better accommodations.
There it is, all the elegant ware which former
mistreeses OF the White House gathered with so
much pride, and in the face Of SO many growls
from the congressional appropriation committees
which supplied the money, tucked, crammed
and jsmmed into an unfinished closet which
would hardly kennel two mastiffs. No wonder
that so much of it is broken and nicked that each
succeeding mistress Of the White House almost
sheds airs over the ruin of the thing most dear
TO a womAn's heart-rare china. Until Presi-
dent Arthur's day there was not even this
closet, all the valuable china being stored in the
basement. but he had this closet cut from the
little hallway by the elevator. There are two
rows of shelves about three feet deep and there
the three sets which belong to the service are
kept, one-third of them being on the floor. Mrs.
Harrison says that of the one thousand pieces
made at so great an expense in the Hayes ad-
ministration there are not more than 400 left.
Even more inadequate than the china closet is
the buffers pantry on the other side Of the din
ing room. Fortunately Charles, the present
butler, is slim colored man, for II he were of
the generous proportions of Jerry, the guardian
of the east room, he would become hopelessly
wedged in some morning when he went out for
over the land know how it is not to have enough
silver knives and forks to- go round and they
have ali felt the anguish OF seeing the most dis
But who would dream that the White House
would not have enough knives and forks to go
around, and yet it is true. Everytime fifty peo--
them that take their bouillion from plated
spoons, their terrapin from plated forks and cut
the flet OF beef with plated knives.
THE PRESIDENTS SILVER PLATE.
It is horrible thought, but there are only
four dozen genuine silver knives, forks and
spoons in the buffers pantry. and by the most
skillful ingenuity they cannot be made to do
duty for fifty people. There is one set of knives
and forks in the side-board which has history,
for it cost president his reelection. They are
the gold knives and forks which Van Buren,
added, and when the people learned that the
publ moneys were being taken 70 put gold
spoons In presidents mouths they promptly de-
feated him. Now, the truth of the matter is,
that they are not gold at all, and ths people
were hasty in their Judgment. They are solid
silver washed with gold, and ii was only few
years ago, in President Arthur's day thSt they
began to wear of and disclose the hoax He
had them reuashed and they are still used on
state occasions. They are small, fne-bladed
and much more delicate than those
commonly Ia Use In this dax. Many