Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-01-18
WHITE HOUSE FURNITURE.
An Interesting Interview With Mrs. Har-
risOn on an Interesting Subject.

rison on an Interesting Subject.
/ OVER HALF MILLION DOLLARS EXPENDED AND
| But LITTLE TO SHOW FOR IT-MRs. HARRISON s
PLAN FOR REsURREcrING RELICS AND MAKING A
HISTORICAL CoLLECrIoN-How THE MONEY HAS
! BEEN APPROPRIATED.
1t would not be recording anything disre-
! spectful of former mistresses of the executive
mansion to say that the domestic administra-
| ton OF the official home of the Presidents
| has long been managed in a rather irresponsi-
| BILE manner. This state of tho internal do
| mestic regime has not always been traceable
To the indifference of the presiding ladies,
whose valuable time has been absorbed in
official Inequalities and the exactions of posi-
| ton, thereby preventing them from giving
their personal supervision to matters directly
appertaining to the jurisdiction of the steward
One of the first Offices created by legislative
| enactment was the steward of the household"
bonded official charged with the care of the
! furniture and plate of the executive home
President Washington appointed Faunce of the
! city tavern of New York. where the officers of
| the continental army ate and often made
| merry. From that time down to the present
this succession of household officials has had
| sway, each in his particular sphere. more or
| less under the direction of the chief lady
| Of the house. Between the unrestrained
abuse of discretion by the stewards and the
| preoccupation OF the presiding ladies, the
home of the Presidents has suffered in careful
| regard for the memories of the place and in
the transmission and perpetuaton of the his
| toric prestige of the mansion, which has made
1t above all structures at the capital the center
| OF patriotic pride and absorbing interest of
every man, woman and child in the land
MRS. HARRIsoN's INVENTORY
Having among her first duties completely re-
Al
offices of the executive household in the midst
OF her manifold responsibilities Mrs. Harrison
has found time to go over the entire building
to ascertain what household articles of art,
historic interest and vertu have escaped the
carlessness of servants or auctoneer's ham,
mer.
AN INVENTORY TO BE MADE.
AT the request of Mrs. Harrison the President
has ordered that an inventory be made of the
entire household belongings of the mansion
and also list of the articles stored away in the
lumber rooms of the attic. Mrs. Harrison hopes
by this means to rescue from obscurity or an
limitation some relics of the home lives of
former administrations, intending to place
them where they may be seen and enjoyed by
those who visit the mansion. She has also
directed that the history or descriptive list of
articles OF value be prepared from any avail
able sources of information. so that they may
be associated with some portion OF the domes-
tic history OF the mansion.
MRS HARRIsoNs VIEWS
In speaking on this subject to STAR
representative Mrs. Harrison said: 1T is
distressing to 60 through this mansion
OF nearly a century of association with
the official. social and domestic lives of the
Presidents and to find not even piece of fur
nlture or china or anything else of value asso-
ciated with the home habits or comfort of the
domestic circle of the early executives. l
doubt whether the fact has ever attracted at
tention, but an official statement of appropria-
tions and expenditures from 1890 to 1876
printed by order CT Congress, shows that in
that interval of only eighty-six years, brief
period in the life of powerful government,
the exorbitant sum of 1929, 600 was appro-
priated by Congress, and 1924, 900 was the net
expenditure for furniture for the executive
mansion. 1t is not necessary to suggest that
furniture Is not perishable article, to
be used for year or two and then renewed,
at least that the whole furnishings OF the man.
sion would become worn out at the same time.
Imagine how interesting it would be to every
American citizen who visits the executive man
sion, and almost every one does in the course of
his life, to sec some of the representative ar
tIcies of furniture associated with the every -day
home life Of Washington or Adams. the first
President to occupy the White House. Try to
realize how interesting it would be to have a
single piece OF the furniture which stood i'll the
oval room of the second story, now the library.
first New Years reception in the executive
mansion OH January /, 1901, less than two
months after the President and Congress
established themselves i'll the unfinished
public edltices of the permanent seat of gov
eminent. Think OF something associated with
the life of Jefferson or any simple piece of fur
niture rescued from the burning of the interior
of the mansion on that day of misfortune in
August, 1914. And on down through the
administrations of Monroe and Jackson and
m hos tinJ dan,
atoms upon the treasure of household associa-
ton has despoiled the mansion of about every
hing which would carry the occ upants of the
mansion, the guests OF state occas ions and the
passing visitors back through the long line of
patriotic memories connected with the Presi-
dents, their families and their private lives.'
SAVING RELICS.
at could not be expected that there would
be no replenishing of the stock of furniture or
the replacement of worn out articles, but the
practice of hurrying off with really sacreligious
haste everything has been to despcil the house
of one of its most instructive and attractive
features. How much interest is taken in the
vases presented to Franklin by the French
government or the clock once owned by the
unhappy Josephine. l was told not long since
OF an deliberately carved sideboard now owned
by private citizen Of Washington. which was
hurried off i'll one of these periodical ana un-
opposed forays of somebody in subordinate ex-
to stand as a treasure article in the dining room
OF citizen OF wealth, 1t would have been more
interesting to remain where it was to be en-
joyed for its associations by every succeeding
occupant of the mansion
ILLUSTRATIVE OF CHANGES AND STYLES
"But even aside from patriotic sentiment.
how instructive it would be if few represent
alive articles were preserved to illustrate the
changes in styles of the different periods III the
history OF the country. Household furniture.
like everything else, changes with the advance
ment of the people i'll the comforts and con-
venience of their homes and the development
of taste and skill in manufacture.
Il cannot think OF a single reason why the
executive mansion should be subject to such n
ruthless visitation with the change of admins
tratiOns. L do not think that such disregard
of the associations of the place enanates from
those who are most concerned i'll the comfort
OF the mansion, but must be the result of SUI
perserviceable zeal on the part of other persons"
THE HISTORY OF CONGRESSIONAL ApPRopR1A-
TONS
for furniture for the executive mansion. the
consequent services of the auctioneer, the pill
fering clutches of househo employees aud the
purchases OF new furniture would make an in
teresting chapter illustrating the insldious arts
of sycOphantic officials, whose overstrained
zeal to please their new masters is the best ex-
position Of the insncerity of their motives and
of the merceuary and alluring intrigues of IA
vored middemen.
The first appropriation for furniture for the
executive mansion was for Sl4 000 passed in