Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-30
abreast through it without touching their

abreast through it without touching their
elbows.
BELONG TO THE PEOPLE.
Just next to this, at the left, is a hall
with stairs leading to the Presidents Office,
and on the other side of this hall is the
mighty East Room. You never see Mrs,
Harrison or any of the family upon these
stairs. They are the property os the public,
and the ceaseless tread of the countless
crowd which besieges the President goes its
muf1ed way up and down them. The East
Room belongs to the people. 1t is ALWAYS
| open to visitors, and the only use that Pres
ident Harrison gets from it is in crowding
his callers into it at big Presidential recep-
ton. 1t is one of the most beautiful rooms
in the world. Its walls are painted in silver
and gold, and its ceiling is three times as
high as that OF an ordinary room. 1t takes
442 yards of brussels carpet to cover it, and
the velvet into which your feet sink is of
the color of Etruscan gold.
The most wonderful thing to me in this
room is the chandeliers. Each one of these
is made of 6, 900 pieces of Bohemian glass
and they cost 5000 a piece. There are
eight massive mirrors, each as big as two
billiard tables, set into the walls about the
room and when these chandeliers are lighted
these pendants are reflected like diamonds
in these mirrors and the scene is indescrib-
ably brilliant. Still you might as we'll
furnish barn or bowling alley and call it
a parlor as to think of using this big room
for the living room for the home life of a
private family, and il President Harrison
wanted it he couldn't get it, for the people
have monopolised it by the precedent of
generations.
NOT PARTS OF THE HOME.
1t is the same with the Green Room, the
Blue Room and the Red Room. They are full
Of beauties in furniture and hangings, but
they are as much shut out from the every
day life OF the President as the parlor of
New England farmers wife, which is busted
every day but never used except for COM
pany. 1t is in the Blue Room that President
Harrison with his wife standing beside him,
shakes the hands of the multitude at a big
reception. The room is oval in shape fin
ished in blue satin fresco and its diameter
is about that OF a country church. Still it
is hardly large enough for this purpose, and
when the crowd is out of it it is too big for
common use.
There are many dining rooms in Wash
ington larger than the State dining room,
and / can count on my fingers dozen which
are more beautifully furnished. There are
none of the conYeniences for serving great
dinner, and these 81, 900 feasts which the
President gives have to be largely gotten up
outside of the house and hired walters have
to be brought in to pass the victuals. The
dining room used by the family, or the pri-
vate dining room, is at the right of the ves-
tibule. This have to be turned inside out at
every big reception for the table must be
removed and shelves be put around the
room to hold the hats and coats of the
guests. At such receptions the state dining
IL !
more fuss is made in the Executive Mansion
every time the President receives than you
make in your own home when your daugh-
tiers are married.
A SECoND-CLA SIS BOARDING HOUSE.
Not long ago there was mantel bed in !
the reception room opposite Elijah Hal |
ford's office on the second floor. l passed |
through this room yesterday and noticed |
that it was still there but whether it is used |
or not do not know. Think of the Presi- |
dent of the United States being compelled |
to have wardrobe bed in one of his par
lors. 1t is true no one knows what it is,
but it makes one think of the occupant OF a |
boarding house who is trying
to keep up appearances aud pretending to
have suit of roous when he gets along
with only one.
The living rooms of the President are at
the west end of the second floor, and Mrs.
Harrison has only four good-sized bed
rooms. 1t takes about a hundred yards of
carpet to cover each one of them, and she
has turned the lower end of the hall into
sitting room, and the children are using the
little private Office at the northwest corner
of the building where President Arthur
used to receive his most intimate friends.
There is an elevator leading to this floor,
md there are two or three bathrooms hud-
He'd together right over the big entrance
lall.
The business Offices of the White House
axe up the whole of the eastern portion of
he second floor. Entering the big front