The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-03-30

doors turned inward and you are in the |
tiled vestibule at the back of which there
is wall of mosaic of beautiful stones
and colored glass which remind one OF
the iewelled palace of Friedrich the Great
at Potsdam. This wall is made by Tiffany. |
1t cost many thousands Of dollars but one
old lady who looked at it last week told
the guard she was ''glad to see President
Harrison had become economical and that
he had saved the country money by max
ing glass wall of old broken bottles, and
It's real purity too,'' the old woman said,
land you wouldn't think it home made"
1t is here that the Marine band plays at the
Presidents receptions but there is nothing
home like about the vestibule. 1t is so big
that you could build an eight room house in
side Of it and thirty men could march
abreast through it without touching their
elbows
just next to this at the left is 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 Of the pub
lie and the ceaseless tread of the countless
crowd which besleges the President goes its
mufhed way up and down them. The East
room belongs TO the people. 1t is always
ident Harrison gets from it is in crowding
his callers into it at big presidential re-
ception. 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.
It 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 5000 pieces of Bo-
hemian glass and they cost s., 600 apiece
There are eight massive mirrors, each as
big as two billiard tables, set into the walls
about the room and when the chandeliers
are lighted these pendants are reflected ike
diamonds in these mirrors and the scene is
indescribably brilliant. Still you might as
well furnish a barn or a bowling alley and
call it parlor as to think of using this big
room for the living room or the home life Of
| private family, and if President Harri-
son wanted it he couldnt get ii, for the pee
pie have monopolized it by the precedent
of generations.
It 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 everyday life of the President
as the parlor OF New England farmers
wife which is busted every day but never
used except for company. 1t is in the
Blue room that President Harrison
with his wife standing beside him
shakes the hands of the multitude
at big reception. The room is oval in
shape, finished in blue satin and its diane
ter 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
1 Voc crtor l1re tor
dining room and can count on my fingers
a dozen which are more beautifully furn-
ished. There are none of the conveniences
for serving great dinner and the thou
sand dollar feasts which the President
gives have to be largely gotten up outside
of the house, and hired waters have to be
brought in to pass the victuals. The din
ing room used by the family or the private
dining room is at the right of the vestibule
This has to be turned inside out at every
big reception for the table must be re-
moved and shelves put around the room to
hold the hats and coats of the guests. AT
such receptions the state dining room be-
comes a ladies' dressing room and 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. Not long ago there was
a mantle bed in the reception room oppo-
site Elijah Halford's Office on the second
floor passed through this room yester-
day and noticed that it was there still but
whether it is used or not l do not know.
Think of the President OF the United States
being compelled to have a wardrobe bed in
one of his parlors. 1t is true no one knows
what it is, but it makes one think of the oc-
cupant of a second class boarding house
who is trying to keep up appearances
and pretending to have a suite Of rooms
when he gets along with only one
There is general plan about the White
House which when once understood makes
THE BUILDING SIMPLICITY ITSELF.
If you will take rectangular GOV ering one
third of an acre, and bisect it lengthwise
by hall eighteen feet wide you will have
the general plan of the building. On the
i ground floor at the end nearest the treasury
the great East room cuts off part of this
hall and runs the whole length Of the build
, ing. The vestibule aud the private dining
room and the dressing room are on the
; north of this hall and on the south are the
} Green, Blue, Red and state dining rooms.
, Az Of the rooms of the building thus go of
t from this hall and are of the same length
/ viz. about twenty eight feet. At the ex-
treme end OF the lower floor is great shed
of glass covering the arena of several ordi.
nary houses and making up the conserva
tories of the White House. This is no part
however, of the original structure and il
need hardly be considered as connected
with it.
THE SECOND FLOOR
is on the same plan. All of the rooms are
big and three-fourths of them are made W
of offices. The living rooms of the Presi
dent are at the west end of the second floor
and Mrs Harrison has only four good szed
bed rooms. 1t takes about hundred yards OF
carpet to cover each one of them and she
! has turned the lower hall into sitting
room, and the children are using the little
private Office ut the northwest corner of the
building where President Arthur used t.
receive his most intimate friends. In add
ton to these four bed rooms, two of which
are in the north and two on the south side
, of the building, there is little bed room
I which was originally intended for dress
ing room on the southwest corner, and 9
servant is lodged in hall bed room Just
over the vestibule which is seven feet wide
and eighteen feet long. There is an eleva
. tor leading to this floor and thsre are two
or three bathrooms huddled together right
over the big entrance hall. The larger bee
rooms have no bath rooms connected with
: them and this is the case with the Presi
: dents bed room which opens into the Office
or library where he receives his callers.
THE BUSINESS OFFICES
t Of the White House take up the whole o.
the eastern portion Of the second floor
5 Entering the big front door you turn to tn,
2 left and march up a pair of stairs a5ou
5 five feet wide. You note that though tht
: carpet is new the tread of the Office seeker
has worn off its nap and at any hour of tn,
morning you pass the most noted men o.
T the country on the stairs They stamI
r along as though they owned the building
and most of them think they do. Whel