The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-01-11


President Harrison gave his first state dinner
, of the season on Tuesday evening. 1t was to
the members of the Cabinet and their wives
and the White House was gorgeously decorated
for the occasion. The parlors were so richly
adorned with flowers that the Blue and Green
Rooms looked like fairy gardens, and the
palms, which in great trees of green filled the
alcoves of the East Room, made the whole seem
like vision of the tropics. The mantels under
the big mirrors were turned into beds of gay
colored flowers, the walls and pillars were deco
rated with green, and the dining table was a
wonder of floral decorations
STATE DINNER FLOWERS.
1t is impossible to describe the flowers which
it takes to decorate the White House upon
state occasion. The conservatory Of the Execu-
tive Mansion must cover nearly an acre, and
both this and the Botanical Gardens aid in maxi
ing the parlors beautiful. The broad windows
: of the mansion contain alcoves, and these are
hidden by rare tropical plants, the bases of
which are sometimes surrounded by blooming
azaleas, making bright streak of color against
the mass of green. Some of the mantes are
dazzling mosaics of crimson and white flowers
and blossoming plants and great palms line the
long promenade corridor of the White House,
standing against the wall under the portraits Of
the Presidents, and making an avenue of green,
which leads on into the conservatory and climbs
the stairway to the second story. The flowers
of the state dining-room are arranged by the
hands of artists. At some Of the state dinners
Of the past few years the mantels have been
. covered with immense double tulips rising from
mossy banks of green. The windows are beau
tifully decorated and the table has had flowers
arranged in all forms and shapes. At one time
the decoration in the centre of the table was
miniature representation ofthe Hanging Garden
Of Semiramis, and it took eight thousand flow
ers by actual count to make this. At dinner
given to the Supreme Court there was temple
of Justice on the table which contained two
thousand flowers, and at one given to the Cabi-
net there was bridge and ships which con-
; sumed twenty-five hundred cut flowers in their
making. AS costly as roses are now it takes
about thousand for every state dinner, and
about the same number of carnations. During
. one winter six thousand sprays of the lily of
the valley, four hundred strings of smilax, and
three thousand other flowers, including hello
tropes, camellias and azaleas, Gala lilies, vio-
let's marguertes, and other flowers, were used
The mantels of the dining-room are often deco
rated with hyacinths, camellias, and potted
plants, and flowers are often bought to be added
to those taken from the conservatory and the
public gardens.
THE WHITE HOUSE CHINA.
The White House china shows at its best at
state dinner, and the rich porcelain service
which was bought during the Hayes admins
tration comes forth in all its glory. This
service was made entirely from special designs
by an American artist. 1t was modelled and
burned at Trenton and it contains some of the
most beautiful articles in the twenty-five hun
dred pieces of table ware which belong to the
china closets of the Executive Mansion. The
decorations of the dinner service are especially
fine. One of the great platters has painting
OF a stately wild turkey and the dinner plates
have all sorts of different designs. One is
shungry-looking bear resting in the fork of a
tree. Another represents deer, third buf-
falo bull. The fish plates have pictures of fish
on them representing the American varieties,
and one of the dinner dishes contains the pic
ture of a raccoon in a persmmon tree with a
negro looking for him with lighted pine knot.
Some of the old pieces of china are much bet
ter than these, but great deal of the best of it
has been sold from time to time to make place
for new. Mrs. Harrison is the only Presidents
ture of the White House, and she believes that
all of its fine old articles have an historic value,
and that they should be preserved Since the
White House was opened by Mrs. John Adams
more than half q million dollars has been spent
for furniture, and the amount of belongings
now in the White House would not bring fifty
thousand dollars at auction, and it is question
whether it would bring twenty-five thousand.
THE PRESIDENTS SILVER SERVICE.
A great deal of the table silver has disap-
peared, but there is still some which finds place
of honor at the state dinners. One of the most
beautiful parts of the whole service is the solid
silver service which was bought by President
Monroe. The shapes of these articles are
curious and beautiful There are two soup
tureens with covers, and these tureens are af-
fixed to large oyal-shaped fat-bottom stands
which spread out beneath them like walters
There are silver cake-baskets, silver gravy
boats, solid silver coffee and tea urns, and
there are fine cut-glass elaret jugs with silver