The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-04-05

BLUE BLOODS ONLY.
The Home at Washington City
for Reduced GentlewOmen.
MILLIONAIRE coRcoRAN's GIFT.
The Institutlon's Forty Aristocratic En-
mates aud Their Luxurious Living
-Calhoun's Sweetheart.

WASHINGTON CIrT, March SO.-TSpecial
Correspondence lin the center of fashion
able Washington City, within stones
throw Of the big palace of Vice President
Morton, surrounded by the mansions Of
statesmen, generals and judges, stands
the most aristocratic charitable institution
in the world There is nothing else like it
in the world, and there will be nothing
ever founded that will compare with it in
exclusiveness and responsibility. It is .
home for the blue-blooded only, and its in
mate has to have her genealogical tree. It
is . home for women who have never
worked, for women who have been rich
and have become poor, and more especially
home for reduced gentlewomen of the old
families of the South who lost their all in
the late war. 1t was founded about twenty
years ago by the millionaire philan-
thropist, Mr.. w. w. Corcoran. and of the
$7,000,O 600 which he spent in charity, none
was much better expended than the
amount which went into this. He erected
it as monument to his daughter, Louise
Corcoran Eustis, who was the wife of
member of congress from louisiana and
was related by marriage to Mr.. Eustis, the
present United States senator from that
state. Louise Corcoran sympathized
greatly with the South, and when she died
in the south of France shortly after the
close of the war, she asked her father
to make some provision for the women
who had lost their fortunes in it. This
home was her idea It cost 500, 900 at the
start for its building and grounds, and
Mr.. Corcoran gave in addition an endow-
ment of quarter of million. A large
tract of land surrounds it, and this has
become very valuable within the past ten
years. Its old ladies trot around through
gardens, the soil of which would sell at
auction for Sc per square foot, and they
have quite q little farm, surrounded by
the most expensive of residences.
TWO SCORE SOUTHERN LADIES.
Only forty inmates are admitted to this
home at q time. They come upon invita-
ton and once invited, they are expected
to stay in it for the remainder of their
natural lives. Invitations are given only
to those who can show satisfactory certif-
Gates of blue blood, education and refine
ment, and a list of candidates for entrance
is kept which is consulted the moment one
Of the old ladies dies. Once admitted,
the old lady has as pleasant home as she
could have in first-class hotel. She is
cordially welcomed and she is under no
restrictions other than those of hotel.
She has her own rooms and q maid
to keep them in order, and if she
wishes she can take her meals in her room
and receive her company there. Sur
rounded with all the comforts she spends
her time here with her books, flowers,
birds or bits of so-called fancy work. She
trots about the house. plays on the parlor
piano or visits about among her friends at
will. Her washing is laundried in the
finest manner for her and every Friday the
clothes come in immaculate with no bill
attached. She can go about the city and
call upon her friends. and she knows that
these conditions will continue for her
until the day of her death.
LEAF FROM THE SOUTHLAND.
This great home is peculiarly Southern
institution. It is big three-story and
mansard brick. with windows all around
it, on the three sides of which the sun ever
shines, and upon all of whose walls grow
the luxuriant vines of our Southern cli-
mate. 1t has many shade trees and the
magnolia blooms side by side with the
trees of the North. 1t is more Southern,
however, within doors. The moment you
enter its wide portals, you turn your face
from Yankee land and find yourself in
Dixie. You feel as though one of the old
Southern plantations surrounded you, and
as you chat with these gray-haired old la
dies, there passes in mental review before
you the luxurious life of the master and
the simple, rollicking existence of the
slaves. Nearly all of these old ladies were
bellies in their youth, and they can tell you
stories of conquests in Richmond, Charles
ton and New Orleans. Most of them were
mistresses of splendid homes till the gov
eminent freed their slaves, and the war
left them poor and helpless. Is it any
wonder that they sit together here, dream
ing OF the dear old days, or that they take
from their wrappings again and again the
Confederate flag, or gaze frequently at the
pictures of Confederate heroes which SO
conspicuously adorn their walls? They
know naught of the present. The past
alone exists for them, and here, surrounded
by luxury, they love to recount their
thrilling war experiences or dwell upon
the pathetic aftermath.
JOHN c. CALHOUN LOVED HER.
Notably among the old ladies is woman
whose name has appeared with every pub
lie mention of the Louise home since the
opening. This is Miss Hartley Graham.
called by wide circle of friends AUNT
Hartley" and who still at the age of 81
retains the grace and elegance and much
of the beauty that made her a noted belle
sixty years ago. Miss Graham is a Virgin
ian by birth, and a descendant of the
famous Scottish house of the warlike
Graeme. Her direct ancestor. DR.. William
Cooke, was sent by Queen Anne as secre-
tary to the colony of Virginia in l7l2. and
her granduncle, Mark Catesby, was cele-
brated naturalist of that period. The
story of Miss Graham's girlhood is a
vivid picture of the old idyllic life of the
Southern plantation, and the lat
ter,s pictures and old souvenirs
which the visitor may see in her
room, attest the long line of her distin-
guished friends. Among the treasured
heirlooms of the family, she shows with
great pride delicate pearl and iewelled
fan that was carried by her ancient an
cestress, the wife of DR.. Cooke. formerly
Miss Catesby, of the royal Stewart line.
Belonging to the same grand dame is
tiny patch box" fashioned of mother-of-
pearl and lapis lazuli. Coming down to
the distinguished friends of our own time.
Miss Graham, who retains the intellectual
vigor of youth, talks charminglv of her
acquaintance and association with John G.
Calhoun, with Webster and his wife. and
of her lifelong friendship with the late
George Bancroft. Her chief treasure is an
oid-time bracelet made of hair and set
with o fine daguerreotype; the interest
attaching to this is the fact that il Is
the hair and picture of John C.
NN0lb .lrfrr aud IL