Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-03-04
A WONDERFUL BASEMENT.
But first let me tell you some thing abou

But first let me tell you some thing about the
basement or ground floor. You can get
lost in it. There are rooms for all sorts
OF purposes. Here are two for ice and cold
storage. In this ice house you could stow
away enough ice for a month. and in it are
hooks where the beeves and sheep and game
shipped to Mr.. Letter can be kept for weeks.
All the beef and mutton used in this house will
come from his big farm in Wisconsin. 1t will
be killed by his own butchers and shipped
direct to Washington for his use. This
is now done at the Blaine mansion. Take a
look at the kitchen. The stove is nine feet
long and you could feed one of John Wanna
makers Sunday school picncs with the food
that could be cooked on it at one time. 1t has
ventilator over it which runs from the
kitchen to the roof and this is SO operated BY
fan and an extra pipe that when Mr.. Letter
eats sauer kraut or Goldfish the smell
Of the cooking will go from the
stove up this ventilator, and even
after the dish is taken off Of the stove the pipes
will carry Its ar oma from the table to the venti-
lator. Another curious arrangement is the ap-
paratus for keeping the plates warm. venture
to say that this apparatus cost at least $780, for
1t had to be made especially for the house. 1t
consists Of great boiler of heavy iron as big
around as a two-bushel basket and so heated by
gas that coil of pipes running from it to the
buffers pantry overhead is always filled with
hot water. These pipes run back and forth in
the shape of u coil in cupboard of zinc in the
buffers pantry, and IN this cupboard the plates
are kept. They grow warm in few minutes,
and the cupboard is large enough to hold the
service Of a whole dinner. There is a billiard
room in the basement which is % feet square,
and this, as the whole house, is heated by hot
water, the pipes being 30 covered up that you
can't tell where the heat comes from. Under
many inviting divans and beautiful resting
places there will be steam pipes. and the ar
rangements for furnishing the heat are such
that 1t would automatically be kept at an even
temperature throughout the whole house.
THE PARLoRs OF cRoEsUs
None Of the finishing has yet been done as to
the parlors and dining room. But can tell
you something about them. The grand hall
way on the first floor is itself big enough for an
ordinary house. The music hall or dancing
room is about twenty-five feet wide and fifty feet
long. 1t opens into a drawing room and q great
library, which is twenty-one by forty-fve feet
in length. All the ceilings Of this floor are A.
teen feet high and all will be finished in ma
hoSany. The upper part Of the house lie to be
finished in cherry in its natural color, polished
like piano, and Of the finest selected varieties.
The third floor, of the same wood, is to be
painted q delicate ivory and all the wood
work Of the house will be like mir
tered oak and Of the heart of Georgia pine
Only the finest of selected woods are used, and
thoroughly seasoned woods brought from the
planning mills are reseasoned here before they
are put down.
TURNING DAY INTO NIGHT.
I can't begin to describe the quee, conceits
Of this house. The lighting is to be revela-
ton. Electricity will turn night into day, and
in the dining room and in the music hall the
electric lights will be SO arranged that no one
can see where the light comes from, but the
Ill LII Kill l.. lszIA 4
Of a button. The whole house has electric lights
and electric bells. In each room there is a bell
for the butler and the ladies' maid and third
servant whose name l forget. The lights are
30 arranged that you can touch one button and
light the whole house, or You can turn on the
light on q single floor or in q single room. The
electric wires OF the building are all iucased in
tubes, 30 that If anything gets out OF order you
can pull the wire out from the tube and pull
another within it at the same time without dis
turbing the house. These tubes run all over the
house. The tubes from the electric light wires
are brass, those for the electric bells are of
different composition, but both are made %
that they are non-conductors, and the wires are
also wrapped In some non-conducting material
MAGNIFICENT MANTELs AND BIG BATH TUBS.
The mantels are to be magnificent There Is
ono made of green marble in the dining room
running from the floor to the ceiling which il
made up Of eight thousand different pieces of
marble, and which looks moro like malachits
than anything else The dining room ID paneled
in mahogany, and some Of the most beautiful
rooms in the house to mo are the bath rooms.
These are foored and walled with ivory tilings,
and many Of them are Is large as fair sized bed
rooms. There are ten bath rooms In the house,
oil Anished in this way, apd each equipped with
. bath tub Of solid porcelain so large that you
could scald hog in it without scratching the
sides. don't know how many bed rooms there
are in this house, but many OF them are twenty
i've feet square and the ceilings are about
fourtesn feet high. Nearly every bed room has
it, own bath room and the rooms ere arranged
In suites and single. 90 that ycu can have Inst
what you want
Mr.. I. z Letter, who u building this man.
don, AAs net beea II this eeuntzy foe month.