The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1893-05-20


Of the two cities is an extensive one, and it
runs, am told, for long term of years.
The car lines have immense shops here
and power houses covering acres. They
can make everything connected with an
electric car line, and it will not be surpris-
ing if they add great manufacturing in
dustry to their business. Mr.. Lowry is
eminently fitted for doing this. He has
the best of business brains and his credit
is such that he can get any reasonable
number of millions at per cent.
Tom Lowry is man of strong friend
sips. He is as well known in New York
and Washington as he is here. He was
one of the few men who had access to
Blaine at all times, and he largely aided
Senator Washburn in tiding over the fnan
ciaI troubles in which he was involved at
the time of his election to the Senate. He
is good story teller, and it is said that he
knows Shakespeare by heart and can repeat
paradise Lost" from beginning to end.
He has beautiful wife and very bright
family. am told that he had fiery red
head as boy, though his hair is now a
beautiful brown and his whiskers are al
most black Two of his girls have red hair.
The youngest of these was only . years old
when her little baby brother was born.
She saw the bald-headed baby, and that
night they say she closed her prayer as
follows
''Please, God, bless baby brother, but
don't let him have red hair. We have
enough red heads in this family already
SENATOR wAsHBURN's HOME.
Senator Washburn and Mr.. Lowry are
interested in the 500 road together, and
they are rapidly pushing this on to connect
with the Canadian Pacific. When this Is
done it will form the greatest trunk line
across the continent | am told by Senator
Washburn that the 500 road has now more
than it can do to haul its local freight, and
its lumber shipments are enormous. There
are millions of telegraph poles lying along
it awaiting shipment, and it promises to
pay well.
Speaking of Washburn, his residence
here is worth fortune. 1t is an immense
white stone, surrounded by ten acres of
ground, every foot of which is valuable.
He has gotten out of his financial troubles
and is again rich.
JIM HILLS MANSION.
St. Paul has dozens of great houses
which would do credit to any Eastern city,
but the residence of Mr.. James j. Hill, the
Great Northern Railway magnate, is one
of the really fine houses Of the world.
George w. Childs, when he visited it, said
it surpassed that OF the Vanderbilts in
many ways, and that be liked it better
than his own home at Wooten. | visited
it in company with Mr.. Hills friend, Mr..
George A. Bracket, yesterday, and liked
it far better than the home of North, the
nitrate king, which saw in England last
summer. 1t is more homelike and less
gaudy. 1t is located in St. Paul, on Sum-
nit avenue, and its grounds slope down
toward the Mississippi river. 1t has acres
of ground about it, and its windows give
wide views of the hills and valleys Of the
Mississippi. The house is an immense
two-story building of brown stone, put
together in the rough and crowned with
steel roof, which slopes down in many
gables. A porte cochere big enough for
an ordinary house, under which you could
haul the biggest wagon load of hay you
have ever seen without touching its walls
or its sides, forms the entrance to it; and
as you go into this you are impressed with
the massiveness and solidity of the struc-
ture. The house looks as though it were
built to outlast ages. The walls are four
feet thick, and in constructing it MIR. dill
went down 3s feet until he struck the solid
bed rock for the foundation. This is one
of the characteristics of his work-he goes
to the bottom of everything before he be-
Gins it, and builds substantially and with
out frills or filigrees. His railroad offices
at St. Paul are severely plain in their cca-
struction, and you see the same good taste
displayed about every part of the house.
The front doors are of massive oak, beauti-
fully carved, and you pass through them
over vestibule of Roman mosaic, as care
fully inlaid as Florentine breastpin, into
a grand hall finished in antique oak. As
YOU 90 in you note that the walls are Of
carved oak and that the ceiling is of the
same wood in great panels. You come
first into grand hall nearly as long as the
promenade corridor of the White House,
but far more beautifully finished. 1t must
be 100 feet long and about twenty feet
wide, and it runs from the picture gallery
at one end to the great mahogany dining
room at the other Its roof is made up of
four great panels inclosed in rafters of
carved oak, each four feet wide, and these
are upheld by eight futed oak columns,
each of which is as big around as the waist
of IA good. sized man.
The walls of this hall are hung with fine
paintings Its floor is covered with soft
rugs, and it is lighted, as are the large
rooms of the house, in most wonderful
way. From the centre Of each of these
panels, strung as it were upon wires, seems
to hang down bushel of diamonds. These
are prisms of cut glass festooned in the
shape of basket, and lighted by electric
ity, which, coming from globes behind
them and reflected by mirrors above, make
a most wonderfully effective illumination.
There are four of these diamond baskets
IN the hall, one III Tile uiuinS-looii, ahoehei
in the library and others in the music, re-
ception and drawing-rooms. A chandelier
always looks out of place in house. 1t
makes big room look larger and a small
room look smaller, butthese diamond bask-
cts take up no room and they are the most
beautiful things | have ever seen in house
lighting From the centre of this hall
rises the staircase between these futed oak
columns, by easy landings to the second
story, and looking upon you from it, as
you come in, are great windows of stained
glass, which throw a soft light into the
hall. At the right and left of the stair
case are CRATES covered by mantels of the
same massive oak, and over one of these is
a painting of Mrs. Hill and the other of
Mr.. Hill.
THE DINING-ROOM