St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-02-03
WASHINGTON STORIES.
Special to the GLOBE.

Special to the Globe.
WASHINGTON. Feb. 2.-In little
whitewashed cottage, crowded between
two pretentious brick dwellings OF the
style of twenty years bacl k, lives one of
the most interesting women in all
Washington. She is negress. and be-
fore the war was lady's maid in the
famous old Carroll family. For the
rest. she is tremendously old. | don't.
doubt she was personal friend of
PocahOntas, and narrowly escaped being
aShington'S nurse. Being a woman,
she could not belong to the vast army of
WaShingtOn's body servants, but if
there's any famous man Of this century
she cannot tell you about. I
haven't discovered it yet. | went
to see her the other day. and
found her porting over picture of JUS
tice Lamar in one Of the illustrated
Weeklies. and in response to my query,
did you know him. aunty?" she
launched forth into an intermlnable
number of "reminiscences Of him. Every
thing under the sun has been said of
Lamar. but it remained for his old
laundress to add to what has been said
by telling how he liked his shirts. JUS
concerning his linen, and required it
absolutely immaculate. AS he was very
nervous, an ill-ftting Shirt gOaded him
into frenzy. His shirts were fastened
down the front with gold studs. the
cuffs were simply starched wristbands,
and the collars were not detachable. A
glossy surface was an abomlnatlon i'll
his sight and his shirts we're sent home
with merely the polish of an ordinary
iron on the collars and bosoms.
-
Blane's death has at last put an end
to what was most painful period to
some Of the Washington cores pondentS.
Since early in December there has been
no time either night or day when some
newspaper man was not watching the
Blaine house. When the weather adj
mitted, the correspondents walked up
and down in the park across the street,
but when it grew too cold for this they
procured from the city railway company
the use of one of the little sentry boxes
from which transfers are issued. In
this they warmed themselves and waited
for the great man to die. The BlalneS
have always been extremely reticent
toward lie wspapcr men. and during
these last few weeks they have been
unusually so. No bulletin was issued.
The servants at the door were dumb;
newspaper men were not admitted.
The only source of information was the
physicians. and even they had nothing
to say beyond the stereotyped Not so
we'll" or "ReSGng quietiy.p The cor
respondents tired all manner of means
to find out what allied the great states
man. One of them, falling sick of
slight Illness, called i'll Blaine'S physi-
clan, and tried by every means in his
power to worm from the willy doctor q
statement of Mr. Blalne'S condition, but
to no avail.
The fact that admission to the funeral
was by card was great disappointment
to thousands of people in Washington,
but 1t prevented the crush which must
otherwise inevitably resulted. Crowds
stood along the street before the church.
but scarcely any one but the friends Of
the family and people of official stand
ing gained admission to the church.
Vice President Morton has one of the
handSomeSt houses IN town. 1t occupies.
nearly the whole of a triangle facing
Scott circle, with the handsome stables
opening on Fifteenth street. The house
was built, the story goes. by a young
naval officer at cost of S400 900. 1t so
happened that the building of the
house, which deserves to be called a
mansion. took all Of the fortune of the
builders bride. He knew all there was
to be known about the navy, but ne was,
unused to the ways of landsmen. Tie
built the house, and he resigned his
commission, planning the elaborate en-
tertainments he was to give to the gay
army and navy circle, but il occurred To.
him just then that having spent all his.
money in building the house, he had
nothing to run it with, and he was
forced to dispose of the elephant,on his
hands at a considerable loss. The Nor
tons have made the house famous. Eg
erybody likes them, and everybody re
grets their departure in the near future.
Mr.. Morton is described by everybody
as mice old man." He is, despite his
wealth, his wigs and his valet, a demo-
cratic Old fellow. He has vehicles of
every kind and description in his stable,
but when he drives to the capitol every
day at noon it is in an ordinary hired
cab. RUTH kIMBALL.