The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-03-20


Koom-Tho "IiHll of the Disappointed"
Telephone Is Almost tho Only Modern
Improvement In the building.
Mr.. G. G. Bucl writes paper for Tho
Century on "Our Fellow Citizen of tho
White House, devoted to the official
cares and duties of the president, in tho
course Of which he says:
AT 10 o'clock hardly discernible sign
against the glass of the barrier an
nounces to the citizen whoSjeas arrived
under the grand portal that the execu-
tive mansion is "ope1" to visitors. At
3 O'Clock the sign is changed to "clos-
ed. T" Tho doorkeepers swing the doors
open to everybody. Within tho large
vestibulc nothing is seen which indi-
Gates the arrangement and purposes of
the different parts of the mansion 1t
was not always SO, for originally the
now concealed corridor, or middle hail.
with the staircase on the right, was Il
part OF tho entrance hall. Now tho
spaces between the middle columns arc
closed with colored glass partitions, and
the vestlbule is simply large, square
room pleasant to get out of.
NO way appears to open to the state
apartments ill the center or to the west
wing, which is devoted to the private
apartments Yet glass doors are there.
though us impcrccptiblc to the stranger
as 4 swinging panel. To tho left there
Is II door which is always opcn. II nd
mlts to Il small hall, across which sim
liar door is the side entrance TO the
great cast room. About this snlcndid
room, comprising the whole east end of
the mansion, the visitor may wander mt
Will before the portraits OF enjoy from
the windows the beauty of the treasury
building TO the east or the impcssiyc
landscape to tho south, inclutliur the
towering Shaft of the Washington mon
ument and beyond the ever charming
Potomac, spreading with enlarging
curves toward Mount Vernon, and in
the private garden under tho windows
he may chance to see merry band Of
little ones.
From the small hall between the yes
Thule and the east room IL stairway MS
cends toward tho medal line of the
building to Il wide middle hall. ON cucb
side of which are the offices of the pres
ldent. The arrangement is simple, and
III the floor plan covers the space occu-
ped below by the east room and the
green room, the latter being tho coun-
terpart of the small hall with the nublic
stairway just mentioned AT the head
OF these stairs, over the green room. is
the cabinet room, which is the first
apartment i'll the south side of the hall,
q jog of two steps, ut tho private door
into the presidents room, marking the
raised ceiling of the cast room below
The president reaches his office through
the cabinet room, entering the latter
from the library, which corresponds Oh
the second floor with the blue room of
the state apartments. President Arthur
indeed used the library rs his office and
the cabinet chamber for an anteroom.
while his private secretary was domi-
cilcd i'll the traditional office of the pres
idcnt.. During his first term Mr.. Cleve-
land preserved the same arrangement.
But General Harrison went back to the
Office hallowcd by Lincoln's occupancy,
and Mr.. Cleveland, OH his return, found
the arrangement SO satisfactory that he
continued it,
Beyond the presidents large, square
Office IS the corner room where Private
Secretary Thurber is always either
wrestling with the details of executive
business or standing with his shoulder
braccd against the crowd struggling TO
sec the president. 1t is q narrow apart
mcnt and might be called appropriately
the hall of the disappointed, " the sug-
gestion being emphasized by portraits
of the greatest of presidential aspirants.
Clay and Webster, to which Mr.. Thurber
added, us his private property, an en-
craving of tho closest contestant for the
office, Governor Tilden.
On the north side of tho hall there
are two rooms which correspond to those
on the south side just described, the
small one being occupied by Mr. O. L.
Prudcn, the assistant secretary since Gen
eral Grants time and the custodian of
the Office books as we'll rs of the tradi-
tons which govern the public social
routine of the executive mansion III
his room sits the telegraph clerk at his
instrument, and by the window is Il tel
ephonc, which saves great amount of
messenger service between the president
and the departments Occasionally IL
congressman, with less ceremony than
discretion, attempts to get an appoint
ment with the ear of the president over
the telephone, and there is Il record of "a
stage earthquake produced i'll the private
sccretary's room by furious congress
man who found the telephone inetfect-
Two and his OlyInpian style even less
so. Notwithstanding that it is almost
the sole modern Improvement in tho
White House, President Cleveland was
seen at the telephone but once and then,