Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1897-08-01
WHITE HOUSE G||EgRODM
History of the Chamber Which Mark
Hanna Is Said to Occupy.

Does NOtCIlmD steps TO 6eu-IWln
Bedsteads Invite the Occupants
to a Choice aid Sleepy Hol-
lows" Lull Him 70 Sleep-Distin-
guished People Who Have Slept
There.
Washington, July Ex-senator Mark
Hanna is said to be very indignant
over the telegraphed report that he
would occupy the spare chamber in the
White House during the heated term
after his family had left town. why
in the world should I?'' he shouted al
a reporter who asked him about the
truth of the report But why In the
world shouldn't you?" is what the re-
porter shouted back.
For many years the Presidents or
the United States have made practice
! of inviting to the White House those
whom they particularly desired to hon
or They were asked TO come and
make a visit. Queen Victoria has long
done this at Windsor. and no foreign
mission has ever been thought to be
complete success unless the bearer had
the honor Of being summoned to Wind
sor, grip in hand, prepared to stay un-
til morning.
Among those who have lately visited
Windsor in this way were Ambassador
and Mrs. Bayard, Mr. and Mrs. White
law Reid, Nine. Albani. Henry Irving
and Chauncey NJ Depew. Instead of
being reviled in doing so. they came
away with glorious expression and
walked in the world as persons sin
gularly honored.
The Presidents of the United States
have acted similarly, but with Il slight
difference. Ii would have been thought
| ridiculous for Mr. Cleveland to sum-
mon Secretary Lamont from his home
in Washington 10 tarry all night at
the White House. But when the sec
retary's family was away nothing was
more natural than that he should
make his home there. The same with
Richard Watson Glider. The Glider
trunk betook its way up the winding
paths Of the White House rear grounds
very often, and the well known editor
became zone of the family The
same with the Benedicts. who went
further, and almost invariably took
one of the Cleveland family away with
them. So with Joseph jefferson; and
so with Henry Irving, if he had time
and he willed it. for the President o,
the United States is as varied and as
broad in his friendships as the Queen
of England.
1t is understood that the rumpus
made over the Hanna report by Sena
tor Hanna himself is not so much on
account of the rumor that he would
join Mckinley in the manner he would
do so. The report which, by the
way, happened be on the best Of au-
thority, and is still believed by many
said that the bed which the Senator
would occupy was so tall that he would
have to mount it by steps and pull red
silk curtains around him for a canopy.
Now, the spectacle of himself climbing
a flight of steps TO his bed and lying
framed in scarlet was what infuriaied
Hanna. Y
The guest room at the White House
is not the room which many think II
to be. The Prince of Wales bedroom"
which was also the room where Gar
field lay, is not the chamber ordinarily
given to guests The real guest cham
Der is a smaller room and much more
destitute Of history. It's main points
are that Nellie Grant Slept In it and
that Nellie Arthur had it for a play
room In the Hayes days IL was used
in a very doubed-up way by the fam
lily, which was obliged TO accomnio-
date itself within the very small con-
fines of the house.
The room which Senator Hanna oc-
cupies, or will occupy II he carries out
his pet plan Of sleeping in the White
House ito avoid office-seekers, IS "a
large one, and one that would be
known in hotel parlance as double
one Against the wall stand two small
brass bedsteads with snowy coverings,
and scattered around il are large,
stuffed easy chairs, divans. tables and
rockers. 1t is a bedroom and dress
ing-room in one, a parlor and bOu
doir. The canopied bed. il ever there
was one there. has been banished TO
the rooms of the White House curiosi-
ties, and the bed-steps have likewise
gone.
The White House has been the scene
OF many a Damon and Pythias friend
ship. Damon Mckinley and Pythias
Hanna are only two at the end Of
long run Of them. Conkling and Ar
thur were the Damon and Pythias OF
the White House sixteen years ago;
Grant and Sherman came before;
Pierce and Jefferson Davis before
them, and there were Tracy and IIar-
Tison.
For many administrations past the
ladies of the White House have begged
for more room for their guests. Mrs.
Cleveland cited and recited her woes
at having three small children and
their nurses to stow away in cramped
quarters when guests arrived. and she
is said to have pettishly declared that
Eulalie and her ladies' would have to
sleep three in a bed" il entertained at
the White House. AS yet Mrs. Nc
Kinley hasn't uttered her protest, but
when the Washington season begins
and guests, family and diplomatic,
flock to Washington, then the same old
wall will rise from the four walls OF