The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1897-03-20
THE WHITE HOUSE.
ARRANGEMENT or THE Official
QUARTERS or THE EXECUTIVE.
Views From the Windows of the East
Room-The HAIL of the Disappointed"
Telephone Is Almost the Only Modern
Improvement In the Building.

Improvement In the Building.
Mr.. c. C. Buel writes "a paper for The
Century ON "Our Fellow Citizen Of the
White House. Z" devoted TO the official
cares and duties of the president. i'll the
Coarse Ct which he says:
At 0o'ciock n hardly discernible sign
against tic glass of the barrier an
nCGLeos to tho citizen who has arrived
under the grand portal hat the execU-
tive mansion is .'open" TO visitors. AT
2 o'clock the sign Is changed 10 "clcs-
cd The Gct1lecpers swing the dcors
Cpen &c everybody. Within the large
vestibule nothing is seen which indi-
Gates the arrangement and purposes of
the different parts OF the mansion. 1t
was rot always so, fer originally the
LC.g concealed corridor, or middle hail,
with the staircase on the right. was q
part CT the entrance hall. Now the
spaces between the middle columns arc
closed with colored glass partitions. ard
the vestibIle is simply a large, square
fccm pleasant to got cut c..
No way appears 10 open TO the state
apartments in the center or to the west
wing, which is devoted to the private
apartments. Yet glass doors are there,
though as imperceptible to the stranger
as a swinging panel. To the left there
Is q door which is always open 1t ad-
mits to a small hall, across which a SIM
liar door is the side entrance to the
great east room About this splendid
room, comprising the whole east end of
the mansion, the visitor may wander at
will before the portraits or enjoy from
the windows the beauty of the treasury
building 20 the east or the impressive
landscape to the south, including the
towering shaft of the Washington mon
ument and beyond the ever charming
Potomac, Spreading with charging
curves toward Mount Vernon, and in
the private garden under the windows
ne may Chance to see q merry band of
little ones
From the small hail between the yes-
tlbule and the east room a stairway as
cends toward the medal line of the
building 10 q wide middle hall. on each
side of which are the offices of the pres
Ident- The arrangement is simple. and
in the floor plan covers the space cccu-
pied below by the east room and the
green room, the latter being the coun-
terpart OF the small hall with the public
stairway Just mentioned. At the head
OF these stairs, over the green room. is
the cabinet room, which is the first
apartment IN the south side of the nall.
q jog OF " Q steps, at the private door
into the presidents room. marking the
raised ceiling of the east room below.
The president reaches his office through
the cabinet room, entering the latter
from the library, which corresponds on
the second floor with the blue room Of
the state apartments. President Arthur
indeed used the library as his Office and
the cabinet chamber for all anteroom.
while his private secretary was domi-
clled In the traditional Office of the pres
ident- During his first term Mr.. Cleve-
Land preserved the same arrangement
But General Harrison went back to the
Office hallowed by Lincoln's
and Nh. Cleveland, on his return. found
the arrangement so satisfactory that he
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
braced against the crowd struggling to
see the president 1t is q narrow anart-
ment and might be called appropriately |
the hall of the disappointed, the sue-
gestion being emphasized by portraits
OF the greatest of presidential aspirants.
Clay and Webster, to which Mr.. Thurber
added, as his private property, an en-
craving of the closest contestant for the |
office, Governor Tilden.
On the north side of the hall there |
are two rooms which correspond to those
ON the south side just described, the
small one being occupied by Nj. o. L.
Fruden, the assistant secretary since Gen |
eral Grant time and the custodian of |
the ONCE books as well as Of the tradi-
IONS which govern the public social
routine OF the executive mansion. In
his Q sits the telegraph clerk at his
and by b window is a tel
ephone, which Y a great amount of
messenger service between the president
and u departments. Occasionally a
congressman, with less ceremony than
discretion, attempts to get an appoint
ment with the ear of the president over
the telephone, and there is a record of a
stage earthquake produced in the private
secretary 8 room by q furious congress
who found the telephone ineffect-
i've and his Olympian style even less
Notwithstanding that it is almost
the sole modern improvement in the
White House, President Cleveland was