The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-08-01
WHITE HOUSE GUESTS ROOM.
HISTORY OF THE ROOM WHICH
MARK HANNA Is SAID TO OCCUPY.

Does Not Climb Steps to Bed-Twin
Bedsteads Invite the Occupants 10
Choice and "SIecpy HoIIow.y
LuII Him to SIeep-Distingufsbed
People Who Have Slept There.
Washington, July Ex-senator Mark
Hanna is said to be very indignant over
the telegraphed report that he would oc-
cupy the spare chamber in the white
house during the heated term after his
family had left town. why in the world
should II" he shouted at a reporter who
asked him about the truth of the report.
But why in the world shouldn't you?" is
what the reporter shouted back
For many years the Presidents of the
United States have made a practice Of
inviting to the white house those whom
they particularly desired to honor. 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 a complete sue
cess unless the bearer had the honor OF
being summoned to Windsor, grip in hand,
prepared to stay until 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 for doing so, they came away
with a glorious expression and walked in
the world as persons singularly honored
The Presidents of the United States have
acted similarly, but with a slight difference.
1t would have been thought ridiculous for
Mr.. Cleveland to sommon Secretary La
mont from his home in Washington to tar
ry all night at the white house. But
when the Secretary'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 Ben
edicts, who went further, and almost in
variably took one of the Cleveland family
away with them. So with Joseph Jeffer-
son; and so with Henry Irving, if he had
had time and had willed it, for the Presi-
dent of 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 Senator Hanna
himself is not so much on account of the
rumor that he would join Mckinley as
the manner in which he would do So The
report-which, by the way, happened to be
on the best of authority, and is still be-
lieved 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 flight of steps to his bed and
lying framed in scarlet was what infuri-
ated Hanna.
The guest room in the white house is
not the room which many think it to be-
The prince of Wales bedroom which
was also the room where Garfield lay, is
not the chamber ordinarily given to
guests. The real guest chamber is a
smaller room and much more destitute
of history. Its main points are that Nellie
Grant slept in it and that Nellie Arthur
had it for a play-room. In the Hayes days
it was used in very doubled-up way by
the family, which was obliged to accom-
modate itself within the small confines
of the house.
The room which Senator Hanna occu-
pies, or will occupy if 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 a double" one Against the
wall stand two small brass bedsteads with
snowy coverings, and scattered around il
are large, stuffed easy chairs, divans, ia
d
dressing groom in one, parlor and bou-
doir The canopied bed, if ever there was
one there, has been banished to the rooms
of the white house curiositieS, and the
bed-steps have gone likewise.
The white house has been the scene
of many a Damon and Pythias friendship.
Damon Mckinley ana Pythias Hanna are
only two at the end of a long run of them.
Conkling and Arthur were the Damon and
Pythias of the white house sixteen years;
Grant and Sherman came before; Pierce
and Jefferson Davis before them, and
there were Tracy and Harrison.
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 Eulalia and her ladies would
have to sleep three in a bed if enter
tanned at the white house. AS yet Mrs.
Mckinley 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 the old house
mot enough room for company
In the history of the white house strange
things have been done to make the guest
chamber habitable. When the Prince Of
Wales visited here before his marriage
large room was cleared out for him ana
profusely decorated with red silk, that be-
ing the fashionable color of the year, ana
the most expensive decoration then
known. Tapestries in the sixties were
thought poor and old-fashioned.
In later years II was decided by the
mistresses of the white house that the
guest chamber could be made interesting
and straightway It became a sort Of bu-
reau OF relics. Mementoes of dead ana
gone Presidents were placed there-htte
things that belonged to the ever-lamente1
wife OF Andrew Jackson and the kerchleI
worn by Tippecanoe Harrison in his brlet
period. Soon the guest chamber became
a chamber of horrors and guests fed from
1t In the morning declaring that no
haunted chamber ever affected them N
the like way. Then IL was cleared anu
left bare. But finally the later mlstresses
have placed modern furniture In IT, ana
now resembles the snare room OF any