Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1897-03-31
THE WHITE HOUSE.
ARRANGEMENT OF THE OFFICIAL
QUARTERS OF THE EXECUTIVE.

Views From the Windows of tho East
Room-The 'I;sIl CT the Disappointed"
Telephone Is Almost the Only Modern
improvement In the Euiiding.
Mr.. G. c. Buel writes q paper for The
| Century ON "Our Fellow Citizen Of the
White House." devoted to the official
cares and duties of the president, in the
course Of which he says:
At 10 O'Clock a hardly discernible sign
against the glass Of the barrier an
nounces to the citizen who has arrived
under the grand portal that the execu-
tive mansion is "cpen" to visitors At
! 2 O'Clock the sign is changed to "clOs-
Cd" The dcorkeepers swing the doors
OPEN to every ytody. Within the large
vestibulc nothing is seen which indi
Gates the arrangement and purposes Of
the different parts of tie mansion. 1t
was not always SO, for originally the
now concealed corridor, or middle hall,
with the staircase OH the right, was q
part of the entrance hall. Now the
spaces between the middle columns are
closed with colored glass partitions, and
the vcstibule is simply a large, square
/, room pleasant 10 get CIT CT.
Nc way appears to open to the state
apartments i'll the center or to the west
wing, which is devoted to the private
apartments. Yet glass doors are there,
though rs imperceptihle to the stranger
as swinging panel. To the left there
is a door which is always open. 1t ad
mits to a small hall, across which sim
liar door is the side entrance to the
great east room. About this splendid
rocm, comprising the whole east end of
the mausiC,!, the visitor may wander at
will before the portraits or enjoy from
the windows the beauty Of the treasury
building to the cast or the impressive
Landscape to the south, including the
towering shaft of tie Washington mon-
ument ard beyond the ever charming
Potomac, Spreading with enlarging
curves toward Mount Vernon, and in
the private garden under the windows
hc may chance to see merry band of
little ores.
From the small hall between the YES
tibulc and the east rocm Il stairway as
cends toward the mCdial lire Cf the
building TO vide middle hall, On each
side of which aTe the offices Of the pres
idcnt. The arrangement is simple, and
i'll the floor plan covers the space Occu-
pied below by tlie cast room and the
green room, the latter being the cCuE-
teIpart Of tie small hall with tire public
sti.iIW ay just mentioned. AT the head
of these stairs, over the green room, is
the cabinet room, which is the first
IL, 4. y II 1.
a jog Of two stcIs, 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 roCm, entering the latter
from the library, which corresponds On
the second fi1or with the blue room CT
the state apartments. President Arthur
indeed used the library as his office ard
the cabiEot chamber for an anterOom,
wEile bis private secretary was domi
ciled in TIE 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 hGllowCd by Lincoln's occupancy.
and Mr.. Cleveland, on 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
! braced against the crowd struggling to
/ see the president. 1t is q narrow apart
ment and might bc 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, as his private property, an ell
craving Of the closest contestant for the
Office, Governor Tiiden.
| On the north side Of the hall there
are two rooms which correspond to these
Cn the south side just described, TIE
small one being occupied by Mr.. .. l..
Pruden, the assistant secretary since Cen
eral Grants time and the custodian Of
the office books as we'll as Cf the tradi-
tons which govern the public social
routine of the executive mansion. In
his room sits the telegraph clerk at his
instrument, ard Ey the window is q tel
ephone, which saves a great amount of
messenger service between the president
and the 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 q record of a
stage earthquake produced i'll the private
secretary's room by a furious congress-
EIan who found the telephone ineffect-
i've and his Olympian style even less
so. Notwithstanding that it is almost
the sole modern improvement in the
White House, President Cleveland was
seen at the telephone but once, and then,
needless to say, not on call.