Evening star., 1898-04-08
AT THE WHITE HOUSE
The President Practically Gives Up
Hope Of Averting War.
SCARCITY OF OFFICIAL VISITORS
Constant Stream Of Sightseers at
the Executive Mansion.
WAS A FIELD-DAY FOR THEM

That historic, much-battered, but still-in-
the-ring expression of the calm before the
storm had full opportunity to be worked
off today as descriptive of the serenity
which pervaded the White House today.
President Mckinley did not have visitor
before 1880 o'clock. The usual early morn
ing visit of Judge Day was postponed, and
the President spent several hours with his
family in the private apartments of the
Executive Mansion. Just before the hour
for the assembling Of the cabinet Senator
Lodge Of the Senate foreign relations COM
mittee and Representative Fenton of Ohio
called and were shown into the President 8
office. They learned nothing to indicate
that the situation has undergone the slight
est change, unless it is in the direction OF
war before the end of another week.
The President himself had practically no
nope that there would be a peaceful solu-
ton of the pending crisis. The Presidents s
demeanor is said to be more significant
than his words. He talks as little as pos
sible to avoid the probability of exaggerat-
ed rumors of his position, but nearly every
thing he says has a strong significance to
those who are closely associated with him.
While there was scarcity of official visi-
tors there was constant stream of sight
seers all day. They came in droves, talk
Ing OF war. and peering curiously at all ar
rivals having a distinguished appearance
Cabinet officials are worth coming a long
distance to see, and the visitors who wit
messed the arrivals of these cool-headed
counselors of the President considered
themselves fortunate.
Altogether the day was a good one for
sightseers. The east room still contained
the decorations placed yesterday for the
luncheon of Mrs. Mckinley. Ordinarily
visitors express disappointment at getting
to see nothing in the interior of the White
House but the big east room. They were
satisfied however.
Few Office Seekers.
The absence of Office seekers has been a
marked and surprising feature of recent
weeks at the White House. Like small
fish which have been run out of certain
waters by larger ones, the office seeker is
no longer seen III shoals or even in punches
Occasionally a stray specimen makes his
appearance, but is quickly lost in the shuf-
fe. This lone seeker no longer tries to see
the President He ambles up in a Ahy
fashion to Secretary Porter, quietly asks
a question about his papers or his pros
poets and is away to hotel corridors to give
his opinion of the crisis and to say that he
is just from the White House, where he
has held long conference with the Pres
ident.
More Purchases in View.
The naval auxiliary board at New York is
considering the advisability of the purchase
of the steamer Matteawan of the Lone Star
line, the steamer Catania of the Sloman
line, and the tugboats E. H. Mead and
Thomas p. Fowler of the Cornell line The
tugs were inspect with view as to their
use as gunboats or dispatch boats and the
steamers water-distilling beats.
The Matteawan is OWNED by T. Hogan &
Sons, and was built in England in 1893.
She is single-screw steamer, 324 feet long,
AZ feet beam and $500 tons displacement
She was recently on the line between New
York and Galveston.
The CGtania Is sfngle-screw iron ves-
sci. owned by r. NJ. Sloman & Co., and
built at Glasgow in 1881. She is 315 feet
long, 81 feet beam and 2,115 tons dsplace-
ment. For some time past she has been
plying between New York and Hamburg.
The steam pilot boat Philadelphia,
Beat Associa ation. hes been offered to the
government for naval purposes. She was
built in Philadelphia in 1886. and is 1876 feet
long and has a displacement of 200 tons.
Orders have been given to expedite the
work on the cruiser Chicago at the New
York navy yard as much as possible.
Lieut.. Barnett Ordered Here.
Lieut.. Commander W. j. Barnett, now in
command of the coast survey steamer
Bache which has recently rendered such
important services at Havana, will shortly
be ordered to Washington for duty as ma
val aid to Assistant Secretary Roosevelt.
to fill the vacancy occasioned by the trans
fer Of Lieut.. A. Sharp, jr., to the command
of the torpt do beat destroyer Vixen, which
will go into commission at League Island
Monday. The assignment of Lieut.. Com.
Barnett as naval aid to the assistant Sec
retary is understood to be merely tempo
rary, per ding the recovery of Lieut.. Com
Buckingham. now on sick leave, who was
recently chosen for that assignment.
To Command the bancroft.
Commander Richardson Glover, chief of
the Office of naval intelligence and ex-
of1cio member of the naval strategic board
will shortly be relieved of those duties in
order to enable him to take command of
the gunboat Bancroft, which recently ar
rived at Boston after a two-years' cruise in
the Mediterranean. It is understood that
the Bancroft, which is now undergoing re-
pairs, will be retained at Boston as part
OF the naval defense Of that harbor No
one has yet been selected to succeed Com
mander Clover in his present duties, but 1t
Is expected that the detail will be an
nounced in a few days.
A White House Appointment.