Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-12-05

| window peaks, was ANONYMOUSLY entered
through a small pitch-roofed porch with a
| border-ighted door and brass knocker.
| The other, or south front. had veranda
| covering the central mansion with belvi-
| dere on it's top.
The interior had eight rooms on the
| ground and four on the floor above, with
| garretS for domeStics over the wings. The
! great room was made of the two front par
| Tors, which, thrown into one by large di-
| viding doors gave banquet hall OF 40 by
| Is feet with tireplaces at the ends. Blind
| passages or small wardrobes further eX-
tended this room into the wings. one of
| which was a buffet bar. the other "a
| kitchen.
| The motive of the house, public entertain
ment to large companies. expressed by
| the big double room. whose corners We're
bsveled at the folding door to admit by
! four doors people from the porch and from
! the back hail. which was only six feet
wide, and contracted by the stair. which
| opened above into the center of the house
! in another hallway there
Plan of the Dwelling.
In each of Mr.. Laws twelve rooms were
| brick hearths for wood fires The contract
! ed corridors and porch robbed the Retreat
| of the airy spaciousneSs of Mount Vernon
| Arlington and other country seats on the
| Potomac. Except on festival occasions,
| there was no look of assembly or congre-
! cation in the many separated chambers. 1t
seemed apparent that the fervent versatil-
| ity of the proprietor had planned his house
and ruled out architectural effectiveness in
pursuance of an original plainness and ma
| teriaiSm.
| In 1880 the old man, at seventy-one. pre-
! sided at the exercises of the Columbian
University in the Capitol; Edward Everett
orator. Three years before his death his
| wires niece, Mary Custis, married Lieuten-
| ant Robert E. Lee at Arlington, attended
by her cousin, Mrs. Beverly Kennon, still
, living.
BY his daughter. who married Lloyd
Nicholas Rogers of Druid Hill. Baltimore
Thomas Law left the only safe immortal
ity, posterity. In the family burial lot at
| the summit of that woodland park near
| the Rogers residence. which is now the
| park mansion, were passed some of the
! happy days of JOB A few months be-
| tore our civil war the great grandson of
| Ihomas Law sold the estate for 5000 900 to
the city, the sum of money he was re-
puted to have fetched from india though
| he says himself that 1t was only 100000,
| a fifth more having been seized as his
surety for defaulter.
Not long before Mr.. Law died, the gov
eminent had only expended upon the Dis
trict In thirty years, Independent of the
federal buildings, S1S7 900, or less than Mr.
| Laws investments. The government had
sold S697,OO in lots and spent after their
obstruction about two millions more upon
the public buildings. Mr.. Law probably
spent in this District more than the SIS2 :
GOO contributed to it by Maryland and Vir-
ginia.
! he was one of the men to canal the Tiber
out to the Eastern branch. subsequently
made It's mouth and to promote the upper
Potomac canal. The railroad came in the
year after he died.
Lonely Old Man.
| The deaths of all his children. more than
the loss Of money for which he did not care
or even of wife, left the first patriot of the
| city lonely indeed. But there was no finch
| ing In his intellectual strength. He avowed
| tn print his faith in the religion of the flu
ture, science, art, friendship, craftsmanship
His obituary in two worlds was this:
From the National Intelligencer August l.
1884: I'm this city at 6 o'clock yesterday
morning, after an illness of eight or ten
days, Thomas Law, esq, aged about sew
enty-eight years.
be committed to paper. would be more in
teresting and instructive than some histo-
rles of greater notoriety.
I'm his India administration he found a
wide field for the exercise of the philan-
thropy and liberality which, united to a
nice sense of honor, were prominent traits In
his character. Whilst he acquired unbounded
popularity among the natives. he secured
the confidence of his superiors In Office
both in India and at home Chief ruler
over one of the provinces Of that vast en-
pire, his wise, magnanimous and beneficent
administration obtained for him the envia-
BILE appellation of the father of the peo-
Pile
He remained in England a year or two
before he transferred his residence here
bringing with him q property not large
considering his opportunities, but large in