The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-08-08

AAOAV ulAls lue fHOOScV0lC6g summer
home. 1t is a beautiful drive. winding
around the southern end of East bay
q roads are macadamized. hard al
iron and well kept. except where you
turn to the left through a wood tc
climb Sycamore hill to the Roosevelt
place. Here the road Is sandy, though
not heavy.
Oyster Bay has been the home of the
Roosevelts for thirty or forty years
There are half a dozen trains a day
between it and Long Island City. The
trains U through a succession Of gar.
den patches and truck farms. though
n never catches a glimpse of salt
water till the locomotive dashes out OF
the cut on West bay.
The town is dOubly fashionable now.
1t appreciates the new dignity that is
to be bestowed upon it. The old depot
is being remodeled. the streets are be-
ing repaired and a general air of
'sprucing up" is noticeable.
While the executive mansion will be
on Sycamore hill, the executive Offices
will be located in the Oyster Bay bank
building, down in the village. 1t is a
two story Pompeiian brick building
with a billiard room in the cellar, the
first floor given over to the bank and
the second floor to offices. 1t was in
this building that Mr.. Roosevelt had
his headquarters during his campaign
for governor.
1t is these same offices that Secre-
taries Cortelyou and Loeb have en-
gagged for the summer. They are plain
~ furnished. with large windows that
look out over the tops of the houses
clustered amid the green of the trees.
The summer White House is a red
house, and yet not strictly SO, though
the combination of colors gives it q
reddish tinge under the blaze of a sum-
mer sun. 1t is a roomy house Of COM
posite architecture, the lower half be-
ing red brick and the upper half of
wood. Out Of the center Of the roof
and a multiplicity of gable peaks rises
a massive red brick chimney.
Facing the west is a wide veranda
protected by a yellow and brown avn
ing. Rockers and rush chairs are
scattered about. while from the porch
a sweeping view Of. the bay is OBJ
tanned. Sloping down to the westward
is a lawn of several acres that ends in
a wood bordered by a sandy road. On
the fiat summit of the hill around the
house are a number of flower beds. In
the rear is a red stable, to one side
of it a poultry yard and beyond a corn
field. Beyond it again is a wood that
reaches almost to Cold Spring Harbor.
The drawing DON where the presi-
lent will receive his visitors looks out
on the veranda. Adjoining it is the
library. which will be the working
room of the president. On the same
floor is the spacious dining room. The
symmetry OF the mansions surround
hgs is being married for reasons Of
state by the erection of unsightly tele.
phone poles planted across the lawn.
AS governor and police commissioner
Mr.. Roosevelt never had a telephone
IN his Oyster Bay home. When asked
the reason once, he said:
"A telephone would be a nuisance. l
would never have any rest, and it
would keep one person busy answering
calls"
When it became necessary for him tc
communicate with New York or AL
bany, he would walk owe to the resi-.
dence of his sister, a quarter of a mile
distant, Mrs. Merritt, and use her
phone. But it is different now. The
president of the United States must be
in a position to communicate directly
with his cabinet officers and heads Of
departments, and so the telephone in
vades Sycamore hill for the first time.
There was no sign of life about the
place the other day except the brown
faced boys racing around the grass
plot to the north of the house and the
squad Of men digging holes for the
telephone poles. This quiet will dis
appear in a great measure when the
president arrives and joins his family.
Then the tide of travel will set in.
But access to the grounds will be linn
tied. Secret service men will guard
every entrance and demand to know
the business of every visitor. In a ma
jority Of cases visitors to the mansion
will first be required to call at the ex-
ecutive Office over the bank.
Strangely enough. the old people
around Oyster Bay do not speak of Mr..
Roosevelt as the president. They refer
to him as the governor or the "cOlo-
nell" There is a universal delight in
telling of the presidents democratic
manner and hearty neighborly quail
ties.
"There's nothin' stuck up about the
governor" said old Jacob White, the
venerable hackman, whose forefathers
for three generations sleep in the vii
lage cemetery. when he gets to Oys- /
ter Bay, he knows he's at home, and
it's Hello, Jim! and How are you, |
Tom?' to the men, because, you see, |
we've known the governor nearly all
hts Iifn III e11ro IN so,,% 101e,o rrHor