The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-07-19

pEODlC pduSG OCIOlC IL HI "OAAACN They say it must be school; it must be an institution of some sort: at least, it must have history; and, indeed, on South Ninth street almost every min- ute of the day it happens that some one stops to look at this old house and to inquire into it's age and its story.
 It is the Meany house, the Price house, the Bonaparte house or the Pot ter house, for by all those names 1t known in local annals. Captain John Meany built it. Chandler Price bought Potters for almost a hundred years have lived and died in it. And within it is one of the most beautiful and stately wdellings in Philadelphia
 Captain Meany built it at some un- certain time in the eighteenth century, and the reason why he arranged it with it's front on the side was that he thought that it would eventually front on Spruce street, for Spruce street had not yet been cut through and the cap tain believed he knew just where it was to come. The events, however, showed his mistake and left the house odd looking. with it's entrance and it's main windowsand it's recommendations at the side, where they are hidden, instead of at the front, where their quaintness of style would have won them the appro- bation that they merit.
 Captain Meany was a retired trader in the rich commodities of the Indies, and he imported all the material for his new residence from England. The beautiful doors of mahogany, the bricks and the other finer materials of build ing came hither in ships, and in such great quantities did they come that af ter the house was finished there was a tremendous surplus left. The surplus Captain Meany, being charitable, gave to the poor.
 He lived sumptuously on South Ninth street. but in his old age he died poor. After his death his wife moved into garret and supported herself until her death by shirt-mal1ing.
 Chandler price, the head of an old | and distinguished Philadelphia family, | bought the house, and it was from him | that Joseph Bonaparte rented it during his year of residence in this city, It was renovated for the occupancy of l Count de Survelllers, as Bonaparte was 1 called, and it looked then, indeed, much as it looks to-day. The paper of the parior and the French cartoons of the dining oom are still there and the | Bonaparte sldeboard of mahogany is
 still there, also.
 | Joseph Bonaparte was tall and hand some. His manner was particularly
 engaging. He had been King of Ma
 ples and King of Spain. but in each of
 these high posts he had been but the
 mouthpece of his brother Napoleon,
 and his subjects, understanding this,
 had despised him openly. After Napo- Icons downfall Joseph had had an in- terview with him on the Isle of Aix
 and had offered him, with characteris-
 tic unselfishness, to surrender to the other his own means of escape. This offer, however, was refused, and Joseph
 then sailed for America.
 The parlor of the house that during
 his residence in this city he rented from Chandler Price was very lofty
 room of fine proportions It's furniture was of mahogany, and mahogany was the furniture of the dining room as | we'll !:
 The dining room was thirty-five by
 twenty-five feet in size. Its windows,
 which were all upon one side, extended | to the floor and gave in those days a charming garden view. On the walls by way of paper, were the French car-
 toons that Colin Campbell Cooper, the
 artist, has frequently admired. The cartoons are huge panels set in gilt frames, and, in some nine or ten pie
 lures, they tell the story of Cupid and Psyche. They are admirably done in
 black and white. One picture is of Psyche abandoned by her royal parents on the mountains. Another is of her in beautiful house to which the enam-
 ored love god brought her. A third shows her holding the lamp above the sleeping Cupid at the moenlnt when a drop of oil, falling on his luminous shoulder, is to awaken him. And thus
 the picture continues the relation of
 the story up to the time when Psyche,
 made immortal, is welcomed by the other gods and goddesses into heaven
 It is said that by the back door a humble Frenchman used to visit Jo- seph Bonaparte in the South Ninth street house and talk of the time when he had been a soldier in the army of Napoleon. This mans descendants still live in Philadelphia, where they carry on the business of upholstering.
 It is also said that among the many distinguished Philadelphians whom ! Bonaparte entertained was Stephen Gi- rard. And at dinner in the dining room of French cartoons the host once
 said he thought of building in this city and asked Girard what he would take for a certain lot of ground.
 q don't know" Girard answered.
 Would you take as many silver dol lars as would cover the plot?" asked | Bonaparte.
 "would you lay the dollars edge wiser" returned Girard.
 Upon Bonaparte's departure for Bor- dentown the house came into the pos-
 session of the Potter family, where 1t lhas ever since remained. John Potter,
 a. very rich trader and the owner of many ships bought it for town house l at the time of his marriage with Har- | riet Cardwell, an English heiress. He furnished it as Bonaparte had done with mahogany that was at once mas sive and graceful. These huge pieces
 are still in the possession of the family. | He took also a. country house at Green
 Hill (Green Hill is the site of Girard
 college of to-day) and a cottage at Cape
 May. The English bride, on her arrival here, had no cause to complain of the