Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-17

lawn. It Is Of the exact shape Of a great
guitar with the body of the guitar ending
at the front door. The stem Of the guitar
Is the driveway which is bordered by mag
nificent cedars set close together. Where
the body of the guitar begins there are
flowers and trees Of many kinds rising out
OF lawn of the greenest green. All the
Hickory.
Inside Jackson's Home.
Entering The Hermitage, one is in a hall
SO large that a wagon load of hay could be
driven through it without touching the
sides. At the right against the wall stands
a beautiful old mahogany sofa, and at the
left mahogany hat tree, the hooks of
which great spikes of brass. The hall
is decorated with wall paper which was
ordered by Gen. Jackson from Paris when
he was President, and which was shipped
here by way of New Orleans up the Mis-
sissippi and Cumberland rivers. 1t repre-
sents the Travels of Telemachus in Search
of Ulysses" and especially Of his landing
at the Island of Calypso. The paper is of
a light blue color and with its great pic
lures would be considered gaudy today. Its
colors are as bright as when they were first
pasted on the wall.
At the back of the hall mahogany stair
case winds its way to the second floor At
the right as you enter is another hall upon
which are Gen. Jackson's bed room and
library, while at the left are the parlors
which communicate with each other. The
dining room, which is by far the largest
room of the house, is beyond these, reached
by door from the veranda.
The furniture throughout is the finest of
old mahogany. There sofas, tables and
chairs of this beautiful wood. mellowed and
darkened by age. There are great brass
andirons. cut glass chandeliers and a clock
which was in the Hermitage before the
death of Mrs. Jackson, the hands of which
are set at the hour that Jackson died.
There a number of fine portraits of
President Jackson, his wife and his friends
and the bed rooms are fitted up with old
four posters which were used in The Her.
mitage when Jackson was alive and upon
one of which he died.
Where Andrew Jackson Died.
spent some time looking at the bed room
in which this, one of the very greatest of
our Presidents, passed away. It is in the
same condition today as 1t was then. The
same pictures are on the walls. the same
hangings on the bed, and indeed the very
same bedding even to the white counter
pane which covered him when he breathed
his last. Imagine a room twenty feet
square with great mahogany four-poster
hangings about it, but they are so festooned
that they do not shut out the air. At the
left of the bed are three little steps, and the
mattresses with the great feather tick on
top are so high that one must climb the
steps to get into it. Those very steps were
used by Old Hickory and up them he
climbed when he entered that bed for the
last time. Lying on a chair at the right
next the window is the silk dressing gown
with the ruffied shirt within it which jack
son used during his last days. and beyond
that Is his bureau with the mirror above 1t.
Just opposite the bed is fireplace with a
brass fender. and antique andirons SO beau
tiful that almost any woman who reads this
would sell her soul to possess them. There
are logs on the andironS ready to light and
over the mantel above the fireplace is
long. low mirror in a gold frame. Just
above the mirror and facing the bed Is a
painting which forms the life of the room,
the article in it which Andrew Jackson
loved most. 1t is an oil portrait of his wife.
It is so placed that he saw it first on enter
ing and that it met his eyes the last
thing at night ard greeted them when he
first opened them in the morning.
The Romance of Old Hickory.
The love of Andrew Jackson It sur
passed that of ordinary men. 1t shines out
everywhere about the Hermitage. There
are paintings of Mrs. Jackson In almost
every room and he had medalions and
other remembrance of her. We have all
read the story of his marriage, of how he
protected her from her drunken first hus-
band brute named Richards, and how he
! married her after Richards was said to have
obtained divorce. There was great
scandal connected with the affair. But
Jackson again married her when the di-
vorce was actually gotten, and he lived
forty happy years with her before she died.
During his life he was so devoted to her
and her memory that he was said to have
a pistol always ready for any who dared
speak slightingly of her, and those who
did so were only forgiven by him when he
came to die.
Her spirit seems to have been especially
close to him in his latter years, and long
before he died he gave directions that he
be buried by her side
Andrew Jackson's Tomb.
But let us go together and look upon the
spot where these two lovers now lie. We
pass out through the old-fashioned garden
of The Hermitage which. with Its flower
beds surrounded by their little brick walls,
Is kept today just as 1t was when Jackson
lived, and at the back of 1t, shaded by
is little temple ending in a dome. below
which stands a pyramidal monument On
one side of this monument under slab lie
the remains Of Andrew jackson and on the