St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1909-12-04
REMODEL BUILDINGS
WHITE HOUSE AMONG THE Ma
TONS STRUCTURES CHANGED.
Home of the State, War and Navy De"
partments Alone Withstands Al
terations Officials Prefer
Small Rooms for Business.

Small Rooms for Business.
Repair and remodeling work on
government buildings in Washington
have been In progress on big scale
| during the vacation season, which
means better and more commodious
quarters for the official chiefs when
they return. These is hardly a depart
mental building that has not been
overhauled in some part.
The great porte-cochere under the
White House is filled with intricate
staging. Workmen have put fresh
coats of paint on the old building, in
SIDE and out. The Office building, off
to the west of the White House, is
also surrounded with staging, but
since August it has grown from a
modest little square house to a big
square house. A few years ago =
cost great sum to build that little
house, something like $260,000, when
it was expected to cost no more than
10000 Now the interior has been
all torn out and complete new ar
rangement perfected, and the Offices
of the president are imposing and
more or less magnificent.
New officials coming into Office ike
to remodel their quarters. They are
as bent upon that as the average
householder Is on changing the ar
engagements and the furnishings Of his
every cabinet officer has had lot OF
partitions pulled down and new con-
veniences installed. Some have had
ceilings tinted anew and a general
furnishing Of headquarters. This pre-
walls in the older buildings. The In
terror department is an example. Sec
rotary Ballinger is to have his assist
ant secretaries located little nearer
his office, and there has been consid-
cradle tearing down and putting up in
his corner of the interior building.
AS a rule, a government building Is
In considerable measure rebuilt about
every Is years by these frequent re-
modelings and arrangements to suit
the changing official tenants. The
state, war and navy building was SO
substantially built of granite and iron
that it cannot easily be changed, and
It stands to-day practically as 1t was
erected. So solid and satisfactory are
the rooms and apartments there that
it would seem almost sacrilege to de-
stroy a single partition. But the emf
nent tenants of that building shift
around. They put desks first in one
corner or another, or move from one
big Office to another.
There is a big, pretentious Office
room in that building for the secre-
tary of state, one for the secretary of
the navy and one for the secretary of
war. The secretaries of war and the
navy grew tired of their big rooms
some years ago and each moved into
adjoining rooms, much smaller and,
although less grand, more cosy. The
big offices were made ante-roOms, to
which the public was freely admitted.
These ante-rooms were decorated with
splendid flags and other articles of
patriotic interest, so that they resem-
bled museums. Secretary Meyer de-
cided that he did not like the little
office room and moved out into the big
Office. Secretary OF War Dickinson
still does business in small office,
the one that President Taft occupied
when he was secretary of war.
The postmaster general has big
and pretentious office on the fifth
floor of the tall granite departmental
building, but most of his time is spent
in a smaller Office to the side. 1t
feels snugger there. The secretaries
of the treasury long ago discarded the
big office in the treasury building, and
have been transactAng the important
business of that great department IL
little hole of place. When he came
into that department, Secretary Cor.
| telyou put decorators and painters and
furnishers to work beautifying walls
and ceilings and making modern fire
nlaces. Public officials in Washing
ton have a great inclination to fine
hreplaces, and the government has
| spent hundreds Of thousands of dol
lars, probably, in the last ten years re
furnishing old fireplaces, making new
ones and buying fireplace furnishings
The fires built in them are often
works of art, requiring particular
kinds of wood, split in a particular
kind of way, and laid in upon the and
| irons by very precise methods.
The interstate commerce commits
s1oners have been among the most ex
tensive official remodelers of quarters
| Soon after the rate law was passed
To UnveiI Wallace Statue.
The statue of Ger. Lew Wallace
which has been set up in the Gal