Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1921-09-02

so far as exterior appearances are
concerned, in the days of the Civil
war, but now it is entirely without
furniture, except for a few desks
which are used for Office purposes by
the custodians of the Arlington Ma
tional cemetery, which is the great
burial ground for veterans of Amerl-
can wars.
The movement to reclaim the place
and to make of it sort of shrine IS
not wholly a southern movement.
Mrs. Henry w. Keyes, wife of the
junior senator from New Hampshire,
is one of the prominent leaders in the
plan of reclamation. The proposal
for the rehabilitation of the mansion
and to place it as it was in the old days
was started at Upperville, Va, few
days ago at a meeting Of a chapter
Of the Daughters of the Confederacy.
The intention is to interest all the
chapters of this organization and also
women members Of northern organiza-
lions, such as the Daughters OF the
American Revolution.
If the Lee mansion shall be put into
the semblance Of its one time condl-
ton. inside as well as out a new inter-
est and a new sentiment will be added
to the Arlington National cemetery.
Most Of the old sectional feeling has
passed away and to have the Lee
mansion recognized as such and mate
into q sort Of second Mount vernon.
and yet to have it standingain ma
tional cemetery, the majority Of whose
graves are those Of Union soldiers,
will present a new example of the
power of time to heal animosities.
Lee Material Easy to Find.
1t should not be at all difficult to
collect material associated with the
life of Robert E. Lee. 1t is probable
that q large part of the furniture
which at one time was used in tho
Arlington home can be gathered to-
gether. A grandson and namesake OF
the general lives In the city of Wash
ington, and is active in all its affairs
He is a big outstanding man physically
and great personal favorite. There
is the Lee family proper and there
are other families with other names
but all Of the Lee blood. If the plan
to rehabilitate the Lee mansion shall
go through, for it will need congress
sional sanction, it is thought probable
that there will be many contributions
Of Lee material made over to the
trusteeship Of the persons who will
have charge of the collection and its
guardianship.
The Lee mansion at Arlington was
not the generals home originally. It
was the ancestral home of his wife,
who was a granddaughter of Martha
Washington It will be remembered
that Martha was married twice, her
first husband, by whom she had sew
eral children, being a Revolutionary
war comrade of her second husband
the first President of the United
States. The mansion at Arlington was
built by the elder GUSTS.
1t was not long after he left West
Point as an officer of the United
States army that Robert 3. Lee met
and married Miss Custis. The we'd
ding took place in one of the rooms
in the Arlington mansion and 1t was
one Of the affairs of the day, bringing
together as it did many persons Of
the Martha Washington blood, good
many collateral descendants Of George
Washington, and a considerable gath
ering of army friends of General Lee.
At the time of the outbreak Of the
Civil war General Lee, then an officer
in the United States army, was at
Arlington. It is said that 1t was there
he made the decision to give his sword
to the South, or, as he probably put it
at that time, to give it to his native
state, Virginia. If recollection is cor
rect, Lee left Arlington to make his
way to his newly accepted post of COM
mand In the Confederate army.
Making White House Whittier.
The White House is the whitest
building in the world. just now they
are making it whittier. 1t is getting
it's yearly coat of paint 1t is daz-
zingly white. Seemingly there is no
white like it anywhere else. Once it
was another color, but that is another
story.
1t is said that the home of Thomas
Jefferson at Monticello is the most
striking example of beautiful, yet dig
nffed architecture of the home" kind
that exists in the United States. II
it is finer thing than the White
House, it is a fine thing indeed
Everybody who visits this city and
looks on the White House, if he be
person of the slightest appreciation,
is struck by one thing-the fact that
the White House in all its beauty Is
so thoroughly democratic in appear
ance, that is, so thoroughly architec-
turalIy in keeping with the spirit of
our institutions. 1t is the home of
what in way may be called the ruler
of one hundred and twenty millions OF
people, and no one thinks for an iI-
slant on looking at it that in living Ill
such a place the ruler of SO great
multitude is not highly and properly
housed.
Everybody knows about how the
White House was burned when the
British took Washington a hundred
odd years ago. Prior to the time of the
burning, the White House was not a
white house at all. 1t was house