Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-02
AT You Kne90 Your CapitoI

Presidents room. but this Chief Executive
ordered one installed tn Q concealed closet space
and there 1t has since remained
THE table In the center Of the Presidents
u room is usually pointed out, and referred
the White House, sighed the Emancipation
Proclamation. This Is erroneous. Francis
Bicknel Carpenter, the artist who painted the
''First Reading of the Emancipation Proclama-
tion," which hangs at the head of the east stair
case in the House wing, in his explanatory book
on the picture says that he did the painting at,
and in, the White House. study Of the his
torical painting shows the table at which Lin
coin and his cabinet sat to be q rather long,
narrow. plain one. with square ends. Tbs
'Lincoln" table in the Presidents room at the
Capitol has oval ends and is highly ornate.
A green blaze cover on this particular table must
be replaced now and again as head hunters"
carry It away peacemeal, in small sections
There has been much confusion with regard
TO the Carpenter painting Of the reading Of the
proclamation. And many are the inquiries at
the Capitol to where the second" picture
Is on exhibition. There Is but one picture;
there never had been but one Carpenters
"key" drawing Of the picture showed President
Lincoln with right hand resting on the arm
OF his chair On his left front, sits his Secre-
tary Of State, William Seward, with right hand
near inkwell and quill pen. The picture, IA by
feet finally ready for exhibition, was shown in
many cities in the United States. It was trans
ported by placing joints in the frame allowing
each end to fold over to the center with soft
padded rollers laid between the canvas so that
It would not crease. But with the best of care,
Mr.. Carpenter was forced 10 renovate the pic
ttre before it was at last hung In the Capitol.
Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, who owned the paint
ing and presented it to the Government in 1878,
suggested that the artist place the quill pen in
Mr.. LincolnS right hand and show the left
arm outstretched on the table These changes
resulted in the idea that there had been two
paintings. as the key" was not changed, also
in greatly improving the ofAy and original
one.
Another painting that might be bettered his
torically is in the rotunda; that of the "Surren-
der of Burgoyne at Saratoga" by John Trum-
bull. The American flag Is show floating from
a tent-top. Under the starred blue upper corner
the stripes are misplaced, red stripe being
directly beneath the blue field when IL should
be q white stripe.
Into the catacombs we follow our lecturer
de luxe, these "caverns' being rarely visited by
guides because of their inaccessability and NO
elevators. We shudder bit in the crypt at
gruesome sight Of a black-draped catafaldue
eral occasions to serve as the bier for three
Iartyred Presidents, Lincoln Garfield, Nc
Kinley: as well as to support the caskets of
President Harding, Admiral Dewey and that CT
the Unknown Soldier. L'Enfant intended that
part Of the crypt in which the bier reposes as
the burial place OF George Washington, but the
will of Gen. Washington expressly and implicitly
directed burial at Mount Vernon.