Evening star., 1934-10-28
CHAPTER XVI.
BY FRANK G. CARPENTER.

THE President has lately taken
up his quarters in his cottage
at the Soldiers Home. He
L spends more of his time there
at present than he does at the
White House. Every day at about
3 o'clock he drives to the Executive
Mansion, attends to the most urgent
business on hand and by o'clock is
generally back in the country for the
evening. At the present there is no
one visiting him at the home, and his
family consists of only himself, Miss
McElroy and his young daughter Nell
lie. During the Summer, while her
father was off in New Jersey at Mr..
Freylinghuysen's, Nellie presided over
the Soldiers Home cottage, as well
as the White House, and when young
Allen Arthur, now a sophomore youth
of 81, was spending part of his vaca-
tion here, she made him submit to all
OF her arrangements, forcing him to
rise at 8 and to be present at meal
time.
The Soldiers Home cottage is the
only place at which the President can
have a fair chance to rest while he
is like a great hotel, with none of
a great hotels privacy. While there
the President is reminded every hour
that he is a servant of the people, and
that there are few laborers in the
United States who work harder than
he.
The Presidents cottage at the Sol
dlers' Home is pleasant place, and
delightful is the drive from the White
House to it. The carriage rolls around
Lafayette Square past the bronze
statue of Andrew Jackson on his rear
ing horse, past the old Decatur man.
sion, where John R. Mclean was
married last month, and whiSking by
the palace of Millionaire Corcoran, it
goes up the broad asphalt pavement
of Sixteenth street, around Scott
Circle. Between the big red bricks
of Window and Cameron it rolls.
and then on across the Fourteenth
street road, where lie the magnificent
suburban homes of some of Wash
ingtonS wealthiest men.
Here you get Whit of the country.
which grows stronger and stronger as
you pass Mount Pleasant and cut
across toward the Soldiers Home
The road leading to it is well kept,
and an iron fence on a stone foun-
dation separates it from the park.
The Soldiers Home is magnificent
estate of 500 acres of forest and
meadow. The grounds are laid out
IN beautiful drives, where one can
ride miles through the trees
and over the green. now passing a
lake and now almost lost in the forest.
All of the Presidents, since the davs
OF Pierce, have made this their Sum-
mer residence, and it was here that
Lincoln fled to escape the harrassing
care of the White House during his
stormy administration. The Presi-
dents cottage is tWo-story brick
succeed with a rough gray plaster
ana built with sharp ridge roofs, Some-
what after the Swiss style. Its roofs
ana trimmings are painted brown.
and deep brown band runs around
Its foundation. The entrance is at
the back of the house, Just in front of
the croquet ground.
The entrance to the cottage looks
Tor all the world like the mammoth
cog kennel porticos one often sees on
country churches. The front of the
house has no doors, unless the long
windows which open inwardly might
be considered as such. There are a
great number of these windows in
front. which all look out through a
Wloe wooden porch, over four big
prass cannon, past Gen. SCOTS statue,
Gown upon the winding valley of the
Potomac. The portico was TODAY
hlieo with wicker chairs, which
rocked to and fro under the stiff
preeze which whistled through the
branches of the old oak and chest
nut trees in front of it and covered
tne ground under them with nuts and
leaves. In front of the house there is
f1agstaff, and the four cannon above
mentioned are ranged in a line with
IT, They shine like FURNISHED gold
under the sunlight, while back of
them lies well-trimmed shrubberv
and bed or two of beautiful flowers.
The interior of the cottage has
been renovated since President Ar
thurs term began. 1t is now said to
be one OF the most comfortable homes
near the Capital Every room has a
fireplace and mantel, but the furni-
lure is generally plain. A portrait of
Gen. Jackson hangs near the en-
trance to the dining room, the walls
OF the hall are covered with aesthetic
paper; most of the furniture is of
walnut, but there is an inlaid upright
piano and a few minor articles of
ebonized wood. 1t is not an ex-
traordinary house by any means. You
will find a hundred more beautiful
and better furnished along the At
lantic Coast. 1t is hOmelike. how
ever, and this is more than can be
said Of the barnlike rooms and office
like halls Of the White House.
White House Renovations.
Great preparations are now going
on at the White House for the coming
Winter. The main hall leading to the
east room is being repainted. It is
now dark brown and the new paint
which will be put on will Se of nearly
the same color. 1t is no small job to
do this painting. In the first place
the old paint which has been put on
coat above coat has to be burnt of.
These successive layers of paint meas
ure fully one-sixteenth of an inch.
They are removed by means of a gaso-
line lamp and chisel. The lamp,
which is a small affair, shaped like a
coffee pot, with the flame coming out
of its spout, has a rubber tube and
bulb so connected with it that it can
be used as bellows. A man holds
the lamp in one hand and the tube
in the other, and thus moves the
blaze along the paint until it melts
and gfows like a wall of Goals. Then
while it is yet hot and soft he takes
his chisel and scrapes and cuts it off
like soft putty. 1t is very careful work
and it takes long time to do 1t with
out materially injuring the wood.
When I looked at the man working
he had not completed one door and
he had been working more than one
day.
The vast room is covered with mat
ting, but this is to be taken up and