The Washington times., 1935-01-12
NOW
Blair Mansion
To HaUe Fete
HISTORIC HOME
By HELEN ESSARY

The Blair IndLlSlOn OAA 1oAAA
Sylvania Avenue will open It's
doors for a distinguished enter
tainment early in February IN
honor of the Ambassador OF
France and Madame de Laoou-
1aye.
Mr.. and Mrs. Gist Blair, who
own the mansion. were in Eu-
rope last year, mostly in France.
The famous old house was
closed.
The friends of Mr.. and Mrs.
Blair missed their hospitality
and the pleasure of visiting one
of the few private historic
houses in town whose present is
comparable with its past.
The Blair mansion is in a
neighborhood vivid with great
events. Across the street is the
White House. Around the cor
ner is Lafayette Square bordered
by the homes of those who Gre
ated the drama of Washington,
during the first hundred years
Of it's life.
Robert E. Lee was offered
the command of the Union
Army in the library of the Blair
mansion" tablet on the iron
railing declares. 1t says also
that George Bancroft, the his
torian, occupied the house when
he was Polk's Secretary OF the
Navy, and there planned the es-
tabhshment Of the Navy Acad-
envy. The Department of the
Interior was born in the house
when a later secretary, Thomas
Ewing, was in Zachary Taylor's
cabinet.
A third Government Depart
ment came to life in the man
sion. Montgomery Blair, while
working in an upstairs study,
formed the modern post office.
In the same study, Admiral Far
ragut was given command OF the
troops which captured New Or
leans.
Montgomery Blair was the
Postmaster General of Lincoln's
Cabinet. His father, Francis
Preston Blair, was the aggres-
sive editor of "The Globe" a
champion of Andrew Jackson
and a member of his famous
Kitchen Cabinet.
The Blair mansion was built
in 1924 by DR.. Joseph Lowell,
James Madison's surgeon gen.
eral of the Army. A few years
later, Francis Blair bought the
spacious dwelling with brick
stable, carriage house, and
flower and fruit gardens ad-
joining.
In addition to their more dra-
matte characteristics, the Blalrs
and their friends have been
connoisseurs Of the arts. Today
the dignified old house is beau.
tiful with priceless ancestral
furniShings-portraits by Sully
and Peale, mahogany and silver,
relics of a great era surviving
in their own environment.
Things Are Getting Better All
the Time Department:
Doug and Mary are divorced
1T last.
And maybe the Hauptmann
trial will be over some day.
The Secretary of the Treas
ury, Henry Morgenthau, has
4 nice taste in assistants.
Josephine Roche, recently ap-
pointed an assistant secretary,
Is one of the finest persons
who have come to the Capital
with the New Deal.
And now, here is Oscar Johns
ton, of Mississippi, just made
special assistant to Mr.. Morgen-
thau for three months.
Mr.. Johnston, who helped the
AAA organize its cotton pro-
gram, has had a thrilling life.
He served as a private in the
Tank Corps of the American
Army during the World War.
He was graduated in law at
Cumberland University, which
educated Secretary Cordel Hull.
He directs the largest cotton
plantation in the world-50, 900
acres in the Mississippi delta.
He has a definite feeling of re-
Sponsibility for every worker in
his cotton fields and is, in addi-
tion, one of the most amusing
dinner guests a Washington
hostess can hope to have at her
table if she is lucky enough to
get him.
Plants and human beings evi'
IDENTIFY have the same com
plants. The bulletin of Mr..
H. F. Balm, of the Bureau of
Plant Industry, makes me think
so. Says Mr.. Balm:
"Once a plant gets False
Blossom it is doomed. No cure
has been found. False Blossom
Is caused by Leaf HOppers
which spring from flower to
flower"
I'D NAnnnHH IIrnr