THE WHITE HOUSE.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 June 1921, Page 11

THE WHITE HOUSE.

(PRESIDENT, HARDING’S QUARTERS. HIS OFFICE AND RESIDENCE. CURIOUS ORIGIN OF THE NAME. The White House, which Mr. Harding now occupies, bears in ite name the record of an incident that Americans never forget and Englishmen never remember (says a writer in the Manchester Guardian). During the war of 1814 British troops set fire to the President’s residence, and only the walls were left standing. When the building was restored its freestone was painted white to obliterate the ravages of the fire, and from that time it has been popularly known as the White House. Officially it was called the Executive Mansion until the time of President Roosevelt, who made the popular name it* legal designation also. The site for it was chosen by George Washington, who laid the corner-stone in 1792 and lived to see its completion in 1799. Its first occupant was John Adams, who took up his abode there in ISOO, when it was still so new and damp that his wife Abigail, was obliged to have a literal house-warming in order to dry the interior sufficiently for safety to health. A prize of 300 dollars had been offered for the best design for a house for the President. The successful competitor was James Hoban, of South Carolina, a native of Ireland, whose plans closely followed .those of the seat of the Duke of Leinster near Dublin, an edifice in the Italian style. Hoban’s original design was for a three-story structure capable of being extended by means of wing? and colonnades. The idea was approved by George Washington, but the American public of the day was aghast at such magnificence, the plans were simplified, and a two-story building was erected. NOT AN IMPOSING BUILDING. The American President is neither a King nor a Prime Minister, and the White House is neither a Buckingham Palace nor a No. 10 Downing-street. Lord Bryce describes it as a handsome building which has the air o-f a large suburban villa. It is constructed of Virginia freestone, and the main building is 170 feet in length and 86 feet in depth, consisting of a rustic basement, two stories, and an attic, the whole surmounted by an ornamental balustrade. The north front has a portico of lofty lonic columns, and the south a colonnaded balcony. While it is not unattractive, no one could call it a majestic or imposing structure, and there are many more spacious private houses in Washington. It is set in pleasant grounds of 80 acres, stretching down to the Potomac Flats. The greater part of the area is open to the ■ public, and here, on a sloping terrace just behind the house, the Washington children gather on Easter Day to roll their brilliantly-colored eggs down the banks. The custom is purely local, and its origin is unknown, though .some profess to be able to trace it back to the children of the Pharaohs.

If -an American President were required to fill up one of our income tax forms he would have to set down his private address and his business address as the same. From the first the White House has been not only the residence of the . President and his family but the place where he transacts all affairs of State. : It also contains a number of portraits and historical relics, which . are ex- ■ hibited to visitors when they are shown through the East Room, the Green Room, the Red Room, the State Diningroom, and such other apartments as are on view at specified hours. The White : House is thus -a combination of dwell- < ing-house» business office, and museum. In past times the lack of privacy was ■ often sorely felt by the President and his household. They were almost treat- i ed as though they were themselves the ‘ property of the National Government, i and they were exploited for the gratification of popular curiosity to an ex- ‘ treme which would have made Royalties - wince. At the same time they really • suffered from the lack of adequate accommodation, owing to the fact that so much of the building had to be utilised for official purposes. 'When Mrs. Cleveland came to the White House as a bride, one of her pleasantest anticipations was to be able to entertain several of her girl friends, but she was acutely disappointed, for she found that there were not enough bedrooms to permit of her entertaining more than one or two guests at a time. ROOSEVELT’S IMPROVEMENTS. This condition of things, to which President after President had submitted for decades without making more than an ineffectual protest, was altered by Mr. Roosevelt, who when he wanted something different from what had been provided for him had the knack of seeing that he got it. During his administration a separate building was put up over the old tenenis court for the purpose of executive offices, and the main building became, to quote the words of an English visitor, “a habitable and even a spacious residence.” These alterations —which had to be carried through against the opposition of Congressmen who accused him of attempting to imitate the effete manners of European Courts—helped Mr. Roosevelt to tone up the whole level of the White House menage. Some of the stories of the democratic simplicity of the early period are almost incredible. The wife of President John Adams used to hang out the family washing in the East Room. The first President Harrison was accustomed to do his own mar- I keting. President Fillmore’s old black cook, who had served for many years | at the White House, was greatly upset upon the installation of a range in the kitchen. He had contrived, he said, to prepare a fine Statb dinner -for thirty-six people every Thursday in his huge fireplace, with cranes, hooks, etc., and he could not manage the draught of the range. Though many improvements had been gradually introduced, there was still a great deal of leeway to be made up when President Roosevelt arrived. “The entrance hall,” says the foreign observer above quoted, “looked like a bar-room in a second-rate restaurant. Receptions on anything but the smallest scale turned into bear-fights. Hats and cloaks were checked in the same ' room with the receiving line, and the > President and his wife stood, in the I midst of their guests, the majority of whom saw only the backs of their host and hostess. ' The furniture, appointr ments and decorations suggested a dei | caying boardinghouse. Young married - • couples used to come and inspect them Uo »-a. to know what to avoid.”

THE HAND SHAKING ORDEAL. One of the most conspicuous features of the new formality of the Rooseveltian regime was the introduction of a small corps of military and naval aides in attendance on the President. Their uniforms brought into the White House a color and glitter that- it had previously lacked, but the innovation was sharply criticised, and President Wilson has dis. pensed with the presence of such attendants except at army or navy functions. Of late years there has grown up at the White House a code of etiquette which, though still much less rigid and elaborate than that of a Court, Is a great advance upon the old traditions. An invitation from the President is now, as it was not a. generation ago. equivalent to a command. In addition to the State dinners, he gives every winter four or five evening receptions, to which large crowds are invited. On these occasions the duty of shaking hands with visitors is a severe physical tax’ upon the host. At one of his New Year receptions, lasting for about four hours, Mr. Roosevelt shook hands with no fewer than 8000 persons. The secret of coming through the ordeal without a badly-swollen arm is said to lie in grasping the hand of your visitor before he grasps yours. It is by no means on these formal occasions only that a President’s vitality is thus tested. In one day, in Mr. Taft’s time, there swarmed into the White House nearly 2000 New England teachers and pupils, whom he had rashly promised to see. After exchanging handshakes with over 1700 of them he was compelled to give up exhausted.