Ten Years in Washington or, Inside Life and Scenes in Our National Capital as a Woman Sees Them ... to Which Is Added a Full Account of the Life and Death of President James A. Garfield

CHAPTER XIX.

Chapter 19160 wordsPublic domain

INSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE—SHADOWS OF THE PAST.

Haunted Houses—Shadows of the Past—Touching Memories—The Little Angels Born There—A State of Perpetual Dampness—Dingy Aspect of a Monarch’s Palace—Outside the White House—A Peep Inside the Mansion—The Emperor of Japan Supersedes the Punch-Bowl—The Unfinished “Banqueting-Hall”—Glories of a _Levée_—Magnificent Hospitalities—A Comfortable Dining-Room—A Lady of Taste—An American “Baronial Hall”—The Furniture of Another Generation—A Valuable Steward—A Professor of Gastronomy—Paying the Professor and Providing the Dinner—Feeding the Celebrities—Mrs. Lincoln’s Unpopular Innovations—Fifteen Hundred Dollars for a Dinner—How Prince Arthur, of England, was Entertained—Domestic Economy—“Not Enough Silver”—A Tasty Soup—The Recipe for an Aristocratic Stew—Having a “Nice Time”—Hatred of Flummery—An Admirer of Pork and Beans and Slap-jacks—A Presidential Reception—Ready for the Festival—Splendor, Weariness and Indigestion—Paying the Penalty—In the Conservatory—Domestic Arrangements—Reminiscence of Abraham Lincoln, 167