White House gossip

by Edna M. Colman

General Grant selected the best man available for the rehabilitation he had in mind—Alexander R. Shepherd, of the District of Columbia, and made him Chairman of Public Works. Together they planned extensive permanent improvements, which were put into execution as speedily as money was forthcoming. Regardless of expense, the entire city was placed upon an even and regular grade. High knolls and embankments were cut down, low places filled, many houses, in consequence, finding themselves far above or below the new street level.

Public grounds and parks were planted with trees and shrubbery; pavements were repaired and laid; ninety of the three hundred miles of streets were straightened and graded, and a great improvement was made by reducing the width of streets to give to each house a bit of lawn or front yard. Shade trees were set out. Tiber Creek, so long an eyesore, running through part of the city, a breeding place for mosquitoes and an attraction for the pigs and cattle that were allowed to roam about, was diverted from its original course and turned into a sewer.

For all of this work, Congress appropriated five million dollars, while eight million came from the taxpayers.

Photos. by Brady

MRS. ULYSSES S. GRANT

On February 20, 1871, the President signed the bill by which territorial government was established in the District of Columbia, with a governor, a house of delegates, and a delegate to Congress. Henry D. Cooke, the first governor, was succeeded by Alexander Shepherd, chosen because of the great improvement he was bringing to pass in the city. Governor Shepherd soon found himself in difficulties, owing to charges that he gave contracts to his friends and to the friends of members of Congress whose votes were needed to secure liberal appropriations for the work. However, close investigation failed to show where Governor Shepherd had enriched himself in the slightest degree, or had added to the value of his own property any more than to that of others. His ambition was not a selfish one, it was for the city, and his ability was equalled by his honesty. General Grant always believed in him, and as his improvements became perfected, he was regarded as the saviour and regenerator of the City of Washington. The social functions at the Shepherd home were long remembered for their lavish hospitality and for the brilliance of the assemblages that flocked there under the inspiration of this very progressive governor and his charming lady.

The new Department of State was under construction. From 1869 until 1875, the Government leased the Washington Orphan Asylum at Fourteenth and S streets, established by Dolly Madison, for the quarters for this department.

With the opening of the Grant régime, the old customs of the White House disappeared. New furnishings and a change in plan of household management made it possible for the President to make his entertainments conform more truly to the dignity of his office. Before this administration, the wives of the presidents had superintended their own culinary department, but with President Grant’s induction into office, a steward was installed in the White House for the first time since Mrs. Madison’s day. Melah, this steward, was an Italian of considerable fame, as he had served some of the most famous hotels of the country. A past master in the art of concocting delicious menus and an expert in service, under his guiding genius, the cuisine at the White House assumed the dignity and perfection befitting the home of the President. He planned his dinners according to his idea of the quality of his guests. As the table would seat but thirty-six, it was necessary to hold these functions weekly during the social season. Some of these dinners cost as little as three hundred dollars, but the usual amount allowed was seven hundred. When Prince Arthur of England was entertained the banquet for thirty-six guests cost fifteen hundred dollars, exclusive of the wines.

Social life experienced a very profound revival, taking its cue from the White House family, as is usual. Mrs. Grant being endowed with exceptional social graces, her régime was one of charming, genial hospitality strongly tinged with the wholesome domesticity that made the President’s house the ideal American home. She loved people, was a charming conversationalist, and all her life had lived in a social atmosphere. She was keenly alive to the interests and events of the hour, and, while typically feminine in every instinct, was also clever and thoroughly conversant with the questions that engrossed her husband; yet she never intruded in his affairs. Her influence with him was paramount through life. He appeared at her morning and afternoon receptions, and together they broke many of the burdensome social precedents that had been fastened upon the incumbents of the White House by previous régimes. The President and his wife dined out. They made calls, if they so desired, and whereas it had not been considered dignified for the President and his wife to attend evening parties, these two settled such matters as their own fancy dictated and lost no social prestige whatever thereby. President Grant flatly refused to be a prisoner in the White House or to be handicapped by customs he considered useless and irksome.