White House gossip

by Edna M. Colman

Mrs. Harrison brought to her position as chatelaine of the mansion a splendid equipment for her important duties, through a lifetime of activity in social, philanthropic, and patriotic service. Always a church worker, she had the ready sympathy and understanding of welfare matters that were of the greatest help in meeting the many demands made upon her in Washington. Her charity and constant aid to people in every sort of difficulty were extended so quietly that little or nothing was known of it during her lifetime.

Both she and the President were deeply religious, and the Sabbath observance was punctiliously followed, even to the point of the President’s securing additional clerical help for necessary Sunday correspondence, so that the regular staff might have the day for rest after the week of work. Morning prayers were continued, regardless of the change of residence. During Harrison’s senatorship, he and Mrs. Harrison had established their religious attendance in the Church of the Covenant, where they continued to worship during their years at the White House.

President Harrison was possessed of an aristocratic manner and great natural dignity. To this he added a high regard for his office. He regulated his daily life and all public appearances while Chief Executive to command the utmost respect from the public. In this, he was much like General Grant, who demanded little for himself but for the President of the United States all possible honour. It is claimed that he carried this attitude into his churchgoing, making his arrival just at the opening moment of the service, and entering from a side door near the pulpit. This stately progress to his pew made the congregation aware that the President of the United States and the First Lady were attendants at worship.

With their installation in the Executive Mansion, the Harrisons were naturally accompanied by their son and daughter and grandchildren. They made a lively group to brighten up the big house. The son, Russell Harrison, and his wife, had one little daughter, while the son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. James Robert McKee, brought with them the already famous youngster “Baby McKee,” two years old, properly known as Benjamin Harrison McKee, and his infant sister, Mary Dodge, of less than a year. This little lady was christened in the Blue Room by her venerable grandfather, the Rev. Dr. Scott, with water from the River Jordan.

Mrs. Harrison was horrified when she discovered the basement floor of the White House to be overrun with rats, and when, a few days later, the President observed a large gray rodent helping himself from the side table in the family dining room, a campaign of extermination was arranged. Every kind of trap and poison having been tried and ignored by the pests, a professional rat catcher, with his dog and ferrets, was installed. He discovered the grounds about the house to be honeycombed with rat holes, and after several hundred had been killed by the ferrets, Mrs. Harrison decided to improve the conditions of the entire basement. She had the floors taken up and was amazed to find that the kitchen floor contained a number of layers, new boards having been laid upon the old whenever repairs had been made in the past. In accordance with her wish, these were all torn out and the entire basement covered with concrete, this being covered, in the kitchen, with tiling. All of the walls of these lower rooms were tiled shoulder high. The repairs changed the dark, unattractive, and unsanitary rooms into wholesome, cheery places, easy to keep clean.

The condition of the kitchen and the vast improvement brought about by the repairs there furnished Mrs. Harrison with further incentive to put the entire mansion through an overhauling. With her daughter and daughter-in-law to aid her, this trio of accomplished housekeepers proceeded to supervise the renovation and refurnishing from the attic to the cellar, and as this work progressed, Mrs. Harrison began to have visions of what the President’s house should be and how it might be vastly improved by remodelling. The more she studied the possibilities of rearrangement of the offices, the more convinced she became that a practical solution was feasible. To enlarge the living quarters, to give the family more privacy and the Executive more space for the daily work of his staff was her dream. The repairs she had made had cost $50,000 and there was no possibility of extensive remodelling, much as she would have liked it done. But she consulted the Commissioner of Public Buildings and Grounds, various architects, discussed the advantages of her proposed changes with many of the members of Congress, and planted the seeds of her very fine and thoroughly practical plan, which was carried out later but not until ten years after her death.

Soon after Mrs. Harrison’s arrival she engaged for the culinary department of the White House at a wage of fifty dollars per month a Frenchwoman formerly in the service of Lord Sackville West of the British Embassy. This plan was for the summer months.

The climate of the Capital City or the atmosphere of the then draughty mansion failed to agree with the Harrison grandchildren, as they all became ill, to the great distress of the President and his wife. Early in the summer, the physician ordered them to be taken to the seashore. Owing to this sudden change in the family living arrangements, Mrs. Harrison, to economize, thought she would dispense with her French cook of vast experience and high wage, and, during the absence of the bulk of the family, avail herself of the service of a coloured woman at fifteen dollars monthly. She forthwith discharged her cook, only to discover that, although First Lady of the Land, mistress of the White House, and leader of millions of women, there were limitations to her authority when she tried to dismiss her cook. The cook refused to be discharged, preferring to remain the genius of the White House kitchen; she most emphatically refused to leave unless paid for the entire season. She considered her dismissal cause for a suit for damages, and before the matter was adjusted satisfactorily to both sides, a lawyer had been engaged, the matter put before Marquis de Chambrun, law representative of the French Government in the city, and the usual attorney’s letter for settlement sent to the President.

In planning her social programme, the First Lady had the efficient aid of both Mrs. McKee and Mrs. Russell Harrison. Each made frequent and lengthy visits to the White House, and each assumed the rôle of hostess occasionally to her own large circle of friends in and near Washington. The state dinners, receptions, luncheons, balls, and parties were charming and delighted the society that so loved the gaiety of Mrs. Cleveland’s youthful régime.

The Harrison family were highly complimented upon their handsome horses and carriages. For his use on March 4th, General Harrison purchased an elegant landau for which he paid $2,000. This the family called the “state coach.” For Mrs. Harrison’s use he selected a family carriage at $1,000. Six spirited horses, cherry bay in colour, all sixteen hands and a half, took possession of the stables. While President Harrison was the most consistent pedestrian in White House history, he also loved to handle the reins and took the greatest pride in his equipages.