Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1882 — The President’s Habits. [ARTICLE]

The President’s Habits.

President Arthuf pays attention to every little detail of household decoration. He cdfatinually wants this or that article of furnitureshifted about to change the appearance of things. Hells, particular even to the exact angle at which the corner pieces rest, and on Mondays, when the rules he has made for the White House exclude visitors, it is his custom to inspect the house throughout and see that everything is in order. A reception is apt to leave some things topsyturvy. Inquisitive people often like to study upholstery, perhaps, and they forget to replace the shams. The shelf ornaments may take their fancy, and they sometimes fail to restore things to the condition in whicn they wer# left at the dictation of the president’s aesthetic taste. In this democratic age few people are aware of the grandeur to be seen in the house of the chief ruler of the nation. The state dining room is the room in which the president entertains at table the distinguished guests No matter whom it may be he is entertaining, the president is always served first. He sits at the center of one side of the long table, his wife if he be married, directly opposite him. It sometimes happens that the secretary of state will be seated in the chair usually assigned to the president’s wife. After, thepresident has been served, White House etiquitte requires that the lady sitting next the {> resident on his right, and then the ady on his left be served before any others. Then the President’s wife is waited upon, and afterward the gentlemen immediately on her right and left in the order nam- d. Then the other guests follow. Whenever the table is set for a dinner the large brass Sdateau which extends for sixteen eet along the table, which was imported from France during the administration of President Monroe, is filled with fruits, and French candies. In the centre, directly in front of the President, is placed a full rigged floral ship, which was sent to President Garfield at the time of the last inauguration by a Boston florist. The flowers are renewed from the White House conservatory. When the chandeliers and candlebra are lighted, and other effects produced to heighten t he scene, the spectator is apt to think of the regal festivities of someother land than free America.

Across the wide hall or corridor which extends from the east room to the large plant conservatory at the west end of the house, 1 was shown into the private dining room of the president. There I saw the handsome buffet and the sideboard which Mrs Hayes had made during her stay in the White-house. The buffet was ornamented with pretty patterns and dishes finished from designs of Theodore Davis, the New York artist. The scene depicted upon each dish suggested a story of some kind. In the drawers of the sideboard is kept the White Honse silver ware. The gold spoons which President Van Buren purchased are still here. They are said to have defeated him when he ran a second time for the Presidency. Some of che silverware I saw Crump said was seventy years old, and the side tables in the room have done duty for sixty-five years. The President often entertains his company in this private dining room. Then the upper gas jets are lighted, and the eight candelebra, four of silver and four of brass, are distributed on the table and about the room, the reflectors all beir\g so colored as to impart a deep rosy tint to the scene. iSxteen pounds of candles are used to carry out this system of lighting by candelebra. It may be of interest to some people to know the hours meals are served at the White House. During Hayes’s Administration breakfast was served at 8:30 o’clock lunch at 1. and dinner at 9 when Gen. Garfield became the nost, the hours were [all an Ohio ideaj changed. Breaktast was ready at 7; 30, dinner at 3, and tea at 7. President Arthur is not regular as to any meal except dinner, which is served at 8 o’clock in the evening[a metropilitan idea]. He is not an early riser, and it is not unusual for his breakfast to be as late as 10:30 o’clock. A cup of coffee is always relished by him at this meal. He rarely resigns himself to slumber till three or four in the morning, and five or six hours are all he requires for rest. How he maintains good health under the heavy strain of so many hours’ activity is a question that troubles his friends. He is fond of the delicacies of the season, and his table is not the least expensive of the various drafts upon his purse.—Cleveland Herald.