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