Seas and lands Author:Sir Edwin Arnold Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: gut, and other heroes of the Republic gleam through the leaves of the maple trees, and might most worthily give names to the wide ways adjoining. In the same vic... more »inity is a whole group of noble buildings, including the Treasury, the Pension Office, and the War, Navy, and State Departments. Far and wide over the green expanse of the city tower the dome of the Capitol, and the tall obelisk built up to the imperishable memory of George Washington ; while the " White House "—where I have just had the honour of a special audience and a very interesting conversation with President Harrison—rises near the Treasury, the heart and centre of the Great Commonwealth. The simplicity of American State is well illustrated by the utter absence of any formality or ceremony in and about the precincts of the official abode of the President. The Executive Mansion, or "White House," stands west of the splendid edifice of the Treasury. It is in the Ionic style, having several porticoes. The fa§ade is 170 feet long, and is occupied on the ground floor by the reception and representation rooms. On the upper floors are the offices and private apartments of the President. Its foundation-stone was laid in 1792, and the first President who tenanted it was Adams, in 1800. In 1814 it was burned by the English, but was rebuilt in 1818. The grounds, which are laid out in gardens, occupy about seventy-five acres, of which twenty are railed in as the President's private demesne. X a X Here, then, is the central spot of this vast Republic, the very adytum of its civic life, and, yet no guard of honour, no sentinel, no sign of special import, not even a Washington policeman, marks its character, or protects the gateway. Anybody may enter; everybody who wishes does enter—in carriage, hack-cab, or on foot—a...« less