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                            THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

      _A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE PROMOTION OF TRUE CULTURE.
        ORGAN OF THE CHAUTAUQUA LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC CIRCLE._

              VOL. IV.         JULY, 1884.         No. 10.




Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.


_President_—Lewis Miller, Akron, Ohio.

_Superintendent of Instruction_—Rev. J. H. Vincent, D.D., New Haven, Conn.

_Counselors_—Rev. Lyman Abbott, D.D.; Rev. J. M. Gibson, D.D.; Bishop H.
W. Warren, D.D.; Prof. W. C. Wilkinson, D.D.

_Office Secretary_—Miss Kate F. Kimball, Plainfield, N. J.

_General Secretary_—Albert M. Martin, Pittsburgh, Pa.




Contents

Transcriber’s Note: This table of contents of this periodical was created
for the HTML version to aid the reader.

    The White House                                      557
    Sunday Readings
        [_July 6_]                                       560
        [_July 13_]                                      560
        [_July 20_]                                      560
        [_July 27_]                                      561
    Growth                                               561
    Tenement House Life in New York                      561
    The Cañons of the Colorado                           564
    The Courts of Three Presidents                       566
    Astronomy of the Heavens
        For July                                         569
        For August                                       570
        For September                                    570
    Rise Higher                                          571
    Landmarks of Boston in Seven Days                    572
    Vanishing Types                                      577
    The Council of Nice                                  580
    Sonnet on Chillon                                    582
    An Ocean Monarch                                     582
    Eccentric Americans
        IX.—A Pioneer Eccentric Woman                    584
    The Imperial College in Peking                       587
    Eight Centuries with Walter Scott                    589
    Alaska—Its Missions                                  592
    Our Naval Force                                      595
    The Coming Summer Meetings at Chautauqua             597
    Going to Europe                                      598
    C. L. S. C. Work                                     600
    The C. L. S. C. Course for 1884-’85                  600
    Local Circles                                        601
    C. L. S. C. Testimony                                606
    Editor’s Outlook                                     607
    Editor’s Note-Book                                   610
    Talk About Books                                     612




THE WHITE HOUSE.

By MRS. PATTIE L. COLLINS.


When Washington was in its infancy, and the patriots of that early day
bethought themselves of the propriety of building a residence for the
President, it was with some difficulty that they could decide what it
should be called. In truth, this seemed a more serious question than
location, expense, or architecture. Anything that suggested monarchies
or kingdoms, such as the word “palace,” could not be entertained; not a
trace of the effete despotisms of the Old World should be tolerated, even
in our nomenclature. At last “Executive Mansion” was settled upon as a
proper title. Any gentleman, provided it was sufficiently pretentious,
might style his house a “mansion,” and the chosen executor of laws for
the nation was not therefore set apart and above his fellow countrymen,
when installed as chief magistrate. In the course of a few years, when
only its blackened walls were left standing as mute witnesses that our
British cousins still loved us, so much paint was required to efface the
marks of the destroyer, when it was restored, that it gleamed white as
snow in the distance, and naturally, nay almost inevitably, came to be
called the “White House” by popular consent. And by this pretty, simple
name the home of the Presidents will doubtless continue to be known as
long as republican institutions endure. It is as different as possible in
external appearance from the habitations of royalty in European cities;
no iron-barred windows, better fitted for a fortress than ordinary
outlook, no gloomy, gray walls, chilly and forbidding, frowning down upon
you, no squalid tenements thronged with degraded specimens of humanity
press upon its outskirts to accentuate the beauties of the one and the
miseries of the other. Instead of this, the White House rises fair and
inviting from an elevation which seems just sufficient to bring it into
relief as a conspicuous feature of the landscape. Its north front looks
toward Pennsylvania Avenue, commanding a view of Lafayette Square—itself
a most interesting spot, containing the celebrated equestrian statue of
Jackson, by Clark Mills, and grouped about it the cannon captured at the
battle of New Orleans—while around it stand some of the many historic
residences of the capitol. To the east and west of the President’s
grounds, respectively, may be seen the Treasury, and the War, State
and Navy Departments; the southern aspect is the most charming of all;
flowers, trees and emerald lawn, with the music of falling water make up
a picture as bewildering in loveliness as it is arcadian in simplicity,
its boundary line being the Potomac, shining in the distance like a bit
of blue