lls and
parlors. In three long flights of twenty-five steps each, it rose to the
fourth floor. Counting the fifteen-foot landings on the second and third
floors, it was practically one structure with a generous breadth of
fifteen feet. It was built of the same material--American mahogany--with
casings, cornices, banisters and newels of the same pattern and finish,
all highly polished and rich with ornamental carving. The beautiful
color effects of the polished mahogany, were brought out more vividly by
the pale neutral tint of the heavy velvet carpet, which covered the
stairs and landings. As an illustration of the great space occupied by
this grand stairway of such ideal proportions, each one of its
seventy-five broad steps would afford a comfortable seat for eight
persons--a goodly company of six hundred, all told. This royal trinity
of stairways ranked as the distinguishing feature of the mansion. They
gave it an air of stately elegance, tempered with the glow and warmth of
a generous hospitality.

The halls on the second and third floors were counterparts of the main
hall in size and style. The hall on the fourth floor was fifty feet wide
by one hundred and sixty feet long. It was arranged to be used as a ball
room, or for concerts, lectures, operas and theatricals. For such
events, it would comfortably seat an audience of one thousand people.
The roomy stage was furnished with the latest and most approved
appliances; it was also equipped with a remarkable series of twelve drop
curtains for the lectures. Number one of the series, was a twelve by
twenty-four foot map of the United States, including Alaska, Hawaii,
Porto Rico and other territorial possessions. This map was accurately
drawn to a large scale, it was artistically colored and marked in such a
way as to show at a glance the boundaries of original territory; the
ceded territory, the date of cession, and from whom acquired; the
dividing lines between states and between counties; the location of all
cities and towns having a population of one thousand or over; the
principal state and county roads, all railroads, lakes, rivers,
mountains, public parks, valuable forests, arid lands, irrigable lands,
mineral deposits; all noted mines of coal, iron, gold, silver, copper,
etc., together with a great variety of important items: all of which
proved exceedingly valuable as an added means by which to illustrate in
an interesting and comprehensive way, lectures on geog