One of the stories told about him at that time was that on a certain
day a party of dignified ladies were solemnly and with due reverence
inspecting the famous East room, when they heard a deafening clatter at
the end of the corridor where the Lincolns' private apartments were,
then came a shout of "Get out of the way there!" and Tad the
irrepressible, galloped into the room driving a tandem team of goats
harnessed to a chair! Up the room and down again and out of the front
entrance went the goats and Tad like a flash of lightning, leaving the
ladies aghast at a spectacle to which they had found no reference in
their guide books.
To his mother's great distress, an interested but not over-thoughtful
friend, gave Tad a tool chest, which of course delighted him, and which
at once suggested to him the idea of opening a cabinet shop to
manufacture furniture for hospital use, but he fortunately discovered
an old wagon to experiment on, and forgot the shop; turning his
attention also to any and every object which he could bore, chisel, saw
or hack with his tools. Nothing was said in remonstrance until he began
to experiment on the old-fashioned mahogany furniture in the East room,
when that tool chest mysteriously disappeared and no amount of
searching ever brought it to light again.
As he was unable to exist without some new outlet for his feelings he
decided to have a theatre and give shows, for which purpose he
appropriated an unused room in the White House, and had a fine time
fitting it up with a stage, seats, orchestra, drop-curtain and all. At
that time, Mr. Carpenter, an artist, was at work on a portrait of
President Lincoln and his Cabinet, and when it was found necessary to
take several photographs of the room in the White House which was to be
the background for the painting, Tad's theatre was offered to the
photographers to use in developing their pictures, and Mr. Carpenter
used to tell with a chuckle of delight how all went well till Tad
suddenly discovered the invasion of his room, when he fell upon the
artist and blamed him in a fiery burst of temper, for letting the men
into his room, and then went up and calmly locked the door, pocketed
the key and walked off, leaving the astonished photographers without
occupation, as their apparatus and chemicals were in the room. But that
made no difference to tyrant Tad--no one should go into his theatre, he
said, and no amount of urging moved him. Finally the President was
asked to deal with the young rebel, as was usual when Tad's behaviour
presented impossibilities to the general public. Mr. Lincoln was
sitting ready to be photographed at the time. He listened quietly to
the story, and then called Tad and told him to go and open the door.
Tad rushed off, muttering and shaking his head but he absolutely
refused to obey, even though Mr. Carpenter made use of all the
arguments he could think of, to make him yield. Reluctantly the artist
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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