DC By the Book

Excerpt: Across Fourteenth Street from the theatre lies one of the tallest and - aside from the White House and the Capitol, of course – one of the most imposing buildings in the city: the six-story brick edifice of Willard’s Hotel. Joseph pauses to gaze longingly at the lighted windows. “You said that, it the act was a success, we’d stay in the finest hotels.”

Excerpt: Ford’s Theatre opened only a little over a year ago but is already considered, both by performers and by Washington society, to be the city’s preeminent theatre. The performance of Uncle Tom and His Cabin must be about to let out, for elegant and expensive carriages line both sides of the street, plus a few hackneys, or hired cabs. The drivers stand about stamping their cold feet, chatting and appraising one another’s rigs.

Excerpt: While most of the music halls lie within a few blocks of the boardinghouse, it’s a long walk here from the National Theatre, so Joseph and his father are always the last to return. The other performers have already eaten and retired to their rooms. They were considerate enough to leave a little of everything for the Ehrlichs (everything, that is, except the apple pie. It’s easy enough to guess who finished that off).

Excerpt: All you have to do is show up at the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance to the White House, present one of the president’s attendants with a calling card or message, then wait in the upstairs reception room until Mr. Lincoln summons you to his office, which he calls “the shop.” During business hours – from nine in the morning until three in the afternoon – the reception room (and often the hall and the stairway as well) is almost invariably packed with petitions of every description – office seekers, foreign diplomats, autograph collectors, inventors promoting plans for a repeating rifle or a submarine boat, soldiers hoping for a promotion, mothers who will plead with the president to bring their sons home from war.

Excerpt: That evening, when Professor Godunov and Son arrive at Ford’s, Joseph pauses to look at the playbills that are posted in front of the theatre, announcing upcoming shows. From time to time, when there’s something worth seeing, he stays around after he and his father are finished and takes in the play or musical cat that follows them on the bill.