ANNAPOLIS -- For his entire political career, Gov. William Donald Schaefer has kept very careful track of whom he considered naughty or nice.
Yesterday, presiding over his last annual Governor's Mansion holiday open house, the governor shook his head at the sentimentality that poured forth for him -- a temperamental, colorful character leaving elective office after nearly 40 years in the fray.
Everyone was nice.
"Except one guy, he was trying to be funny, he said, 'I want to see my taxpayer dollars,'" Mr. Schaefer said, gesturing around the mansion he and Maryland's official hostess Hilda Mae Snoops have restored -- and explaining that none of it was paid for with taxes.
Mr. Schaefer and Mrs. Snoops, his longtime companion, had welcomed about 1,670 guests by the time aides closed the doors at 4 p.m. yesterday -- the largest showing since the first open house the two-term governor conducted after taking office, according to press secretary Joseph L. Harrison Jr.
Visitors were treated to cookies and punch and a tour of the first floor of the mansion, where several Christmas trees were decorated with angels, doilies and graceful needlepointed birds. They remarked over newly hung portraits of Mr. Schaefer and Mrs. Snoops by artist Joseph Sheppard, an Owings Mills native, as the St. Mary's College Chamber Singers sang Christmas carols.
In the front hall hung two quilts given to the pair several months ago.
Mr. Schaefer's depicted the flags of the state's subdivisions, with the words "My Maryland" sewn into the center. The quilt for Mrs. Snoops featured blocks with photos of decorative symbols such as the fountain she had installed in the mansion's gardens.
As they pumped Mr. Schaefer's hand after standing in a line that at times snaked around the block, visitors seemed to have only good wishes for his future and regrets at the end of an era.
"A lot of people reminded me of all the good things that had happened," said the 73-year-old governor.
"We talked about bridges, about schools. People reminded me of festivals we've had and neighborhood things.
"You know, it's funny. When people are frustrated, they've got to center on somebody . . . so they center on the governor.
"Now a couple thousand people come through, everyone wishes me well. That isn't the way it's been other years."
Scott Brewer, 72, supported Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey in the recent election to fill Mr. Schaefer's seat, but he showed up to greet the Democrat nonetheless.
