Senator Hoar spent the time searching the railroad records and finally discovered the man who had paid for the meal and reimbursed him, with the consciousness of having performed a duty as important as a million dollar appropriation.

"HOUSEKEEPING at

the

years ago, which were boxed up when improvements were made. He has X

Capitol" would make an interesting sketch by Mr. Woods, the supervising architect at Washington. Some time ago he was chasing about the corridors with an exposed gelatine plate, looking for bacteria. He desired to determine exactly what species of microbes to look out for from time to time. He caught a school of tetanus or lock-jaw bacteria recently and hastened to disinfect. This was entirely too dangerous a specimen to have broadcast in the Capitol with congress in session. If there is anything he has not found out about the Capitol it is not for lack of tireless energy and intelligent inspection; he recently traced typhoid germs left in the Capitol twenty

MASONIC TEMPLE LACONIA, N. H.

rays and a complete scientific apparatus in his laboratory at the Capitol. Although not technically a graduate architect, the members and senators felt that if there was any one who knew what was needed at the Capitol, it was "Billy" Woods, who has made the great building a life study and knows it thoroughly.

WHEN I talked with Mr. Madden, the

third assistant postmaster general, recently, there was an impression of conversing with a determined man, but I did not know he was a great grandnephew of Lord Nelson, the hero of Trafalgar. Mr. Madden was born in Canada in 1855, but came to Detroit with his parents in 1861. The thirteen years he served as a locomotive engineer proved him a man of courage and determination. He is progressive and keen, and since entering the postal service at Detroit, has introduced many important improvements in the service. One was providing a system by which registration. of letters can be secured of carriers at the door of your home; another provided. booklets containing postage stamps, which have become a great source of revenue to the department. Mr. Madden is the author of a bill before congress providing that under certain conditions. parcels may be transmitted through the mails, charges to be collected on delivery, the same as in the express service, enabling merchants to save the prepaid postage sent out to solicit orders.

EX-PRESIDENT Cleveland is now the

sole representative of that peculiarly American product, a chief magistrate out of office, and he must there remain in a class by himself for at least two years more. When Mr. Lincoln became president in 1861, there were five living expresidents, Buchanan, Pierce, Fillmore, Tyler and Van Buren, the largest number on record, and all keen critics of the acts of their successor at that critical period in the nation's history. At Princeton President Cleveland is enjoying the life of leisure. In his library are the rocking horses and playthings of the children and evidences of a pleasant domestic life. He sits at his big desk, and gazes at the papers and work before him in much the same solid way as at the executive mansion. He has aged

but little since his residence in Washington, and on his desk are evidences that his pen does not long lie idle, as many of his letters are answered in his own handwriting. It is not difficult to conclude that Grover Cleveland at Princeton is a more serenely contented man than was Grover Cleveland in the White House.

THE

HE colored woman who takes care of the office of the secretary of the treasury has not made the Iowa man any more hero than a valet might. She was very earnestly discussing the matter with a companion in the corridors of the treasury building. "I reckon that new secretary must be a mighty stupid man. Here I is every night, ready at four o'clock to cl'ar up his room, and he just keeps right on workin' till six, and I'm right tired of it. He gets here early, but it takes him till six and seven to finish his work. Other secretaries get through at the christian hour of four. I 'clar he puts me out of temper, and I think he must be a mighty slow man."

אן

the handsome old Scott house at No. 22 Jackson Square, within a stone's throw of the White House, the President has occupied temporary Washington quarters while repairs are being made at the executive mansion. The main waiting room is walled in a deep red, and the spacious dining room, draped in a rich. olive, is divided with a green curtain; the front part is utilized as the cabinet room, and in the rear of the curtain the President spreads those lunches that have become historic. The secretary's office at the right is fringed with chairs for visitors in waiting. The folding

doors are closed and before a small side entrance stands the familiar figure of the President's door keeper, Captain Loeffler. The rooms upstairs are used for the stenographers. The day I was there senators and congressmen passed in

line to say farewell to the President. The scene suggests the adaptability of American nature to circumstances under all conditions. The handsome old house, which in the years past has been the scene of gaiety, is now the seat of official authority. The high, spacious walls will perhaps have a varied story to

DR. JAMES BALL NAYLOR OF MALTA, OHIO, NOVELIST AND POET OF GROWING FAME

tell when the time comes that they must be torn aside to make room for the new home of the department of state. I doubt whether there will be the picturesque and democratic air of official life when the President is ensconced in the handsome marble halls of the new building which is to be utilized for the business of the chief executive.

AM

MONG the relics at the temporary White House, in Jackson Place, Washington, is the huge oak table made from the timbers of one of the ships which England captured from us in the War of 1812 and later presented to President Buchanan. It is now used by newspaper men as their writing table. It is the same table upon which Horace Greeley wrote in the days of Lincoln, and that accounts in part, perhaps, for the inspiration of the splendid paragraphs that are turned out under the pressure of the clicking telegraph instruments and the daily paper hustle at Washington. The old Scott house with its dainty candelabra, and its fireplace of onyx, makes a picture which recalls the bonny days of the '70s-and there will be some interesting conferences in this domicile when President Roosevelt returns to Washington in the early autumn and takes up, with his recuperated vigor, the tremendously important work of the year.

THERE are many amusing incidents

that occur in life which have an influence on determining the career of a public man. One of the best known officials in Washington won a reputation in a court trial in his home town in the West that led, subsequently, to an appointment in Washington. The attorney on the opposite side of the case was a Montana type and he proceeded to make things pretty lively for the opposing counsel during the trial.

While the case was being tried, a characteristic bit of verse inspired by the lawyer's personality appeared in one of the local newspapers, and the opening lines have given the author a state wide reputation. The verse read as follows.

"I'm a pacer from the Rockies;

Watch me go!

I'm a zephyr from the mountains;
Hear me blow!

I'm a gentleman from Butte:
I'm a cowboy on a toot:
I'm an owl from old Montana;
Hear me hoot!"

The author of these thrilling lines now occupies a prominent position in the department of justice, and strange to say, no one was more gratified with this rough and ready sarcasm and humor than the gentleman from Montana, who pasted the bit of verse in his hat, and declared that he had won immortality by being embalmed in a real live poem.

FOR

an

COR some reason which has never been made public the inscription on the Lafayette monument in Lafayette Square, Washington, has never been cut until within a short time. For over a quarter of a century it has stood the stress of storm and sunshine and the gaze of curious visitors without an inscription, which fact lent the statue the piquant interest of a tombstone without epitaph. The name of the square has given some clew as to what the towering piece of bronze represents, but now the gray and weather beaten statue bears an inscription. The Rochambeau statue on the opposite corner is one of the most attractive at the national capital. The figure of Victory has a power and grace that are inspiring a most eloquent tribute to the great Republic of the West.

THE word "whip" has a lashing, for

bidding sound, but applied to afeature of congressional work it is quite innocent. It is the duty of the whip to see that any absent member is properly paired when a party vote is taken. If two members of different political views are to be absent at the same time they make a pair, which holds in effect until both return; but, if a member leaves and knows of no member of the opposition party who is also absent, it is the duty of the whip or pair clerk to secure a live pair. "A live pair' is not a poker term, but signifies that a member who is absent is paired with a member of the opposition party who is present at the time the vote is taken. This member votes "present" in order to protect the absentee. By this arrangement the party to which the absentee belongs does not lose his vote. The two pair clerks of the house are keen-eyed men. George F. Evers of Davenport, Iowa, is a native of that city and came to Washington as a protege of Hon. George M. Curtis during the fifty-fourth congress. Mr. Evers is popular with the members of the Republican majority, and is well liked by members of the minority. James F.