Washington, its sights and insights [1903]

by Harriet Earhart Monroe

WHO IS THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE?

Who is the Speaker of this House who sets up his immaculate and infallible judgment against the judgment of all comers? Is there anything different or superior in the credentials that he carries from the credentials that were issued to you and to me from 70,000,000 of American people? When he entered this House at the beginning of the Fifty-sixth and Fifty-seventh Congresses he was simply a Congressman-elect, bearing credentials like every other man on this floor. He has no greater power now than any other member, save the additional power we ourselves bestowed upon him by electing him Speaker and then adopting this set of rules. The question that now arises to confront us is: Have we put a club in the hands of some one else to beat us to death? Have we elevated one man on a pinnacle so high that he can not now see those who elevated him? Is the Speaker of this House a mere mortal man of common flesh and clay, or is he supernatural and immortal? What miracle was wrought at his birth? Did a star shoot from its orbit when he was born, or did he come into existence in the good old-fashioned way that ushered the rest of us into this vale of tears?

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world

Like a Colossus, and we petty men

Walk under his huge legs and peep about

To find ourselves dishonorable graves.

Men at some time are masters of their fates:

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars

But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

I make no onslaught on the individual. I have a high regard for the Speaker of this House personally and for him politically; but we face the fact that we have adopted a set of rules in this body that are an absolute disgrace to the legislative body of any republic.

Throughout the entire three years of my service in this body I have been up against the little machine that dominates the proceedings and the deliberations of this House. During the entire three years prior to this time I have always treated that machine with the deference due to its age and its reputation. I trust you will excuse my frankness when I tell you that from this time on I shall devote a little of my time and a tithe of my energy to putting a few spokes in the wheel of that machine that the designers of the vehicle never ordered. [Laughter.]

I for one expect to live to see the day in this House not when the Speaker shall tell the individual members of this House what he is going to permit them to bring up, but when those individual members, constituting a majority, will inform the Speaker what they are going to bring up for themselves.

X
THE SUPREME COURT ROOM

Continuing our examination of what is called the original Capitol building, we would stop next at the Supreme Court room, once the Senate Chamber of the United States. For quiet, harmonious beauty it is unequaled by any other room in the building.

It was designed by Latrobe, after the model of a Greek theater—a semicircular hall, with low-domed ceiling, and small gallery back and over the seats occupied by the dignified judges of the Supreme Court of the United States.

“The Bench” is composed of large leather upholstered chairs, with the chair of the Chief Justice in the center, and those of the Associate Justices on either side. In front of these is a table around which the counsel are seated, and back of a railing seats are arranged around the wall for spectators.

On the walls are the busts of the former Chief Justices of the United States: John Jay, of New York; John Rutledge, of South Carolina; Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut; John Marshall, of Virginia; Roger B. Taney, of Maryland; Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio; and Morrison R. Waite, of Ohio. Back of the judges is placed a number of graceful Ionic columns of Potomac marble, the white capitals copied from the Temple of Minerva.

The Standard Guide of Washington pictures the present court in this way:

SEATING PLAN OF THE SUPREME COURT CHAMBER
Chief Justice occupies Chair No. 1
His colleagues sit on either side
No. 10—Clerk’s Desk
No. 11—Marshal’s Desk
No. 12—Reporters’ Desk
No. 13—Attorney-General’s Desk
No. 14—Counsel’s Desk

In this hall Webster answered Hayne, and here Benton and John Randolph made their great speeches. On the left side of the Senate stood Calhoun in many a contest with Clay and Webster on the right.

One day Calhoun boasted of being the superior of Clay in argument. He said: “I had him on his back; I was his master; he was at my mercy.”

Clay strode down the aisle, and, shaking his long finger in Calhoun’s face, said: “He my master! Sir, I would not own him for my slave!”

It is said to be the handsomest court room in the world. Every week-day from October till May, except during Christmas and Easter holidays, just at twelve o’clock the crier enters the court room and announces: “The Honorable Chief Justice and the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States,” at which everybody, including visitors and lawyers, stand. Just then nine large, dignified old gentlemen, led by Chief Justice Fuller, kicking up their long black silk robes behind them, enter the room; each, standing before his chair, bows to the lawyers, the lawyers and spectators bow to them, then all are seated.

The crier then opens court by saying: “O yea! O yea! O yea! All persons having business with the honorable the Supreme Court of the United States are admonished to draw near and give their attendance, as the court is now sitting. God save the United States and this honorable court.”

After this quaint little speech business begins.

The members of the court wear gowns like the ecclesiastical robes of the Church of England. This began in early days when this country took English law and customs for pattern and precedent.

The seats of the judges are placed in the order of the time of their appointment, the senior judges occupying seats on either hand of the Chief Justice, while the latest appointments sit at the farthest end of each row.

This order of precedence extends even into the consulting-room, where the judges meet to talk over difficult cases, the Chief Justice presiding at the head.

Our country is justly proud of its judiciary. The Supreme Court of our country is the last rampart of liberty. Should this court become corrupt our free institutions will surely perish.

The Supreme Court of the United States has, however, made some grave mistakes—witness the famous decision of Justice Taney—but, for the most part, time has only verified their decisions.

The men who have sat here have not only been fair representatives of the legal knowledge of their day, but also men of unimpeachable integrity and of the highest patriotism. Many of them have been devout Christians. Some on the bench at present are among the best church workers of Washington.

Courts are conservative bodies. Conservatism produces nothing, but is useful in preserving that which enthusiasm has created.

This Supreme Court room has been made further memorable as being the place in which, in 1877, sat the Electoral Commission which decided the Presidential contest as to whether Hayes, of the Republican party, or Tilden, of the Democratic party, should be the Executive of a great nation for four years.

In the fall of 1876, when the elections were over, it was found that the result was in serious and dangerous dispute. The Senate was Republican, the House Democratic. Each distrusted the other. It was feared that on the following 4th of March the country would be forced to face one of two series dilemmas: either that the country would have no President, or that two would-be Presidents would, with their followers, strive to enter the White House and take violent possession of the government. Men would have shot the way they voted. On the 7th of December, Judge George W. McCrary, a Representative of Iowa, afterward in Hayes’s Cabinet, later a circuit judge of the United States, submitted a resolution which became the basis of the Electoral Commission. Three distant Southern States had sent to the Capitol double sets of election returns—one set for Mr. Tilden, one set for Mr. Hayes. On these nineteen votes depended the Presidency for four years.

If they were counted for Tilden, he would have two hundred and three votes and Hayes one hundred and sixty-six; or, if counted for Hayes, he would have one hundred and eighty-five votes and Tilden one hundred and eighty-four. The States whose certificates of election were in dispute were Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon.

The members of the Electoral Commission were selected either as representatives of their party, or men considered the embodiment of honor and justice. The Commission consisted of five Senators, five Judges of the Supreme Court, and five Representatives from the Lower House of Congress. The attorneys were the leading lawyers of each party. The Cabinet, leading Senators, Congressmen, foreign Ministers, and distinguished people from all portions of the country, were present. The wit, the beauty, the writers, the wisdom of the country assembled in this room to weigh the arguments, and at last to hear the decision that Rutherford B. Hayes was rightfully to be the President of the United States.

This tribunal, and the wise patriotism of Mr. Tilden and his party, saved the country from a bloody civil war.

XI
INCIDENTS CONCERNING MEMBERS OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

The Chief Justice of the United States is the highest legal officer in this country.

The position has always been filled by men of great learning and of high integrity, and, differ as we may concerning the wisdom and justice of some Supreme Court decisions, yet we must believe the judges were sincere and honest in their renditions.

When the country loses confidence in the integrity of this court, the very foundation of our government will be in danger.

The first Chief Justice was John Jay, appointed September 26, 1789. He soon resigned to accept the position of Envoy Extraordinary to England, where, after the Revolutionary War, the adjustment of our affairs demanded a person of great learning and skill. The country was fortunate in having John Adams, John Jay, and, later, John Quincy Adams as its representatives in this delicate and important service.

John Rutledge, of South Carolina, was a later appointment to the Chief Justiceship, but the Senate refused to confirm the nomination. Then William Cushing, of Massachusetts, one of the Associate Justices, was nominated and confirmed, but declined to serve. Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut, was then appointed, and was confirmed by the Senate March 4, 1796. He served till 1799, when he resigned to go as the Special Envoy and the Minister to England.

John Jay was again nominated and confirmed by the Senate, but refused to serve. John Marshall, of Virginia, was appointed Chief Justice by President John Adams in 1801. He died in 1835. His term and that of Chief Justice Taney cover over sixty important years in the history of our government.

John Marshall had served on the personal staff of Washington in the Revolutionary War, and had suffered the miseries and trials of the camp at Valley Forge. At the time of his appointment he was Secretary of State in Adams’s Cabinet. He served in both capacities till the close of Adams’s administration.

The Supreme Court, when Marshall was called to preside over it, was held in a low-vaulted room in the basement of the Capitol, and remained there until the new wings were finished, about 1857. Mr. Ellis, in “Sights and Secrets of Washington,” tells this story of Marshall: “Upon one occasion Marshall was standing in the market in Richmond, Va., with his basket containing his purchases on his arm, when he was accosted by a fashionable young gentleman who had just purchased a turkey. The young man’s foolish pride would not allow him to carry the fowl through the streets, and, taking the Judge for a countryman, he asked him to carry it home for him. The request was promptly granted, and when the young man’s home was reached he offered the supposed countryman a shilling for his trouble. The money was courteously refused, and upon asking the name of the person who had rendered him the service, the young man was not a little astonished and chagrined to learn that his thanks were due to the Chief Justice of the United States.”

A bet was once made that the Judge could not dress himself without exhibiting some mark of carelessness. He good-humoredly accepted the challenge. A supper was to be given him upon these conditions: If his dress was found to be faultlessly neat upon that occasion, the parties offering the wager were to pay for the entertainment; but if they detected any carelessness in his attire, the expense was to fall upon him. Upon the appointed evening the guests and the Judge met at the place agreed upon, and, to the surprise of all, the Judge’s dress seemed faultless. The supper followed, Judge Marshall being in high spirits over his victory. Near the close of the repast, however, one of the guests who sat near him chanced to drop his napkin, and, stooping down to pick it up, discovered that the Judge had put on one of his stockings with the wrong side out. Of course the condition of affairs was immediately changed, and amidst the uproarious laughter of his companions the Chief Justice acknowledged his defeat.

Mr. Ellis also says: “The following incident in his (Marshall’s) life is said to have occurred at McGuire’s hotel, in Winchester, Virginia:

“It is not long since a gentleman was traveling in one of the counties of Virginia, and about the close of the day stopped at a public house to obtain refreshment and spend the night. He had been there but a short time before an old man alighted from his gig, with the apparent intention of becoming his fellow guest at the same house. As the old man drove up he observed that both of the shafts of the gig were broken, and that they were held together by withes formed from the bark of a hickory sapling. Our traveler observed further that he was plainly clad, that his knee-buckles were loosened, and that something like negligence pervaded his dress. Conceiving him to be one of the honest yeomanry of our land, the courtesies of strangers passed between them, and they entered the tavern. It was about the same time that an addition of three or four young gentlemen was made to their number—most, if not all of them, of the legal profession. As soon as they became conveniently accommodated, the conversation was turned by the latter upon an eloquent harangue which had that day been displayed at the bar. It was replied by the other that he had witnessed, the same day, a degree of eloquence no doubt equal, but it was from the pulpit. Something like a sarcastic rejoinder was made as to the eloquence of the pulpit, and a warm altercation ensued, in which the merits of the Christian religion became the subject of discussion. From six o’clock until eleven the young champions wielded the sword of argument, adducing with ingenuity and ability everything that could be said, pro and con. During this protracted period the old gentleman listened with the meekness and modesty of a child—as if he were adding new information to the stores of his own mind, or perhaps he was observing, with philosophic eye, the faculties of the youthful mind and how new energies are evolved by repeated action; or, perhaps, with patriotic emotion, he was reflecting upon the future destinies of his country, and on the rising generation, upon whom these future destinies must devolve; or, most probably, with a sentiment of moral and religious feeling, he was collecting an argument which, characteristic of himself, no art would ‘be able to elude, and no force to resist.’ Our traveler remained a spectator, and took no part in what was said.

“At last one of the young men, remarking that it was impossible to combat with long and established prejudices, wheeled around, and, with some familiarity, exclaimed, ‘Well, my old gentleman, what do you think of these things?’ If, said the traveler, a streak of vivid lightning had at the moment crossed the room, their amazement could not have been greater than it was with what followed. The most eloquent and unanswerable appeal that he ever heard or read was made for nearly an hour by the old gentleman. So perfect was his recollection that every argument urged against the Christian religion was met in the order in which it was advanced. Hume’s sophistry on the subject of miracles was, if possible, more perfectly answered than it had already been done by Campbell. And in the whole lecture there was so much simplicity and energy, pathos and sublimity, that not another word was uttered. An attempt to describe it, said the traveler, would be an attempt to paint the sunbeams. It was now a matter of curiosity and inquiry who the old gentleman was. The traveler concluded it was a preacher from whom the pulpit eloquence was heard. But no; it was the Chief Justice of the United States.”

Judge Marshall was followed by Roger Brooke Taney, of Maryland. He was nominated by President Jackson, and confirmed by the Senate in 1836. He died October 12, 1864. His decision in the Dred Scott fugitive case may be ranked as one of the factors which brought about the Civil War. The case was substantially this: A negro slave, with a wife and two children, sued his master for freedom under the plea that, having been taken North into free States a number of times, they were therefore entitled to freedom. The decision covers many pages, but the nation summed it up in these words: “The black man possesses no rights which the white man is bound to respect.” Since Moses established a judiciary no decision ever made such a disturbance. In the memory of most people Taney’s singularly pure life goes for nothing beside the infamy of this decision. It outraged the conscience of mankind. Taney claimed that he did not make the law, he simply gave its interpretation. The decision was approved by the majority of the court, but he alone was made to suffer the obloquy which followed.

This decision proved sufficient to bring down the wrath of a just God on a nation so lost to human justice. The South suffered for the sin of slavery, the North for conniving thereto.

Judge Taney sleeps at Frederick, Md. (where most of his private life had passed), beside his wife, who was sister to Francis Scott Key, author of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

In the summer of 1888 I heard Dr. Wardell, at Ocean Grove, N. J., tell this incident concerning Salmon P. Chase, who was appointed Chief Justice by President Lincoln in 1864, and who died in 1873. Dr. Wardell claimed to have the story direct from Dr. Newman, then pastor of the Metropolitan Methodist Church, Washington, D. C.

He said that Chief Justice Chase was in the habit of attending the Metropolitan Church, on Four and One-half Street, Washington, and Dr. Newman (afterward Bishop) noticed that while the Chief Justice was a member of the official Board, and attended faithfully to its duties, yet he always left the church when the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was administered.

After one such occasion Dr. Newman went to him and said: “Why do you not avail yourself of the means of grace in the Lord’s Supper?”

The Chief Justice answered: “I do not consider myself worthy to partake of the communion.”

The Doctor said: “We invite all who love the Lord, and who do truly and heartily repent of their sins, to join with us in this service.”

“Yes, that is just it. What do you mean by ‘repent’?”

Then the Doctor gave him a full and clear explanation of repentance.

On the next communion day instead of leaving the church the Chief Justice remained in his seat. After all had communed, Dr. Newman said: “If any soul feels its unfitness for this service, to him this invitation is specially given. If such a one fails to acknowledge the Savior and his own unworthiness before his fellowmen, we are assured that the Savior will not acknowledge him before his Father and His holy angels.”

The Chief Justice rose, and staggered, rather than walked, to the front, and fell on his knees at the altar railing. After giving to the kneeling man the bread and wine, the Doctor, seeing the strong face of the penitent drawn with grief, with the Justice still kneeling, pronounced the benediction and dismissed the congregation.

The next day, in the robing-room of the justices, Chief Justice Chase said to Justice Miller: “Oh, I want to tell you to-day what the Lord has done for my soul! He came very near me yesterday.”

Justice Miller replied: “Well, we will talk of that some other time; now we have the wages of sin and not righteousness before us.”

After court adjourned that afternoon, the Chief Justice went down to Alexandria to see an old servant who had sent for him. He said to her: “Oh, Auntie, I received a great blessing yesterday; all life is different. I want to have a closer walk with God.”

Within a few days he went to New York to transact some business. The morning after his arrival he did not come down to breakfast. The clerk waited till eleven o’clock, and receiving no answer to his frequent knocks, the door was forced, and there was found the dead body of the Chief Justice. He had entered on his closer walk with God.

It was well known throughout the country that Lincoln was not in harmony with Chase, even when the latter was Secretary of the Treasury, but Carpenter, in his “Six Months in the White House,” says: “Notwithstanding his apparent hesitation in the appointment of a successor to Judge Taney, it is well known to his intimate friends that there had never been a time during his Presidency, when in the event of the death of Judge Taney, Mr. Lincoln had not fully intended and expected to nominate Salmon P. Chase for Chief Justice.”

The appointment must have come to Chase with a little of the effects of “coals of fire,” for he had not been very loyal to Lincoln. He had the Presidential bee in his own bonnet.

From 1874 to 1888 Morrison R. Waite, of Ohio, was Chief Justice. Our present Chief Justice, Melville W. Fuller, of Illinois, was called to the highest judicial position in the country in 1888.

XII
TEACHING PATRIOTISM IN THE CAPITOL

One can fancy a patriotic Englishman taking his son to Westminster Abbey, and there telling him the story of liberty, in the history of the renowned dead who sleep about him, until the youth is inspired with a patriotism deeper than the love of kindred, and second only to the love of God.

So an American father who desires his children to assume their proper place among the great force of American youth who are to perpetuate American institutions, might well bring them to the Capitol of the nation, and there in glowing words, and amid reminders of every decade of the nineteenth century and the latter part of the eighteenth, tell the story of liberty as shown in republican institutions.

He could also take his children to Mount Vernon for a day; there they might read together the history of that serene, majestic character whose eminence has carried him beyond national lines and made him belong to the world as well as to us—a citizen of all lands and of all ages.

History is best told by biography. Around Washington would be grouped John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton. These men, without a precedent to follow, launched a new government, establishing all the departments of its great machinery with such wisdom, justice, and patriotism that what they did, what they thought and planned, but were not able to complete, is to-day the standard of patriotism and national achievement.

Then would follow that man whose life grows radiant in the strong search-light of history—John Quincy Adams; that Adams, who could truthfully say at the close of a long, brilliant, and useful life, in the words of an old Roman: “I have rendered to my country all the great service she was willing to receive at my hand, and I have never harbored a thought concerning her which was not divine.” With him would be his compeers, Madison, Monroe, Burr, Clay, Webster, Jackson, John Randolph, the elder Bayard, and Calhoun.

That father would not fail to make plain the stern patriotism of Andrew Jackson and Daniel Webster against the insidious treason of Calhoun and his coterie.

During the early days of President Jackson’s administration he gave a state dinner in honor of Jefferson’s birthday. On his right sat Calhoun, Vice-President of the United States, and up to this time the intimate friend and confidential adviser of the Executive. On Jackson’s left sat Webster, with the black brows of Jove.

The toasts of the evening had been ambiguous. Mr. Calhoun gave this toast: “Our union, next to our liberties the most dear; it can only be preserved by respecting the rights of States, and by distributing its burdens and its benefits equally.”

Webster nudged the President. Old Hickory sprang to his feet and gave the toast: “Our federal union; it must be preserved.” Every man drank it standing, Calhoun among the rest.

How near our country came to open rebellion is shown in the last hours of Jackson. A friend at his bedside said: “What would you have done with Calhoun and his friends had they persisted in nullification?” “Hanged them, sir, as high as Haman. They should have been a terror to traitors for all time,” said the dying statesman.

That father could tell part of the story of liberty in the life of the younger Adams. At the age of eleven Adams decided that he would be a Christian. He said: “Of this one thing I must make sure: I shall humbly serve God. If He makes me a great man, I shall rejoice; but this He surely will do: if I trust Him, He will make me a useful man.”

God took Adams at his word. He sought the Kingdom first. God added place. Adams was diplomat, Senator, Secretary of State, President, Congressman. He might well say with his dying breath, as he was carried from his place in the old House of Representatives to the Rotunda, “This is the last of earth, but I am content.”

Well he might be content. He had been a faithful, honest, upright Christian man, who had received at the hands of his fellow citizens the highest honors they could confer, and in his death he passed to a home among the redeemed, there with enlarged intelligence and clearer vision to continue his work for God in the beyond.

In this day, when writers are striving to make black appear white, the father who would mingle Christianity with patriotism would not fail to sketch the life of Aaron Burr in contrast with the young Adams.

Burr tells us that at the age of eighteen the Spirit of God came upon him with such power that he fled to the woods to settle that great question which faces every human being—“Shall I be a Christian?” He said to himself: “I purpose as a lawyer to succeed by the tricks of the trade. There is many a short cut in business which a Christian could not take, therefore I shall not be a Christian.”

He tells us that the Spirit of God never again troubled him. He sinned against the Spirit, that unpardonable sin. Left to himself, his destiny led him to a high place only to make his fall more terrible. Socially he was the most charming man of his day, but he entered no home which he did not defile. No woman loved him but to her sorrow.

Burr was holding the position of Vice-President as a Republican when he was nominated by the Federalists for Governor of New York. Some of the leading men of that party refused to support him, among them Hamilton. This led to the duel in which Hamilton was killed, July 11, 1804.

Burr was disfranchised and banished by the laws of New York, and was indicted for murder by the authorities of New Jersey for having killed Hamilton on the soil of that State. He could not enter either New York or New Jersey to settle his business. He was bankrupted, and more than $5,000 in debt when all his property had been sold and the results paid over.

The day before the duel Burr had a right to suppose himself a more important man than Hamilton. Was he not Vice-President? Had he not just received a majority of the votes of the City of New York for Governor of that State, in spite of Hamilton’s greatest exertions? Yet the day after the duel the dying Hamilton had the sympathy of every human being, and Burr was a fugitive from justice, not knowing friend from foe. Never was there a greater revulsion of feeling.

Southern men tried to console him by their more courteous demeanor. Between the time of the duel and the convening of Congress, Burr had kept himself south of Mason and Dixon’s line, for in any Northern State he would have been arrested on a requisition on the Governor.

He went back to Washington and again presided over the Senate, but was simply scorched by the open, daily manifestations of the scorn of Northern Senators. The Southern men were more courteous in their demeanor. On Saturday, March 2d, he took leave of the Senate. That body was in executive session, therefore no spectators were present. Mr. Burr, one of the most eloquent as well as one of the handsomest men of his day, rose in his place after the galleries had been cleared. He began his address by saying that he had intended to remain during his constitutional time, but he felt an indisposition coming upon him and he now desired to take leave of them.

The silence could be felt. There was no shorthand reporter present, and exactly what he said is not now known—perhaps nothing very different from what other retiring Vice-Presidents have said. No reference was made to the duel, none to the scorn he had merited, unless it were in his words, “For injuries received, thank God, I have no memory.”

He thanked the Senators for kindness and courtesy. He prophesied that if ever political liberty in this country died its expiring agonies would be witnessed on the floor of the United States Senate. As he walked out no man rose, no man shook hands with him; when the door closed on him it shut him out forever from position, usefulness, home, country, the love of women, and the friendship of men.

At the President’s reception on the following Morning two Senators were relating the circumstances to a group which had gathered round them. On being asked, “How long did Mr. Burr speak?” one of them answered, “I can form no idea; it may have been a moment and it may have been an hour; when I came to my senses I seemed to have awakened from a kind of trance.”

Burr, hurled from power and honor, wandered a fugitive from justice, and at last would have been laid in a pauper’s grave but for the care of a woman who had loved him in his better days.

Surely the Psalmist was right when, speaking of the righteous and the unrighteous, he said: “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.”

XIII
PEOPLE IN THE DEPARTMENTS

About one-third of all the employees in the government departments at Washington are women. Several receive over $2,500 per annum, about fifty receive $1,600 per annum, one hundred receive $1,400 per annum, four hundred and fifty receive $1,200, three hundred receive $1,000, and the remainder receive from $600 to $900 per annum.

The Civil Service Commission records for last year show that 3,083 women were examined for the various positions opened for them under the civil service. Of these, 2,476 passed and 444 were appointed. Of the applicants examined, 1,351 came under the head of “skilled labor.”

The most popular examination for women is that of stenographers and typewriters. “Good stenographers” is the ceaseless demand of the department official—not mediocre, but good par excellence.

Government work is well paid only when well done. Promotions are at least sometimes the reward of merit. A very striking illustration of this occurred last winter, when a young woman was made chief of one of the divisions in the Post-Office Department because she knew more about the work of that particular division than any other employee in it. She receives a salary of $2,240—among the highest paid to any woman in the service.

In the States a position at Washington is looked upon as most desirable, but except for the highest positions, and for the name of it, no ambitious man or woman who desires to secure a competence by middle life should consider a place in the departments.

There are nearly six thousand classified clerkships in the departments, and many thousands of ungraded positions. Clerks of the first class receive $1,200 per year; of the second, $1,400; of the third, $1,600; of the fourth class, $1,800. In ungraded positions, salaries range from $700 to $1,000.

Chief clerks receive from $1,800 to $2,700; stenographers and translators of languages from $1,200 to $2,000; copyists from $60 to $75 per month. Thirty days’ vacation, without loss of salary, is allowed each year, and in case of violent illness no pay is deducted.

Hundreds of fine young men, well educated, who ought to be in the manufacturing businesses of our country where they could develop, tamely accept from $700 to $1,000 a year for mechanical work. In the last few years there has been wonderful improvement in the work done by department people. In 1885 I was impressed by the flirtations in corners, the half hours which were wasted in visiting by people receiving government money. But few are idle now—at least, where a visitor can see. They are all at their desks promptly at 9 A.M.; they work till 4 P.M., with half an hour at noon for luncheon. No bank records as to punctuality, regularity, and diligence can be more closely kept than those of the departments. There are so many who are eager to take an idler’s place that no one dares to fritter away his or her time.

It is said that if a woman banks on her femininity with chiefs of divisions, or has unusual Senatorial backing, she may dare to take some liberties—she may be idle or incompetent, and not be reported; but these cases grow fewer in number.

Now, as to civil service examination. No one can get into the classified service without it; but in most places, when one has passed the highest examination, it takes Congressional influence to get a position. Whatever may be the conditions in the future, there never has been a time when influence was more used than in the session of Congress ending July 1, 1902. In making up the Bureau of Permanent Census, it was not merit but influence which secured a place. Merit, of course, helps everywhere, but in the session referred to three-fourths influence to one-fourth merit were necessary to secure any position.

There were twenty places to fill in the Congressional Library, where it is claimed influence counts least. Eighteen hundred people applied for the twenty places, and of course those with Senatorial influence were appointed. No doubt their qualifications also entered into the account.

Seven hours, frequently spent in close, confined rooms, doing work which brings no mental improvement, often with a fretful, over-critical chief, anxious to get an incumbent out in order to put in his own friend, does not look to me like a desirable position.

It is evidently intended to give places more and more to men who can go home and help manage elections. It will not be until woman suffrage prevails in the States that women will have an equal opportunity with men, even in the work world. Then department people are ever anxious about their places. At each change of Congress new people must be taken care of, and much more is this true when the Executive is changed. The Washington Post of July 15, 1902, has this editorial:

The latest civil service order of President Roosevelt is addressed to this evil. One can not avoid wishing that it had been issued early in December, 1901, instead of in July, 1902—before, instead of after, a long session of Congress, during which the “pull” was industriously plied with the usual results. But “better late than never.” It is a good order, and its influence should be seen and felt in the improvement of the service. Altho it was printed in the Post as soon as it was made public, it will bear reproduction. Here it is:

No recommendation for the promotion of any employee in the classified service shall be considered by any officer concerned in making promotions except it be made by the officer or officers under whose supervision or control such employee is serving; and such recommendation by any other person with the knowledge and consent of the employee shall be sufficient cause for debarring him from the promotion proposed, and a repetition of the offense shall be sufficient cause for removing him from the service.

When we speak of that order or rule as good, we mean to say that it will prove so if faithfully and impartially enforced; otherwise, it may only aggravate existing wrongs. For example, suppose three clerks, A, B, and C, in the same division are aspirants for promotion to fill a vacancy in a higher grade. Suppose each of them to have very influential friends, whose recommendation, were it proper to use it, might be the controlling factor in the disposal of the prize. But A and B obey that rule, relying on their respective records, while C quietly hints to his friend or friends that a little boosting would do him a great service. A personal call on the official “under whose supervision or control such employee is serving”—a personal call by Senator X or some other statesman of weight—ensues, and C is promoted as a result of that call. That is what has happened in almost numberless cases. Will it stop now? If “yes,” the President’s order will prove a great promoter of reform in the civil service; if “no,” it will work in the opposite direction.

I took this editorial to a number of leading people in the departments. “Yes,” they said, “something like that usually comes out about this time of the year when Congress has adjourned. Even if President Roosevelt means what he says, it can scarcely be executed. The system is so complex, with so many wheels within wheels, that patronage can hardly be stopped. If a chief fails to promote a Senator’s niece, Mr. Chief will be apt to lose his own place, and this consideration brings wisdom.”

When a man or a woman has been four or five years in a clerical government office, he or she is scarcely fit for any other kind of place. In that time has been lost ingenuity, resourcefulness, adaptation, how to placate or please the public, and, above all, confidence to fight in the great battle of industries; consequently, when dismissed, the former place-holder hangs about Washington, hoping for another situation. One can see more forlorn, vanquished soldiers of fortune in the national capital than in any other city of its size in the world.

If one desires to make a living only, and not lay up for a rainy day, or if one has clerical talent only, then a Washington position might be desirable; but when one sees great, able-bodied men opening and shutting doors for a salary, or a man capable of running a foundry operating an elevator in a government building, it disgusts him with the strife for place. Government clerkships may be desirable for women, but few of them should claim the ability of first-class men. It is commercial death to become once established in a department at Washington.

The government has many first-class scientists in its employ, people with technical knowledge. These are the rare souls who, while they know more than their fellow men, care less for money, and have neither time nor ability to make it. For such men a good position in the Agricultural, Geological, Smithsonian, Educational, Indian, or other scientific departments is desirable, but for no other class.

In no other place than Washington can one better see the fact illustrated that once in each generation the wheel of fortune makes a complete revolution, turning down those at the top and turning up those who are down. In the departments are now many widows and daughters of men who were prominent in Civil War times. One woman eighty-two years of age was during the war the wife of a great general. She now sits at a department desk from nine to four daily, and no one does better work.

The old charge of immorality among the women of departments is now seldom heard in Washington. Among the thousands there must be a few black sheep, but women have ways of making life so uncomfortable for a derelict that she prefers to resign and occupy a less public position. No Congressional influence can shelter her head from the scorn of other women.

Corruption is more likely to originate with chiefs of subdivisions, as in the recent case of young Ayres of the Census Bureau, who was killed, and Mrs. Bonine, who was acquitted of his murder. The trial was a mere farce, for society felt that whoever killed the vile libertine who had used his place to seduce or browbeat young girls had served society. Justifiable homicide would doubtless be the verdict should death strike a few others. Such cases are, however, rarer than in commercial communities. The people of the departments largely constitute the membership of the churches of Washington. Senators and Congressmen, with their wives, do not bring letters from their home churches, but the department people do. The latter practically support the churches and the religious institutions and religious work of the district.

XIV
INCIDENTS IN AND OUT OF THE DEPARTMENTS

“I must go down to the Census Office to hold a scrub-woman in her place,” said a Western Congressman to me. He added: “Let me tell you about her. She does not belong to my State, but you will not be surprised that I propose to hold her in her poor place, which brings $40 per month, when I explain her case. She is the widow of a regular army officer. Her husband in the Civil War was twice promoted for personal bravery. His native town presented him with a sword as a tribute of his courage. His widow scrubs floors along with colored people, and his only daughter does menial service twelve hours a day in the printing-office. Of course the widow is too old for a Civil Service place, and that is the best I can do for her. She has no G. A. R. influence, her husband was so long a regular that she has no State back of her. I am glad to do what I can.”

Not long ago the beauty of a country town, let us say of Texas, was brought to Washington for a place. Her Congressman’s quota of positions was full; he knew, however, of one place which was ably filled by a Southern woman who came here with President Johnson’s family as instructor for his grandchildren. President Johnson had, before leaving, secured her a place in a department, and now the Texan asked her official head in the interest of the beauty. The girl was bright, flippant, and loud. She used her first month’s wages to obtain a red velvet dress cut square in the neck to show her white, firm skin. She did her work fairly well, but one day people in her department heard a scream, and they also heard some one getting a severe slapping of the face amid cries of “I have a big brother in Texas, and it will take him only two days to get here, and he’ll beat the life out of you!” etc.

THE SUPREME COURT
Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller
1. Justice Henry B. Brown
2. Justice Joseph McKenna
3. Justice John M. Harlan
4. Justice David J. Brewer
5. Justice Oliver W. Holmes, Jr.
6. Justice Rufus W. Peckham
7. Justice William R. Day
8. Justice Edward D. White

Photo by Clinedinst
THE SUPREME COURT ROOM

Photo by Clinedinst
THE TREASURY BUILDING

Photo by Clinedinst
THE OLD BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING

Photo by Clinedinst
THE NEW BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING

Photo by Clinedinst
GALLAUDET COLLEGE FOR THE DEAF

Photo by Clinedinst
THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

Photo by Clinedinst
THE NATIONAL MUSEUM

A shamefaced clerk was seen to emerge from the room. When the others rushed in they found the girl in a dead faint which was followed by hysterics. Then the women said, “Aha! you got what you deserved with your red dress, your loud manners, and flippant talk.”

The girl replied, “Well, I think you should have had the decency to tell me that before, if my dress and manners exposed me to insult. You will see, I shall learn.” Sure enough, the girl did learn to dress quietly, and is now an efficient, decorous helper.

The wife of one of the new-rich, who have come to Washington to spend their money in social life, was being taken through the Census Department when they had on the full force of several thousand. Looking over that crowd, every one of the intellectual rank of a first-class teacher, she said: “Ah! I see now what makes servants so very scarce in Washington!” Each one of these classed as of the rank of servants had passed an entrance examination which her ladyship could not have stood, even if her life had depended upon it.

One of the peculiar features of department life is that it seems to dry up the milk of human kindness. A man will move heaven and earth to get a high situation under the government, then when others ask from him less than he has asked of his friends, the applicant is made to feel like a beggar. He is advised to go home and tend to his own affairs—which may be very good advice, but comes with bad grace from a government official.

I knew a man from the South, the editor of a religious paper, the most important man in the county, who came to Washington to ask for the post-office of his own town. His credentials had the endorsement of every bank, every business house, every preacher, doctor, and teacher in his town. He was permitted to get as near headquarters as the Fourth Assistant Postmaster, where he was told Senator Blank would have that appointment. The Senator appointed a Catholic in that town where there are not over forty Catholics, and where a Lutheran College alone gets more mail than the entire Catholic population. The new man was a person non grata to the entire town, but the Senator had paid a campaign debt.

Every person knows the sad life story of Kate Chase Sprague, but it will be fifty years before the full depth of her infamy can be fully told. Daughter of Salmon P. Chase, Senator from Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury under Lincoln, Chief Justice of the United States, the loved wife of Senator Sprague, of Rhode Island, and the leader of the highest social life of the capital, she was divorced, and then began a downward course of amours, flirtations, and baseness which had best remain untold for this generation.

Older people will remember that one of Grant’s Cabinet was forced to resign because of fraud in the War Department. Valuable contracts were let, and the wife of this official, totally unknown to her husband, took thousands of dollars for her influence in securing these contracts. At last trouble was threatened. Congress appointed a committee to investigate. The night before the exposure madame attended a great ball at one of the legations. The French Minister said: “I have been in most of the courts of Europe; I have never seen any one, not even queens, better dressed than madame.” She wore a dress literally covered with point-lace, a point-lace fan, and more than $40,000 worth of diamonds.

Three Congressmen present knew what the next day would reveal. On that day the Secretary was called before the committee. They soon saw that he knew nothing about the matter. Madame heard what was going on and suddenly appeared before the committee. She threw herself on her knees before them and entreated shelter from disgrace.

The Secretary resigned at once. He sacrificed his entire property to pay back the fraudulent money. He opened a law office in Washington, but soon after died; of course, people said he died of a broken heart. Madame went abroad at once, and did not return till after her husband’s death. She now conducts a house in Washington where men and women lose their souls in gambling or worse.

XV
TREASURY DEPARTMENT

The Treasury building, on Pennsylvania Avenue and Fifteenth Street, was located by President Jackson just east of the White House so as to obstruct his view of the Capitol, at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. It is said that he grew tired of the little differences of opinion between the commissioner and the architect, Robert Mills, and one day in ill humor he struck his staff in the earth and said: “I want the chief corner-stone of the Treasury building placed just here!” You may be sure it was placed just there.

The Secretary of the Treasury superintends the collection and disbursement of all government revenue from every source, except the Post-Office Department. It takes many buildings to provide for the work of the Treasury Department.

The Congressional Directory says:

The Secretary of the Treasury is charged by law with the management of the national finances. He prepares plans for the improvement of the revenue and for the support of the public credit; superintends the collection of the revenue, and prescribes the forms of keeping and rendering public accounts and of making returns; grants warrants for all moneys drawn from the Treasury in pursuance of appropriations made by law, and for the payment of moneys into the Treasury; and annually submits to Congress estimates of the probable revenues and disbursements of the Government.

He also controls the construction of public buildings; the coinage and printing of money; the administration of the Revenue-Cutter branch of the public service, and furnishes generally such information as may be required by either branch of Congress on all matters pertaining to the foregoing.

The routine work of the Secretary’s office is transacted in the offices of the Supervising Architect, Director of the Mint, Director of Engraving and Printing, and in the following divisions: Bookkeeping and Warrants; Appointments; Customs; Public Moneys; Loans and Currency; Revenue-Cutter; Stationery, Printing, and Blanks; Mails and Files; Special Agents, and Miscellaneous.

A few minutes’ thought on the above will show that this is the very heart of the government of our country. Its pulsations send the currency through all the avenues of commerce; if it became bankrupt, disaster would follow in every other department of the government, and the prosperity of other nations would be unfavorably affected.

The Treasury building was completed in 1841. It has undergone considerable enlargement and many modifications since that time. It is 460 feet on Fifteenth Street, and has a frontage of 264 feet on Pennsylvania Avenue. It is Grecian in architecture. On each of the four sides are large porticoes with most graceful yet massive Ionic columns. The flower gardens about the Treasury are among the most beautiful in the city.

It would greatly surprise Alexander Hamilton, our first Secretary of the Treasury, if he could see every day at 4 P.M. the 3,000 workers pour out of the 300 rooms of the great building at Fifteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, and be told that this is only the central office of the Secretary of the Treasury. The salary list of this building alone is about half a million dollars annually.

The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet, and receives $8,000 a year for his services. He has two Assistant Secretaries, who each receive $4,500, and a Chief Clerk, who has a salary of $2,700. The Chiefs of Divisions receive about $2,500 each.

There are subtreasuries in most of the large cities of the Union; also assay offices in Boise City, Idaho, Charlotte, N. C., and St. Louis, Mo., to see that the money is kept pure and up to the standard.

The scales upon which the United States coin is weighed are said to be so accurate that if two pieces of paper, in all respects the same except that one has writing upon it, be laid one on either scale, the difference in weight of the one bearing writing upon it will show in the scale.

The cost of maintaining these subdivisions of the Treasury is nearly one and a half million dollars annually.

The First Comptroller seems to be the important man of the Treasury. Every claim is submitted to him. Not even the President’s salary can be paid unless he signs the warrant and vouchers for its correctness. His salary is $5,000 per annum, but it takes $83,000 to maintain all the appointments of his office.

The Treasurer of the United States receives $6,000 per year. He gives a bond for $150,000. He receives and disburses all the money of the country and has charge of the money vaults. He has an army of assistants.

The Treasurer’s report for 1901 says that the condition of the Treasury as to the volume and character of assets was never better, and, in spite of the unusual expense of the army in the Philippines and the raid on the Pension Bureau, nearly $78,000,000 surplus remained in the Treasury. On June 30, 1902, at the end of the fiscal year, the surplus was over $92,000,000. What a magnificent showing as to the prosperity of our country, and what an occasion for national thanksgiving!

No robbery of the Treasury vaults has ever been attempted. When one sees the solid walls of masonry and the patrol of soldiers, on duty night or day, with every spot bright with electric light, no such attempt seems likely to occur. The entire vaults inside are a network of electric wires. If, for instance, a tunnel were made under the building, and a robber should reach the vaults, the wires would ring up the Chief of Police, who has telephone connexion with Fort Meyer and the navy-yard, so that within twenty minutes a detachment of troops could be on the ground.

A few years ago a negro charwoman, in doing her cleaning, found a package of bonds of more than a million dollars in value. That faithful woman sat by the package all night guarding it, knowing that it must be of great value. Her faithfulness was rewarded with a life position. Bowed and broken, she was an historic figure in the building until last year, when she died.

In this building all money from the Printing Bureau and the mints is counted and verified. Here worn money, that which has been buried, rotted by water or charred by fire, is identified by the skilled eyes and hands of women. Of the charred money received from the great fire in Chicago, eighty per cent. was identified, and new money issued in its place. Sometimes money taken from bodies long drowned or buried has to be handled. In such cases these women have the entire room to themselves, as their usual neighbors find that business in other quarters needs immediate attention.

MACERATING $10,000,000 OF MONEY

The banks of large cities send in their soiled money weekly or monthly and receive fresh notes in exchange, the government paying transportation both ways. This soiled money is made into pulp, which is sold to paper-makers at about $40 a ton.

It is only the old money that is counterfeited. Counterfeiters rumple and muss their money to give it the appearance of being long in use. Women are especially skilled in detecting counterfeit money. If among the returned coins or notes one single piece proves to be counterfeit, the amount is deducted from the salary of the examiner. Yet this great government pays these women less than two-thirds what it would pay to men for the same service, if men could do it at all.

From the government of the United States it would seem that the world had a right to expect that ideal justice which each soul shall receive when it stands in the presence of Eternal Justice.

The United States Treasury has charge of the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, where all the paper money, postage, revenue stamps, and bonds are made.

Bills, when sent from the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, require the signatures of officials of the bank from which they are to be issued before becoming legal tender.

Secretary Shaw has at the Bureau of Printing and Engraving his personal representative, who locks up the plates, sees to the minutiæ of things, so that even the smallest scrap of paper bearing government printing must be shown, or the house is closed and search made till it is found.

The custom officers who insult and browbeat you at the port are of this department. Once on arriving at New York, after being very ill all the way from Antwerp, I had declared I had nothing dutiable, yet in spite of that every article in my trunk was laid out on the dirty floor of the custom-house. When I saw the bottom of the trunk, I said: “Well, you have only proved what I told you. I believe you think because I am trembling from weakness that I am frightened?” “Yes, that is about the size of it; there is your trunk, you may put the things back.” “No,” I said, “my baggage is checked through, and I am not able to pack it.” I saw with some satisfaction the custom-house officer do the packing. It had required my best efforts to get the stuff into the trunk, but he did it.

This country has very silly custom-house rules on personal clothing and small articles of art and vertu, and the average artistic standard of dress and home ornamentation of the country is lowered by these ridiculous embargoes.

In 1895 I was abroad with a company of Presbyterians; among them was Professor G., of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of California. He happened to fall in with a little coterie of friends of whom I was one. The most of us bought photos and souvenirs in almost every city. The professor bought nothing. One day he said: “I would so like to have brought my wife with me, but I was not able to do so. I shall be very saving, so I can take her back a nice present.” When we were in Italy some fool woman suggested a cameo pin as a suitable and beautiful present for his wife. Cameo pins have been out of fashion for twenty years. He purchased one of great beauty for $30. As we came into port, a friend said: “Professor, you had better let some woman wear that pin for you or you will have trouble.” “Thank you, no; I expect to pay the required duty to my country.” “Oh, you do not know your country yet; you’ll get a dose!” He paid $27 duty, and had not money enough left to get home. I felt that this duty was an outrage. Things of beauty which are not for sale should surely be admitted free.

The Treasury is the heart of the whole machine that we call the “United States Government.”

XVI
SECRET SERVICE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY OF THE UNITED STATES

Every one is interested in what is called the Secret Service of the government. The name covers many things, altho we usually associate it with the government’s protection of the coin and greenback currency of the country.

The detectives of this department are often employed in assisting to find out or run down robbers of banks, railroad trains, express offices, etc. They are also used in detecting frauds at the custom-houses, frauds in the departments of justice, pertaining to naturalization papers, post-office robberies, and attacks on the Mint. In the Pension Bureau they unearth fraudulent attempts to represent dead pensioners, etc. For work outside of their own departments they are paid by their employers.

In the last report of the Secret Service, dated July 1, 1902, the chief enumerates 253 persons convicted of attempt of counterfeiting currency, and 106 yet awaiting action of the Court. The arrests for the current year have numbered 573; of these, 413 were born in the United States; of the 106 remaining, Italy furnished 65 counterfeiters; Germany, 25; Ireland, 15; the others, except 6 Mexicans, are of the different countries of Europe. Of the different States, New York produced 85 counterfeiters (including those who make false representations of any kind in passing currency); Missouri, 47; Pennsylvania, 45; while almost every State has one or more. Altered and counterfeit notes to the value of $46,004.95 have been captured, and counterfeit coins to the value of $19,828.47.

The Chief of the Secret Service says that the year has been fruitful in that class of criminals who alter bills of small denomination to one of higher value. Any change in a bill renders the maker liable to a fine of $5,000, or fifteen years in prison, or both.

The walls of the Secret Service office are covered with samples of counterfeiters’ work. The history of each would sound like a dime novel, but the government is certain to catch any one who persists in demoralizing the currency. Chief John E. Wilkie, a first-class Chicago newspaper man, was brought East by Secretary Gage. He has called to his assistance, as Chief Clerk, Mr. W. H. Moran, who learned his business from Mr. Brooks, one of the best detectives any country has yet produced. Other officials tell me the office has never been more ably conducted than it is at present.

This bureau is urging that for persistent crime a longer penal sentence shall be given. To illustrate the persistence of two of these criminals, the following extracts from the Secret Service records are, by courtesy of the bureau, submitted:

John Mulvey, alias James Clark, arrested October 16, 1883, at New York, N. Y., for having in possession and passing counterfeit coin. Sentenced, October 22, 1883, to three years in Auburn, N. Y., penitentiary and fined $1.

William Stevens, alias John W. Murray, alias Jack Mulvey, was again arrested June 14, 1886, at Baltimore, for passing counterfeit 25c. silver coins, and was sentenced, September 7, 1886, to serve one year in Maryland penitentiary and fined $100.

Was again arrested under the same name October 5, 1887, at Philadelphia, Pa., for passing and having in possession 25c. coins, and sentenced, December 1, 1887, to eighteen months in the Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania and fined.

John W. Murray, alias William Stevens, alias Jack Mulvey, was again arrested, July 10, 1889, at Hoboken, N. J., for passing counterfeit standard $1, 25c., and 10c. coins, and sentenced, January 22, 1890, to six months in State Prison at Trenton, N. J., and pay costs.

Jack Mulvey, alias James W., alias John Clark, alias John W. Murray, alias “Pants,” alias Stevens, etc., was again arrested January 12, 1891, at Pittsburg, Pa., for having in possession and attempting to pass counterfeit 50c. coins, and was sentenced, March 5, 1891, to two years in Western Penitentiary at Allegheny, Pa., and fined $25.

John Murray, alias Jack Mulvey, was again arrested, January 25, 1894, at Chicago, Ill., for manufacturing counterfeit 25c. and 10c. coins and having same in possession, and was sentenced, March 12. 1894, to three years and six months at hard labor in the penitentiary at Joliet, Ill., and to pay a fine of $1.

James Foley, alias Jack Murray, alias Jack Mulvey, was again arrested, February 24, 1897, at Chicago, Ill., for having in possession and passing counterfeit silver dimes, and escaped March 22, 1897, but was rearrested, under the name of John O’Keefe, in New York, N. Y., April 6, 1897, for passing counterfeit 10c. pieces, and sentenced. May 12, 1897, to seven years in Clinton Prison and fined $1. Released from this prison February 27, 1902.

Another case from the records of the Secret Service would read as follows:

One day the doors of the Moundsville, W. Va., prison opened on a tall, slender, mild-eyed man, upon whose face and form time and confinement had left their impress, and he passed out to take up again the broken thread of his life.

This was John Ogle’s first day of freedom for more than three years. On July 4, 1898, he was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for trying to increase the negotiable value of one-dollar bills by altering their denominational characteristics.

Little more than a year before his brother, Miles, was released from the Ohio penitentiary, where he had paid the extreme penalty imposed by law for spurious money making, only to die two days later of paralysis, with which he had been hopelessly stricken over a year before.

The Ogles, father and sons, during the past fifty years have had much to do with the making of the criminal history of this country. George Ogle, the father, was a river pirate and farmhouse plunderer, the Ohio River and its tributaries being the scene of his operations. The sons, bred in an atmosphere of crime, early embarked in independent unlawful enterprises. Miles displayed pugnacity, intrepidity, and skill, while John was shrewd, plausible, and cunning.

After serving five years for killing an officer who attempted to arrest the family, and when but twenty-six years old, Miles allied himself with the notorious “Reno” gang of bandits, and became the pupil and confederate of Peter McCartney, that past master of the counterfeiter’s art. How well he applied himself the records of the Secret Service will testify. An even dozen skilfully executed spurious note issues were directly traceable to him, despite the fact that two-thirds of his manhood were spent behind prison walls.

John Ogle, while not possessed of the dangerous skill of his brother, was his equal in hardihood, and, in his way, quite as detrimental to society. For cool daring, ingenuity, and resourcefulness he was without a peer in his chosen profession, and some of his escapes from the officers of the law bordered on the miraculous. He was introduced to prison life in 1864, being sentenced in the fall of that year to five years in the Jeffersonville, Ind., penitentiary for burglary. Shortly after his release he was traced to Cairo, Ill., with twenty-eight hundred dollars of counterfeit money intended for one of Miles’ customers, and, after a desperate fight, was placed in jail. He managed in some way to effect his escape, but was soon recaptured at Pittsburg. This time he told the officers that he knew of a big “plant” of spurious bills and tools near Oyster Point, Md., which he was willing to turn up if it would benefit him. Being assured of leniency, he started with a marshal for the hiding-place. En route he managed to elude the watchfulness of his guard, and jumped from the car-window while the train was at full speed. At Bolivar, Tenn., Ogle was arrested, January 8, 1872, with five hundred dollars of counterfeit money in his pocket. A sentence of ten years was imposed; but John had a reputation to sustain, so he broke from the jail where he was temporarily confined awaiting transportation to the penitentiary. Several months later he was arrested and indicted at Cincinnati for passing bad five-dollar bills. Pending trial, he was released on five thousand dollars bail, which he promptly forfeited, and was again a fugitive.

February 18, 1873, one Tom Hayes was detected passing counterfeit money at Cairo, Ill., but it was not discovered that “Tom Hayes” was none other than the much-wanted John Ogle until after he had made good his escape. So chagrined were the officers over this second break that all the resources of the department were employed to effect his capture, and but a week had passed before he was found in Pittsburg and taken to Springfield, Ill., for trial. This time there was no escape, and he served five years in Joliet. As he stepped from the prison door Marshal Thrall, of Cincinnati, confronted him with an order for his removal to answer the indictment of May, 1872. The Cincinnati jail was undergoing repairs. A painter had left his overalls and hickory shirt in the corridor near the cage where Ogle was placed. Adroitly picking the lock of his cell with his penknife, he donned the painter’s clothes, took up a paint-bucket, and coolly walked down-stairs, past the gate (which the guard obligingly opened for him), through the jailer’s office, and into the street. Proceeding leisurely until out of sight of the prison, the daring criminal made his way to the river, which he crossed at Lawrenceburg, and, discarding his borrowed apparel, struck across the country, finally bringing up at Brandenburg, Ky., where he obtained employment as a stonecutter. Respectability was, however, inconsistent with Ogle’s early training; so about a week after his arrival he broke into a shoe-house of the town, stole $200 worth of goods, and was arrested three days later while trying to dispose of his plunder in Louisville. Fearing a term in the Frankfort prison for some reason, he informed the Kentucky officers that a large reward was offered for his return to Cincinnati. This had the desired effect, and he was sent to the Ohio penitentiary to serve five years.

Returning to Cincinnati at the expiration of this enforced confinement, he met his brother, who had just been released from an eight-year “trick” in the Western Pennsylvania penitentiary, and, altho no real affection existed in the breast of either for the other, John needed money, and Miles had money and required assistance in a contemplated enterprise. An understanding was soon reached, and these two dangerous lawbreakers joined forces in another scheme to debase their country’s currency. Using the same conveyance employed by their father in his plundering expedition (a house-boat), they started from Cincinnati and drifted down the Ohio River, John steering and keeping watch while Miles plied the graver. When the plates for a twenty-dollar silver note and a ten-dollar issue of the Third National Bank of Cincinnati were complete, Miles took the helm and John went below to do the printing. $150,000 of the “coney” had been run off by the time they reached the mouth of the Wolf River, and here the trip ended. Disposing of the boat, the brothers started back to Cincinnati. En route they quarreled over the division of the notes, and separated with the understanding that John was to receive $500 of the proceeds of the first sales.

Miles did not keep faith, and John subsequently assisted the government officers in locating and securing his brother, who was arrested in Memphis, Tenn., on Christmas day, 1884, with $6,000 of the counterfeits in his pockets.

For a number of years thereafter John steered clear of offenses penalized by the federal statutes, and successfully feigned insanity when he could not escape punishment for crimes against the State by any other means.

This is what happened to one town marshal who caught Ogle in the act of burglarizing a store and failed to appreciate the character of his prisoner. It was between two and three o’clock in the morning when the capture was made, and as the lockup was located about a mile from the scene of the crime, the officer decided to keep the rogue in his room until morning. Carefully locking the room door and handcuffing John, he lit his pipe and made himself as comfortable as possible—so comfortable, in fact, that he was soon fast asleep. When he awoke his bird had flown, and the officer’s watch and purse were missing.

XVII
POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT

Every man and woman in the republic has a personal interest in this department of the government. You pay two cents for a stamp, throw a missive into a box, and start the machinery which requires 100,000 persons to run it. If your letter is for the Philippines, you use the railroad and the ocean steamer, with many relays of men and engines to perform your bidding. If your letter is for Alaska, you use the railroad, the steamship, and the reindeer team to deliver it. Not an hour, day or night, the entire year through, but men are toiling to hurry your mail to its destination If your letter is for one of the large cities, skilful men board the train, and as it approaches its destination distribute the mail for each district, so that your letter will not lie for hours in the central office. If your letter is to a busy farmer who may be in the midst of his harvest and has no time to go for his mail, one of the government’s faithful servants takes that letter to him. Yet we are much more likely, withal, to growl at Uncle Sam than to remember the faithful service we receive for so little money.

The Post-office Department is one which is not yet self-supporting. The last annual report of the Postmaster-General shows that the receipts from ordinary postal revenue amounted to $146,531,778.67; the receipts from money-order business, including for post-office orders which were uncalled for, added to the usual revenues, amounted to $111,631,193.39. The government expended $3,923,727.48 more than it received. This deficit is occasioned by the second-class matter, which includes newspapers and magazines paying less than cost of transportation. It is also due partly to the glaring abuse of the franking privilege by members of the Senate and House. If a description of what some of these men commit to Uncle Sam to carry for them free of charge were published they would hide their heads in shame. While this abuse continues we are not likely to get a one-cent rate on letters, a rate which would greatly benefit the entire country. Poor people are paying the postage for these Congressmen.

The United States Post-office Department and the post-office for the City of Washington are in a building on Pennsylvania Avenue, which extends over an entire square from Twelfth to Thirteenth Streets, N. W.

The Postmaster-General is a member of the President’s Cabinet. He receives $8,000 per annum for giving to his country services which a railroad or great newspaper would consider cheap at $25,000 per annum. There are four Assistant Postmaster-Generals who receive each about half as much as their chief. These are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

The Postmaster-General makes postal treaties with foreign governments, by and with the advice of the President, awards contracts, and directs the management of the domestic and foreign mails.

The First Assistant Postmaster-General has charge of the salary and allowance division, free delivery system, post-office supplies, money-order division, dead-letter office, and the general correspondence.

The Second Assistant Postmaster-General has charge of the contract division, division of inspection, railway adjustment (which includes weighing and deciding on what pay shall be given railroads), the mail equipment division, and foreign mails.

The Third Assistant Postmaster-General has charge of postage stamps and postmasters’ accounts, registry office, and the special delivery system.

The Fourth Assistant Postmaster-General has the appointment of many postmasters and of post-office inspectors, and has charge of the bonds and commissions for postmasters. This last place is now filled by Mr. J. L. Bristow, of Kansas. During the first year of Mr. Roosevelt’s Presidency Mr. Bristow officially decapitated as many as fifty postmasters a day, and it is claimed it was a slow year in the business. Of course, for every one who lost his place some other fellow was made happy.

No impure books, pamphlets, or papers are allowed transportation by the United States mail. Men in this employ have a right to insist that their work shall not include indecent matter. As far as possible the government tries to prevent advertisers of dishonest businesses from using the mails for fraudulent gain. It is to be hoped that the time may soon come when all financial schemers who now defraud the wage-earning class by circulars on mining, oil, or industrial stock, or other doubtful enterprises, shall be obliged to prove to the government officials that the scheme represented is just what the circular sets forth. All Building Associations and Insurance Companies should pass under the same law. Good people would be glad of this inspection, and bad people make it necessary.

The Postmaster-General recommends that the government have inspectors appointed who shall see that neither telegraph nor express companies be permitted to carry matter for lotteries or any known fraudulent enterprise. The McKinley and Roosevelt administrations will be noted for the improvement and extension of the rural delivery system.

The dead-letter office is one of great interest, and is found in the general post-office building. Of unclaimed letters there were last year nearly six million; of misdirected letters, 454,000; and of letters without any address, 39,837. Any letter which is unclaimed at a post-office after a few weeks is sent to the dead-letter office. Here it is opened, and if it contains the name and address of the writer, the letter is returned; but letters signed “Your loving Amy,” “Your devoted mother,” “Your repentant son,” fail to reach the eyes and hearts of those who wait for them in vain. East year 526,345 unclaimed letters written in foreign countries, probably to loved ones in the United States, were sent to the dead-letter office. Think of the heartaches which that means! Think of the loves and friendships wrecked thereby!

Letters whose envelopes display the business card of the writer are returned to the sender by the local postmaster after a certain period. Papers, magazines, and books with insufficient postage are sent to the dead-letter office, held for a short time, and then distributed to hospitals, asylums, and penal institutions.

Wherever “Old Glory” floats, there the servants of Uncle Sam carry his mail. Of this department every citizen should be proud, for its speed and efficiency is equaled by no other mail service in the world.

XVIII
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

About fifty years ago, at the request of Hon. H. L. Ellsworth, the sum of one thousand dollars was set apart in the interest of agriculture; now there is a Department of Agriculture, and its Secretary is a member of the President’s Cabinet.

The present Secretary of this department is Hon. James Wilson, of Iowa. He served several terms in Congress, was Regent of the State University of Iowa, and for six years prior to his present appointment was Director of the Iowa Experimental Station and professor of agriculture at the Iowa Agricultural College, Ames, Iowa.

The Department of Agriculture consists of twenty different divisions, each one of which is worthy of a complete chapter. The department has many buildings, but the main one stands within the grounds of the Smithsonian Institution, in a bower of blooming plants and clinging vines. Every kind of plant from the tropics to the Arctic Circle which can be made to grow in this climate can be found in this department.

Studies in ornamentation, best methods of grafting, pruning, budding, hybridizing, and treating diseases of plants, trees, and animals are thoroughly investigated at its experimental stations.

Vegetable and flower seeds, grass seeds, plants, trees, bulbs, and grape-vines are distributed in the department through the Senators, members, and delegates of Congress. By this means the best varieties of the vegetable kingdom are carried throughout the United States. During the coming year the country will be more carefully districted, and only such seeds and plants as have been thoroughly acclimated will be sent to the several districts.

Members of Congress from cities exchange their quota of vegetable and crop seeds for flower seeds, thus leaving more of the former for members with a farming constituency.

The following statement shows the amounts of seeds, bulbs, plants, and trees, so far as the allotments have been made, for the fiscal year 1902–1903:

Each Senator, member, and delegate will receive—
Vegetable Seed	12,000 packages, 5 papers each.
Novelties Vegetable Seed	500 packages, 5 papers each.
Flower Seed	500 packages, 5 papers each.
Tobacco Seed	110 packages, 5 papers each, to districts growing tobacco.
Cotton Seed	70 packages, 1 peck each, to districts growing cotton.
Lawn Grass Seed	30 packages.
Forage Crop Seed	Allotment not yet made.
Sorghum Seed	Allotment not yet made.
Sugar Beet Seed	Allotment not yet made.
Bulbs	10 boxes, 35 bulbs each; or 20 boxes, 17 bulbs each.
Grape-vines	8 packages, 5 vines each.
Strawberry Plants	10 packages, 15 plants each.
Trees	20 packages, 5 trees each.

For seed distributed alone the government appropriates $270,000. Think of the beneficence of that! The rarest and best seeds that money can buy will be planted in every State and Territory of this country. Experts are continually sent abroad to find new cereals, fruits trees, animals, and flowers.

The department has at least one correspondent in every county of the United States through whom the statistics on acreage, quality of crops, and success of experiments are reported at stated times.

All questions pertaining to farming are answered by this department. If a man desires to buy a farm in Kansas or Alaska, a portion of the country of which he knows little, the department will tell him of the climate, the crops likely to be remunerative, and the obstacles of soil or climate to overcome. A chemist will analyze the soil for him, tell him what it contains, and what it needs to produce certain crops. An entomologist will tell him the insects prevalent which may destroy his crops. The scientist will also tell him how to destroy the inserts, what birds to encourage and what to banish.

At Summerville, S. C., the government has a tea farm with a fully equipped factory, and the tea produced is claimed by experts to equal the best imported article. This year one thousand acres of rice land near Charleston, S. C., will be put in tea. The cost of producing American tea is about fifteen cents a pound; the yield is four hundred pounds to the acre, the wholesale selling price forty to fifty cents per pound, and the retail price seventy-five cents to one dollar per pound.

In the wheat-growing States the government is trying a fine variety of macaroni wheat, in order to compete successfully with the imported article, of which $8,000,000 worth enters this country annually.

In the cotton States the government is trying Egyptian cotton, which is now imported to the value of $8,000,000 annually.

In Arizona and other dry tracts dates and other Egyptian fruits are being successfully acclimated. In the hot states rubber, coffee, bananas, and cocoa are being tried.

Our fruit markets are being extended into Europe, and special agents and consuls are using every influence to enlarge this market. At the Paris Exposition our pears, apples, peaches, and plums were a never-ending surprise to people of all lands. Californians made us all proud of them by their lavish generosity, and the result has been that pears and apples have been sent in large quantities to Southern Europe, also to Russia and Siberia.

New cottons are being sent throughout the South, new prunes and plums along the Pacific Coast. Important experiments are being made in sugar producing. Pineapples are being acclimated in Florida, plants which produce bay rum and various perfumes are being introduced in several states, and olives from Italy are being tried in Porto Rico and the Philippines.

In many different States soils have been examined. In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, it was found certain soils contain ingredients to produce the finest Cuban tobacco, and other soil regarded as useless was shown to be capable of producing certain rare plants. Every state should call for this kind of analytic help, until we make the United States the garden of the world.

XIX
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY ON PURE FOODS