Evening Star Newspaper, February 17, 1894, Page 17

——\_-—_———__ ‘TRE EVENING STAan is served to subscribers in tl city by carriers, on their own acco: re Breents ouch By tiniisanywhors” ac! mail—any where States or powags prepaid month. SaTURDAT QUINTUPLE SHEET Star $1.00 per year with toreizn postage added, $3.00. 1B (Entered at the Post Office at Washington, D. C., | as second-class mail matter. Al maj! subscriptions must be paid in atvance Kates of aivertisine made known on application. es. Che Zpening Stav.re WASHINGTON, D. C,, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1894-TWENTY PAGES. EW LIBR THE NEW LIBRARY Uncle Sam’s Book Palace and Its Wonderful Features. > GOLDEN DOME AND GLASS WAREHODSES Railroads for Window Washers and Electric Lines for Carrying Books. A CHAT WITH MR. SPOFFORD. Written for The Evening Star. ' iat AN AFTER- noon this week in go- ing through the new | National Library! building. I can't be-! gin to describe it. It) will be the finest pub- | lie building in the United States, and it! will be the most! beautiful Mbrary in| the world. It covers nearly four aczes,and | it is already under roof. Its walls are as high as those of the tallest New York fiat, and you can lose yourself in its long | corridors and winding passages. It has a dome plated with the purest ef gold, larger than the largest @reus tent, and the golden torch which flames over its top, though it iooks not bigger around than your fist as viewed from the Capitol, is in reality as big as a hogshead, and it may be seen from Alexan- dria and fa> down the Potomac. This new } library building is a work of wonderful art. Its exterior is made of drab granite cut in places so smooth that it looks like marble and o:namented here and there with won- derful carvings. The building has = 1,800 windows, and the four sides of the main gallery have thirty-three great arches, the keystones of which are images repre- senting the heads of all the races of the world. Every type of man known to eth- nology has a place in one of these arche: and the faces are marvelous in their execu- tion and character. Over the main en- trance are the types of the highest o-der of men, such as the Greek, the Latin and the Saxon, while at the back of the building you find the lowest types, such as you find in Africa and in the South Sea Islands. I can't describe the wonderful execution of these figures. They are the most lifelike pictures in stone I have ever seen, and they seem to almost talk to you as their stern, stony eyes look down at you from over the windows. ‘This butlding covers nearly as much space as the Capitol. Its dome is not so large, but its plate of gold makes it infinitely more conspicuous. If you will take five city lots and carpet them with 2-carat gold you will get an idea of the golden quilt which cov- ers this immense dome. There is no :oom in the United States so large that it would fit this great golden carpet, and it is the | largest golden dome in the United States. | It has been called the largest golden dome in the world. But this is a mistake. The | dome of St. Isaac's in St. Petersburg has a smaller diamete-, but it covers more space and it cost infinitely more than this. It took 2 pounds of solid gold to cover it, and when you remember that gold at the mints is worth $17 an ounce you will see that even at that low rate the St. Peters- burg dome cost $40,000 to gild. } The Golden Dome. The gold on the dome at Washington did! Bet cost one-tenth of that amount. It was/ ut on in little sheets, each of which was about four inch one one hun- dred and fift of an ineh thick. It takes two thousand such sheets to make sold, and this amount w bout as large as that of the vestibule. The gold made in} form costs $27 an ounce, and at that Fate it must have cost over $40,000 to gild St. Isaac's. Russia has many cathedral domes piated with gold, and the gold-plated temples of the world are many. In Bur-}| Mak and Siam there are paxodas and tem- | Dies covered with gold, and at Rangoon I! saw 2 pagoda about two-thirds as high as the Washington monument which is a great found mountain just plastered with gold leaf. The dome of the capitol at Boston 1s gold-plated, as are also those of the/ Connecticut state nouse at Hartford and the Hotel Des Invaiids at Paris. I went up | to the top of this golden dome yesterday | and took a look at it. The gold is laid upon copper, and it is polished so that it is as t as a new wedding ring. It is said to be very durable. and is on the whole, I — not, cheaper than the white lead with hich i- as, and one of rly jost his life at the work. The top of the dome is, I judge, about one-third the height of the Washington monument | from the earth. This man was working on oe smooth surf: when his foot slipped, it as it were a mountain. He cam ne edge at a ome - y and shot over it on to the © of the granite which runs around its base. His on the inside of this ra flown in a heap on th te » struck the top ch higher he wonkr rand w have fallen @ sheer 159 fect > the granite lying in court be This is the only really t that has occurred in the 1 though hundreds of men have | it for several years | ; i tacombs. | I can't describe the wonders of the in- terior of the National Library. My head ding. an¢ been } i ARY BUILDING. | Jeffers buzzed as I walked through the many rcoms and tried to understand it all. You could lose yourself in its basement as in the catacombs of Rome and wahder for hours trying to find your way out. The grand staircase, which takes up a space equal almost to that of a quarter of an acre,is to be finished in white marble and the great marble columns which rise one above another are already in place and surround- ed with wooden boards to keep them from injury. The reading room will be in the rotunda in the center of the building and it will be covered with the dome. This room will be as large as the rotunda of the Capitol and its area will be about a quarter of an acre. It will have seats for 300 readers and the desks of these run in concentric rows around the central desk in which the manager of the reading room will sit and from which he will have con- nections with all paris of the library by | pneumatic tubes or other modern inven- tions, which will enable him to send a message im the twinkling of an eye to any part of this great book palace, and by the ; touching cf a button bring back the book he wants. Electricity and everything that ‘the modern mind can think of has come ; to the atd in adding to the conveniences of the library, and it is now thought that an electric railroad will be built to carry the books from the old library of Congress in the Capitol over to this new building. From this great central dome run out Ike arms massive buildings in which are to be housed our national library of the | future. These are known as book stacks, but the word conveys no idea of their char- cter. Imagine a great long warehouse with glass walls as high as one of the largest New York flats and hundreds of feet in length. Let the sides of these be | walled with glass set into square columns of white enameied brick and have the plate glass wedged into these columns without framework, as is the case in windows. | | Make the interior to consist of one mass of iron network running from the floor to the roof, so that when you stand within it you see nothing but iron frames rising one above the other and filling the whole vast high room. This may give you some idea of the book stack. The iron network con- sists of book shelves, and these are reached by stairs which run from one tier of tron to another and by walks of iron paved with marble, which are suspended between the tiers at regular intervals from the floor to the roof. There are several of these vast bouk warehouses in the building. The one I have just described will contain 800,000 books, or more than are now in the Na- tional Library. The walls of glass give per- feet lignt and the books are so arranged that.the.greatest numbers can be packed into the smallest compass, making every pamphlet thoroughly accessiblé. ~* Some Keystone Fac I have spoken of the 1800 windows of this building. Those of the interior and of these stacks are set into the walls, great, mas- sive pieces of plate glass, as large as good- sized store fronts. It is not possible to raise or lower them, and they are made so for the protection of the books, in order that no dust may enter. The ventilation is all done from the roof, and these windows are washed on the outside by means of a little railroad which runs areund them from | story to story, on which the washers can stand and scrub them clean. The acres of ficor in this great book palace will be of marble. The walls of the rotunda are of colored marbles from all parts of the Unit- ed States, and in the whole vast, high, four acres of wonderful rooms not a spiin- ter of wood has been used. Mr. Green, the engineer in charge, told'me, there will not be enough wood in the build- ing when it ig completed to make a match. ‘This building is to cost $% The State, War and Na St $10,000,008 upon’ the Capitol expende told, something like Unel will get more for his money out of this | than out of either of the others. All of the work is being done under the govern- ment, and everything is built to outlast the ages, and of the very best material. In one of the rooms I found an army of car- vers at work making wonderful decorations which are to adorn the exterior, and throughout the whole building everything went on perfect control and in perfect order. building will be completed in about years, and within tw: The The Present Library. From here I walked over to the Capitol and took a stroll through the library Cengress. Every available room in the building is packed with books, and the li- brary proper is so full that you have to march through single file in order to get | I pushed | from one part of it to the other. my way past a mountain f bound newspa pers up to the main ce and asked Mr. i Spofford, the libra@@ian, to tell me something about the condition of the library today, | and as to how the great American brain was acting. Ev one at Washington | knows Mr. Spofford. He has been with the | Wbrary for more than a generation, and he knows more about books and their con- tents than any other man in the United Stat ‘There are in the National Library nearly | 700,000 volumes, and in addition to. this there are over 200,00) pamphlets. Spot ford’s brain is such that he s just where each one of these 700,00) volume: stands, and he can teil you in an instant just which of them ought to help you on any subject you are studying. It is the same with the pamphle the wonder | is how one little iron can hold ft ail. He is a curious-locking man, as dar! as a Spaniard. He has black ‘hair and whiskers, now mixed with gray. His eye are bright. His frame is short. lithe an wiry, and evezy atom of it is made up of muscle. He is the busiest man in the Cap- itol building and he knows how to do work spond- which as the quickly. He dictates all of his corr ence, and his ordi : ssi ss of books which surround him. ys feel afraid to report him. means and if you m: word or a figure you feel that it will © his black hair to stand on end in indigna- tion when he reads it. He is with all this a very accessible man, and to people who have business with him there is no one more ready to talk. I told him what I wanted and he took me into a little cub! hole in one corner of the library and th: rattled answers to my questions at the rate of 100 words 2 minute. I asked him as to the story of the library and as to the new building. He said: “Be- fore Congress came to Washington it had access for a time to the books in the Lo- ganian Library in Philadelphia. The little city contained a number of scholars and there was not much trouble in getting in formation. When the capital was moved to Washingtcn, however, Congress found it- self in the woods and there were no books of reference or general libraries, n became President, the library was first established and an appropriation of $1,000 @ year was devoted to it. In 1814 Ali is composed | | of iron, stone, cement and glass, and, as like the work of an army under | two | years and a half the | new library will be in thorough operation. | of | eal When | we had here about 3,000 volumes. Then the British came and burned the Capitol and the books went up in smoke. A short time after this, President Jefferson, who had gotten into financial straits at Monticello, offered his library for sale to Congress. He had, all told, between six and seven thou- sand volumes, many of which were valuable and rare. Congress paid him $23,000 for them, which was, it is said, just about half what they cost him, and they were hauled in wagons from Monticello to Washington. Parton, Jefferson’s biographer, says they made sixteen wagon loads of books and that Jefferson was very sorry to lose them. In 1851 the library had increased to 55,000 volumes, Then another fire occurred and | 5,000 of these were burned,including many of the most valuable. The fire took place from defective flues, and only 20,000 vol- Librarian A. R. Spofford. umes were saved from the ruins. By this time Congress thoroughly appreciated the need of « good library and the year follow- ing ) were appropriated for new books, and the appropriations have gone on from that time to this until we now have 680,000 volumes and 220,00) pamphlets. Last year we added about 14,000 volumes to the library and the copyrights are now increas- ing our stock at the rate of 50,000 and up- ward per year.” A Model Institution, “Tell me something about the new li- brary.” . “It will be one of the finest libraries of the world, and it will be as pertect as mod- |ern invention and modern science can make it. The three great enemies of books are dust, heat and moisture. As to heat and |fire, we have prevented this by putting tne | heating arrangements away from the main ‘structure and there will be no possibie jchance for anything to catch fire. ‘There | Will be nothing in the building that would ; burn except the books, and 1 hope to nave the heat so arranged that the whole buid- ing will-never be at a higher temperature | than Us. ‘Phe windows are so fixed that the | building will be dust proof. It 1s situated in a park and surrounded by streets whicn are not much used. ‘Che windows, save those of the top, will never be opened, and it will be one of the cleanest buildings in the world. As to moisture, we went down fifty feet to get the foundations in order | that there might be no dampness connected with them, and our heating arrangements are such that there will be no possible dan- ger trom dampness. Another great advan- tage will be the having of ail the work con- jneeted with the library under one roof. As |it Is now we send valuable books every day |from here to the government printing of- |fice to be bound. ‘he danger of loss is in |many ways great, and 1 trembie when 1 let them go.” “How about the binding of books, Mr. Spofford “It is a science in itself, and all itbrarians should watch very carefully the binding ot | their volumes. It is only a man ot books | who knows how a book should be bound.” 1 examine and pass upon every book that {comes from the bindery, and this 1s now @ ‘great task. I began it when the library | was small and keep it up today. ‘rere 1s great danger that a title will be misspelled lor that the book will be improperly stitened jor covered. 1 am strongly im favor of the | binding ot books in leather rather than cait jand it pays to use the best of materials. Leather-bound books are first laced to the |boards by twine or cords, to which the leaves are sewn. ‘The leather 1s pasted jever this and it makes a strong and dura- ‘ble covering. There is a vast difference in | the qualities of leather, and the best cover- jing is a genuine Levant morocco. I do not |like calfskin. It is too brittle and it breaks jat the joints. ‘he average morocco ts often colored sheepskin. ‘This is soft and easily worn out. Russia leather also breaks at the joints, while as for the shoddy subst- | tutes for leather and calf, they ought never to be used in @ public library. As to color, |1 am strongly in favor of red. It does not fade and it livens up the dark-colored books. This question of binding books, however, 1s one that will admit of a great deal of «is- cussion. As for myself, 1 believe that the very best binding ts the cheapest in the end I think that magazines ought always |to be bound with the covers and advertise- |ments, as these are sometimes very valu- able as historical material, giving the date and price of each number, and as time goes on matter which becomes very interesting.” FRANK G. CARPEN | -— ~o Bs | CLOCK AND CLOAK. } a | A Misunderstanding About the Word | Led to a Detectives Annoyance. | From the Toledo Commercial. The whole detective force, as well as every man on the police staff, is holding his sides with laughter over a little incident which oc- curred yesterday afternoon. It seems that a cloak had been reported as stolen from the high school. One of the able detectives read over the report as the chief or some one had jotted it down, but some way he got it “clock” instead of “cloak.” “Lt know where that clock is,” he re- | marked. ‘The cther detectives looked at each other, every man of them catching onto the mis- take quick as scat. “Better go over and get it,” one of the officers remarked. And, accordingly, the detective — disap- pe on St. Clair street | big ofd- | eb pointed toward a great ‘ashioned clock on the wall, with a ‘ch front to it, and asked: Here, I want that clock; it's stolen.” “I bought dot clock for— | But the detective would allow no expla- nation, and rushed back to his office, brave- ly lugging along the clock. He set it up in a prominent place in the office and remark- ec “There it is.” It cost the boys an effort, but they sup- pressed their feelings. All sat a few min- utes, when finally and commenced read gain. When he came hig detective gasped: “What? But it was so. half a dozen tim Nicht pened the book off the reports to the cloak thief t th He looked the book over and there it was cloak jinstead of clock. With sincere contrition and apology on the part of the bearer, the clock was lugged back to Stark’ | see | DANGER IN BEING DECORATED. | Empty Ruttonne | Be use of an Anare Sts Thrent, | foreigner who has visited Paris |has been struck by the enormous number | lof men wearing the rosette either of | Legion of Honor or else of some fi decoration in the buttonhole of th | of their coats. the me decore, and once they attained that distinction, they never |dream of moving out of the house without th sette in their buttenhole. You may imagine, therefore, the sensation created ing the past few days by the almost | complete disappearance of these bits of rib- j The cause is related by Vogue's correspondent. The young anarchist who coi onslaught on the le the latter was dining at the Bouillon Duval restaurant in the Avenue de Opera explained that he had selected the diplomat as his victim simply because he happened to be the only person in the place who was wearing tie red ribbon of the Legion of Honor in his buttonhole. He informed the police author- ities that on the evening before the tragedy he had visited another restaurant hoping |to find there an aristocrat of whom “to make an example,” and that while he saw |a great many well-dressed men, none of them happened to wear a decoration, ihence he postponed his design. red, rushed over to a second-hand store, | es the Rule in Paris | BENCH HUMORS| Methods That Are Followed in the Supreme Court. FOUR YEARS 0 GET A HEARING Some of the Personal Peculiar- ities of the Justices. THEY HAVE NO _ SINECURE Written for The Evening Star. HAT PRESIDENT Cleveland did not nominate Mr. Horn- blower a second time | for the Susreme | Court was a surp-ise to some people. Chief | Justice Taney’s| name was rejected twice by the Senate before he was tinally confirmed for that office. Meanwhile! the great mechanism | of has been lacking a cog-wheel. To call it by that title is to do it no injustice, inas- much as nine out of every ten cases sub- mitted to this high tribunal are carried up | to it not for the purpose of obtaining the | reversal of decisions rendered by lower courts, but purely and simply for the sake of delay—ordinarily to keep people out of money which they have won by suits at law. How effective this plan is may be judged when it is considered that after procrastination | must ordinarily elapse before the latter can come up for consideration. There are 4,000 cases on the docket now. No other legal tribunal that ever existed has possessed such well-nigh absolute power as is wielded by the Supreme Court of the United States. It can even overthrow any law passed by Congress and signed by the President, if it chooses to discover a con- stitutional flaw in the measure, and from its decision there is no appeal. Such awe does it inspire that lawyers of great reputa- tion and experience who come here to plead before it are often seized with fright tremble, turn pale and forget their words in its presence. A distinguished legal lumi- nary from New York confessed the other day that, after arguing a case at the bar of the Supreme Court, he always goes straight to his hotel and changes his under. clothing, because it is soaked with per- spiration! On the other hand, it some- times happens that a country attorney, who says “drawed” and “ain't got none,” will exhibit the utmost sangfroid in ad- dressing the august row of black gowns, They Will Get Lost. ‘On-a recent.occasion an advocate of this caliber was arguing a patent case before the court. He claimed an infringement of rights in the manufacture of a new style collar button. Incidentally, he spoke at length and with enthusiasm of the varied merits of the invention. Justice Shiras, who is the humorist of the supreme bench, interrupted his glib discourse by saying: “I wish to ask if, among the numerous admirable qualities of this collar button, one of particular amd indespensable import- ance is embraced. In a word, if it falls and rolls under the bureau, can it be found again?” p The query was put with the utmost ap- parent gravity, and it staggered the lawyer completely, so that, after adding a few hesitating remarks, he closed his argument. Justice Brown and Justice Harlan were | both convulsed with mirth, because it hap- pened that each of them had lost a collar button that very morning. Brown's had rolled under the fireplace and lodged in a spot secure from recovery behind the gas log. Whether the joke had any influence in the decision favorable to the plainttt which was readered, nobody can tell. |The mid-day meals for the justices are fetched by their messengers from the res- taurant of the Senate to the private lobby back of the bench. Because a majority of the nine judges provided by law must al- Weys be present in order to make a quo- rum, they go out to eat one or two at a time. A Man of Regular Habits. The late Justice Blatchford was a very remarkable man in respect to the regularity of his personal habits. For years and years, every day at precisely fifteen minutes past 1 o'clock to the second, he would leave the | bench and go into the lobby for his lunch. The meal was always of exactly the same | Kind and quantity of food. He returned to his chair invariably at the same minute. He began shaving himself at the same minute every morning. He paid the same sum for everything each month. Even his letters on business matters of routine were always {framed in the same words. many hours and so many minutes every { night, waking up at the moment when the | clock’ pointed to the hour of 7. His amuse- | ments were regulated with similar exact | tude. His death was a great surprise to his | colleagues, who had imagined that he Would jhardly permit even the dread enemy of mankind to interrupt the methodical cour: of his existence. Besides, the extraordina’ regularity of his habits ought to have in. sured his survival to the age of 100 at least A little peculiarity of Justice Gray is that he does not wear his coat under his black gown, as his colleagues do, He is a very bout three inches over six feet in and weighs clos 0) pounds. is probably the heavier of the two. trick of Harlan’s is a peculiar nervous measures | of twitching his head. Brown and graduates of Yale College and w the same class there. They are fond of . gi like two big b having ap- pointed by President Lincoin learned man and one of the g umes unque: ad writes modern ted alealde of Marysville, Mexican law cumbent of that office although his |. * authority limited, he w. 1 on to exercist power almost de: ty in the control of the lawless elements, | which required a strong hand to deal with them at that time. Justice Field is quite To carry a case up to the Supreme Court good deal of money. The appel- nts must make a deposit of $1,000 ordi- arily to pay for printing and fees. ‘The late clerk of the court, named, Middleton, received an income of about $50,000 from fees, as it was reckoned. But a disagree- ment which arose among the clerical offi- cers attached to the tribunal gave rise to an investigation, a result being that the pay of the clerk was cut down to $6,000 a year. This is paid out of the fees, the bal- ance being turned into the treasury. Methods of the Court. Unless a case before the Supreme Court is unusually important, only one hour is al- lowed for argument on each side. From fifteen to twenty cases are disposed of each week. Though a new case ordinarily must wait about four years before coming up for consideration, an almost immediate hearing for it cam be secured by submitting it on | “locked docket.” | vealed to anybody. | Harlan’s — specialty the briefs in a case are filed four years | He slept so} full-blooded and v man, so that he | docs not require so much clothing to keep 'him warm. He anc Harlan are the twin! | giants of the Supreme Court. Each of them { yle now and is not called on to do much briefs—that is to say, if the lawyers on both sides are willing to forego the opportunity of arguing and place the matter before the court in the shape of a condensed statement j with references to legal authorities,&c.Ques- tions of constitutional law always have right of way ahead of anything else. Ap- peals from the Court of Claims likewise are pettled as quickly as possible. The reports ‘of the supreme tribunal now number 15) volumes, of about 750 pages each. Fifty of these volumes have been issued since 1880, or one-half as many as were published dur- ing the previous century. Every Saturday during term time the cases which have been called for considera- tion during the week are discussed by the justices in secret conference. The chief justice takes up cach case in turn and starts the talk about it by asking the junior jus- tice—that is, the justice last appointed—what he thinks respecting it. General conversa- tion on the subject follows, and sometimes the argument becomes very hot. Finally a vote on the merits of the case is taken, be- ginning with the junior and going up the list in the order of seniori:y. Supposing Peckham appointed, the order of voting would be Peckham, Jackson, Shiras, Brown, Brewer, Gray, Harlan, Field and Fuller. “The chief,” as his associates call him, votes last. The order of precedence, in this instance inverted, is observed with the ut- most scrupulousness among the justi The votes are recorded in a clasped volume provided with a lock, which is known as the Its contents are not re- If they got out, the news might be used for speculative’ pur-| poses. But the voting at conference does not de- cide the case finally. On the samé night usually the chief assigns all of the cases which have been thus discussed and voted on to the associate justices for re-examina- tion. He gives them out with reference to the recognized specialties of the judges. is constitutional! law. ene) forte is admiralty law, embracing everything which has to do with commerce on the high seas. Field is exceptionally well informed as to land grants and mining. | Gray is an excellent all-round man, with a marvelous memory for precedents. No such expert in patent law now lives as the late Justice Bradley. He had a genius for me- chanics and could state a mechanical propo- sition with a lucidity that was fairly won- derful. No Courtesy Here. Each justice goes over the case assigned to him just as if he had never seen it be- fore, though he has already become familiar with it. He writes out his opinion respect- ing its merits, and sends the manuscript to the printer. Proofs are returned to him at once, and he sends one of them to each | of the other justices. They cut it to pieces, altering it ruthlessly, correcting its style end diction, criticising its law, and even changing the spelling and punctuation. There is no such thing as Supreme Court courtesy. No embarrassment of etiquette restrains one justice from chewing up the j opinions of another. The late Justice | Blatchford was a perfect crank on punctua- tion. In that particular, the writings of his colleagues never satisfied him. The eight proofs, thus corrected, are sent back to the author of the opinion. He re- vises the latter in the light of the sugges- | Hons thus received. But even now it is not complete. On the next Saturday it is taken up in conference and again criticised and amended, cut down or added to. Of | course, you see,the document must eventual- ly represent the united opinion of the whole bench. Once in a while, though not often, it happens that one or more of the judges dissent from the opinion of the majority, and in that case, a minority opinion will be rendered. The case is decided, ordinari- ly, in accordance with the voting in the original conference, but this muy be re- versed. Finally, the justice who wrote the opinion delivers the judgment of the -court by reading the document. If it is long, he reads only the “gist” of it. It is then hand- ed over to the reporter of the tribunal, who has charge of the publication of the reports ie Supreme Court. It appears there in ‘ull. Not an Easy Position. Each justice must be familiar with all cases that are submitted to the court, so as to be able to vote intelligently in conter- ence, This involves an enormous amount of work. The notion that the judges of the Supreme Court have an easy time is a mistake. The annuai session lasts for six months, during which not one of the gentle- men of the black robe is ever absent for a day, save on account of serious illness. Rarely is one of them late in his chair. Five of them must be present in order to act. Once in two years each of them must go out on duty as a circuit judge. The United States is divided up into nine cir- cuits, one of which must be covered by each of the justices. That this duty is no sinecure is illustrated by the instance of Mr. Field, whose circuit includes California, Nevada, Oregon, Arizona and Alaska. 1t was while on circuit that Justice Field was attacked by the desperado Terry, husband of Sarah Althea Hill, and narrowly es- caped being murdered with a knife. Up to 18 the justices had to pay all their own expenses while on circuit; now it is other- wise. From the decision of a Supreme Court justice acting as circuit judge an ap- peal can be taken to the Supreme Court. All the present justices had experience as judges before they occupied places at the Supreme bench, except Shiras, Harlan and Fuller. A justice of the Supreme Court gets $10,- 000 @ year. The chief receives $10,500. The salaries are not suilicient to maintain the dignity suitable to such positions. They do not compare favorably with the emolu- ments of judges of high courts in England. Yet, for the sake of the honor, many a great lawyer has been glad to sacrifice ten times the income earned in practice at the bar. RENE BACHE. ae ene isi A WATER BICYC You Might at First Think It a Very Difficult Machine to Make, but It Isn't. From Hardware. At first sight a water bicycle would seem }a difficult thing to construct, but really it jis very simple. Take two cylindrical air | | and, placing them parallel with each other, fasten them together at a suitable distance apart. Here you have a raft. Now suspend the frame of the bicycle between the two, so that the front wheel will pass into the water to the depth of two or three | inches. This forms the steering apparatus. | Now fix to the spokes of the rear wheel | cross-pieces of wood, precisely as the wheel of a side-wheeled steam constructed, and. the propelling power is gained. The whole is capabie of great improvement, for as now the ordinary bicycle is applied to the float, special and much cheaper forms could be Indeed, on had in the economy of would have to go but a few steps further, and attach the twin- screw propeller to the aquatic noveity to produce desired results. As it now stands, the scope of the idea is limited to still wa- | ter, the slightness of the affair making it ; dangerous in its application to waters in any way turbulent. +00 mething im It.” vantage power. || From Life. “This taxin’ incomes ain't the thing to do said Uncle Silas. d to make the country rich,” “They'd oughter tax expenditure. Peoph spend less 'n’ save more then.”—Harpe: Bazar. could be’ got up, and also more of an ad-| TARIFF SPEECHES Those Who Will Deliver Them in the Senate. THE VICE PRESIDENTS LITTLE LIST Work for the Clerks in Preparing Data. AN EXTENDED DEBATE ie Written for The Evening Star. HE SENATE IS busy preparing for the great tariff de- bate, with the pros- pect that the discus- sion will continue for two, three or even four months. The average news- paper reader if he has not watched the progress of tariff dis- cussions in the past | will wonder, perhaps, how eighty-five Sen- ators will marage to consume three months in tariff debate. If each Senator had an entire legislative day allotted to him, with the privilege of speaking from 10 o'clock in the morning until 6 in the evening, the debate would last but little longer. And there are some Senators who will not speak to the bill at all. Yet it would not be difficult to prolong the debate through the whole ensuing summer. To balance the Senators who do not speak there are some | Senators, like Mr. Call of Florida, who speak on every possible occasion and some other Senators who are cften called to their feet by questions—whose knowledge of tariff matters makes them a constantly consulted authority. The best authorities on the tariff are not always the men who Say most about it in public. A great many of the cleverest speeches delivered on the floor of the Sen- ate are not written by the men who de- liver them, and the authority for many another is the private secretary of the Senator or a tariff expert who is called into consultation. It is noted of some Sen- ators that they are never ready in debate unless their private secretaries or their committee clerks are sitting at their el- bows. One member of the Senate finance committee, now in political retirement, made his reputation in the House of Rep- resentatives on a tariff speech which was written for him by a well-known news- paper correspondent, afterward clerk of the committee of ways and means. This Senator always had some one to prompt him when he was making one of his stately tariff speeches, for Senators on the other side of the chamber had an unpleasant way of cuttmg In with questions which he could not answer and throwing him off his oratorical feet. Few Ready Debaters. There are few ready tariff debaters in the Senate and the running discussion of the Wilson bill will be confined to five or six men. The other Senators will guard local interests and make set speeches. The Sena- tors who will ve heard most frequently from day to day are Vest, Mills, Jones of Arkansas, McPherson and Harris on the democratic side; Aldrich, Allison, Sher- man, Teller and Lodge on the republican. These are the men who will debate pend- ing amendments seriously and to the en- joyment of the Senate and the galleries. Then there are Stewart on the republican side and Call on the democratic side, who will be on their feet as frequently as the rules of the Senate permit, chiefly because they like to talk. Senator Stewart will surprise his colleagues if he does not de- liver at least one silver speech a week while the tariff bill is under discussion. As to Mr. Call, he is the hero of that fa- mous jer he one thing more tiresome than a call of the House is the Call of the Senate.” He talks on every subject and talks a great deal. The chief sparring will be between Vest and Aldrich—one of them next to the last of the democratic members and the other at the foot of the republi- can list in the finance committee. It is a singular fact that although Mr. Vest has never been chosen to take charge of a tariff biil—possibly because he is not guar- anteed to remain in perfect accord with the administ-ation through thick and thin— he is the readiest tariff debater on the democratic side of the Senate. Although he sometimes makes long prepared speeches he prefers to hold his facts, statistics and |arguments until there is an appropriate opening in a republican speech, and to put them in where they will do the most good. As to Mr. Aldrich, he is better read on economic subjects than any other man in the Senate. He is seldom at a loss for | Mlustzations and figures, and he can take up _a democratic speech at any point and answer it clearly and directly. ‘The two men have entirely different styles. Mr. Vest is short and round-bellied. There is an irsitable look in his face and a peevish tone in his nasal voice as he picks ‘up an. other Senator in debate and answers him two indications which belle Mr. Vests character, for he has the reputation of the best and jolliest story teller in the Senate, and the commerce committee sore, times spends the morning listening to a narrative from the Missouri Senator int stead of considering bridge bills. Senator Aldrich is a pleasant-faced man of medium height and good figure. He looks and talke essentially like what he is—a business man. He has none of the graces of the orator, while Senator Vest shows his Ken. | tucky blood in the vehemence with which he pours forth his sentences and the strong gestures with which he punctuates them, | Allixon and Sherman Well Equipped. | Senator Allison and Senator Sherman, | from many experiences with other tari bills, as well as from an excellent personal knowledge of the history of business con- ditions for a quarter of a century, are well fitted to go into a tariff discussion without preparation. Mr. Allison will do more work in running debate on amendments than in @ set speech. Mr. Sherman has an “awk- ward” meraory, which is of great value to the republican side in a tariff discussion. Mr, Lodge is more of a theorist than a man | of pracucal knowledge on the tariff, but he is a good talker and quick at retort. Mr Woleott of Colorado, by the way, will prob- ably interject some fun into the discussion any democratic orator leaves a good op: jing for him, but his chief effort will be care- !fully prepared and rehearsed before it is | delivered. Mr. Wolcott is making a repu- tation as the successor of Ingalls, and, uke | Ingalls, he always makes ample prepara- tion to entertain an audience and gives timely notice, so as to make sure that an audience will be on hand. | Strange to say, Mr. Mills is not a ready debater. It was noted when the tariff 1-il | which was named for him was under | cussion in the House that he was never prepared to answer interjected questions. If a member asked for information M: Mills usually had to wait until the next | | day to hunt up authorities before he could | jgive a reply. This weakness is unfortun- ate. Mr. Mills, was expected to take Mr. Carlisle's place’ in defending the tariff }il | With the exception of Mr. Vest Mr. Cz |lisle is the only ready debater of the tariff | question the democrats have had in the Senate since the death of Mr. Beck. In fact, the democratic side of the Senate is singularly weak in tariff debaters. Mr. McPherson is a shrewd man, but, leaving | quer purchi Congre vince the countr: ators are not pro TO ADVERTISERS, Advertisers are urgently re Quested to hand in advertisements the day prior to publication, in order that insertion may be as- sured. Want advertisements will be received up to noon of the day f publication, precedence being given to those first received. aside the fact that he is not supposed to be in thorough sympathy with the Wilson bill, he is not sufficiently well grounded im tariff facts to approach the subject with the easy contidence which convinces, Bir. Harris is one of the oldest members of the Senate. He is a student and has been through so many tariff discussions that it would be surprising if he did not know most of the arguments almost by heart. He will enter more or less into the running de- bate. Joe Blackburn knows more about horses than he does about tin plate, but he is @ master of retort, and he will be heard from occasionally. So will Hawley of Connecticut, who is a little heavy im argument, but well grounded in fact. Voorhees Better in a Set Speech. It is odd that Mr. Voorhees, the chaire man of the finance committee, should not be the leader of the tariff debate, but Mr. Voorhees is much better in a set speech than he is in a choppy argument. During the McKinley bill discussion Mr. Voorhees delivered a speech of reat length from manuscript. Mr. Morgan is another Sen- ator who usually prepares a tariff speech of some length. He has a record of a speech which ed three livery and which did not Any Ad much, either. His speeches read like Pol- ished essays, but his delivery is monoto- Prous. Mr. Cullom, as a presidential possibili always puts himself on record on the tart in an extended speech. Mr. Mor- question {i rill, the father of the Senate and the senior not make speeches on the Wilson bill. Each of them consid= ers it a duty to his state to tell how he stands toward protection, and why. There Will be a chance for ail of the orators, for the Senate never attempts to shut of the prepared oratorial effort as the House does. And all of the Senate speeches pill undoubtedny be delivered on the Senate . ere is no such -_ Print” in the Senate, une &# “leave to The order of the speech-making is in the hands of the Vice “4 an when has President. He may recog: follow his cust cussic ¥ pleases. Mr. Stevenson will omary rule in the tariff dis- ar neve several orators from each mate expect to speak, he will arrange to recognize them alternately: avot @ democrat and then a republican. ames of those who are to be recog- nized are entered on a little slip of paper. Which the Vice President has on the desi before him. This slip of paper tells him ‘ho is to make the first speech, and twenty other Senators might address the chair in opposition to the gentleman whose name headed the list and Mr. Stevenson would pass over them all. Senator wishes to Speak at length he must make arrange- ments in advance with the presiding officer. Clerks Preparing Data. The Senate clerks are Preparing for a heavy siege of work. Already petitions and memorials for and against features of the Wilson bill are being received. Benj. Dur- fee, the tariff expert of the finance commit- tee, has several thousand of these in his been If it was re-enacted in these days of chine-made petitions there would have @ special set of clerks assigned to the of entering petitions on the journal and put- ting them through the red-tape process which they eventually become a permanent feature of the files of the Senate. these petitions clog the files, but they are of little w Senators. In fact,not one in a hi of them is read. rere The Senate discussion on the tariff is con- sidered of more importance than the debate in the House, because the Senators are sup- posed to be much more independent of ex- ecutive influence, and, in fact, they have shown their independence in dealing with the President’s nominations. And, more- over. when the House was discussing the tariff there were two great possibilities that the Wilson biil would not Teach the Presi- dent—now there is only one obstruction, op= position in the Senate. May Be Prolonged. There ts very little doubt in the minds of any of the democratic Senators that the debate may be prolonged for several weeks. Republican Senators are anxious to delay the vate in the hope that influences may be brought to bear which will defeat the bill altogether. They have the precedent of o three months’ debate allowed to the demo- crats when the McKinley bill was under discussion, and they have little doubt that the democrats will be willing to accord them the same privilege of discussing at length the Wilson bill. Of course, the situation ts in their hands if they wish to take ad- vantage of it. Under the rules of the Senate debate can be prolonged by a stubborn mi- nority from the beginning of a session until its close, for the purpose of preventicg the Passage of an obnoxious measure. Once in the history of fhe Senate it adjourned with- out the transaction of any business because, the membership being divided equally be- tween the two parties, the democrats would not agree that the vote «f tne Vice Presi- dent should be cast to elecc a republican secretary and other officers. This is one of the few instances in whicn the power to filivuster in the Senate has been used to prevent action of any kind. It prevented legisiation in one notable instance recently— at the ume when the McKinley tariff bill and the federal elections bill (known as the “force bill”) were under discussion. A Jead- ing republican member of the Senate com- ¢ on finance said on the day the force came over from the House that it corid not pass the Senate. He said thai the demo- crats threatened that if the republicans a4 not consent to let it go over to the neat ses sion they would projong debate on the tariff bill until that measure, too, would Le en- dangered. The passage of the tariff Lill was @ political necessity. this Senator sad, and the republicans must tet the force bill The event proved the accuracy of his uae ment. The republican Senators ue force bill to save the tariff till. No Attempt to Filibuster. It is a notable fact that no attempt wae made to prevent the passage of the McKin- ley tariff bill by filibustering. In the same way republican Senators will offer mo ob- jection to the passage of the Wilson Dill after they have had a good opportunity to debate it and make it, if possible, so um acceptable to some of the democratic Sena- tors that it will not command the necessary majority when it fs put on passage. Several republican Senators sail, just before the vote on ihe McKinley bill was taken, that two, and possibly three, democratic votes could be had if they were needed. The dem- cerats who were said to be available for the passage of the McKiniey bill at that time are still members of the Senate, and the vote on the Wilson bill ought to show how much truth there was the statements made by the republican Senators four years ago. But, unless the cans believe straight pretty on. will last three » propositions from se debate and to Undoubtedly the finance committee will on four or five occasion enators to come to some un €arly vote can be That little ceremonial was performed Mr. Voorhees with praiseworthy y during the Jiscussion of the silver- se-repeal bill ct the special session of But this is dor chiefly to con- that the democratic Sen- onging the discussion will- eat pressure will be brought to by the representatives of business in- ; to have the debate brought to @ re that they can defeat the bill on vote before that time expires, it certain that the months. There rr, the democratic fix a time for 9 chairman of the arise in his plac and appeal to ement by whic! ingly bes terests to | speedy termination, so that the country may know what business conditions it has to meet. In deference to their demand, the democratic Senators will make demonstra- tions at regular intervals apparently look- ing to a termination of the discussion, bat really with no hope that the republican Sen- ators will respond to their appeals. The re- publican Senators will assume very willingly the responsibility for postponing the vote om the Wilson bill until every chance of defeat> ing it has been exhausted,