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THE EVENING STAR —____._ HED DAILY EXCEPT SUNDAY. aT THE STAR BUILDINGS, —_ {Try Evextxe Stan ts served to snbseribers in the gity by carriers, on their own account, at 10 cents h Copies at the counter 2 cents each. By maii—aaywhers In the United Btates or Canada—postace prepaid—50 cents per Ber week. or $4e. perm Bonth. SATURDAY QuINtrrrr SHEET Star 81.00 per year, With fcreten ‘postage ad led, 93.00. om (Extered at th fies at Washington, D. C., @ second-class 2} matter. ) S¥-All mail subscriptions must he paid in advance. Rates of alvertisins :avle known on application. | APRIL FOOLS IN PARIS ‘Only in the Gay French Capital They Are Called April Fish. QUEER NAMES FOR DRUNKARDS The Mother-in-Law, Too, is a Source of Amusement. BOME PECULIAR PRANKS ee Special Correspondence of The Evening Star. PARIS, March 9, 1894. ARISLANS, in handsome boxes. prepaid if sent by friendly jokers, “collect ff sent by malicious folks and enemies. At the other extreme, the confectioners do a special trade in beautiful, lifelike sugar fish for gentlemen to send to the ladies, as «@ kind of valentine. April 1 is full of tricks and catches every- Where In France. In Norman villages they ‘send young people looking for John Collins —only his name is Monsieur Petit-Jean. “He is waiting for you at the post office.” There the postmaster answers, “Inquire at the hotel." Madame, at the desk, sends the searcher into the cafe. The garcons grave- ly talk it over, disputing the whereabouts of M. Petit-Jean, and then direct him to the charcuterie (pork butcher's), or the epicerie (grocer’s), or to the Bureau de Tabac (shop of the government tobacco Monopoly), at any of which he wilNbe sent sieur Petit-Jean Here? on traveling. Just as they send boys out ‘ger “strap oil” in American towns, these Frenchmen start out innocents to find the buile de coteret, until it dawns upon them that oil is never extracted from dry blocks ef firewood. The Mbrairies (stationery shops) sell colored pasteboard fish, with sharp hooks in their mouths, to be attached and signs of “In- quire within,” and “I am drunk,” enliven even the dull streets of the most secluded to promenaders’ coat-tails; “I am incapable,” “I am betrayed, Villages. These are the elementary tricks. The Ubrairies will sell you more elaborate catches, all the way from pasteboard gold coins to fool your friends with, to rent receipts and a whole line of papers very like our comic valentines, only in form they have the look of genuine documents. One is a written lette> to be sent to a young lady, and it makes a lot of fun in lower, middle-ciass families. “Mademoiselle: Excuse my boldness and bear no grudge against me for the too great haste I am in to infurm you of my inten- tions toward you. It is two days since I saw you for the first time. You have pieased me. I have made inquiries about you, and, having found the answers excel- lent, 1 am coming to ask if you wiil con- Sent to join your destiny with mine. I send you herewith my portrait. If you find me to your taste, answer immediately, because I am dying of love for you.” finds the picture of a hog. that the Ameri- - picks up here and there, lit- n understanding of the radical tle by little ditfers his own. of this April fool is ntil she turns the page. The sirl does not feel insulted tf a young man coolly writes to her “£ have made inquiries about your character and find it good." before “he actually knows er. There is a good tr. te in invitations and free tickets to impossible or ridiculous en- m go into the newspay columns to announce Impossible bargains. wants and personals, The following, in the regulation form of such announcements, is to be sent by mai “Br: » du Chat-qui-Tete, Rue du Vieux Pont (Vieux Pont means the “old bridge,” and ff such a street existed No. 22 would be in the middle of the river Seine.) False Newspa ur: You are h to be ers Notices. vited to be present t the opening of ing Cat, which ist of April next at ladies of the estab- ckets, firecrackers and al tire and general con- WHO! quest, et make next to no ac- count of St. Valen- tine’s day, expend a fine amount of en- ergy in April fool- ing. An April fool ts called an “April dish,"polsson d° Avril, because he is hooked or caught. People receive stale fish wrapped up in cotton and packed carefully When the young lady turns the page, she like “I have tween the French ways eand| irl should believe the letter to be | a good number of the thirty nothing, lazy say the name ts deri | measure, which the | quanti {an | come: name to all the various classes of his subjects— st. Che Zyening Slave o-. “We count on your presence to give eclat to this little family fete.” P.S.—A generous hospitality will be offer- ed to clients who get too “ironclad” (ie., too drunk to leave) he permission “to enter the interior ‘of the obelisk” is a much more likely catch. The obelisk of Luxor is that splendid Egyp- tian monolith presented in 1831 by Mohamet Ali to King Louis Philippe. It stands in the bicodily historic Place de la Concorde, al- most on the spot of the revolutionary guil- lotine. It is a solid spire of red stone, very thick and high. At one side of its pedestal, protected by a railing, there is a little door, which only opens into a small room for the storage of fixtures and implements for the care of the neighboring beautiful fountain. The tickets “to vi the interior” are at- tached to a blank form in exact imitation of those issued by the minister of public in- struction and fine arts. The habit of the government to admit the ever-changing Population of sight seers to certain places of interest only on the presentation of such tickets (obtained free on written applica- tion) adds to the reality of the hoax. this exact name). “Monsieur—In accordance with your re- , etc., You are allowed to visit the interior of the obelisk of the Place de la Concorde. In case you cannot use this card yourself, pray see that two other per- sons may profit by to the guardian before entering. “We wish to visit the interior.” Waiting for the Obelisk to Open. sticks to the truth. “It’s full.” “When will it be empty?” The policeman shrugs his shoulders. Of the same nature is the official permis o visit the interior of the telephone tubes of Paris.” It resembles the real tick- ets given for visiting the sewers and the catacombs. From all these mock permissions and no- tions a great deal of solid information con- cerning French life, politics and law might be gleaned, by the wa: For instance, two of the most elaborate April fool hoaxes ar stamped “Permis de Peche” (fishing li- ecense) and “Permis de Chas: shooting license). In this country no one may shoot game, even on his own land, without a li- cense from the general government. It is in the nature of a revenue tax on luxury and costs the sportsman five dollars a sea. son. With this in hand you may tramp down any man’s woods and fields, provided he has not put up a written notice to the contrary. In the hoax the minister of pub- lic monuments aut Monsieur So-and- so, In accordance with his request No. 47603,to fish In the basins of the luminous fountains on the Champ de Mars. These are the electrically lighted and colored foun- tains which ‘still play on fine nights in the old exposition grounds, to 3 a.m. “It is expressly forbidden to sit on the grass surrounding the fountains. Fisher- men should keep away at least ten yards. “It ts forbidden to take off one’s shoes and bathe the feet under the pretext of en- ticing the fish. Oblisk. “All fish up to one pound in weight and all weighing over a pound must be put back in the fountains. lap. The shooting license gives you the right to hunt wherever you please—“after hav- ing warned the chief of service of the Paris Central Markets (Pavilion of Poultry and Wild Fowl), at least two days beforehand,” in order that the latter may send on “the game necessary for your triumphal return homeward.” Then follows the prefectoral decree, as given out by the mayor of the township. “The bearer is forbidden to hunt on the highways, roads, fields, marshes, rivers, ponds, woods, or any other place belonging to third parties or to himself. “In order not to frighten away he is forbidden to use explosives. “Ministry of public monuments of Paris (there is no government department with The ticket adds the words: “To be given English, German and American tourists walk up to. the policeman nearest at hand and offer the ticket. Pointing to the solid shaft they say: The officer has his answer ready—he “] “Regulations—Fishing is free from 10 p.m. “It is forbidden to sit on your neighbor's he game “friends of the bottle.’ These are the polvrots—those who are in the last stages trom imbibing poivres, which might come from peppers, but is said wo be 2. oid meas- ure for brandy, something more than a gill of the liquor. Thea there are the “tree lickers,” which ts plain. The ‘loupeurs* scund something like our own “loaters”— @ word We are supposed to have picked up in America from the German verb to tramp about—(laufen). But the French word orig- irally meant the lepers, whose sickness drove them hither and thither without chance of employment human ass Won. This is a curicus derivation tor a mp. With- bame now given to a drunken wr: in the ia la Loupe, a veritable tramp: 2 to the fortifications by one of tue gates of Paris. The “wile sacks need av explanation, except to sey Uat cueir wives are called in French siang “fish cushiv! “Parrot stuffers” and “swallowers tigris” are, of course, driikers of absinthe the alcoholic green drug wich is driving out in france. Drinkers of “bowel twister” (bad brandy) of th in the English countr scribed in veng ceurs long Si), spre “thirsters,” are people p igh to un- derstand.” Bat it requires a peculiar kind of earning to know that the “rigolbocheur the admirers of poor Rigulboche, who years ago spent her youth and beauty in laughing and dancing and otherwise at ing this class of men in the public halis of Paris. Her own name was a play on the word for tippling, with reference to the smiks and songs that are the result. he one who receives this drunkard's cer tificate is declared to be a good and brave sot, an excellent drainer of pix bottles. He is one who r missed his chance to “get a feather in his cap,” an allusion to the church beadles of old days, who were notorious drinkers, and wore a plume in their official hats. "To make himself a pom- pop or “pumper-in,” a soldi “get _a cooking,” the common wo arun’, of whi higher degre publican France of senato- rial, while the high s dential. He as never been known “to Jeave a bottle ‘ whieh is “now a dance, a little coat .p dhe would patrio die "(the name whic Iso giv © the necks of bottles and jugs) rather | than surrender. This is « fair sam| of the French lack of hu attention is give to turni curious words, Sometimes, however, the ot existen is a pro- junketei for in re a ach humor, er , Where all the =e Wants to Visit the Interior of the Telephone Tubes. fun is supposed to come from the subject. A favorite subject is the mother-in-law who seems to aillict her daughter's husband the world over. I do not remember ans French example corresponding to Fann Fern’s indictment of the husband's mother, written in bcaalf of American wives many years ago. One of these April fool documents is the announcement of an exposition of mothers- in-law. It ts dated from the ministry of old arts and old paintings (the minister of 11 arts in the government has the general dir tion of fairs and expositions). The notice invites all and sundry men to send on their mother-in-law by express package, labeled “Right side up with care—not breakable,” on condition, however, that she can figure asa curiosity. If she is not reclaimed after the exposition, notice {s given that she will be sent to the Jardin d'Acclimation and be put in the department of seals. A medal is to be given to her who has never spoken ill of her son-in-law. The Frenchman is not yet done with her. He has a form of bank check (the blank is left for the real name) by which he promis- es so many slaps in the face, well told. In the hunter's license, he is’ forbidden to bring his mother-in-law along, as “a m fortune happens so quickly." Then there is her lettre de faire part, or invitation to her funeral, black-bordered, with a cross duly placed the head. The fun is coars nd ghastly, vell_as heartless. The poor mother- is described as having been “vgly as an orang-outang, who was thawe r, and really it was After an amount of puns and other attempts at wit, the son-in-law gives a specimen of the funeral oration, which he purposes pronouncing himself, man April fool rent receipt the reader learn something of French law and taxation. “Rent receipt. I, the undersigned, pro- prietor of a house situated at —— Street, acknowledge to have recelved from Mon. sieur ——— the sum of fifty kicks for three months’ rent due April 1 of the preseat year for a room which he occuptes in the ‘said house as locataire.” A locataire rents from the original proprietor of an apartment house, and pays the municipal taxes. At the side are printed, in exact imita- In the long jumble of preteaded rules | tion of a real rent receipt, like a sum in which follow, burlesques of actual regula- | arithmetic, “rent,” much; “doors and tions, which are quite as long and compli- | windows,”’ so much; felpal taxes end cated, full scope is given to the !ong-wind- | water,” so much: “stamp, much, That ed juggling in words with which ihe French | is to say, the old feudal fax on houses, ac- delight. The French language is at once! cording to the number and size of their narrow and minutely cultivated—a mass cf conventional phrases and yet full of fine gradations. Actually it is much more bar- ren than the English; but, at least, it MINISTERE DES TRAVAUX DE PARIS DEUX ENTREES pour visiter a Vinterieur responds to every shade of thought which the French can have and fits the French | Soul like a glove. The commonest people find delight in the nice use of words, in language for its own sake. They roll a phrase around their tongue like moiasses candy. Then the language is incompar- ably rich in puns. The curious old names of persons, streets, towns and Jepartments t ingenious jugglers in words to give iculous twists of meaning. ome of these April fool notices would a Frenchman who was a ssional student of his own language. mix up old words that have an an- h new slang that must also have started in some story of nowa- days. The “Certificate of Drunicards, First Grade,” is an example. It gathers tegether names, new ‘d drinking. The certificate is made out in the hame of the pochard—the habitual, s00d-for- pleasure-loving drinker. Some d from an oll wine drunkard emoti- The “-ard” in drunkard is ugumentative. Others sa the title from the word “pochon"—the knock in the face, which sooner or later disfigures the countenance of the hard drinker. Whether from cups or knocks, the title is bestowed by a large diploma, surrounded by rude colored prints of its subject,fright- ening ladies on the street, sleeping on the {ground and being ridiculed by his sober companions. “Drink-without-Thirst., King. first of the Les’ »ws the diploma, with greeting {8 not pleasant for a lady to finc d oid, which the French have applied to | doors and windows, is still exacted by the French st while the stamp, without which no receipt or contract is valid, Indi- cates another means of raising government revenue. An “amiable notice” of the tenant's de- sire to quit the premises is a fs tention served on landlords. It is in perfect forms as to paper, type and >; and it might easily fool a bus: man, until he came to the statement that the premis nothing but a box of bedbugs. tenants are required to make as good as new the rooms which they found in a bad state cn entering. They also engage them- selves to make up any losses which the pro- prietor may suffer in his private fortun So the April fool documents come down on Paris like the snowflakes of a They last a day, and, numberless as they only help to fill out what a carnival of innocent lying, imposition and rather amuse themselve: by trickery. Still, it dozen la- boring men gathered in her hallway, waiting to assist her to move her furniture to another apartment, according to a notice given by some joker. To pacify them she must give out drink money. Sometimes idle fellows for the sake of such NM bls the Ist of April. In the ¢ an unpopular usher will be annoyed all day by people coming, in accord a summons, to see the head of the of department. But the wickede: April fools is when a crowd of ¢ have sent to some vain youth of their « a letter pretending to be from som atrical star, deciaring her love and him a rendezvous. He will walk an hour, swelled out with pride, only to be humili- ated at last by the light taunts of his mate “Hey, Julot! Why don’t the lady come? “Hey, Julot! April fish!” STERLING HEILIG. ae His Attitade. From Truth. Tramp (to philanthropist)—' one of the unemployed, and you could place to occupy.” what is the position?” ‘Tramp—‘That of owing you a dollar until the next time I meet yo ASHINGTON, D.C, SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 1894-TWENTY PAGES. ‘UNCLE SAM’S CLERKS Government Employes at Washing- ton and Who They Are. the government service. In the dead letter t expert translators of bad writing are women, and it would surprise you to know that the Treasury Department ho prepares the revenue matte! make more ou! who could probat the department by practicing law than she gets by acting as a law clerk within it. There are a number of women editors in the service here at Washington. cial records of the war of the rebellion are tent gotten up by women, artment you find wo- men who are making maps and tracing cherts for our ships in different parts of the world, and in the government printing office there are women ty s and press feeders. heard of the pretty girls to a certain and in the reia- | ROMANCES IN THE DEPARTMENTS High Salaried Places, and the Men Who Fill Them. t lew years there was a notorivus | Fveryone ha: of the treasury, maidens in all of these government depart- Lamont has a company pf 114 Postmaster hundreds of maidens un jer him, and in the government printing ctlice the: than 1,000 women. the best families e daughters of tes, Senators ai tives, and now and then of a President or a cabinet minister, majority of them are women of good edu- ° h but few exceptions they ined ladies. CLERKS’ EFFICIENCY ay of these come of Written for The Evening Star. WANT A ‘nment job? The hours are easy. work is light. a year, and a large number of them support Many of them ar a few are old maids, for the asking ever housands are have too much sense to chang ing under Uncle a sure liv- pective one am 10 a pro with some of them are, how to engagements, and not a few of the niost marriages of W have been in conne ernment clerks. ster, who had the ugliest fac entered a government depart ington, got his wife, whose features were Y in a govern- ment department here. She was the daugh- goverament fac- and the man who works for the government can laugh at fate and fi on with gov word; to} ent at Wash- that is fixed py the and as long as you are in Uncle annot be rat In their be: Sam's employ dor lower- two weeks you partment in you are workjns avd your money is handed over ow you in crisp new greenbacks, or sometimes im go! you are a good man your job is pretty sure to continue clerks have been in the service for y! is one old clerk her lary for sixty years from worked from forty to fifty y runs well u) an sevea hundy x ore who have been in from twelve to fifte A great many clerks have been twenty ye ter of Robert J. Walker, a former Secre- tary of the Tre , desk one day government Department office is by generally supp through the room. homeliness. whether Brew he saw her, love at first sight. and shortly She made some remark 7 ; rd it or not. civil service rules are being so extended that an ao cme only the chief: nd with him will finally administration, yifered her his hand and his wealth, and his name for her- words something like fy dear, you am_ hideous, amount of s these of any laborers um’s factories are and the classi- ‘ou will marry me it will not be the first instance of the mat uty and the beast, and I assure yo you will never regret raarrying me.” proposition ‘ the world. rua on a big salary be $1,800 a year. x) and up- fat places in nearly every 2000,$4,000 and. Brewster it was as the wife of the Atte of the United States. got his wife in one of the <epa: Washington, and you about Secratar; Miss Markoe during the was at the head of the 8: Platonic Friendships. is a wonder me to Washington ey General department which ec ail rememper what a Layard and Ing between ssistant attor- $s much as a i department titure there are a number of good $2,000 epartment has te Department. there are not more marriages among the clerks. Young men and young women of marriageable age work side by side in the departments. They come in contact with each other hourly and sometimes fall in love with on: many high-salaried pla number of soft spots connected nt of certainty of tenure, are those con- nected with the State, War and Navy de- The clerks of the State Depart- engraving and printing, where the money is made, there is one man and ae woman at every printing press, separation of the sexes. There ure, I be- e, more platonic friendships here among young men and young women will find anywhere else in and cases have been known where couples have married and kept their marriaies a secret for years in order to avoid the rule that a husband and wife shall not be e ployed at the same time in the at Washington. s been found out, and the recent investiga- tion of the congressional commi:tee probably lead to some changes in this re- ceording to its report, there were last fall twenty-four husbands and wives drawing salaries from Uncle Sam, which the husbands and wives who are’ out of work and have no job at all think fs de- cidedly unfair. One clerk tells me that the big men departments places and the most money, while the poor- ly paid clerks do the work. doubt that many a_ $1,000 clerk does the same work for which another $1,200 and $1,400, and man: doing thoroughly $1,400 man is haif doing at her sid $1,000 is pretty good 7 jection to these that the employes have get up to $1,400, 31, . but their ¢ and there is no the country, tocrats than otherwise. lly know one or two languages, ary to shelve them ent to consulshins on ide of the world. The treasury has It contains over 4,000 There is uo and when it is nec they are sometimes 4 women at numerous changes. and the chief ob- little chance to a word about s of Washington. and ablest persons in the do their work continuously, some of the And just here Iv perhaps $1,800 a small and’ the limit ‘is fixed. that a clerk becomes a though cases of thi: Horatio King we Post Office Department as a clerk at 3 a year and he acted as Postmaster Gen under James Buchanan. There are as the departments w from eighteen to| have been clerks, but the majority of the men who go into the great mills of Uncle Sam are ground between nether mill stone and soon become, and ambitious work is It is seldom urtments, and the number of women all eighty, and ther in the Treasu the way, one clerk rtment who has now and hundreds of swe: These women arting in as count- generation ago, ork to all sorts as energy, concerned, inanimate powder. You have all heard the story Chase once came to his uncle, who was then in the United States and asked for a government job. told him he would give him a dollar to buy young maid ers in the treasury abcut questions of law, & foreign lan: under the sun. amine patents, ses, and do everything Some of the most expert ernment are women, best bookkeepers of Women are and several of the ver the treasury wi fast making their way as typewriters and FOUR eaTHE Crock, ar petticoats. eat trickery of a people who would always | | }is sixty-elght, and thi kes an ax or a spade, but that he would not | “i - ana aid him in digging his own grave in one official cemeteries. ‘old me vot long 2go government e for young men, and there is no doubt but that an enter- tic youag fellow had better goverament service. The hours are short and all the tendencies are to laziness and g° man has to have very positive order not to be turned into a m: all the tendencies are to extrava Washington fs a city of r men and a place in man lives up to his income. It is a city containing many installment houses, and I women as well as govern- of Uncle Sam's master General Bissell that he did not con departments a g¢ | by twenty-two yea have a good penman write letters for them | prising, ener; keep away o1-for-nothingn giving | which nearly every | fifty-eight and a half. In this calc jthe republicans have been considei including all sitting on the east side of thc ; | chamber, and contrarywise the democre7s jall on the west sige. There are two pupu- |lists on each side of the chaa:ber. know of society clerks who ss at our fashionable receptic on installments, and ‘vho paid for them by the time they are nearly The business houses of ington expect people to have their settlements ernment pay days at the 1 of the month. government clerks save mone fewest try to make any money out of that which they do save. FRANK G. CARPENTER, ave not always enographer: I am/ Outside empk and the chief trouble to the r of labor here at Washing- that as soon as he trains a woman in bills, and they after the gov- h or the last y few of the and only the me in a position I should very much like’ stenographer s an application to » at a higher sal- I have had to me a half dozen come to look upon my office here as a kind of training school for Philanthropist—“Certainly, my good man | ary in one of th FATHER TIME’S HAND As It Lingers on the Heads of, Senators. HE TOUCHES SOME VERY LIGHTLY The Average Age of the Body Less Than Fifty-Nine. THE WOMAN’S. WEAKNESS ae: HE DEATH OF Senator Colquitt re- moves one of the) few members of the} upper house of Con- gress who have reached the Scrip- tural limit of age. score and ten Yet he has beet months ago, which aged him very much. Senatorial ages, by the way, are full of curious statistics. They range all the way from forty to eighty-four years, Senator Morrill, at the latter age, being more than vice as old as two republicans. The latter are Senators Morrill, at eighty- at seventy-one. The four, and Sherman, democrats are Palmer at seventy-seven, Harris at sevent: four, Hunton at seventy-one, Morgan and Colquitt at seventy. The age of ator Harris is not given in the Congres sional Directory. In f: himself upen this omis term of years has been somewhat of a problem for a long time. In appearance he is well qualified to be called the grand- father of the Senate, as he looks quite as old, if not older, than Mr. Morrill. His age, however, is given without question in Appleton’s Biograph: have been supplied. Senators Bate, Gibson, Pasco, Squire and Turpie refuse to give their ages officially, but the encyclopedia gives Mr. Pas oS age as sixty, and that of Mr. Turpie as sixty-five. Thus it will | be seen that some Senators are as. tende> as traditional women on the subject of periods of existence. The Majority Over Sixty. The average senatorial age is a trac- tion short of fifty-nine years. Senators} enter the upper house at all ages, but more of them, it is said, come into that body be- tween fifty and sixty. There are at pres- ent more in the sixties than in any other decade of life, there being sixteen republi- cans and fifteen democrats, so far as the reco-ds show, in the sixties, to thirteen re- publicans and fourteen democrats in the fifties, while there are seven republicans amd eight democrats in the last division at forty years. Vermont, Alabama and Illinois are the star states in point of the ages of their senatorial representatives. Vermont leads with a total of 147 years, Alabama follows with 144, and Illinois has 142 years to her credit. At the other end of the line are South Carolina with ninety- six years upon her senatorial shoulders, California with but ninety-six, while South Dakota, a mere youth in the nation, and a veritable infant in arms in senatorial Statistics, has a total of but eighty-six years, barely more than the age of the old- est Senator. The states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Ore- gon and Delaware are, curiously enough, provided’ with Senators ‘evenly balanced as | to ages. Thus Messrs. Gray and Higgins, who are now bewailing the blighting of the 1 peach crc . each furnishes fifty-four years to Delaware's total. Senators Mitchell and | Dolph have passed fifty-nine years at least. | though the former is classed as Oregon's senior Senator. Florida’s Senators, Pasco sixty years each, and Ponnsy! and Cameron, are six:y-one. Don Came by the way, is a much oider man t looks, or than he is generally thought to be. The absence of any beard to gray and the sandy color of his mustache are elements in his favor to keep him not show his sixty-one years. There are other Senators whose ages belie their years. Gen. Palmer, the Nestor of democratic side of seventy-seven, white in beard and hair, looks you day than Mr. Pugh and Mr. Harris, both are ais juniors. He is active, too, and showed his great vitality during the’ pro- longed sessions of the silver debate 1a fall, when he was present at almost every meeting of the Senate. Appearances Are Deceitt Senator Hawley, though a year older than his colleague, Mr. Platt, being sixty- eight years of age, looks fully five y Mr. Platt’s junior. So, too, with Senate Ransom and nee. A casual glance at these two North Carolinians would give one the impression that Mr. Vance is past seventy and Mr. F m barely in the six- ties. On the cont Mr. Ransom is sixty-eight and Mr. Vance but sixty-four. For all of his venerable appearance, his lcng white beard that has caused him to be often compared to the traditional por- traits of Father Time, Senator Stewart of Nevada is a comparatively young man. His sixty-seven years rest lightly upon his shoulders, and in comparison with some other men in the Senate he is a youth in energy and activity. His colleague, Mr.} Jones, is sixty-four, and shows about that age. server, for, although his mustache 13 white, he has no other sign to indicate his sixty-two years. Some of the delegations present consider- able contrast between the Senators in point jof age, such as Massachusetts. There was | |a day, not long past, when the old bay state | was represented by ‘two of the most elicriy looking men in the Senate, Hoar and Dawes. Mr. Dawes’ place has filled by a much younger man, Mr. Lodge, who is nearly the infant of the republican side of forty-four years, Mr. Dubois beat- ing him downward by a year. Mr. Hoar ence between their ages, twenty-four ye Senatcrs Brice and Sherman are separat thus making a wide gap in the Ohio delegation, Morrill and Proctor are v apart. As already stated, the of the Senators is a trifle 1 years age age n fifty- jnine years. Of thirty-eight republicens | whose ages can be a ertained, the total of years ts 2 fraction over fifty-nine years each. This gives the republicans six months’ advant- |age over the democrats now in the Senate | whose ages are on record. Forty-three democrats give an aggregate of an average of an insiznificant fra. lation The Tricks of Time. Considering the populists as a party, the!r fcur ages aggregate 217 years, or an aver- age of fifty-four and a quarter, thus mak- ing them younger in age, as well as in| politics, than either of the two regular | parties. There are so few populists that thelr ages can be given at length: Mr, Pef- | fer is sixty-taree; Mr. S Mr. Al ceeded b order of sucx who will be past winter. Mr. M years old w Hunton w making wa younger than himself. Braga’ Hill is seven years younger than ss fifty-eight. Mr. Gorman is Mrs. Cleve Properly —_ speaking, Senator Colquitt had not quite reached the point of three) ars, | for his seventieth) birthday would not| have occurred until the 20th of April next. classed generally as one of the “old men” of the Senate, particular- ly since his stroke of paralysis some enators Kyle and Irby, j the youngsters at the forty mark. Count- ing Senator Colquitt, eight of the members of the Senate had passed the line of seventy, six of them beir.g democrats and y-six, Pugh at seventy- » he rather prides ‘ion, and his actual > ground acinths 1 being got re other beds w Encyclopedia, | whence other omissions m the dizectory| out tiny rootlet have obtained s young plants are transferred to small “thumb pots.” iarge eypugh to Of cour winter long in the Whi tories, Thou in autumn in a cold p’ of one of the brick are kept back ané ing, while a covering of leaf mold a foot them from freezin: a couple of hundred of them are taken into one of the gr into bloom within a few 4: The scene in the garde skilled hands department, cw’ them in rows in warm s arried hither and thit' lips and of flowerin Mrs. © pansies. They are her favorite flowers, y House has also rehids. Of the wonderful ce from the insects by fertilizing the ing them to with Of course, most orchids depend for their | fertilization’ up proper turn | young | In appearance. His colleague, 100, does | fers a bit of poll mischief {s done. Bees are particularly bad The plants used for deco! House are c pars | while oth: red roon - ridor down stairs and the library upstairs. From the Bilton for writin Skilton Mr. McPherson rather deceives an ob- | awful selfish. have everythin; now been | S, or an ay wee of a slight | ed as! TO ADVER-VISERS. ‘Acvertisers are rrgently re- quested to hand in advertisements the day prior to public-tion, in wrder that ‘azertion may be as- Sured. Want advertisements will be ree~ived * > to noon of the day ®f publication, precedence being Given to those Srst received. art, sixty-seven; en, and Mr. Kyle,sforty. is but seldom that a Senator is suc- a man older than himself. The ion is rat er the other way, and thus the case of Senator Wilson, who is to retire from the Senate a year hence, when he will be sixty-seven years old, is entative Gear, who has 4 for the post, will be kes the oath of office, or han his predecessor, Jpst case of Senator Hunton, sd on the same date by Martin, who was elected during the artin is forty-six years 1erefore be forty-seven nen he takes his seat. Mr. il then be seventy-one, thus for a man twenty-five years, » and will atorial junior, Mr. Murphy, who is i preserved e, and Mr. Hale does not show the fifty-eight years that have passed over his hy mighty funn; sweeps vigorous 4. Taken altogether, Time plays some tricks with the Solons, He y here and touches lightly He and fame seom to have joined in up to produce some strauge re- sults, and the Congressional Directory is a most unphilosophical publication in conse quence. cee WHITE HOUSE FLOWERS. Ready for the Spring Season. Spring flowers at the White House are coming Into bloom. Yellow crocuses dot the hillsides of the grounds opposite the treas- ury and across the way from the War De- partment. Many people suppose that they srow there naturally. Sproutiag here and there among the grass they look as if wild and accidental, such having been the im- tention in planting them last autumn, Mr, Pfister, the President’s gardenerin- chief, set out 16,706 crocuses last Novem- ber, At the same time he planted 28,590 tulips, 6,792 hyacinths, 1,230 seillas and many narcissus. All of these grow from bulbs, which are put into the ground im autumn and sprout in the spring. Of the sixty-five beds in the White House grounds all but five were filled with bulbs of such kinds in preparation cor the pleasant time of year that now begins. The tulips and hyacinths are already sprouting. They are bearing flowers in ene protected spot on the south side of a greenhou begun to appear, and the snowdrops are in bloom where there is shelter, In some of ; the beds, with the tulips, forget-me-nots j have been set out. The latter will bloom about the tin The seillas, likewise, have just when the tulips are done ly to a a out of d the tulips and hy- %) plants of forget-me-nots, blue field daisies and pansies have en set out the meanwhile “bedding” plants are in great quantities to fill nm the tulips and hyacinths are chiefly geraniums and > purpose mentioned they are ated in Vast numbers am the Littie slips are tak sand, that is ke hot water pipes. They quickly throw ad, as Soon as the roots cient development, the thumb pote they r pots, until they are out in the beds, tulips and h aths bloom all House conserva- nds of the bulbs are pianted n the north side buildings. Thus they vented from flower- put into big K, with boards on top of that, keeps ery week in winter nhous where they burst ys. of the White at present is a lively one. Pots ands are being filled with earth the accommodation of plants, while re attending to the nursery ting slips and inserting Loam is being pr ip wheelbarrows, bustle activity ap- e season. Within, the green- iled with masses of bloom. yacinths, lilies-of-the-valley, tu- as are profusely Mossoming. that was named after Mrs. St spring is just on the point It is a new variety. ‘ veland is particularly fond of ve amaryl land 2on her own voudoir will be” decorat 4 with them—grat big ones, such as only skilled gardeners know to. produc lady of the White fondness tor e curious plants there is ction in the greenhouses ion, and just now in bloom than at which are One way In which yance to Mr. Pfister is rehid blooms, thus caus- r. n insects. This is highly rable in nature, but most in the greenhouse. The un- fertilized fower wiil last for many days or even eks, but as quickly as fertilization is acy ps and loses its pet- The in ng for hor trans- n to the igma, and the and Mr. Pfister declares that if he can discover no other way to keep a of he will spread a net over his or- the White nged twice a w . in order aratively chill atmosphere of may not injure them. Before inj time to suffer any harm back to the conservatories h others. t now the ed for this purpose—of coars omey palms, ge plants, 2 of th laced in vate dini ¢ green room, om, tgp cor= << ——— His Inspiration. wd. s to have a talent born with a re- y. From the ( - r-Oocan, The little gir next door have whooping hink fit would make them Their mother just lets them a oo An International Complication, From Truth.