Evening Star Newspaper, January 23, 1897, Page 13

THE EVENING STAR. ge PUBLISHED DAILY EXCEPT SUNDAY, AT THE STAR BUILDINGS, 1101 Pennsyleenie Avenas, Cor. ee St, by be Eveuing Star News; mn] 8. H. cAUPFMANN) Pres't, eee New York Ofice, 49 Potter Building. = : tar is served to subscribers tn the on their own account, at 10 cents S$ per month. Copies at the ¢eunter 2 By matl—anywhere to the United States or Cunada—postage prepald—80 cents The Evening city by carrier Soturd: foreiga $3 . $3.00. (Entered at the Post Office at Wasbington, D. C.. Part2. Ch ec £pening Star. Pages 13-24. as second-class mall matter.) ©FAll mail subscriptions must be paid in advance. Rates of advertising made known on applicat‘on. 3 VE ) BED SS SSS ESOS ES SE OSS RBROS. & 937-939 F St. 11 Foubourg Poissonnierre, Paris. WASHINGTON, D. ©., SAT CO., 8 N EXT WE BOE ti Y The maker's best—at the ing economical buyers here n the town from end to end. price. oe) AS 2 = 8 ° ss f We've filled one of our large tables with Hats in all shapes; Mo- WA hair Felts, K Cc. and colors. Onr regular & Be and 75e. Hate. & *- 3 P Elegant Trimmed Hats, silk velvet cor- 95 zed, trimmed Im feath- 8 oenaments - « a % Black Algrettes, one of Wc. @ ssa popular Hat trim- @B _ mines of the season. The regular 19¢ To go for @ Mourning Hats @ Reduced. 2 wig ease full of © suming “Tats and 98 & in ‘the ‘very S fects. $6 and $7.50 goods. Special at Ostrich Boas. Ww made a special reduction right through our line of Oxirich Feather Boas, and uow offer you ® $10 Boas for $7.48. $7.50 Boas for $4.98. Collarettes. Surah @ a Handsome Collarettes, fringed, satin ends, Reduced to. erusbable. BE A RECORD-BREAKER. able what a little money will do. Not offering you broken lines and odds and ends to choose from either, but a full stock of dependable goods— goods that can’t be bettered anywhere—first in style—first in quality—first in variety—but at the same time lowest in MAYER BROS. CO., 037-939 F St. EK WILL retailer’s cheapest. Remark- A regular treat is wait- icxt week. We intend to stir Lace Reductions. Silk Laces, 4%In. wide, in lavender, “brown, nile, nary, pink and drab. Were 25c. yd. To go at eS Black Silk Laces, 3 to Gin. wide. Very choicest patterns. Were 39 to 49. yd. Reduced to... - Narrow Val. Laces, 12° wide. 5 very pretty patterns. Special per doz. yds... Novelty Oriental Lace, in beautiful designs, 4-in. Wide. Special per yd... Honiton Oriental Laces, #Gin. wide. Special per 5 a : O9808089OS9O0SO0000080000000 Medici Laces, 24in. Spectal next week at. = “I @ ) 10° i ser: e For All Day Monday 4-button Glace Gloves, in a full Ine of «izes, Don’t forget our Evening Gloves. A full stock of lengths, all sizes, at the very lowest prices that will buy —Our $1 Marguerite DA Will go at.. ® Gloves in all colors, all them. | OOSOOOOOSOG08 eseseesce see SUNBURN IN FREEZING WEATHER. nd Lieut. ry. A Jerseyman’s Experience De Long's Arctic New York Sun. he Jerseyman who goes home only a week got back to town on Monday t he was a sight. Strangers who met | m during the following day or two stared n, and his fri jeered at him with. account of the appearance of 1 out mercy oF his no: have had a pretty high time down -ountry this week,” was the burden f their comments What could the Jerseyman reply? There was no gainsaying the ardent 4 of his nose. He could feel the heat from It, and even see its glow with his own eyes. He could feel also that his nose was very sore. What was the use of trying to ex- | plain to bis friends that his nose was simply urned? He did try this once or twice, but the roars of laughter which gree his explanation were discour ra burn was the exact explanaiton. Jerseyman had been busy on Monday on, While the sun was shining bright- | repainting a flat tin roof, and when | work at dinner time his nose and sull, sr skin of his brow were alinost | blistered with sunburn. | In this climate !t 1s not common to find | sunburn ufferers while the thermometer | y down near the freezing polat, but there be am interenting: postion of Lieuten- ant Command ong’s story of the voyage of th: which shows how pile th ion is. After the Jean was crushed in the arctic ice and abandoned in IS81, and De Long erd his compar took to the tce in June of | that year, they found themselves suffer- | ing day and night from heat, although the | temperature of the alr was never above | freezing. 2 degrees, sleeves and were covered with per: With the thermometer at 20 to the men worked in ir shirt i EF On J Ye Long wrote in his diary: | ince midnight, although | r marked only 23 degrees | in the sun. Ou: hands and faces are ali swollen and_blistere¢ | day, with the thermometer he tells how curious it | the men seeking places i ade in which to enjoy an after-dinner | rest, and so day after day his | references to the unpleasant heat continue. | The party even found ft cppressive in their tents at night, although the tents were pitched on the ice and the thermometer showed chilling enough figures. eee Hn Attle Feller.” From the Detroit Free Press, “I happened to be down in my cellar the other morning when the ashman came around to collect the ashes,” said a gentle- who resides in 2d avenue. “I was ©pening @ barrel of great red apples at the time, and w the big, dust-cbvered and necessarily untidy came back with the empty ash barrel I picked up an apple and Yeld ‘t out toward him, saying as I did so: “Won't you have an apple?” “He took it eagerly, saying as he did so: ‘Thank ye, sir; I've a Ittle feller at home who'll be tickled to death to git it. I most always find something or other in the ash barrels to carry home to ‘Im at night, but {t ain't often I git anything equal to this big apple. I tell ye the little feller’s eves will shine when he sees it.’ I don't know how many times that day houghts were of that big, rough hand- fellow, with that apple put away so carefully in his pocket for that ‘little fel- ler. “When evening came I thought of the “Ittle feller’ who was on the lookout for the big, dust-covered father, with the cal- loused and soiled hands, but with the true heart and the kindly word that made him a king In the eyes of that ‘little feller.’ “It must have been a very poor and hum- ble home to which the man went at the close of his weary day, but then there was the ‘little feller’s’ presence to make beaut!- ful even the bare walls and floors and to bring the love light to his father’s eyes and Joy to his father’s heart. “These ‘little fellers’ glorify and beautify many a home in which poverty abides. But human affections can sweetly and patient- ly endure toil and rags and poverty when there is a ‘little feller’ to meet and greet the father when the long day is done.” A TYPHOID EPIDEMIC. Inhabitants of Rock Ru: Suffered a Year. From the Medical Record. For more than a year an epidemic of typhoid fever has prevailed at Rock Run, a hamlet of not more than 200 persons, situated on a small stream of the same Tame emptying into the Brandywine, near Coatesville, Pa. The first cases appeared | at a small house on the hillside, and alto- gether forty persons have been attacked. The drinking water of the place is ob- tained from springs end wells, one of which—frim which the larger number se- cured thelr supply regularly and all have at times taken water—is situated in front of the village store and in close proximity to @ cesspool, so that contamination is al- most certain. In fact, all of the springs and wells are dangerously close to privy vaults. An investigation has been ordered by the state board of health and samples of the water have been secured for analy- sis and bactertologic examination. —__—+e-+____ Saved by One Chance in Ten Million. From the Chicago Daily Tribune, The accidents that astonish rajlroad men are those that happen without hurting anybody. Such a mishap occurred to the Lake Shore flyer, from Cleveland, coming into Chicago last Saturday morning. A steel tire slipped from one of the driving Pa., Have | Wheels of the engine with the train going at full speed. This was extraordinary. But that it should slip off the wheel, over the connecting rod, and fall clear of the track, instead of wrecking the train, was simply miraculous. The driving wheel revolves, say, four times every second, covering that same second eighty feet of the rail. Fracture the tire, with its deep inner flange, made to keep it on the rail, and try, with that big connecting rod rising and falling two feet every quarter of a second, and the broken tire rolling eighty feet every second, to make the tire fall off the wheel and over the connecting rod, so it shall drop clear of the wheel, the rod, the rail and the train. This could not happen once in ten million times. Yet, on last Saturday morning, on the Lake Shore flyer coming into Chicago, it did that very thing, and the passengers, instead of being smashed up in a wreck. marveled over the remarkable occurrence. —~<-__ The Japanese Farmer. From the Boston Journal. Japan is one vast garden, and as you look over the fields you can !magine that they are covered with toy farma where the children are playing with the laws of na- and raising s1vples cf Ifferent Miads ef vegetables anu grains. arything is en e diminutive sale, and the work is as fine and accurate as that applied to a Cicisonne vase. What woul] un Ilinois or an Jowa farmer think of planting his corn, wheat, oats and barley in bunches, and then, when it is three or four inches high, transplanting every spear of it in rows as far apart as you can stretch your fingers? A Japanese farmer weeds his wheat fiel just as a Connecticut farmer weeds his onion bed, and cultivates his potatoes and barley with as much care as a Long Island farmer bestows upon his asparagus or mushrooms or his flowers. ——+ee—______ A Remarkable Statement. From Arswers. New Guinea is the home of the most wonderful feathered creature known to the student of ornithology—the awful rpir n'doob, or “bird of death.” A wound from the beak of this creature causes excruciat- ing pains in every part of the body, loss of sight, speech and hearing, convulsions, lcckjaw and certain death. * oe Close Relations, From Chips. Willie—“Mamma, what does ‘blood’ rela- tions mean?” Mamma—“It means near relations, Wil- He.” Willie (after a thoughtful pai “Then, bleod- mamma, you and papa must be lest relations I've got.” ATTRACTIVE HOMES Washington Residences Noted for Comfort and Elegance. WHERE HOSPITALITY 15 DISPENSED ee Fine Architectural Effects and Beautiful Furnishings. eee GOOD TASTE RULES WHERE Ex-Senator Henderson's fine residence at the head of 16th street has frequently been called Boundary Castle. Since the com- pletion of the high stone wall around the grounds and the lodge at the entrance,with its tiny towers and windows, the title is even more appropriate. The residence is one of the most spacious and in many ways the most unique of any of the modern houses fn this city. Built entirely of brown stone, it has wide porches and a most im- posing entrance. The house faces south, and the view from any point of the com- pass is very fine. The main hall is the im- portant feature in the arrangement of the interior. It {s decorated in the Moorish style, and the effect is most pleasing. The series of arches lend themselves particu- larly to decorative effects with flowers and vines. At the left of the entrance is the reception room, and at the right the draw- ing room. The dining room is in very rich Boundary Castile. dark wood and all its appointments har- monize. The picture gallery is an extension of the northwest corner of the house. It was built after the occupancy of the rest of the mansion. It has noble proportions, with @ high ceiling, and as Mr. Henderson's collection of pictures is well known, the walls are covered with these treasures. In addition to these envied possessions, there are the souvenirs of many years of travel and residence in foreign lands adoraing each room. Mrs. Henderson has the reputation of having designed her home, and in every part it shows touches of her artistic tastes and planning. Mr. John Henderson's rooms, and especially his “den,” are on top of the house. The latter ts equipped with every possible luxury and comfort measured by the masculine eye. It is ap- proached only by an iron spiral staircase, and when, to make the room perfect in every detail, the presence of a plano was necessary, strong scaffolding was built, and the precious instrument elevated to its position in that way, the only possible one under the circumstances. Mrs. Hearst's Residence. Mrs. Hearst, who thinks the capital the most desirable city in this country for a winter residence, has in her present home on New Hampshire avenue surrounded her- self with magnificent works of art. The house is filled with beautiful objects, either collected by their owner herself or pur- chased in full collections. The original foundations of the house only remained after the alterations and additions were placed on the property after its purchase by Mrs. Hearst. The main entrance hall is highly decorative, as is the staircase hall which adjoins it. The latter has a wide fireplace, with cozy seats; a large stained glass window, which lights the stairs, and window seats near it. The _re- ception room is at the left of the entrance. it is in very light and dainty tones. The library is a charming room, semi-circular in shape, lined with book shelves, above which are arranged many of the Napoleon portraits and beautiful miniatures, of which Mrs. Hearst owns one of the best collec- tions in this country. The main drawing room is on the west side, and {s decorated in the Watteau style. Like each of the other rooms, everywhere the eye turns it reveals the presence of some valuable piece of bric-a-brac. In glass-topped tables a collection of watches, big and little, of all sizes, shapes and designs, along with min- jatures of noted beauties, with antique sil- ver and gold ornaments, form a collection over which hours could be spent in ad- miration. The dining room is in the Dutch style. Its walls are lined with china closets, with diamond-shaped panes of glass in the doors. The fireplace is especially interest- ing in its artistic belongings. The picture gallery was an addition made by Mrs. Hearst. It is a beautiful room, completely furnished as a drawing room, and the walls are covered with a fine collection of oil paintings. On the west wall fs a gallery, to which there is access from the second story. In the picture gallery there are several antique musical instruments. Under the picture gallery is a supper room, which is always used upon occasions of large recep- tions. It has a wide staircase leading down to it. Several large buffets and chairs placed round the walls are the only furni- ture. Mrs. Hearst's home has been the scene of several of the most noted enter- tainments ever given in this city. Mrs. McLean‘s Home. Mrs. Washington McLean's residence at URDAY, JANUARY 23, 1897-TWENTY-FOUR P AGES, ae be a sae the corner of Connegticut avenue and K street was built by ex-Gavernor Alexander R. Shepherd and cceupied by him as‘his home. Later-it was leased by the Chinese and Russian legd@tions, and was at one time the residence of Sewater Cameron. The house is well builf, an@ the beauty of lis woodwork #nd the comfort of its in- terlor arrangement, are not “surpassed in any of more modern style. Mrs. McLean did away with the high front steps, such as are on the two residene@s adjoining on the east. The driveway approaches the front door, which cpens on what was fer- merly the basement, The rooms now on this floor are cozy rfécepition rooms, and back of them the kitchens, ete: A broad staircase, with square landings, leads to the upper floor. The drawing foom is on the east side of the house, the ball room at the rear, and ‘the dining room and sitting room fece Connecticut avenue. All the rvoms opén on the hall, which is carpeted in bright, rich crimson, The drawing room {8 one of the most elaborately adorn- ed of any in the West End. The sitting room, which has the shape of the deep bay window on the Connecticut avenue side, is exceedingly cozy and attractive. There is a window seat, piled high with cushions, and the view in either direction of the fash- ionable promenade - ig perfect. The ball room {6 spacious and richly furnished. Atop of the wainscoting are ranged pho- tographs of places and celebrities, prettily framed, and each with something about it to claim attention. There are many fine paintings and family portraits by cele- brated artists on the Walls and many beautiful objects of art: Representative Dalsell’s Home. Representative Dalzell’s home on New Hampshire avenue was built by him a few years ago, when there were fewer fine hcuses in its immediate locality. Now the avenue and the streets mdjacent thereto are well built up, and the appearance of the immediate neighborhood 1s in keeping with several squares south and west, where some of the most spacious of the West End “mansions are focated. The atmos- phere of the Dalzell hduge ts bright and cheerful. It hae ihe oA . is of Gee sure, bein; - tersect The hall, whith is approached by several stepa after -he threshold ts ‘Tho hall fs Trthapea, "A fmnull'room at the is T+ q left of the entrance m@kes one of the coziest and most att tive @f libraries. The drawing room, whi ig fittshed in white and gold, is on the right of the first hall. A wide window on the ‘south wall, with cozy seats, etc., makes the ball very bright. The hall is furnished anflgmakes a general sitting room. The dining Foom, a large and bright one, is in the=rear. The house is well adapted to large entertainments, and the hospitable traits ‘ef-both Mr. Dal- zell and his wife find frequent expression, —— ee Musical. From Life. .¥ ‘He—“Have you heard my, new song, ‘The Proposal?’ "" Bhe—"Nd, What key ts ft written in?” “Be mine—er.” A «I will. And now you'can transpose it to tHe key of ‘A flat.’ a A New Man. From Harper's Weekly. “Bay, Mistah _Johneing, > I’e done turned ober a new leaf” = “No! | Den pay Me dat half dollah you » “Sch-h-h! I hain’t ée' man I wuz.” f eet ee ae: From the New York Tribune © ° Sate ad worth # million Waal Witey—“‘Can I. an advance of on that million for 'aew hist?” =a duced prices. |A Regular Clientele in the Fash- $25, will now be made up for = ) .The demand from our last announce- ment proves that there are still a goodly number of men who know and appreciate fine tailoring. We are making up the winter season’s stock of Suitings and Trouserings at the following re- No finer tailoring anywhere at any : price than is daily leaving this establishment. Here are the leading offers just now: Scotch Wool Suitings, in dark mixtures, that usually sell for 17.50 up for Fine English Wool Suitings, in dressy mixtures, that for $30, $35 and $490, will now be made up for Coats and $22.50, will to measure usually sell $25 A fit and satisfaction guaranteed! G. WARFIELD SIMPSON, Expert in Trousers, 1208 F Street. a Washington a Paradise for the Italian Organ Grinder. a HE MAKES =A GOOD LIVING ionable Northwest. VARIETY IN THE MUSIC ti) ASHINGTON Is} VV the organ grinder’s | paradise. No other; city in the country begins to approach this city in its ap- preciation of barrel- organ music. While the population may certainly be termed a musical one, the popularity of the barrel organ here would seem to indi- cate that the mu- sical tastes of the Washingtonians are | non-eclectic, large, liberal, democratic; that | “The Maiden’s Prayer” and “The Black | Hawk Waltz,” barrel-organed, find listen- | ing ears here, as well as grand operas, | oratorios and chamber music. Any and all hand organists are given a hearing, and much backsheesh, in the form of copper and silver coin, bestdes. Several Sicilian hand-organ virtucsi have been in Wash- ington for years. “Let Rome in Tiber melt; here is my space.” These express their determination to remain here several years longer. An Organ Grinder at Home. A Star reporter interviewed one of these permanent organ grinders of Washington the other day. It was when darkness had begun to enfold the town. The gracious instrumentalist of manufactured music had given over the coin quest for the day, and was among his household gods in a cozy wooden domicile on “the island.” He was in dressing gown and slippers, both ex- ceedingly green in hue. He was smoking a post-prandial cigarette of brown paper and perique tobacco. His mustache was twist- ed at the ends like King Humbert’s. His teeth wefe very fine, and he smiled a great deal. His English was atrocious, but amusing and lquid. There was a copy of pardi, the Italian Byron, on an ornate | From this barrel organist The Star man | thin; hing like seventy members of his profes- sion scouring the streets of Washington al the year round. Here the organ grinders are not bandied around from pillar to post as they are in New York and some other cities, where their hours of labor are much | more contracted by city ordinances than are here, and where the organ-grind- license fee costs more than It does in hington, and is taken away by the po- lice upon very slight provocation. Lividing the Territory. Wonder is often expressed at the appar- ent lack of territorial conflicts between the hand-organ men. The Star man ascer- tained, upon inquiry, that this is due to the system, aequieseed in by all of the street musicians, of blocking the city out in dis- tricts, each district to be worked by one of the grinders for from one to three weeks, according to its size and comparative profitabieness. Being the merest wayfay- ers, journeymen of an indefinable type, there 1s, of course, no organization among | the organ grinders for the enforcement of | rules, The rules are unwritten, but they are as rigidly adhered to as if they were elaborately engrossed, and among the most rigid of these rules is, first, the principle that no one man shall occupy a city dis- | trict of known richness for too long a! time, and, ‘second, the principle that while | he is thus occupying it for what is simply considered a reasonable period, his terri- tory 1s not to be infringed upon. While there is no national association of organ grinders, every one of these hand-organ men belongs to one of the three mysterious et societies of Italy, and for this reason | are all amenable to discipline. | nN a new hand-organ man comes to Washington he gets himself into communi- cation, before beginning business, with the | grinders who have preceded him, and by these he is practically assigned a territory. may be thinly settled and | but the new man never in This _territor unremunera declines to w He knows that, striking a new city, he must begin att bottom, and gain the choice districts only by senfority. People who observe the char- acteristics of hand-organ men will occa- sionally hear the strains of two or even | three hand organs tn front of their houses within a short pertod, one following rapidiv upon the heels of the other. Such cases | are not frequent, however, and are due to | the ignorance of the new arrivals in the city as to the geographical limits of the districts assigned by general consent of their fellows, and not to intentional in- fringement. Beginning the Day*s Work. Most of the hand-organ men who work | the northwestern section of the city start out in the morning from 14th street, all the way from F street to Thomas circle. Four- teenth street is the dividing line, and from it they radiate in all directions, getting farther apart at every move. People who are on 14th street at 7:30 or 8 o'clock in the morning will often see many of the grind- ers at work in the streets branching from 14th, and the street players are often so close together at this time of day that their music clashes. This sort of thing lasts but a short time, however, for with each move onward they become moré and what-not. The artist’s wife and coin-col- lector, a woman with a worn face and a smile that would have been beautiful had it not been perpetual, was clearing away the remains of a supper, the main dish of which had been an appetizing looking mess of macaroni and cheese, baked in a tin pan and browned on top. Altogether, it was as comfortable an evening scene of complaisant domesticity as could be found in Washington. A Lucky Beginning. This organ grinder arrived in Washington from Mulberry Bend, in New York, several years ago. He had a new organ, for which he had paid $450—not one of the droning, dismal, old-fashioned affairs shaped like a Square box, but one of the upright piano type, that emits florid Donizetti and Bellini trills to ladies’ eyebrows. The organist fell into great good luck the second day of his arrived in the national capital. On that day he .was going over the ground, feeling for ases and soft spots in his new territory, when he stopped in -front. of a house on 16th street, across from Lafayette Square, and began to play his repertoire. His first tune was the embalmed, saccharine, yet ever-melodious ‘‘Miserere” “Trova- tore.” He hadn’t been grinding a minute before a man servant appeared at the front door, and, casting him a two-dollar bill, folded into a little wad, told him to keep on ying indefinitely. One of America's most statesmen was suffering his last illness in a bed room within the 16th street house, and the street music. soothed and comforted him. This great man had pertial to barrel-organ music all; his and he practically closed. his he con- tinued up to within a very short tment the statesman's death. mcre separated. The grinders who work Capitol Hill assemble, the greater number of them, near the Congressional Hotel about 8 o'clock in the morning, and diverge from that point. Success in Variety. The barrel-organ man has got to have a gcoa instrument that plays both thorough- ly up-to-date ballad music and classic mu- sic besides in order to sutceed in Wash- ington. The people who delve into their pockets to give the barrel organ maestro a prsh along toward prosperity want a soup- con of the imbecile and the noble in street music for their money—“T’row Him Down, McCluskey,” “My Mother Was a Lady,” and then the bridal chorus from “Lohen- grin” and the quartet arla from “Rigo- letto.” If the parrel organists stick to either one or the other of these classes of music exclusively they find that their re- ceipts fall off. It is variety the public wants (said The Star man’s particular or- gan grinder, with a shrug), and variety the public gets. It 1s for this reason that there is such a weird mixture of Wagner and St. Saens and maudlin Bowery ballads pent up in modern barrel organs. A Good Day’s Work. In Weshington the barrel organists pick up all the way from $2 to $10 a day. A curious fact is that in a city ke New York the organ grinder depends for his income almost entirely upon the quite poor people who live amid the squalid surroundings of the East Side, and gets little or nothing from the —, where live the middle class wealthiest in the national capital are confirmed of the organ grinder, ee ee any- thing to the he ts accumulating Black English Diagonal Cutaway | up bis stand in QPrinfers’ In& (fhe fittle scBoo” master of avoerfising), saps: Sf is cfaimed for tbe Washington Star, and proBabfp trutStuffp cfoimed, tBaf no offer netospaper in f6e countre goes info 60 farg: @ percentage of aff fhe Souses within a radius of fwentp mifes from te office of pubficafion. High-class Tailoring At Bottom Prices. Fine English Striped Trouser- ings, the kind that keep their shape, and usually sold at $8,$9 =~ and $10, will now be made $6 # Vests, usually sold at = Sine Profitable district for the hand organist is the swellest part of the fashionable nort! Western section of the city. Certain of tar permanent barrel organ men of Washing- ton have a r-gular clientele up in that di- on, in front of whose houses they are practically under engagement to rende: music two or three times a week. Their largesse from this Kind of employment is considerable. Most of these organ-patron- izing houses of the wealthy have one or more children in the family, and The Star 1.an's organ man presumed that it was on this account that the street musicians are So profitably v eleomed. In Front of Hotels. Something that 4s never seen tn any other city in this country ts a barrel-organ man grinding out his music tn front of a big hotel of the first order. It is a common sight In Washington, and what .is- more, the organ grinders make money from the | muste they furnish the Washington hotels The Star man’s organist of the street takes front of the main entrance: of t most notable hotel in Washington regularly every afternoon (he chooses the hour when the hot patrons are mel- loweé by a good luncheon), and plays for haif an hour. Quarters and halt doliar= often even dollars, dore up in bits of pa. per, fly out of the hotel windows at his feet and are picked up. by his smiling wit- at the conclusion of the music. en the Govermment Departments. The Washington organ grinders make money from the government dey ments. The superintendents of two of departmental butidings decline to permi the hand organists to perform for the de- lectation of the employes, but at all the other government institutions. with many Tks their Held is rich. A barrel orgs. with an instrument of a very loud and penetrating kind wheels it to the entran on F near 7th street of the patent offic every morning shortly after 9 o'clock, and plays for from twenty minutes to half an hour. His wife then goes to the windows on the ground floor looking out on F «tree: jand takes in a tidy itttle bundle of coins, @ good mahy of which are thrown from upper windows. organists learn to hate the spin out with a hatred profound and comprehensive. This particular organ grinder said that his instrument's music nearly drove him mad, and that were it not for the fact that he changed it day with extra rolls he has on hand. thus getting u little relief, he would perish mis- erably from pure anguish of soul. The Itallen can’t undersiand the Bowery bal- lad. It sounds like Chinese music to him And he learns to loathe Rossini, Verdi Mascagni and others of his own country. me J eee eS RACING IN MIDOCEAN, Three Das im Easy Distance. From the cisco Examiner, The crew of the British ship Inveramsay that came into port last night reported witnessing an exciting race between three ‘vig ships in midocean. It was on Dec: a ber 1, while the Inveramsay was beating against a head wind on her way trom Swansea to this port, in latitude 12.30 nerih and longitude 118 west, when the lookout warned the watch of three vessels on the weather beam. Just the top spars cf three Square-rigged vessels could be seen above the horizon pearing down upon the In- veramsay, with a stiff breeze almost dead astern, , As coon as they came within speaking distance they hoisted their signal numbers They were the American ship Puritan, the British ship Ross-shire and the British shiy Cromortyshire. The three vessels left this port on November 21, each with a cargo of grain, The Puritan is bound for Hull, the Ross-shire for London and the Cro- martyshire for Queenstown. They were bound out to sea within an hour of cach other, and a race to the British ports com- menced. The three ships have re.ords as fast sailers, and some idea of how evenly matched they are can be obtained trom the fact that after racing for over 2,000 mJles they were abreast of each other, ani all of them carrying all the caavas they could crowd on.- The American ship was flying her colors from the mizzen freak, while at her masthead were the signal flags, “Foi- low me and you will-make port.” The Ross-shire was asking her two companions with ber flags if they wanted a tow, while the Cromartyshire was signaling: “Keep up with me and you wiil be all right.” All the Improvements, From the New York Weekly. Real Estate Agent (out west)—“This is the house I told you about.” Eastern Man (anxious to grow up with