Evening Star Newspaper, February 26, 1898, Page 19

THE EVENING STAR, FLEET SIGNALS OR FLAGS. NAVY SIGNAL SERVICE How Ship Commanders Send Secrets Across the Water. fT 1S NOW A MATTER OF SCIENCE Messages Can Best Be Sent at Night. — oo ELECTRIC LIGHT TALE _—— F ALL THE things that went down in the Maine, nothing is more vital to the navy than the safe recovery of the signal books from the captain's cabin. Should they fall into the hands of th> s, four se- codes would be ©ommon proper d whole corps of spies, right embarrass e to be is- ne would 1 cripplied. ween ships is as old severely within ree means of dis- than a is not sly so 2s en in times ssiag vessel! war, to do so by the cor and ¢ ation m| sure and so. able fignting val i St, its impe: acs of bearing high in the air ction and of response cannot ated. Duplicate Outfits. 1 this régard, we have 1} ymbois be arned another l--son from that ever suggestive baitle of t Yalu, where the Japanese sud f themselves without a leader be ef the loss of the single mast carried by the flagship, and th2 inability of the ad- miral to direct his fleet. building are to have two mas one is to be fitted with a s ing outfit; and as th tan-of-war constitutes, in effect, its tonzue ard ears, an armored station will be Luilt tor their safety in act Today, it is therwise—the men are exposed. ene By The Informal “Wig-Wag.” Modern accgmplishments have added to our difficulties, and the general dire-tions preparatory to attack, which answered weli enough in earlier days, won't do now. With ships moving easily at the rate of sixteen knots an hour and closing on the foe at twice that speed, there will be no N » to raise twelve separate hoists, as son did, to the men with a sense of duty moment will have burden of preparation cr the el2ment of chance will every minute, and the leaders t be able to direct instantly the seizing at advantage. Important at all the question of signaling becomes doubiy so before an enemy, and in the cer- tain management of the rushing swec; pus squadron, the integral f which depends vpoa instant unity of ection. Various Methods. At present, we have no less than eight means of signaling, and, paradoxical as it may seem, we are most in the dark by Gaylight, for then we must depend for the r part upon th: doubtful fluttering r flags, and the questionable inter- color and ferm which distance tend easily to confuse At ked by the — setting of gloom, sn easy matter to flash for mils our with accuracy and quickness and of their proper reading. ay use, setting aside that polyglot ternational flag code common to all mari- time nations, we hava the service flag code, the ag or single-flag eode familiar to near! Y¥ modern school boy, the sema- phor an elaboration of the railway signals—and the whistle code, to be us>4 either day or night in foggy weather. The = + of the speed cone, hoisted on the yard- erm to give the gradation of concerted speed, can hardly be called a code. Aside from the flag code, consisting es- fentially of thirteen elements or flags rep- the numerals from 9 to 0 and c eaters’’—substituted in place of ications, and the semaphore covering ® same numerals and all the letters of alphabet, the two remaining—the wig- weg and the whistle—are based upon the familiar telegraph codes of dots and dashes. Flag Combinations. The semaphore in our service can hard- ly be counted upon in time of war, for the New York 13 the only vessel so fitted, and the rest of the ships are practically un- practiced im reading it. In the British Service the semaphore is one of the most tried daytime methods of signaling, and the rapidity and accuracy with which they can dispatch messages is truly won- derful. With out bluejackets, they look upon it as something akin to marine rail- roading, and are not complimentary in their remarks. With the thirteen principal flags of our day code, supplemented by a half dozen designating pennants, it is possible to make about 12, ‘hoists’ or combina- tions, varying frem one to two, three or four flags, not counting the pennants. These hoists indicate the numbers of cer- tain established orders or instructions car- ried in the “key’’ books of the service, and, with very few common exceptions, these orders are not memorized. Most codes are arranged in much the same manner—years of trial having de- | duty to instruct them then in all the com- termined the general principle, and the {plications of the duty. Even then their system of the French shows the usual method of arrangement. ‘The Code Book. Each page is arranged alphabetically and consecutively, much in the followingswa: Index _ Re! Words. Numb’: Torpedo vi 8. ‘vessels. the enemy's center. Center. the “enemy's rear. Rear. 1694... .Attack enemy with ar- Armored mored vessels. vessels, é 1695....Attack immediately Immediately. 584 The main column is devoted to an alpha- betical arrangement of signal texts, and | worth, have been assigned to this duty, ‘3. | avocation, other things their vocation; and disadvantages of limited reach and of too much exposure for modern fighting condi- tions. For night work we have the Ardois sys- tem of electric light signals, the Very rocket signals, the masthead lamp signal and the search-light signal. The Ardois signals consist of four double lamps, the upper half red and the lower half white, but the two halves are never lighted at the same time. This is the most rapid and accurate means of signaling we have, and_can be seen for miles. The red and the white lights are flashed in various combinations by the simple and positive movement of a switch across a keyboard, and by answering a signal in kind the op- erator cannot fail to read correctly the signal made to him. Talking Fifty Miles. The Very signals consist of red and green stars fired aloft in combinations of four, the green corresponding to the white lamp of the Ardois. These signals have a range of quite fourteen miles, and can be seen when the masts of a vessel lie too far be- low the horizon to use the Ardois. The only disadvantage is their comparative slowness of action; one set of rockets must be allowed to burn out before another is fired, and the failure of one star nullifies that number. By using all the red lights of the Ardois in unison to represent a dot and all the white ones to denote a dash, long-distance signaling may be effected by the usual telegraphic code, but it is not rapid. The double masthead iamp can be ised in the same way; but while quite as slow, it has not the range of the Ardois. It would do in case of failure of the Ardois for limited work, but would never be used in preference. The searchlight is made to represent dots and dashes by long and short flashes, and when cast upon high, distant clouds can be made to. send mes- sages for fifty or sixty miles easily. It, too, is slow. So far, we are abreast the best of foreign nations in the matter of material, but in the matters of personnel and prac- tice we are far bebind the British and the French—the formerly particularly. With us, the duty of signaling is confided, in general, to the supervision of a cadet and a working force of four quartermasters and six or eight apprentices. With the single exception of the senior quartermaster, or chief signalman, as he is called, the en- Usted force qualify after they have reached the ship; and it is the chief signalman’s EQUAL TO THE BEST Standard of Discipline Maintained in COMPARISON WITH Far Ahead of Anything the Spanish Ever Attempt. © « ° ‘OTHER NATIONS VIEWS OF AN OLD SAILOR Written for The Evening Star, N THE DAY FOL- Or the destruc- tion of the battleship Maine the St. James Gazette, a publica- tion issued in Lon- don, deprecated all speculation whatso- ever as to the cause of the disaster with the off-hand asser- tion that it was © un- questionably due to an accident of some sort or another aboard ship,” the likelihood of such acci- dents on board United States naval vessels being very great, owing to the “lax dis- cipline that has always prevailed upon American men-of-war, in comparison with the character of discipline maintained in European navies.” If anything could possibly be humorous in connection with so appalling a disaster as that which befell the Maine, the gro- tesque absurdity of this comment amply supplies the food for laughter, even if it does also make to the generation of con- tempt. An American, if he had any sort of famil- jarity whatsoever with the nature of the ironclad, undeviating routine that obtains on every war vessel of his country in com- mission, whether anchored at Algiers or Shanghai, or at sea in the Bering straits or the Indian ocean, could truthfully, and without a scintilla of exaggerative flamboy- ant rhetoric, inform the foreign editor per- son that the discipline preserved on Ameri- can men-of-war not only equals that of every other navy in the world, including the navy of Great Britain, but that it is more rigid, more rigorous, more military and sailorly, and more admirable in every way, than the Giscipline that prevails on the ships of several navies of the world that vastly surpass it in size and strength. The writer, as a man-of-war’s man, had ample opportunities to study the discipline ruling warships of all the great navies of the world. He has made repeated and pro- tracted visits to as many as a dozen men- of-war, first and fourth class, battleship and gunboat, of the British navy, and he has carefully observed the whole routine of the day on at least two ships of every important navy, including the of Ja- pan. He is perhaps measurably well fitted, therefore, to draw comparisons. Standard of Cleanliness. Probably the safest standard from which to draw conclusions as to the nature of dis- cipline on a man-of-war is the standard of cleanliness, and from this point of view the most unscientific housewife might be duty is not alone in this direction, for they have other stations, and are “told off,” as the phrase goes, for signal duty when the cceasion requires. Rigorous Training. Signaling might better be said to be their it is when dealing with flag signals espe- cially their questionable efficiency shows to the greatest disadvantage. Again, the rating of signal quartermaster is given as a reward of merit, but for merit in every other direction than that of signaling fa- cility. Swedes and Danes in our service, because of their well-known sobriety and quite as competent a critic as the naval expert. Nothing is more absolutely cock- sure and certain than that a dirty man-of- war infallibly points to a slouchy, undisci- plin crew, aft as well as forward. A war- ship's crew of officers and men that does not possess sufficient energy and decency to keep its ship sweet and clean and spick and span from cathead to mizzen flagstaff was never yet known to be a well-disciplin- ed crew. There is a very high standard of cleanliness and sanitation on men-of-war of today—a standard necessarily high when it is considered how closely men are hud- dled together on a naval ssel. The ships ‘© the left, to the original gnal. On the right there is a column of “index words,’ and also a column of “reference numbers.’” To make a signal the eye is casi down the column of “index words” under the general head- ing “‘attack,” for instance, till the guiding words of the intended signal are found; then, if the signal be original there, the number to be signaled will appear in the far left-hand column, but if the signal be original to another group the number will appear in the extreme right-hand column and designate where to turn for the origi- nal. In receiving a signal one has only to search for the number made in its proper consecutive piace in the left-hand column and to read the accompanying text. Use in Action. Each ship carries a number of signal books or “keys” for various uses, all ar- ranged in the same manper and perhaps many having duplications of the numbers, and it is necessary first to tell in which “key” the answer is to be read before the signal can be properly translated. In one book 4136" may mean “lend aid,” while in another it may mean “attack,” and still something else in the “cipher” book. On going into action covers weighted with lead are slipped about them, and It becomes the signal officer's duty to cast them overboard and beyond the reach of a victorious foe. When the frigate Chesa- peake was captured by the Shannon her signal books were taken, too, and that ne- cessitated the preparation of a new code— @ much easier thing then than now. As can be seen, the possession of the “keys” is everything to a solution of the signal, and a knowledge of the flag numbers in themselves, although not common property, is decidedly secondary. Even possessing one of the code books, an enemy would still be at a loss unless he knew the signal re- ferred to the key in his possession, and by prearrangement it is possible to increase the number of eyery signal made by ten, twenty, ete., and to make its proper read- the smaller one. number of tha’ Speed Cone and Flag Signals. ing less that arbitrary difference, thus com- the admiral of a fleet wouid take this pre- cautionsry measure if he were at all in doubt as to the fate of a captured ship's signal books. Wig-Wag Signaling. ‘With the semaphore the position of each of the United States navy more nearly at- tain even the medical department theoreti- cal standard of cleanliness than the ships of any other navy in the world, including those of the British navy. This is not to say that British men-of-war are not clean. As a rule they are quite clean, even if it does take the “lime juicers,” as American men-of-war’s men call the British naval tars, an unconsciously long time, for in- stance, to “swab the smut out o’ the ship's eyes” after coaling ship. But the average British man-of-war is not as clean, fore and aft, as the average American man-of- war—not by a long shot. A good many British naval jacks have got the slattern- ly housemaid’s habit of hiding dirt and of stowing it away in corners, so that, while to the uncritical eye their ships might pre- sent a general swabbed and shiny look, they could certainly not endure the sharp inspection of an American commanding of- ficer without some of the men forward find- ing themselves in a heap of trouble for slouchy ship policing. In the tropics, where men-of-war's men wear white uni- forms, you rarely See a British bluejacket stretch himself at full length on the plank- ing of the forward deck of his ship. He fears for the spotlessness of his uniform. When the smoking lamp is lighted on any American war vessel down-near the line you will see scores of white-uniformed men forward sprawling about on the always swabbed and dustless decks, and when the bo'sun’s pipe brings them to their feet you will perceive that their sun-bleached twill uniforms are just as white and clean as they were before the men “hit the deck’’ with them. Nothing could possibly be more apparently clean than a British man-of- war. There's the difference in a nutshell. Spanish Indolenece. A coupl> of days after the Maine dis- aster a Madrid dispatch quoted Weyler as saying that the “affair was no doubt due to the indolence of the ship’s crew.” Weyle: has often b3en aboard the men-of-war of his own country. Therefore this remark sounds delightfully funny. There could be no more realistic portrayal of the entirs meaning of the word ‘‘indolence” than thet exhibited by the crew of a Spanish war- ship. Fore and aft, from all hands at dawn until pipe down at night, the dolce far niente on board a Spanish man-of-war is almost of th2 dreamy, blissful, all-per- vading sort as that which obtains at high, scorching noon in the ‘dobe shacks of Mexican peors. Aft, in the officers’ quar- ters, a fair degree of cleanliness is occa- zionally to be found on a Spanish war ves- sel, but forward, where the m3n dodder through their days, the average Spanish man-of-war is not alone dirty, it is simpl: filthy. The fo’c’sle of the average Spanis! man-of-war is no better in respect to clsan- liness than the main of a rank, evil- smelling East Side New ;York tenement house. There is no spread-2agle prejudice whatsoever in this statement. It is simply a matter of, commoa knowledge and notoriety among wn who know navies. Moreover, Spanish. naval sailors ar? mot alone (as stupid, tnapt, a class pluggish and vie: headled: they are sullen and ugiy and mighty, difficult to handle, even though they could neither write Eng- iish nor speak it intelligibly for the pur- poses of reciting the numbers of signals. On flagships the flag Heutenant has charge of this service, but as he is generally chosen for reasons personal to the admiral, nis acquaintance with signaling is second- ary. In peace times it may be fairly pardon- able to slip and call a dead emperor “cold “Semaphore.” meat” by signal; but in the moment of boot the mistake of a unit might prove fatal. In the British navy the men are carefully and rigorously trained first on shore, and for no other duty than that of signaling; ond the result on shipboard is that excep- tional accuracy and speed for which they ere noted. Specialism is the secret, and the crganization of a navy signal corps for our own service, combined with constant practice, is what is needed. In that way only can we avoid that embarrassing alter- native of sending a boat to make sure of the reading. —_.___- Father—“Rem>mber, my son, one never — anything in this world by being po- c" Son—“You’re wrong, father; I lost my seat in a street car this morning from that very cause.”--Truth From Life. SEs Pas T. : especially by officers."who look upon “Tar een: men forward as beings. not. ich above the masyeraak: lovel of beasts. ‘The Spanish man-of-war's lent man ‘barously, pun rbar- w ue a ously and treated ne isly in general. , = The wonder is not yfhat he always ‘Poepertety sqmre-— seems to answer & sh ae with dragging ay e dev tterness slumb=ring Ta sme Fi dit | neal def” jin his eyes. The writi iis more cleanli- more discipline in Siti SutaQuakeacore, "(Br jose Istan every here.” [never Be sides, Adie seligecs Gacy FYML Ethan Psat SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1898—24 PAGES: carried a young princeling of the royal house of Italy around the world a couple of years ago. The writer saw the officers and crew of the Cristoforo Colombo re- ceiving Mr. Dole, the prcsident of the Ha- waiian Islands, ‘aboard | the ship at Hono- lulu. The men of the deck force were partly in white and party in blue uniforms, and some of them added to the pictur- esqueness of the occaston by showing up at muster on the quarterdeck fo mixed uni- forms of blue and white. Some of them stood in line and answered to their names on this formal occasion of international courtesy in their bare feet. A mob of the men belonging to the black gang—the crew members of the engineer’s department, that is—slouched up on deck in their greasy dungarees. The commanding officer of an American war vessel who would per- mit the men of his ship's company to make any such showing as this, not, indeed, on the occasion of a reception to a high offi- cial of a foreign country, but even at ordi- nary, every-day quarters at anchor in a home port or navy yard, would be court- martialed and summarily dismissed the service. ‘a Russians, Germans and French. The forward part of a Russian man-of- war is ruled by a cat-o'-nine-tails thai is net so very different from the Russian khout. Therefore, Russian men-of-war are moderately well disciplined, if rarely clean. The Russian maa-of-war’s man jumps to the bo'sun’s whistle with the huddled shoulder cringe ef the man who knows what it means to be lashed to a Stanchion and to get five dozen or so on the bare back. The discipline on board a German man-of-war is of a sort that gives the German man-of-war’s man all he wants of it in the course of a single enlistment. Not one German sailor in twenty “ships over” egain in the navy of his country. Fully one-third of the men who join the United States navy put in more than one enlist- ment, and this, too, in spite of the greater opportunities American men have of doing well ashore in civil life. No naval establishment in Europ>, ex- cept that of Great Britain, equals the navy of France for the fine, common-sense dis- cipline of its men and the cleanliness of its ships. The French man-o’-war’s man is game, alert, cheerful and not a very bad sailor. He is properly treated by his offi- cers, knows hts rights under the regula- ticns, and gets them, and does his work abcard ship like a man who is not merely endeavoring to kill time until the expira- tion of his enlistment. Petty Officers and Bluejackets. Foreign critics of the discipline preserved on American war vessels fancy they make a strong point when they r2fer to the fact that the petty officers on United States men-of-war do not “rate a salute” and ap- pear to be on altogether too friendly terms with th2 bluejackets. In all European navies chief petty officers, who are en- listed men precisely as they are in our navy, are saluted by their enlist2d infer- iors, and it is due to this very fact that nine out of ten of them suffer prodigiously frcm the big nead and become intolerable tyrants over the bluejackets in the course of time. No attempt has ever been made to compel one enlisted man to salute another in the naval establishment of th> United States. A chief petty officer on an Ameri- can man-of-war is to all intents and pur- pcses a commissioned officer, even if he does swing his hamnmock forward, and it gces pretty ill with the bluejacket who gives a chief petty officer any “man-o'-war slack” on duty. The American bluejacket thoroughiy understands the extent of the authority of the chief p2tty officer, and he dces not abate a whit his respect for because, when “knock-off” has been lamp is lit, the rms with him at the gangw The foreign critic of our naval establish- ment also points to the off-duty chummi- ness that undoubtedly exists between American bluejackets and American ma- What position would the marines on a United States vessel take, in view of their constant thickness with the men forward, in se the bluejackets should mutiny at is a question they often ask. Sailors and Marines. The bluejackets of the United States navy are so well treated that the officers of the service ceased many years ago to con- template the possibility of a bluejacket mutiny aboard an American man-of-war. But if any such thing should occur on boare any United States warship there is no manner of doubt in the world that the beginning. of it would find the ship's ma- rine guard in just the place where it ought to be—drawn up on the poop, ready to skoot the mutinous bluejackets to smith- ereens at the commanding officer’s word of command. In nearly every navy in the world outside of the American navy there is perpetual enmity and open hostility and growling between the bluejackets and the sea soldiers. English naval jacks on lb- erty ashore commonly wait in a body for the appearance “‘on the beach” of a marine or a couple of marines whom they “have it in for,” and when the despised marines sbow up they are pounded almost to death by their bluejacket shipmates. Nothing of that sort ever happens in the United States navy. The sailors and sea soldiers get alcng first-rate together. As they are all drawn from the same class of men, there is no particular reason why they should not. American sailors of the navy have got enough judgment to appreciate the fact that marines are kept abcard men-of-war for the purpose of preserving order among the crews, and they no more attempt to hinder them or bullyrag them than the law- abiding American citizen ashcre attempts to interfere with a policemar in the per- formance of his duty. A marine is noth- ing more than a policeman aboard ship. When a marine on an American man-of- a? war has got his belt and bayonet on and | is putting in the four hours of his watch, it is his business to make it warm for the bluejacket whom he catches smoking on the berth deck or committing any other in- fraction of the rules and regulations, and the bluejacket knows that it is his busi- ne&s. But, off duty, the United States ma- rine swaps pipes with the bluejacket; they get on famously together, and this state of things is certainly a whole lot better than the devil-to-pay condition of matters that prevails in most other navies—notably in ee British navy—between sea soldier and sailor. Proud of Their Calling. In none of the world’s navies can you see men perform their routine and extra- erdinary work and their drills with more snap, “vim, ambition, determination and genuine liking for the business than on an American chip of war. It is a matter of pride with a United States navy sailor to be up to the mark of his rate, whether the rate is that of a landsman or a chief bo’- sun’s mate, The American bluejacket is a@ man of sueh independent spirit that he would just about as lef get. into the brig in double irons as to get called down in the presence of his mates for dereliction of auty, and in general he sees to it that he does not deserve such a calling down. If he dcesn’t deserve it, he doesn’t get it—in the American navy. It is interesting to compare the “daily report bock” on the conduct of brig-con- fined American bluejackets and the simi- lar book made up by the ship’s writer, at the direction of the officer of the deck, on @ forcign man-of-war—on a Spanish man- of-war, for example. The American man- of-war report book will probably show for every day the ship lies at anchor in port that half a dozen or s0 of the bluejackets have broken their liberty; that two or three more have come off to the ship in shore boats and announced as they were skung aboard in bo’sun’s chairs (being them- selves incapable of getting aboard) that chewing they purposed the vessel, fighting tops and all, to the level of the sea, and that a couple of the men are due to be haled to the mast for s1 itiously scrapping under the fo’c’sle. it it is very rare that you will find opposite a ™man-o’-war’s man’s name on this RICH PUBLIC MEN Gossip About Statesmen Who Have Homes in Washington. SENATOR PORAKER’S NEW RESIDENCE Noted Men Born in Cabins Who Now Live in Palaces. UNIMPROVED REAL ESTATE (Copyright, 1898, by Frank G. Carpenter.) Written for The Evening Star. ENATOR FORA- just about completed — building one of the finest houses in Washing- ton. It is situated on the corner of 16th and P streets, about a mile north of the White House, in the heart of the most fashionable part of the city. It is a cream-colored man- sion, big enough for a hotel, and the ground upon which it stends is worth so much that Mr. Foraker must have had to almost cover it with dol- lar bills when he bought it. It will take an- otker fortune to furnish it, and it is a house that any millionaire would be proud to own. Poor Once, but Now, Oh, My! Still Senator Foraker passed his boyhood in a log cabin. You have heard the tradi- ticn of his coffee sack trousers, and the stery of how, by pure brains and nerve, he is now a broadcloth United States Senator, with apparently rhoney to burn. I know of @ score of public men who started life poor boys, and who now live in palaces. Secre tary Alger was born in a cabin, worked for four dollars a month, and for a time lived upon thickened milk and cornmeal. He has & magnificent home in Detroit, and hag rented a house here near the corner of 16th ker has Senator Foraker's House. and H streets, for which he pays more per month, I venture, than he earned in th: first six years of his working life. He pictures which are worth more than a con- gressman’s salary, and some of his rugs have cost more than his whole houseke: Levi Z. se son has been cornering the wheat of the United States in Chicago, clerked dur- ing a part of his boyhood for a few dol- lars a week in Columbus, Ohio, living in 4 cheap boa house. He reer in Chicago as a bookkeep: circumstances were such that hi kick if the potatoes were soggy or the but- ter was strong. Today he has a pala here which surpasses the White House in its grandeur, It stands qn ground which cost $100,000, and the cream-white Milwau- kee brick of which it was made came here in individual packages, each brick being wrapped up in brown paper. There is nc chance for the Leiter butter to get strong, for there is an ice house in the mansio@® in which you can store away enough ice to last for a month, and the cold storage rooms are such that the beeves, sheep and game which are served up on the table can be kept there for weeks without spoiling. Young Leiter had to eat what was set bi fore him. Th> millionaire Leiter of today raises his own beef and mutton on his farm in Wisconsin. It is killed there by his own butcher and shipped here for use. A clerk in a boarding house seldom kicks at cold plates. The apparatus in the Leiter man sion to keep the plates warm cost almost as much as its owner used to make in a year when he was clerking. It is a boiler iron as big around as a two-bushel basket, so heated by gas that it warms the butler's pantry overhead by keeping the pipes running through the pantry filled with hot water. Levi P. Morton began his life by clerking at $1.25 a week. I went past the house which he owaed in Washington when he was Vice President the other day. It cost him a hundred thousand dollars, and was then not good enough to suit his luxurious tastes. He added a dining room which cos: him twenty to thirty thousand dollars more. He had his kitchen walled with tiles of white china, and the ashes from the range and the furnace were carried out o the house in little cars on a railway. Ex- Senator Brice spent $12,000 on a dinner, and many an evening entertainment at his house here consumed more money than Uncle Sam paid him as his senatorial sa ary for a year. Still, when Brice went t: college his expenses were not more than $2 @ week, and when he got married he hac to borrow enough money on his note from his friends to pay the expenses of his wed- ding journey. I could cite other instance: of the same kind. Rich Statesmen Property Owners, Mr. Brice rented his house in Washing- ten. So does Vice President Hobart, and so also nearly every member of the pres- ent cabinet, except John Sherman. Secre- tary Sherman has seldom paid rent. When he first came to Washington, forty odc years ago, he boarded for a time at Wil- lard’s Hotel. Then he lived down below the Capitol, in what was the old, fashion- able part of Washington. One day he told Mrs. Sherman that he had bought a house near Franklin Square. This square was then @ playground for the boys of Wash- ington. It had an old board fence about it and Mrs. Sherman felt as though she werc going out into the country to live. ‘Washington man nothing better than a good spec- ulation, and I doubt whether he has ever sues oe one. pte who FRREER,, fat i, : 5 i enon house, which they havé rented, is one of the celebrated mansions of the capital. If its walis were phonographs, they could tell stories of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and Winfield Scott. This house was once owned by Ogle Tayloe, who was one of the great entertainers of the capital many years ago. It ts just next to the Lafayette Theater, which stands on the stte of the place of the attempted assassination of Seward, and where Blaine Uved when he Was Secretary of Btate. Above it is the Cos- mos Club, In the house in which Mrs. Pres- ident Madison ved after her husband's Ceath. I don't know what rent Vice Prest- dent Hobart pays, bat he will have to sive Don Cameron more than $4,000 a year if Came-on is to net 6 per cent on his invest- ment. The house cost him $67,000 some years ago, and he has put a great many improvements upon it. Don Cameron ts ex- ceedingly thrifty. Old Simon Cameron used to say that Don could make more mon in a week than he could in a month Senater Simon Cameron was a shrewd speculator. Don Cameron made, I am told, about $40,000 off of the house which he sold cn Scott Circle some years ago, and he has real estate holdings im the suburbs which will some time be very valuable. One of his properties is a big farm ont on the 7th “t road, about five miles from the White Fourteenth street will, I judge some time pass through it, and it will be covered with fine houses. Goxsip About John McLean. Another thrifty man is Mr. John McLean, who owns perhaps as much real estate as any men in Washington. He has the titles to nearly every piece of prcperty in the Square opposite the Arlington Hotel, with the exception of Levi P. Morton’s big flax, the Shoreham, and one or two other small holdings. Mr. McLean's house is cre of the finest here. It is old-fashioned, but large and roomy, and the yard about it, which is shut off by a high brick wall, is worth so much that you would have to carpet it with money to buy it. When McLean sets his foot down in his back yard he knows that there is at least $10 worth of ground under tt, and he could stand on the roof of his house, 1 ven- ture, and se* a full half million dollars’ worth of property which belongs to him. Tbe Normandie Hotel forms a part of the McLean estate. He has all those stores on the northeast corner of this square look- ing out toward Lafayette Park, and I be- lieve he owns one or more houses on the opposite side of the park as well. McLean is the only man I know here who has made a fortune out of a cemetery. He bought, ten years or mere ago, the old Holmead burying ground in the northwest part of the city, paying $50,000 for it. This was a bagatelle compared with the present value of this property. There are magnificent bouses all about it and nothing in the neighborhood sells for less than $2 an@ up- Ward per square foot. A Big Paper Deal. Joyn R. McLean has made big money in newspapers as well as in real estate. I am told that W. R. Hearst paid him more than he spent upon the New York Morning Journal for that property, and the Cin- cinnati Enquirer, which he has owned for years, is better than a Klondike « McLean was put to work in the office after he was through with his edu- cation, a part of which was received in E a rope. He began as an office boy and work- ed up through the different gradu tl he became bu: s manag veloped a remarkabl r news, and he is today one of the best judg in the United States. He Enquirer himself, though he jh and has to send most of telegraph. He has never reduc of the paper, and tod: y copy throughout the @ financier and is always to make a ring for the hand. He and bought prices. At one his at paid hing the he bought a million pounds of white rata price which astenished his com- Petitors. jufacturer had called upon him Very anxious to sell, McLean repl “You can easily sell to me if you can your figures low ene us ; Ss ¢ s any ills rey .” said . “Il know that. But I think the prices are too high . how low will you make it if I take 200,000 pound The paper dealer mused a moment and T'll let you have it at 64% cents.” ‘Can't you do better than that?” asked eLean. for that quantity,” replied the chen,” said McLean, “what will ‘ou charge me for a million pounds?’ ‘A million pounds,” exclaimed the dealer; ou don't want a million pounds!” “Yes, I do,” replied McLean, “You can make it, can’t you?” “Of cor e 1 can,” replied the man. “Welt, let me He thereupon figured a while, <nd then answered: “If you will take a million, I will give it to you for 6 cents.” “On what time?’ said the dealer, will let you wo or three months = I can’t buy on three months, in the hard times,” said McLean. “The banks are suspending everyw ou know how tight money i N IT must have eix months or we can’ “six months is awful. It is half a year. “I know that,” was the answer, “but 1 didn’t make the times. I am willing to buy your paper, but I must have the time I ask. If you will give me that the order is yours.” ‘The dealer did not reply for a moment. Finally, he said: “Mr. McLean, you are driving a very hard bargain, but business is business, and I will give you the time you ask for. There’s no money in it, but I do it merely to secure your trade.” In a few minutes the contract was signed. The signatures bad hardly been biotted, before McLean turned and asked: “What discount will you allow me for cash on delivery?” “What's that?” said the paper man. “I want to know whet discount you will make if I pay cash as you deliver the paper?” The dealer had to figure again, and the result was that McLean finally got his pa- per for 5% cents a pound for cash, while his competitors were paying fully a cent more for the same article. Where the Postmaster General Lives, Returning to famous houses of Washing- ton, I called the other night on Postmaster General Gary. He is now living in Sena- tor Sawyer’s $100,000 house on Connecticut avenue. The house ts magnificently fur- nished, some of its walls are papered with the finest satin, and its decorations, which were all made by hand, are among the most beautiful of the houses of Washing- ton. Mr. Sawyer went into debt when he ‘was a young man to buy his time of his father, and he was over thirty before he was $2,000 ahead. He is now a number of times a millionaire, and it was during his term in the Senate that he built this house, in order that his daughter might have a suitable place for her entertainments in connection with Washington society. Since he left the Senate I understand he has of- fered the house for sale, but it is such a valuable property that a purchaser has not able him to entertain magnificently in it. FRANK G. CARPENTER. Pacmag hr eat Malictous. From Tendon Judy. “A girl who sings so early in the morn- ing must have a sweet tion. “Not necessarily. She may have a grudge