The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1883-08-23
WASHINGTON r
From Our Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, d. c.,
Aug. 30. 1881

ed with the sight of the identical
buff cont and doeskin breeches that
the father of his country wore when
he resigned his commission at An
napolis, will learn with profoundest
regret that they. with the other
Washington relics, have been trans
ferred from the Patent Office, where
they were accessible to everybody,
over to the practically forbidden pre-
cincts Of the National Museum. rhe
removal of these sacred mementoes
to the place named is one of those
official aud oflicious blunders that
our public cusiodians are continual
ly making. While everybody who
visits Washington never thinks of
leaving it without going through the
model room Of the Patent Office, no.
body, comparatively, has regard
enough for the Smithsonian Institu
tion to either walk over there or in
vest a nickel with the a conductor.
Besides, any n who has visited this
pathological and piscatorial insti-
tuition cannot but remember how i'm
possible it is for the stranger to with
stand the cajoling of the urbane gen
tlemnn at the door, whose every smile
is a magnet that draws your last buz
zard dollar from ~its-resting place in
exchange for m execrably written
book upon birds and how 10 stuff
them, which suggests no improve
ment upon the way our mothers per,
formed the operation ut the Christ
2 astides of forty years ago.
BY the way, the interest in these
relics should be enhanced, owing to
the discovery in some forgotten cor
ner of the Capitol of another lot
which were unearthed and added to
the Patent Office array. These last,
and they promise to be as endless as
MIR. .Washington's body servants, in
clude the identical easy chair in
which the General reclined only a
few minutes before his demise. Then
there is the tield-glass, and the can
dleslicks, and the cake baskets, AID
the box, made from a solid block of
mahogany, in which the General kept
his silverware, which, Judging from
the size of the box, could not have
afforded a very strong temptation,
even to the burglars of that period,
when silver was silver and worth APP
propriating where there was enough
of it. A. marble-top table which mar
ble-tops over anything that we have
now, and the identical guitar with
the E string broken just exactly as
Nellie Curtis broke it with her dain-
ty but unlearned fingers, form q brace
of quantity curious memorials ofthe
revcrcd family. The famous Ratchet,
however, has not yet turned up, nor
have all the crypts and vestibules
and coal holes in the Capitol been
thoroughly searched. We will not
despair. That Ratchet will be Eere
in due curse of. time, with &c. W.
engraved or the handle just as no
body but G.. w. could have done it,
and that, too, with q borrowed jack
knife. The possession OF this instru
ment by right of natural heredity
will lie between Tom Ochiltree, Of
Texas, and Eli Perkins, the champi
on cherry tree hackers of the uni
verse. If the official gentlemen who
have these sacred relics in charge
will take it kindly, we would sug
gest that the rotunda Of the Capito
is by all odds the best, the most ap
propriate, and the most accessible
of all other PLACES in Washington for
the display of these articles, il room
in the Patent Office is not to be oh
tanned. The place is as proof agains
fire as any other, and is guarded BY
salaried watchmen both by day aut
by night.
Something like five months since
or Immediately upon the adjournmen
of the last Congress-, somebody witt
an eye for esthetics, and seconded b,
another for the main chance, cause,
three of the massive historical paint
ings that have hung in the rotuid
longer by several years than the.
ought to, and now this man, mythica
and misanthropic, keeps himself i
closest communion with these magni
ticent artistic achievements for th
purpose of %retouching the WORK ofth
masters of that bygonc age. SUI
rounded by q huge fence on the fec
of the rotunda, this artist has fu
swing to chrome yellow, venetian rec
Albany lamp black, and vandyk
brown, and the lavishness displaye
in responding to the bare footprint
on the canvas, shows that tim,
) which ought to heal all things, is n
good when confronted with such crit
: cal demonstrations us are constant!
, leveled against that 16x12 feet illut
t~ration of the signing of the declar:
| ton. 1t will he ready to resun
its place in September amid the hu.
} zas ofthe small boys and the plaudir
/, of the retouchers! PnoNo.
When Il icy patent firm spring
into existence anywhere, it is Gust
mary to hire small boys in sma
towns to plaster the streets and bus
ness houses with some kind of caro-
L advertising their fraudulent no
e trums. The firm Of Foster & Forak,
E has started out to humbug the pc
e pie with their imposition dru!
"Sympathy for the Laboring Men.
t and have hired boys to distlibu
L their cards. II is q very laudah