Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-01-06
A TOUR OF TIE FILE ROOM
VOLUMES OF PAPERS WHICH
DATE BACK 4 CENTURY.
Breaks Which are Result OF the
Burning of the Capitol by the British
The old Genius who Binds the HeterO-
eneOus iOn-PhotOgraphs of
Public Men


WASHINGTON, Jan. 4.-Tne room occu-
pied by the file and journal clerks OF the
House is oppOs tie the west entrance to
/ the floor. Tue file rooms proper consist
of several chambers, To which there IS
entrance from the room occupied by the
file and journal clerks. These chambers
areone above tie other. The hrst entered
is about 80 feet long and 10 feet wide.
There are two of the SANE dimensions one
and two stories respectively above.
Then on top, right under the room
of the House wing of the building,
4 is sort of room with very low cell
/ ing. You have to stOOD in order to
move about there. Only two sides of this
room, which is larger than thuse below,
/ can he used for file purposes. To 20 from
/ one room to the other IL Is necessary to
I crawl up narrow, almost perpendicular
| iron stairway, through u very small
/ aperture. In these rooms are preserved
/ the originals of every document that
/ comes before the House, whether in the
/ shape OF bills, reports or official commu-
I nicatiOns. Very few Congressman know
! that the original manuscript of their
! little bills" no matter how insignificant
4 they may be in Importance, is preserved
/ with great care. But such is the case. The
/ bills, reD0rts or other documents which
I come officially before Congress first go to
/ the file and journal clerks room. There
/ they are numb 1red and registered. They
/ are then sent TO the Public Printer. They
are printed and the original manuscript
returned. Alter being duly receipted for
they are slowed awav in the vaults for
t SIX months. They are then classified and
/ bOlrad securely in huge leather-covered
/ backs. TINS work done, they are safely
deposited in the nile rooms. TO 20 through
I'll.
1 big bulky volumes so cOmpactly
arranged around their walls really are
would be but u dun occupation. But tn
90 through with one who knows all about
them is a tour of interest.
/ JUDGE VIRGINS, ONE OF THE FILE
CLERKS,
/ took me through to-day. The Judge, from
/ long service and capabiity, knows al
1 most everything there is to he ascerJained
/ about the procedure of legislation and It's
| details. He keeps his place, no matter
whether the House is Democratic or Re
/ publican. La this respect he is like
! AruZi Smith, the phenomenon who has
4 charge OF the Senate document
/ rooms. He told me to-day good
/ deal about the musty old tones that he
! handles. The bound files commence in
! the uppermOsC room genealOgically and
I 20 dOWnwards-that is, the oldest ut them
are up there and the AOst recent below.
/ You get into modern days as You come
down. The first volumes comprise the
/ manuscripts of the year 1870. There are
! in them bills, resolutions, reports, mes
! sages from the President, communications
/ from the heads of departments, in fact the
/ very Congressional grist OF our day, only
! on Il smaller scale. 1t is wonderful how
we'll preserved these old writings a-e.
They are IA little yellow most Of them, but
many are as clean and clear
1 l-,~ W..
is to be seen in them all the charac-
teristics in spelling and We Olden way of
writing. There are no original files prior
to 1870. From that date up To 1913 there
are numerous breaks. The documents
| from the very first Congress We're, how
ever, preserved in this way, and there was /
no neglect from 1875 to 1913. The breaks |
in the order of chronology are due to /
British vandalism. They occurred when /
the British burned the capitol. Some of |
the big leather volumes which were pre- |
served from that Dire bear marks of the |
flames. The contents of three or four of /
5ngT hay b1r0d their o pages R half or or
that was rescued is carefully /
preserved. OF course we could not 20 |
through all the flies. II will take some /
OF these volumes at random" said Judge T
Virgins, land show whathaS often struck 7
me-that is how little change there has I
took down Volumes of 1893, 1899, 1922 aud /
others. We ran throu IN them, only casu- /
ally of course, and saw before us the daily +
histOr, of the House as it is now.
ONLY AT RARE INTERVALS
is there any necessity of removing the /
coverings which inclUse this literal his. /
tory OF the House OF Representatives. The I
work is at the first so strongly and prac- T
callY done that renewals are not /
/ of 70 Cd
a number of old documents in one of the +
volumes containing reports from the then (
Secretary of the Navy ab ut Arctic eXpe- /
dtiOns. We read these rather carefully, /
and then reviewing the very recent litera- /
ture on that subject, brought out
by the Jeanette, Rodgers and Pr0teus
ventures, came to the conclusion that the
latter had not developed anything new.
In fact, the very form Of the later reports
is the same as that of the ancient ones we
handled to-day. Many other things of in
terest did we look at and digest. But one
could write a book about it. As We butted
our heads in descending one of the
narrow iron stalrways, Judge Wig
gins said that the man who had
charge OF the preparation anu ,,iii i.@@5 OF
the House manuscripts was character
in his way. He has been at it for forty
years. and is only seen when he comes TO
file away volume when completed. He
is a little bit of dried up old man with
small bright black eyes. He has stoop-
ing figure, and voice of sharp key. He
brings in his completed vol line and after
getting his receipt goes away. He dis
plays a good deal of ingenuity in his
work. OF course Congressional manu-
scripts are upon paper OF all sizes. By
FASTING IN here and doubling up there he
makes the edges of his leather covered
books almost as smooth as If a uniform
paper were used. He does not change
letter or rub out mark. He binds the
papers together just as they come from
the hands Of the Public Printer. All the
printers marks, as well as the grammatic
aud photographed errors OF the writers
are there. There is more demand to look
over these volumes than you would sup
pose" said Judge Virgins. People from
all parts of the country come to investi-
gate. They are principally those who are
interested IN certain legislation or writer's
who want to be historically accurate. But
there are very few people who know of
these files, or who visit the rooms where
they are kept out of curiosity"
YOU CAN SEE FOR SALE
everywhere here now photographs OF
Speaker Carlisle of all sizes. | stopped at
the gallery Of leading photographer to-
day who makes a speciality of pOr-
traits of public men. He told
me something about the way such
Things SOFA. "Ihe greatest demand now
is for Speaker Carlisle's likeness. | sell
a great deal of them. l have orders from
dealers from all parts Of the country.
There is still considerable demand for
Randall pictures, but it is not One-haIf
no, not One-quarter OF what it has been.
l sold good many OF Keifer'S
when he was elected Speaker, but
the demand very soon fell of. | don't
sell any now. The Blaine pictures have
also become dead weight on my hands.
Don't sell two week. Hancock | can't
sell prohtably any more. Arthur still
bOOms, Of course, because he is Presi-
dent. Most of the people who buy Ar
thurs are women. / have had a number
of inquiries for pictures of Mrs. Arthur.
/ could sell good many of his daughter
and his son, but can't get negatives of
them. l hear the son is dude. 1t | had
a good picture of him in the costume of
the dude what a trade | could build uD!
Edmunds sells we'll because he looks like
St. Jernme-at least that's the reason
why most people say they
buy him. No, / don't sell many
of Gen. Sherman. Gen. Sheridan's the
ticket now. l am making money off of
Sheridan. / have tried to catch his
hrofhor Col Mia h,,f I rx-O,,IH