The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-12-29
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.

Special Correspondence Palaika News.
The recent appointment of a woman
as clerk of the House Committee on the
Library, is an innovation against which
there is some complaint in the ranks of
the army of candidates for the position,
but the woman suffragists are jubilant.
and consider that they have gained
point without the aid of the ballot. Un-
I'll the present time woman clerks have
been employed in the departments only,
and with the exception of one or two
who have filled positions as telegraph
operators in the corridors of the Capitol,
they have not been tolerated under the
immediate shadow of the Goddess of
Liberty.
a recent report of the Committee on
Ventilation and Acoustics in the House,
in which they recommend the daily
cleansing of the ventilating pipes, will
perhaps not tend to materially strengthen
the opinion entertained 10y some as to
the dignity supposed to attend the meet
ings of so august n body as the House of
Representatives. In its report the com
mittee says:
1.-THE great American habit of expec-
torating is fully exemplified on the part
of the members of this branch of the law
making department of the government,
and your committee reluctantly, mourn
fully, but firmly confesses its inability to
devise measures which will put an end to
| this reprehensible practIce-a practice
that lowers the dignity of this august
hi
being of the servants of the Republic.
| Attention is directed to the fact that
! there are in this chamber 216 MCKEE
/ plated cupsidors, furnished by the mu-
/ niticence of the nation with the sole de
| sign of being employ ed for the purposes
i for which they were procured, but for
! some reason unknown to your committee.
they are ignored, and the perforations in
| the brass ventilators employed as the re-
/ ceptacle of expectoration."
Mr.. Goldsborough Bruff, of this city,
who Is now in his eighty-third year, and
/ is one of the oldest employees in the gov
! eminent service, having been engaged as
/ a designer and craftsman in the Treasury
/ Department during the past sixty-three
years, has addressed to Congress an elab-
crate memorial upon the subject of ma
| tlonal coat of arms. Mr.. BTuff SAYS that
| in the period of our countrys infancy the
art of heraldry was unknown, and in
consequence the new Republic was una
BILE to obtain a proper device for its ma
tIonal signet. lie proposes device of
an armorial achievement and reverse Of
a great seal for the United States in Con-
gress assembled, as follows:
Arms-Paleways of thirteen pieces,
argent and gules, a chief, azure. the es-
cutcheon on the breast of the American
bald eagle displayed proper. holding in
his dexter talon an olive branch and in
his sinister bundle of thirteen arrows,
all proper, and in his beak a scroll in
scribed with this motto, + plVTibus
ItIlUH. For the Crest-Over the head of
the eagle, which appears above the es-
cutcheop, a glory or breaking through a
cloud, proper, and surrounding thirteen
stars forming a constellation argent on
an azure field" His communication
has been referred to the committee on
the library.
\ few days before Christmas the DIS
trict Commissioners received a letter,
written by little girl in Missouri. The
letter was addressed to the MAR" and
/ in it she inquired in uncertain and badly
/ spelled English why it was that her
/ father. who served through the war,
/ could not get his pension when so many
could. She stated that her father was
/ sick and too poor to employ lawyer.
/ The letter was forwarded to the Commits
sioner of Pensions. who ordered special
investi.i ton of the case, and on We'd
nesday last the Commissioner notified
the little lady by mail that her fathers
/ pension had been granted. with full al
lowance of back pay. The letter was
probably received on Christmas Eve, and
there was at least one joyful household
in Missouri upon Christmas Day. II.