Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1886-04-03
APRIL 8, 1886.
WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON. March %. 1886.

WASHINGTON, March 90, 1886.
There is very general agreement
that the Secretary of the Treasury
will never resume the onerous duties
of his office. The strain has been too
great for him, and he cannot return
to it without imperilling his life. Mr..
Manning's illness has raised another
cry of "malaria which has been
traced again to the unhealthy con-
dition of the Potomac flats,
$ Where the fresh wind borne of the sea
grows faint with the sickly breath,
That stays in the fretting marshes and
blows on the dews of death.
There seems to lie a fatality about
the Treasury Department which no
one can explain other wise than thai
the building is situated in an I'M
heallhful locality or that the drain.
age system is defective. For the
past year Secretary Manning has
spent the greater part Of his time
there day and night. Every Secre-
tary who has presided over the De-
partment for the last twenty years,
has been, at some time, during his
occupancy, afflicted by that myster-
ious disease called malaria,v and
physicians report greater percent
age OF illness among the employees OF
that Department than any other.
Some of those who have been EN-.
ployed at the Department for many
years repudlate this statement, how.
ever, and one gentleman, who has
spent twenty eight years in the treas
ury service, says he has not been i'll
a day since he has been there.
When Gen. Dix was Secretary oil
the Treasury, he complained to his
friends that he believed the building
was not healthy, and that since be
had been there he had never been in
good health. "Not exactly ILL.," he
explained, but tired and dull all the
time" The leading physicians Of
the country took this statement up
and explained that the Secretary was
suffering from malaria,n and this
disease has been the fashionable
thing in Washington ever since. Its
origin was traced to the Potomac
flats.
The death of Secretary Folger is
also ascribed indirectly to g malaria
Shortly after he took charge of the
Treasury delegation of local bank
ers called upon him, and one of them
referred to malaria" The Secre
tary laughed at the idea, and re
marked dryly that "political malar
ia was about the only disease in
fictitious in Washington, yet the See
rotary was stricken in a manner moi
at all unlike Secretary Manning.
There has Just been an investiga
ton of the sanitary condition of the
U. S. Treasury building, and it is
pronounced deplorable and danger
Gus, a veritable not bed of disease
Congress will be asked for at least
100000 to remedy the evil. Al
present Congress allows $4,000 9
year for repairs about the Treasury,
and this sum is speedily exhausted
in minor repairs, and very little car
be utilized for improving the sani
tary condition of affairs.
There are now upwards of 2,00(
persons employed in the Treasur,
building, and investigation shows
that at least one thousand visitor.
are in the Department during thu
day on business. In order to pro
vide pure air it is proposed to place
fans at the four interior corners O
the sub-basement and force the fresl
air up into the rooms by means o
fiues or pipes.
Whether the Treasury will get thu
coveted appropriation for this i'm
provement remains to be seen, but i
is quite sure that the Potomac fiat,
will not get the 100000 asked for
This great enterprise, upon which
nearly a million dollars have alread,
been expended, is to stop summari
~, and Congressman who leave theil
good habits at home when they come
to Washington will have the Poto
mac fats for some time yet, as con
venient scape goat for the ills of fest
consequent upon their disslpations
The Committee on Rivers and
Harbors say they will give nothing
more to the fats until the question
of title has been settled. They are
doubtful now whether the flats be
long to the United States or to the
Kidwell heirs.
The blind Chaplain of the House
of Representatives is attracting
marked attention to his morning
prayers these days. In one invoea.
ton he denounces blood and pomp
and beseeches the Lord to enable the
intelligent men and women of the