Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-08-19

NaI
The HOUSE IN A TREE
that the door, is barred and they are inn
prisoned About a year ago a Texas crank
presented himself rs a silent candidate for the
presidency. Said he. "My people told me l
would be king if | stayed in n tub OF cold
water all night. did so, and | heard the
whisperings. Of inspiration. expect that
George Washington Will soon appear and
cover me with Jewels. l want to pre-
sent myself to the president as a silent
candidate for the next term in tho White
House. He was, of course, not permitted to
see the president and what became of him is
not known. About the patent Office you may
often see the perpetualmotion crank and
numbers OF letters are gotten at the patent Of
flee daily from people who claim to have sue
cessfully Invented this. One of the examiners
tells me that an old man and his son walked
all the way from Tennessee not long ago to
patent perpetual motion, but on being asked
to furnish a working model, and being
shown that their idea could not succeed, they
went away in despair. There are ranks who
want seats in the cabinet and there are
numerous vT-af1ihs who think they nave the
right to go into the treasury and use the gov
III LIoISy u tuey tIlocSe. NOW dUu
then a religious crank calls upon some OF the
s=se::assJJr iiasiss in "~usiiingbpn, n not long
g one presented himself to n leading sem
ator's wife and She got rid of him by humor-
ing his religious decisions.
One OF the most noted cranks about Wash
ington was an old man named Pinchoyer,
who had a number of deiusions and who used
to come into the White House and congress
and the various departments, and make his
demands in a very noisy name He is in
the asylum now near Washington, 1 think,
and when l last saw him he was being car
ried out of the house of representatives by the
sergeant-at-arms ard yelling like a trooper.
There are a number of queer characters in
Washington who can hardly be labeled
crsnks, yet who are so different from the aver
age run Of humanity that they come very
close to it. One of these is DIR. Mary Walker,
who struts about Washington in mems
clothes, wearing black broadcloth pantaloons,
patent leather boots, a Prince Albert coat
and a plug hat. She is a short-haired little
woman of less than five feet, and her hands
and feet are small. She has a weakened,
dried-up face, and she looks like a funny
little dwarf as she struts about with a cane
daintily held between her fingers. She likes
to be seen, and wherever there is a respect
ablef free crowd you will find her in it. She
calls upon the president, representatives and
senators, and she does not object to office
when she can get it.
A queer woman about Washington Is an
old lady with a high bonnie and a doughty
complexion. You see her often about the
Capitol, and 10 one seems to know much
about her. | think she lives at the Louise
Home for Old Ladies, and / understand she
has the blood of the best families of Virginia
in her veins.
The man who lives in a tree is fast acquir-
ing a national reputation. He calls his home
Airy Castle, and he has lived in it now, win
Ter and summer, for several years. 1t con-
sists of a tent-like house, built upon a pine
platform fastened between two oak trees.
The walls of the house are wood, but the roof
is a tent of a ridged shape. The platform
is, / should judge, thirty-fve feet square, and
it is fastened to. the trees as high up from the
ground as is the first story of a business
building. He goes up 10 it on a ladder, and
he has a wide platform outside on which he
can come during hot evenings in summer
and enjoy the air. He has the interior of
his tent house comfortably furnished, and he
heats it with an oil stove. With a table or
two and chair and a good bed, and with
pictures and photographs strung about the
room, he has very comfortable bachelor quar-
tiers, and | thinks he likes the notoriety which
his queer house gives him. He is a clerk in
The pension office at 1900 a year. He is a
one-armed man, dark w~hiskered, pleasant
faced, and about 40 years of age.
One of the queerest men in Washington is
a maj who prides himself on his shape, and
who pads himself out of all recognition. He
is q tall, broad-shouldered fellow, with a face
like that of a bully and with eyes that never
appear to BIO looking at any one or anything.
His broad shoulders are padded with many
inches of cotton, so that his blue flannel coat
falls in at the arms where the padding ends.
He has very large cuffs, and these are SO long
that you cannot at times SEQ his hands, which
are very small and remarkably white. His
feet are also small, and he wears boots with
high French heels. His head is large, but on
its top he has a little fat derby several sizes
too small for him, and this ne pulls down half
over hiseyes, making him look like a drunken
sailor of the.dude order. You always see
about the book auctions, and i find that
he has one of the finest libraries in Washing
ton. He knows all about books and seems to
have plenty Of money! His family is, l un-
derstand, rich, and he Is given a big allow
ance annually to use as he pleases.
These are but specimens of the many cranks
In Washington. Any night, about the hotels,
you may strike a long-haired man,
and on the streets you will see daily short
haired women. Men with hobbies congre-
here, and there are always plenty of
street preachers, infidels and men with
striking ideas ready to harangue any crowd
they can get together. AT the Capitol the
crank thrives and multiplies as tho years go,
and the man who stripped himself the other
day and stood naked in the rotunda at mid
day, pretending TO hin himself a statue, has
had his countsrparts in times past, though es
yet no ores ~crankiness has taken just the
same direction.
FRANK GEORGE CARPENTER.
limitations have been ioisted upon the
market SO closely resembling Allcock's
Porous Plasters in general appearance as