Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-03-05

THE NEWSPAPER MEMS QUARTERS
The room on the north side of the big court,
over whose door the word press" stood out in
big letters, excited no little interest among a
large number Of attendants at the ball The
1oor was wide open, and was unobstructed by
aecorations. and along about II O'Clock the
scene within was a busy one. The irregular
space not taken up by the great chests of PEN
sion ONCE drawers was crowded full of desks
Tor the accommodation of the newspaper men.
Each desk was supplied with all writing neces-
saries, and during the evening many were the
glowing pen pictures of the brilliant scenes
without in the great ballroom, which were
hurriedly scratched off by the press gang and
fired off, to various parts of the country by
way OF the telegraph Office adjoining. The
press room was in charge Of Mr.. Charles Ii.
Mann. OF the House press gallery.
An ample force of operators and messenger
boys were kept busy in the telegraph office I'M
TIL late hour. Not only were the wires util-
lzed largely by the newspaper men in dispatch
ing to their journals little contemporaneous
pictures of the great ball. but many visitors to
the city sent home by telegraph brief messages
TO their wives or friends, telling Of the gor-
geous scenes in which thew were participating
sthe night grew late and business slackened,
the little messenger boys Yielded to natural
inclinations and dropped of to sleep in various
uncomfortable positions on the chairs and
benches IN the press and telegraph rooms.
MIsFIT BARBER.
In the BARRIERS shop there was single boot
black. placed there mainly for the accommoda-
ton of the customers of the shop. for there was
a bootblack room just beyond But this boot
black could readily be seen from the corridor
aud he had all he could attend to- line was
formed. similar to that waiting to reach the box
office of a theater. of men who had Just come
In out OF the DIR zzling rain, and who wanted a
a fslrfa tInt,
floor. Although the manipulation OF the black
ing and brushes was rapid workman the line
made slow progress. and as it was constantly
being added to ii did not seem to lessen in
length. They were good-natured men in that
line, and joked about the weather and incl
dents of the day.
The desk of the cashier OF the barber shop
was just against the wall opposite, and spread
out before him were the checks which he WAS
constantly receiving well as some considera-
Bile amount OF money. The cashier was a short
man and very black. and as he sat in shadow
about all that could be seen when he turned his
head was the whites of his eyes. He had on
short. white linen coat wi few about in
lively manner as he made cL,.nge and ARRANGED
his ehcc'is. All at once he gave that peculiar
cry VIM. Ia, II heard once is never forgotten. and
tumbled out Of his chair in an epileptic fit.
Many in the line were frightened at DIST
and sprang to render assistance to the
PROSTATE man. but two of his assist
ants came up and did all that was necessary
In The case taking care to move him out of the
way Ut the bootblack who kept right on with
his work just As il nothing had happcaed In
less than five minutes the spasm was over and
the cashier picked himself up. in dlzed sort
or way. and began to collect his checks and
bills. which he had scattered in his fall
Are you subject to those thinyss" sympa-
theticaliy asked soldier who bore l3I on MS
epaulets.
The man said. What things do YOU mean?"
for OF course he had no recollection of that
which had occurred
oh. its hereditary. is IT? Poor fellow"
SAID the soldier. misunderstanding what the
cashier had said
Well" remarked another in the line. I've
been cons Tered pretty particular about the set
OF my clothes. but I'd rather wear a linen dus-
ter than have 1T like that"
NO BRUSHES AT THE ENTRANCES.
At no time during the evening were there
any severe brushes at the entrances to the pen
sion building. This was rather unexpected,
considering the vast extent of the gathering.
One explanation OF it lay in the fact that there
were three entrance doors, at each Of whic b
two or more ticket-takers were stationed
assisted by an ample police force to regulate
the How OF the streams Of humanity. Still. had
the thousands who came all arrived a. for a
theatrical performance which began at stated
noui' eNen the three entrances WOuld have
been fearfully gorged. But the arrivals were
spread out over four hours. and any one stand
ing at the doors could not have realized that
the sy-howing streams would result in such a
perfect dsluge of humanity as filed the vas.
court and balconies at ii o'clock
DRESS SUITS AND NO DRESS SUITS
1t was noticeable that large percentage of the
early male arrivals did not wear dress suits
while the late corners were nearly all in the
regulation evening attire A glance at the
crowd on the floor at o'clock showed the
dress-suited men to be in decided majority.