Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-02

u.
portly, solid, heavy, lends an air Of respecta-
blllty and position 20 desk that
cannot be counterbalanced by any
amount of confusion. At the White
Executive Mansion" cut into the top. predom-
mate. few iron weights are there mere
time-servers, day laborers, as il were, but glass
is the prevailing element Squares. cylinders.
cuoes, polyhedrons of every kind and color. are
10 De found in quantities on departmental
desks. A neat and effective weight Is in glass,
combination of four balls piled into a pyra-
mid Many officials are not content with one
or Two, but have four or five glass weights in a
documents.
STONE WEIGHTS.
Next in social rank. speaking entirely on a
paper-weight basis, comes stone. Polished
marble blocks make good weights, in that they
are heavy and solid. Here some little fancy
has chance TO display itself and many curl
Gus bits of rock are 20 be found hiding on tum-
bled desks holding down forgotten scrans Of
paper. When the monument eap-stono craze
was at ITS height rough bits OF white marble
were strewn around thick that some Offices
resembled quarry. Mathematical fcul. nave
calculated the number of cap-stones that could
have been produced out of block of marble
big enough TO give all the pieces from the
cap-stone" that have found their WAY into cir
culation. But that is OF no moment
sYMBoLIZrNG SIMPLICITY.
Next to stone come the metal, Of which iron
is the head. Iron paper-weights are symbolic
of simplicity, business-like directness aud
democracy; the man who imprisons his papers
with an IRON weight Is very likely 70 be a good
clerk or an efficient official. but this rae Is Dy
no means absolute. There are many good
clerks and excellent officials who use no paper
weights at all. bnt either stick a pin through
the document into the desk or leave il without
protection, or dispatch their business i'm such
way that there are no papers left around to
need weighing. The vast majority of paper
weights made of irOu, presumably
because il is the cheapest heavy ma
terial that can be easily nodded into con-
yenlent shapes and viii not stain the
papers IT watches. The most ordinary form il
the oblong or eliptical fiat piece with knob
on top that nervous visitors are continually
unscrewing, thus permitting the weight 90 fall
when it is lifted shortly after the visitor de-
parts. That is the only drawback TO an iron
paper-welght.
NERVOUS VISITORS
are by no means uncommon in the depart
ments. The reporter stood by the desk of a
Navy department oIicial the other day. eau
tiously feeling his way before asL.n. direct
question, when his eye rested on a mucilage
bottle, one Of those long bottles with a sponge
in the top, lying on its side on the desk before
him. He quietly. mechanically reached over
and turned the recumbent paster into what he
thought was proper attitude. The official
gravely looked at him for moment and then
as quietly and mechanically reached forth in
turn and laid the bottle back Oh its side
You are one of the nine" he remarked,
smiling at last.
PLEASE explain?" asked the puzzled reporter.
Mine persons ont of ten think that they
know how to attend to other folks business
much better than they attend to their own"
was the reply. Mine persons out of ten-I
have been counting for a week-who come to
this desk, turn that bottle upright. want il
TO lie fat; il keeps the sponge moist: but the
nine think that it has been tipped over by
accident and that have been too lazy TO put
II back where it belongs. The tenth man prob
ably does not notice il.
This official has no paper-weights. to speak
of, and uses rolling-top desk that is never
locked.
NAUTICAL WEIGHTS.
As stated. the reporter came TO the conclu-
sion that men, as a rule. do not select their
paper-weights from ideas of consistency with
their duties, but there are the usual exceptions
to this rule. The Navy department is full of
odd bits of metal bespeaking warfare. naval
propulsion, and other topics suitable TO the
place. Miniature anvils abound, and small
nickel-plated propeller screws do good service
in keeping the wind from toying with the
documents. One common weight is a earwheel
tire with an axle lying across the center. One
officer is provided with half a dozen small
clfculdT ulsCs Ol DEOWulbu metal WIN mNeter-
ious marks and dents on their surfaces. These
are strewn around his desk promiscuously. but
no one has ever been able TO learn Just what
they are.
A naval engineer keeps his papers fiat with
what appears TO be an oblong block of stone
about six inches in length and an inch and a
half wide. 1t is a slice of the scale that
removed from the boilers of the old ship Nj
agara when that vessel was rehabilitated. This
scale is formed on the inside of a ships boilers
h. Anal ~
but seldom or never gets so thick as that which
was taken from the Niagara. This piece is
quite heavy. and is of two colors, the side that
chung to the metal being almost white, while
the other is of brownish tinge. This, the Of
ficer explains. is due to the presence of tobacco
that was thrown into the boiler from time TO
time in the hope of preventing the formation.
A CHARACTERISTIC WEIGHT.
Perhaps the most characteristic weight which
the reporter discovered lay on the desk Of a sur
geon in the army consisting of bronze skull rest
ing on two bones crossed, the whole supported
by a marble base about inches square As a
work of art it is excellent, as paper-weight il
is both unique and sensible, but its moral ef-
feet is peculiar, when viewed in connection
with the business of it's owner. Another desk
in the War department. that of one of General
Schofield's aides, is provided with three or four
small explosive iron shells, pointed and rided,
but with their loads withdrawn. One has been
fired and its thin coat Of copper hangs torn and
broken.
There are few weights in the State depart
ment that look though they might be relics
or curiosities from some foreign countries, but
The STAR reporter has never been able to PEN
citrate the diplomacy that prevails In these pre-
cincts deep enough to learn their nature and
source.
IN THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT.
Scattered through the Treasury are q num-
Der of very ugly-shaped metal weights, an oval
base on which a most unnatural-looking swan
is vainly trying to swim. The whole is painted
in gaudy tints and forms q sufficiently
heavy, but very unattractive sort of
weight. These were made from the
metal that once formed the plates
from which the various bonds and other gov
ernmental securities were printed The plates
were selected for destruction by q committee
appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury
January 3, 1855, 10 make q schedule OF obsolete
material in the vaults at the bureau Of engrav-
ing and printing, and were melted in the blast
furnace at the Washington navy yard April 8
and 4, 1885 Thence rose the swan, like the
phoenix, from the fames
One of the officers of the internal revenue
bureau possesses peculiar weight. II isa piece
Of copper plate. about by inches, with rough,
Jagged edges, weighing about half pound II
is the manufacturer stamp cut from the
largest Illicit still ever captured by government
officers, which was taken by Revenue Agent
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