Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-04-05
PEACE AT THE CAPITOL
Blue-Coated Guardians of the Big
White Building.
DUTIES OF THE wATCHMEN.
Captain AlIabach and His Watchful
FOrce-Where They Are Stationed
What They Must Prevent visitors
From Doing.

@LCE-COATED, brass-buttoned, more
than ordinarily fine looking as a whole,
7N polite at all times and men of much
N ~ patience. That is a composite picture
49, of the Capitol police force. the men
who watch over the immense building in which
two great branches Of the government-the
legislative and judicial-are located. No small
task is it to guard the Capitol. and yet a COM
parstively small number of active men by dint
of constant exertion succeed in doing it. Not
so well, probably, as it would be done were the
number of officers twice az great as it is, but
still it is done well. and that fact reflects much
credit on the guardians of congressional and
Supreme Court peace.
THE CAPITOL POLICE FORCE
consists OF a captain. three lieutenants and
twenty-one officers. They were not always as
numerous, and the memory Of man goes back
to the time when a solitary Waterman tried to
do the work which is now really too much for
a score of men to do. The duties of the police
are constantly being added to, and in a little
while the force will have to be increased.
There are three reliefs OF seven men each when
all are in good trim and fit for duty. and each
of these reliefs Is commanded by a lieutenant.
Eight hours is the limit of each mans daily
duty, except on some special occasion. when all
the available repression is needed. What ex-
tremes Of activity and calm fall to the lot of
these officers During the second relief of the
day busy thousandS-some following their le-
ultimate callings. others merely sghtseers-
hustle nOisiy or saunter quietly through the
corridors and committee rooms. A hundred
curious visitors ask thousand odd questions
and keep the officers fully engaged. Some
body loses a pocketbook or a child or some
other portable article of greater or less value
and the police are at once appealed to. Where
can get drink OF water?" is common query.
bu: hardly more frequent than will you
please tell me how can get out Of here?'
WHERE THEY ARE STATIONED.
policeman always sits in the immediate
vicinity of the main dooc of the Senate and an
other one does similar service near the House
main door. while it would be easy to find
London bridge without a white horse. on it
as it would be TO cross the rotunda without en-
cOuntering one or uo-e of these servants of
the law. found in an act approved July /.
1882. With the ebbing and flowing of the hu-
man tide it IL not difficult to pass away eight
hours, but time hangs with a good deal of
heaviness upon the hands of those whose turn
1t Is TO so upon the evening watch. Darkness
settles down around and inside of the great
structure and instead of being lively center
of peripatetic population all is somnolent calm.
No living thing save distant fellow-offcer or
the lieutenant making his rounds disturbs the
almost unbearable monotony OF rarely fractured
silence
DOWN IN THE CRYPT
the illumination is simply the cause Of a
shadow but a trife lighter than the heavy
blackness on the leeward of the big pillars: on
the main floor things are brighter but scarcely
more somnus-chasing than in cellar. The still
ness Is oppressive, and when it is broken by
footstep. cough or a sneeze. the sound is
magnlfed hundred times and its echoes con-
TIME as far as walls and doors will permit
There is no less of monotony for the third
relief. but there is more of light. for the sun
peeps In at the eastern windows and its rays
lv
many of the corners; but not from all, for
there are many angles and corridors in the big
building where daylight is unknown. Occa-
slonaIly there IS additional officer around
during the extremely early morning. but he
never announces his coming. 1t is Capt. ALA
bach. who has deserted his warm bed to visit
the various posts and to see who is or is not
"hoodling-" Very rarely is a policeman found
asleep or otherwise neglectful of his duty and
the captain says: The present force is the best
body OF men ever had here"