Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-28
r-no,, , STAFF CORRESPONDENCE

holiday sensation is that which involves
Henry Cabot Lodge and Henry Adams,
both of Massachusetts. 1t might be truly
said that both are from Boston, as Mr..
Adams is of that city when not of Wash
ington, as he now is, and Mr.. Lodge was
born in Boston and is a member of Con-
gress from the Sixth district, which is a
sort of Boston suburb.
Both are of the super-refned Bostonese
in cultute and manners They have the
well-deveioped British pronunciation of
many words, which marks them as being of
the ancient stock which has never been
contaminated by the uneuphonious brutali-
ties of the world farther west. They are
both down in biographies as making "pro-
fession" of literature.
Both are much lauded critics of art in the
drama, in music in sculpture, in painting
Mr. Lodge, especially, can discourse for
hours upon the beautiful contradictions of
the pre-Raphaelites the Classicists, the
Romanticists, the Impressionists and the
Realisrs in fine art and in literature. Yet
both gentlemen, strange to say, prefer to
write upon historical subjects which must
necessarily involve vast deal of work
that is mere collation. and not creation, and
therefore not closely related to real literary
art
Latest Scandal of the Capital.
These few words in regard to the person.
ality of the men are important in connec-
tion with the several charges brought
against them. The story goes, in few
words, that for many years writers who
have desired to look through historical
papers in the pigeon-holes of the State De-
partment have been baffled and forced to
abandon the effort on account of some mys-
terious influence which stood an insur-
moantable obstacle in their way
Many of these documents were purchased
by the Government at fancy prices because
the owners had sufficient influence to secure
nice appropriation to pay for them. The
clerks in charge of them, it Is asserted,
prevented all access to them except in the
cases of Henry Cabot Lodge and Henry
Adams and persons employed by the Century
Magazine management or by Richard Wat
son Glider Let orders be issued by any
authority whatever, Secretary or Assistant
Secretary of State, head of bureau or chief
of division or what not, the clerks in i'm
mediate charge would in some way manage
to battle the would-be aspirsnt for historical
knowledge, even while the Lodges, the
Adsmses and the Gilders were ransacking
the precious records.
Even Private Papers Not Exempt.
1t is declared that a mass of invaluable
papers belonging to Mrs GoVerneur, of New
York, placed in the library of the State De-
partment to await decision of Congress in
regard to their purchase, were pounced
upon by Lodge and Adams and despoiled
of their best morsels Of the history of the
Monroe period, and which contained infor-
nation which could have been secured from
no other source.
These papers were private property, and
to take their contents was hardly short of
theft Indeed, it is almost certain that
prosecution for robbery would hold against
the pilferers, if the story be true. 1t is not
charged that Mr.. Lodge and Mr.. Adams
committed the theft in person. The theory
is that they paid clerk or clerks in the
State Department to procure for them
transcriptions of the exclusive knowledge
contained in papers that should have been
accessible to all or to nobody. The pay of
the clerks was such that it was a virtual
bribe which led them, with or without hint
from their principals, to bar out all the
other seekers after this particular historical
knowledge.
1t could hardly have happened, the
theory is, that Messrs. Lodge and Adams
could have been ignorant that the en-
ployes were accepting their money as a
bribe to preserve for their exclusive motor
iety and profit matter which was the prop
erty of the whole public interested in gain
ing access to it.
4 Charge That Can't Be Ignored.
If Lodge and Adams were persons of
common clay, were literary hacks employed
to ransack the Government pigeonholeS for
valuable records of the past, little notice
would have been taken of the performance
charged, even if it were true, but of men
of their type it is difficult to believe that
that would engage in so disreputable a
scheme to monopolize for their own fame
and profit these state papers, an6, by
bribery of and collusion with petty clerks
and copyists, prevent other and rival 'his-
torians' from securing the salable informa-
tion in question. 1t is this that makes the
matter sensational"
Mr. Adams, who is one of the famous
Adams family, nov lives in Washington.
Several years ago he built an elegant resi-
dence on Lafayette Square. He and John
Hay, known especially to fame as the
author OF "Little- Breeches," built their
residences adjoining each other, the late
Architect Richardson, of Boston, designing
them to form one complete artistic har-
mony according to his peculiar ideas of art
Il
ital his residence solely for the purpose of
engaging in the literary work in question,
and in the ardent pursuit of which, in col
Iusion with Mr. Lodge and the department
clerks, he becomes involved in scandal OF
no mean proportions, if the foregoing story
has the foundation which it seems to have.
Adams Won't Give Himself Away.
Mr.. Adams was in seclusion to-day. He
was repeatedly called upon by inquiring