The morning times., 1896-08-11
LUXURY FOR SENATORS
Handsome New Quarters Being
Fitted for the Minority.
CHANGES IN THE MALTBY
Suites OF Rooms, New Paper, and
Other OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES StOr.
age Room Filling Up With Docu-
Inents Which Are Not Used-Enor-
nous Number Now Filed Away.

Changes are being made in the old Maltby
House which will make it one OF the most
desirable places around the Capitol.
| 1t is used now for rooms for the minority
members of the Senate, though during the
last session Of Congress the numoer OF
committees has increased SO that quite q
number of committee rooms are located
there now. Senator Hansbrough, for in
| stance, changed his committee library
| from the Terrace in the Capitol building over
| to this structure. Some OF the wiser Sena-
| tors chose quarters in the Maltby in prefer
| euce to smaller rooms in the Senate wing OF
| the Capitol. They. found more sunshine
and more air there than they could in the
| Capitol proper. With the changes now
being made the quarters will be still more
desirable. or course, the old objection of
a roll call VIII always hold good.
CHANGES BEING MADE.
| The Maltby was built for an apartment
house and some OF the rooms have been
| quite small. 1t was TO remedy these de-
| fects that changes were begun this summer.
| On each floor, above the first, facing the
| east, are two bath rooms. These have
| represented SO much lost space. Now
| these are being altered into offices and
| connected with the adjacent rooms. This
| will make Oh each Of the floors three suites
| Of two rooms euch. A Senator can thus
| have an office and a private room.
The Senators especially affected by this
| change are Messrs. Was, Irby, White,
| Chiffon, Tillman, Blanchard and Roach.
| Some of them will not have long in which
| to enjoy the Improvements. 1t will be
| long enough, however. TO let them know
| what they will have missed by being re-
| tired to private life.
The walls are all being repapered in
solid colors. There are a great many halls
| and especial attention is being paid TO
them The woodwork is being hard Oil
finished and vanished. The tile floor of
| the large entrance halls being relaid. This
was rendered necessary by the fact that
| the building settled about six inches on
| the north side owing to the heavy piles
OF documents placed IN it. Since their
removal there has been no settling. but
| the floor was out OF plumb and comes in
| for resettilg in the general change.
The Maltby was erected on made ground.
| Ten years ago the ground was part of the
| Washington baseball park Many time
| quorum Of the Senate has witnessed a
game from the porch OF the marble room.
They witnessed it free. just as the small
boys do who climb the trees.
At the Senate stables n number ps i'm
provements are being made In the yard
new pavemeuts of asphalt are being laid
and new floors of the same material will
also be put down. The shed is to be built
to recover the entire yard,
STORING THE DOCUMENTS.
In 1898 when the walls OF the Maitby
| began to sink there was a great hustling
| to get the large piles of public documents
|. out of the building. At that time there
were over 200, 900 documents stored there
and the weight was something enormous.
| Tie best architects have since examined
the building md have declared it safe. but
no heavy weights are permitted above the
first floor.
To take care of these documents, which
| are constantly increasing, is no small job.
The Old car stables of the Georgetown
line have been rented at n cost OF 81 500
| a year, and now all public documents are
stored there There are over one million
| now piled away there. About a year
| ago all these documents were collected
! from the various storage places. 1t was
| a three months Job. but was Il good work.
| Twenty employees are now working by
| da Wight where they used to labor under
| artificial light, and in artificial ventila-
tion.
The increase OF these documents is be
coming a serious matter There are 24O,-
900 cubic feet of storage room in the build
ings now used and two-thirds of it is
| used up. At the present rate of accumula-
tion the present building will be jammed
full inside OF six years. These documents
are simply denominations. They are those
left over. those that Senators cannot use.
When a Senator leaves Congress his un-
used quota of documents goes to his sue
cessor.
Last year 10 900 agri cultural rc-
ports were issued to the Senate. or this
number 10000 were used. Forty thous-
and reports are to be stored away and
| will perhaps never be called for. Forty
cents report is conservative figure
on the cost. So it can be seen that it
costs q pretty neat little sum to furnish
reports which Senators never use. Six
teen thousand dollars in this one ase.
One Senator has over q carload of docu-
ments lying in the storage house to his
credit. The collection consists of one
or more copies of each report issued during
the twenty years he has spent in Congress
He will never make any use OF them in
the world. and his case is only one Of many.
THIS YEARS RUN.
This year the storage house is filling
up with the reports of the first seal ar
bitration No person seems to want them.
They will be more of a drug on the market
than the agricultural reports. The larg-
est demand lately have been for records
| of the silver session Of Congress and the
| Bland "A Ills on session. There are hut few
| of these reports left The Senate officials
would be glad if a run could be started on
| agricultural reports, too. But literature
on finance has the call now. Each Senator
| has 80 copies of the Record, 81 memorials,
| 1 100 agricultural reports, FL reports
| of the director of the mint, 10 copies OF
the Housing of Working People," 80
| copies report on Reciprocity and Com
mercial Treaties" 10 copies Of reports on
Prices of Armor" This is sample of
| how the distribution of the various re-
ports run.
The storage has been systematized to a
degree. On the. top OF each pile is
memorandum telling which is in 1T and
| the number of volumes. In the Sergeant
alarms, office a register is kept and at