Evening star., 1897-01-09

"The original fire company in this city.
remarked an old-timer. was the Columbia
company of Capitol Hill. and though 1t
COX three firemen's conventions to settle
the question. it was settled and the big
No. l was awarded the Columbia. The
first engine house occupied by the COM
pany was located on the plaza in the east
front of the Capitol. the exact spo. being
where Graanoughs statue of WashlH ston
stands. The membership of the company
at the date of its organization, and for
many years afterward. consisted of the
mechanics who were employed in the con-
struction of the Capitol The company
had afterward several other homes, and
when it went out of existence al last it
was housed in front of Center Market
where the iron bridge is which leads
into the market building from PennsyI-
yania avenue
Lafayette Park, now such an attraction
as park. once a burial ground" vol
unteered old citizen when asked for
some recollections of early Washington
Christian Hines. who died some twenty
four years ago, once told me that he re-
membered very distinctly attending funer-
ais where now Lafayette Park Is located
1t was not a large burial ground, how
ever-origfnally it was laid out as family
burying ground for members of the Pearce
ran along others We're buried there, and at
one time he said he counted over fifty
graves Thereof course this was long be-
fore the present White House was erected
or even thought of. In 1872 all the .AoCiies
were renewed from there % the Hofmead
cemetery, at the head of 10th street, and
which has also. though in more recent
years. been turned into park, though
private one. At the time Lafayette Park
was burial ground the grade was three
feet or mere higher than at present 1t
was graded down after the building of
the White House to give that building
more elevated appearance
= x &
Il was talking to an od-time penny
postman. said one of the city letter car
rlers. "a few days ago of the old way of
handling letters. and especially in regard
10 the plan now proposed. requiring letter
carriers 10 carry around on sale-on tan
as 1t were-an assortment OF postage
stamps He told me that the stamp part
OF their business was the meanest part of
IL, for the reason that they can hardly
ever Eeep their accounts with the office
square. Though the office positively pro-
hbited selling postage stamps on credit.
the carriers Were forced by circumst ances
70 90 50 Oh many occasions. and had trip
after trip to make to collect for the same
After what | have heard of il it seems to
NE that TIE whole scheme, instead of being
of twenty-five years or more.
Letter carriers row have about all they
can do. and time and time again we have
to leave bundles of undelivered letters in
TIE boxes at night for safe keeping. The
idea of forcing carriers to keep a supply of
postage stamps on hand for sale means
much more to carriers than many people
can imagine. The trouble and necessary
delay in making change is one of the least
in the whole matter. though that is very
considerah!e- The penny postman regard
ed the stamp feature of more bother
than anything else in their calling and
they ii was who had il abolished"
:
L can give inventors a pointer which
may be of some value, as we'll as interest,
to them. said an eastern manufacturer,
VINO is i'll the city to appear before the
ways and means committee in connection
with the tariff bill. land that is. there is
more money just now In a machine that
will weave an umbrella cover than any
thing else that 1 know of. / can say own
Ing, as l do. the largest umbrella factory
In this country. that I would give more
money for a machine that will do that
work than would be needed to start half
dozen bicycle plants.
1T would cheaper umbrellas greatly and
would also be a source Of great profit In
their manufacture Like many other man
ufaeturers. / am more for the profit of
cost of anything, though one would come
as a natural sequence OF the other. At
present umbrella covers have to be cut out
of the material In sections, and, though it
Is done by machinery, and at little cost, as
Is also the sewing up of the various pieces
afterwaTd. ii is not exactly satisfactory
Tor the seams very often rip out. You can
see what would be gained II we could weave
the covers for the frames. Fortunes have
been spent in attempting to produce this
seemingly simple machine.
Il could afford to give 100000 for such
machine as l have described, and / know
of other manufacturers who could do like
wise L had an Idea some years ago that
something would come along to take the
place of the present umbr .lla. bat / have
seen or hsdrf of nothing far. II Vas
thought that the rubber coats and gossa-
mers would supplant the umbrella but
though tons and tons of them are made and
soid, the use Of the umbrella keeps on in
the DID, old way. the subject of all kinds of
jokes and squlbbs and the only kind of
property which can be freely stolen"
The late Bob Whtchand, the silver
smith. Will be much missed by magicians,"
remlrked an attache Of 4 professional ma
gician. fer he could always be depended
upon to fix up our properties and appa-
ratus, and 10 keep the secret of their op-
Grafton to himself. He was very, very
clever at tinketing with metal as many In
our business found to our satisfaction
hitehand made much of the apparatus
with which Heller started on the road as
a magician. Heller, you may not remem-
Der. was named Palmer when he originally
resided i'll this city. when ne was the Or
ganist at Epiphany Church. He did nearly
all MS pr acticing In the room over the drug
store at the corner Of 18th and F streets
As he thought out the apparatus he needed
ne gave his orders TO Whitehand who put
them into shape. The latter did many
hundred dollars of work for Heller then
and afterward. Whitehand also did con-
siderable tobbins during the past twenty
nve years for the late Prof. Hermann, and
Prof- Wyman, the father of magicians and
Prof- Anderson the wizard of the north
VINO was such an attraction years ago.
Among the odds and ends recently sold
at auction In WhItehand's old curiosity
shop-ard 1t sold for old metal by the
pound-was the plant for one of Heller's
famous tricks. 1t never worked satisfac-
torily, and was sent back to Whitchana to
De rcmade. IL was nearly completed when
word was received here that Heller had
died II was the apparatus by which Heller
apparently grew tree of oranges from a
Tot located In the midst Of the audience
The flower BOT was nl!ed with tubes at
tached to the end of which was a rubber
balloon bag. which when blown up resem-
bied In color ard size an orange. The grow
tyr ling, ,t-; ;,.o n.