Evening star., 1897-02-06

In viieEce in the various departments
during the present cold SPELL. said a Treas
ury Department clerk. He Is a nuisance
at any time, but especially so during cold
weather. The treasury is not the only
building which has stock OF them on
hand. for 1 have heard of them in the
other departments, The fresh air fiend is
generally d peculiar looking man or wo-
man. He or she is always a sufferer from
catarrh. asthma or some other ailment in
the head. and the height of their ambition
seems TO be that every one else must
be forced TO work IN draft from open
window. 50 that they snail contract the
same disease The particular fiend that l
refer to works in room In the west wing
of the building. He wears his coat button
ed up tight to his throat and frequently
wears his nat. He has idea that 1t Is
necessary that cold air snail be admitted
freely into the room. and every opportunity
he gets to open the windows he does SO.
The fresh air Hend manages to annoy every
one who is employed in the room with him,
but 1t Is only IN the departments that he
can have drafts of cold air blowing in
others. When he goes to his own residence
common sense prevails. for the fresh air
fiend OF the male kind generally has a
wife, who will not stand any of his nom
sense, and who keeps all of the cold air
out of the house that she can"
4 X
THE late W. H. Virgins, was recently
stated in The STAR remarked a prom
inent hotel man. though always addressed
as judge was not a lawyer. For over
twenty years he was n clerk in the file
room of the House of Representatives. The
judge prided himself very much over a
gold watch he won as the most popular
man for President. which was voted to
him during the Garfield memorial fair, held
tn the Capitol The watch was given by a
western watch manufacturing concern, and
was good one. 1t was put up to be bal
loted for. the candidates beiEg Sherman,
Blaine, Allison. Logan, and a half dozen
others of almost equal prominence. At
that time there was a newspaper CORE
spondent here by the name of Felix Gro
craft The votes were piling up rather rapid
ly for the various candidates when Cro-
craft, as a joke. cast vote for Judge
Virgins as the peoples choice for Presi-
dent Some friends Joined IN. and before
the evening had passed the Virgins vote
was rather respectable The humor of
the thing caught on and in three more
nights Virgins led all the others. Virgins
haG served under Mr.. Blaine when he was
Speaker of the House. and Blaine himself
cast some votes for him. Some of the
friends of the, other candidates thought it
rather too serious 4 matter to joke over
and went to work with will to knock
Judge Virgins out. This aroused Billy
Copeland of the Brooklyn Eagle. Charley
others. who-wer strong Virgins men. and
the result Ct the contest was that Virgins
won out easily and the fair gained over
three hundred dollars for the watch
X
Though the penny of 1856" observed a
numIsmatist. was issued in great sufti-
cheney. the coins soon disappeared from
Circulation. and are held as rarfties. They
are seldom offered for SALE but those
which have been offered brought a large
price There are several theories existing
among coin experts as to the disappear
ance OF this penny, being of the older style
and large. but the most generally ac-
eepted Is that the penny was gobbled up in
consequence of a rumor which was started
on the authority of an employe of the
United States mint where the pennies we're
made This rumor that in making
the composition Of the metals for the coin
bar OF gold was melted I'D by mistake
for a bar of nickel. and that the reason
why the penny disappeared was in conse-
queace OF its intrinsic value. The result
OF TINS and other stories about the 1886
penny Is that though there were Just as
many coined there were of 81 80 or
% pennies. one of the so pennies will to-
day bring nearly one hundred times as
much money as those of the other years
mentioned Some numismatists have even
gene so far as to test the composition
They found trace of gold 1t is one of
the many peculiar things about the search
ty OF some coins"
For chflblains. though IL NAV not he
professional for me to say so publicly"
said physician. the best cure that 1 can
now think OF Is snow. The snow can be
applied in any way. either by walking In
the snow barefoot as | did as a Last re
sort. or to apply the snow to the feet In q
foot tub. or otherwise. What Is needed La
to get good quantity OF snow directly To
tne feet My experience has been that the
teet should remain in contact with the
snow FOR at least five or ten minutes
mere Is no danger from catching cold IL
the snow foot bath Is used In warm
room There are all kinds of remedies for
chilolains. OF course, nearly all of them
good out snow Is a cure In itself. not a
remedy There may be cases where II NAV
1ail, but have never experienced any"
+
Il do not know when II was started"
observed an old War Department clerk.
but for the past forty years know II has
been the custom for every clerk to cele-
brate his promotions in salary by handing
around cigars 10 his fellow-cIerks In the
same division 1t was a simple enough
matter when 1 first entered the War De-
partment, but now. when some divisions
nave hundreds of clerks, 1t Is rather a Sc
A-Neo w Oe De 10 the clerk who
hands around poor cigar on such an oc-
casion- The cigars must be of the best.
The proper thing of late years Is to let a
messenger hand the cigars around with
the compliments of the donor though In
o.den times the promoted clerk always
handed them about personally. The box
must go With the cigars, so that every one
can see exactly what kind OF cigar is
being dealt out The saw a man is known
py the company he keeps has been for
such occasions turned into a man is
known by the cigars he hands around
The same or similar custom may exist
In some Of the other departments. though
] have never heard of IT. The cases have
been rare where promoted clerks do not
celebrate. Now and then clerks give din
ners and suppers to the clerks In their own
room on occasions of this kind but the
cigars have to go around to the entire d.
vision to have the celebration perfectly
regular"
y y
The awarding of the contract for keep
ing the District prisoners to a New Jersey
pententiary reminds me-" said an old cit
izen to Star reporter. "of the doing away
with the District penitentiary. There was
well-eQuipped penitentiary here, large
enough for all purposes, for many years.
II was located In the arsenal grounds-the
two buildings now occupied as officers