The evening times., 1898-11-30

time. A large part of the flooring, imme-
diately above the place where the gas
exploded, had been torn up and replaced
with new, and the clearing of the debris
from this took up a great deal of time.
The men who have been engaged on the
work, however, have Iabored night and
day, and are now about the end.
The Senate chamber has been consider
ably frightened with a new carpet. and
the walls have been touched up here and
there, whore the paint was scratched and
marred and the desks have been polished
anew. The brass-work about the cham
Der has been polished, and repairs made
where they were needed. In the CALLER
les the chairs have been oiled and made
to work easily, and some slight changes
have been made in the yentiiating appa-
ratus. The approaches to the Senate
from other parts of the building are very
much obstructed by the workmen engag-
ed in making the repairs incident to the
explosion, and the upper house cannot
be reached without difficulty from any
entrance but the one leading directh.
into the wings of the building ii occupies.
The greatest changes in the entire
building have been made To the hall of ihs
House of Representatives and the rooms
in its vicinity. New carpets have been
laid throughout the aisles and lobbies
and the walls have been cleaned until
they shine. All the desks and the brass
trimmings Of the chamber have been pol
ished and cleaned, and In some instances
repaired. The Speakers desk has been
subjected to a severe scrubbing and now
looks down with a dazzling whiteness on
the rows of mahogany desks below. The
couches about the outside of the bals
have been newly upholstered IN feather
while the cloakrooms have also come in
for share Of the general cleaning. All
of the galleries have been looked after by
the careful hands of the renovator, and
nothing out OF order has ESCAPED their
vigilant eyes.
BY long odds the press gallery has re-
celNed a more generous touching UP than
mas ever before fallen TO its lot. Generally
when these cleaning spells are prevalent
the press gallery is reached just as the
Nff'' 't'4'"ANASAa Nil9 Out. ana IIe genalrS
are made on paper and consist of promises
TO fix up. This time. however. everything
is different. and ii is probable that II is az
We'll that the gallery has gone so long un-
touched If the cleanings given il when the
consciences of the learned solons are so
touched that they make the matter of
looking after the press representatives the
most imDOrfapf ftar1o m, .I,ag, ,,r,rx.,.-.
appropriate for ii literally
1t is a safe wager that many Of tho
newspaper men will think they have got
ten into the wrong place and will want TO
be shown where the press rooms have
been moved to. When they advance
toward the door, however, they will be
reassured, for the ever-present, ever
smiling, eVer-vigilant doorkeeper Charles
Mann, will be in his accustomed place 10
watch the door and allow no one to en-
ter who has not written all over his coun-
tenance the name of the paper he repre-
sents or the constituency from which he
halls.
In the first place, the entrance has been
changed and the gallery is now approach
ed from the main corridor. This prevents
the crowding that has always made the
halls in the vicinity of the press gallery
look like the lobby of theater on mat ne.
day, and in many ways will facilitate
the handling of the vast amount of bust
ness that comes from the press gallery.
The rooms for the members of the
press have been much enlarged and sew
eral apartments have been added thereto,
which have not been used hitherto for
that purpose. The spaces allowed the
telegraph companies have been removed
to the far western end of the gallery, and
the room vacated by them has been fitted
UP with desks for the accommodation of
the busy writers who will congregate
there.
Another feature of the change which
will be appreciated by the newspaper fra
ternity will be the provision of a room
where the older and wiser members can
gather in the evenings when they have
nothing in particular to do and keep the
younger men from their work with sto-
ries of the great scoops which they have
imagined they have made, or repeat for
the thousandth time a tale of beat that
was gotten off by Smith of the Bazoo
when ! was on that sheet" when In reali
ty 1t was he himself who had been beaten
oy the ever active Smith. This room has
been made for the accommodation Of the
reporters in their leisure moments, or