Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-02-26


&C Uple Of hours that the ship hunted for
him in the blue waters of the Mediter-
rarean."
< X x
THE president of the Don't Worry Club
out in my town committed suicide tn.
OTTER day." said hotel guest from Iowa.
THE local papers gave business difficult
ties as the reason for his self-destruction."
Z; X 4:
IT. Buchanan Read, the poet who wrote
thu famous 'Sheridan's Ride was a we'll
known figure around Washington during
the war" said an old Washingtonian. He
was brilliant man. a notable bon viyant
and high-fyer when he could afford to be-
and perhaps bit careless, too. in his hab-
It's One afternoon, in the summer of 1864,
Read drifted into one of the committee
roc ms of the Senate-he was on friendly
terms with most of the big men up at the
Capitol-and, slumping into a chair. fell
fast asleep. While he slept a coupl, of
senators came into the room to do some let
Ter writing. The two senators shortly be-
came involved in a low-toned but warm dis
ctsslon as to the progress of the war. Final
ly, one of them, who belonged to the
peace-at-any-price' party. permitted his
toEes to grow loud and ne slammed his
fist down on table and fairly shouted:
We must have peacer
The sleeping poet Jumped from his
chair like man electrified. The two sena-
tors looked at him, rather astonished at the
sGddenness of his awakening. Read rub
bed his eyes for moment and looked
around him. Then he murmured these
VIC rds:
" Peace. Oh. that some white-winged bird
from tie south
Would build it's nest In the lannon's mouth
And stop it's roar
Il don't remember ever having heard of a
more charming bit of impromptu poetical
&C IMPOSITION than that"
* x x :: *
The smell of a drug store said a re-
Gently returned traveller to a Star report
er, 'is very distinctive thing, and the
popularity of it is the same in all parts
of the world. My first impression in this
matter was noticing that three or four
drug stores in Baltimore, where L spent
my youthful days, all had the same smell
When l grew up l came to Washington,
and l found that the drug stores here had
the same smell. From this city I moved to
New York, and from there to New Orleans
Though all other smells varied In the diff
1erent cities, that of the drug stores was
always the same. Circumstances then sent
me TO many European cities. and though
the arrangement of drug stores, or apoth-
ecarleS, as they called abroad are
somewhat different from what they are
In this country, they all smell alike The
smell is result of a combination of smells
ana not like the smell of any one particu-
lar thing. No particular drug ever seems
to have the advantage over any other and
no druggist that L have ever talked to on
the subject has ever given me the same
idea as to his opinion of the leading SMELL
but they are always identical. The little
apothecaries in the sands of Egypt smell
like the fashionable pharmacies of New
York. London, Paris or St. Petersburg
Some years ago the minstrel performers
used to tell a gag to the smell of drug
stores. 1t generally wound up that sponges
were the cause of the smell Now the
fact Is, sponges have their own and
very distinctive smell, and they are gen.
orally exposed in drug stores but | have
found that the smell of the drug store is
the same whether sponges are there or
not
:. J: :. !: 4
Il had a singular experience several years
ego in court trial in New York." remark
ed a treasury official to Star reporter,
land it goes to show how people get things
mixed. The particular case was that of
suit brought by she government to secure
from the bondsmen of an army officer the
amount that he was short in his financial
accounts. The case was on trial for sew
erai days and 1 was sent there with the
records from the auditors Office. the youch-
ers or the officer and other official papers
on which the suit was based. The Army
Regulations in regard to the duties Of dis
bursting officers played prominent part in
the proceedings, may BE- imagined, and
the particular regulations as to the duties
of the officer concerned were read several
times during each day of the trial Though
L was and am rath3r familiar with the va
rious paragraphs relating to disbursing Of
ncers, L did not pay much attention to the
Paragraphs that were read suDposing of
course, that they were all right Just as
the government was closing its case. the
district attorney read d paragraph, saying
that on It he would ask a verdict for the
government 1t struck me that there was
something wrong In the paragraph that IL
contained more words and went into more
detail than the paragraph that l was ac-
customed to hear read or had read myself
often.
Judge Brown, who was presiding over
the court had announced u brief recess
at the conclusion of which the arguments
OF the district attorney and counsel for
the defense were to be heard, As the
court room cleared out l stepped over
to the district attorneys table and took
a look at the Army Regulations that
he had 50 frequently read, and upon
which he had depended SO much for his
verdict. One look satisfied me as to why
their reading Jared me. They were army
regulations all right, but they were the
army regulations for use Of the army of the
confederate states of America, 1t appeared
that the district attorney had sent one of
his law clerks to the office library for q
copy of the Army Regulations, and the
cici N tie DOCK ne saw bearing
that title, taking ii for granted, of course,
that the volume was the one wanted.
Strange as IL may seem, both district at
torney and the counsel for the defense had
quoted from the book during the entire
trial, and neither of them had even looked
as to the authority for the publication of
the same. 1 quietly picked up the book
and went back to the district attorneys
Office with II. Upon search I found the
Army Regula tions OF 1880 signed by the
then Secretary of War. Upon comparison
of the paragraphs in relation to disbursing
officers L found that the language was
practically the same, the confederate army
regulations having been copied from the
regulations in use In the army for many
years prior to the In his argument
the district attorney used the regula lions
OF the United States army, and upon them
secured the verdict he desired. 1t would
have been rather rough had he secured
verdict on the regulations of the confeder-
ate army, though l believe the error would
not have been discovered had / not more
from curiosity than anything else glanced
at the volume which had been used. and
which, as l say. covered the same ground
practically and used different words in do
ing So