The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1900-04-05
GUARDIAN OF THE DOME.
An Old Man in Warrington Whose
Days Are Spent Far Above
Other Men.

AS visitors climb the iron spiral stair
way to the dome of the capitol voice
gives them friendly greeting when they
are at a particularly steep angle of
the stairs about halfway. Many
young couple have been startled by this
greeting as they look up to the whisper
ggallery above and over at the pigmies
on the floor of the rotunda below. They
look at the blank walls about them and
the dark stairs winding above and be-
low, and conclude that it is another of
the remarkable capitol echoes until
another greeting reaches them, and
through an arch in the wall they see
the old man who lives in the dome.
A curious character is this old man.
He is tail anG well-built, with remark
ably bright eyes and clear rudy
complexion, and would scarcely be
called the "o'd" man except for his
white hair and beard. With his CHEEKY
goodday he sometimes disturbs a
cozy couple, hut he is SO sociable and
goodnatured that they cannot COM
plain, and few words with him awak-
ems the interest of the stranger. He is
human nature. From his high perch
in the dome he looks down each day at
the statesmen passing through the
rotunda from house to senate and from
senate to house, and at the never end
ing procession of sightseers looking
like crawling turtles. From the high
windows he gets birds eye view of
the city and his vision is broadened.
His philosophy is directed by the ex-
panse of his vision and as looker-on
he has slowed away in his capacious
head some quaint and original ideas.
Hour after hour, day after day, month
after month for ten years or more he
has sat there in his tower of observa-
ton and gathered in his impressions.
He is not traveller, but the world, rep
resented by the thousands of strangers
from all quarters of the globe passes
before him like a panorama and he
knows much that the widely Travelled
man learns. He can tell strangers at
sight, what little corner of the world
many other things about themselves
one would not be expected to know on
such short acquaintance. He gives ex-
| preston to many quaint ideas, causing
the intelligent stranger to try further
to draw him out and to make many
notes in his diary when the talk is end
ed. But the old man of the dome is
too much of a philosopher to be much
of talker, and he cuts conversation
off just where he wants it to end. He
is one of the inhabitants of the dome
there by authority. He does not actual
! ly live, eat, sleep and dream in the
dome, but his days are spent there the
year around. Every hour that the
dome is opened he is there, and when
he goes he locks all the doors behind
him in his winding way down and
hangs his keys in the watch room for
the night.
He is the Waterman of the dome,
whose duty it is to see that no vandal-
ism is committed and that no harm
comes to the visitors. If his sudden
| appearance Is sometimes shocking
interruption to affectionate demon
STATIONS by young people who hope in
the future to climb the winding stairs
of life together, it is also an insurance
against danger from injury or rude
ness. AS a philosopher the old man
never sees anything it is not necessary
! to see, and never tells half that he sees.
He is not an ordinary policeman who
goes his inquisitive rounds. He used
to be on the capitol force, years ago,
and after he was retired from the force
he secured a Judgement in the dome.
His castle in the air is the archway to
the first gallery of the rotunda above
the frieze work, which is now closed Off.
He has the cracks stopped to keep the
wind away, and on q shelfin one corner
he keeps the books which he gets from
the National library. Sitting there he
can look over the top Of his books and
command view of the staircase, and
his books are his companions on dull
days.-N. Y. Sun.