Evening star., 1901-02-25
IN HOTEL CORRIDORS.

| their arrangements accordingly, and many
plans for the summer will be disarranged
| in consequence" said Gen. Adelph Meyer
| of the first Louisiana district at the Ra
leigh.
Upon the whole l do not how the
| President could do otherwise than call the
| Fifty-seventh Congress together and incon
venient though it may be to many of the
| senators and representatives, personal in
| convenience will not stand in the way of
| the transaction Of public business. While
continued absence from home may inter-
| fere with personal pursuits that is condi
| ton assumed when one becomes a member
| of Congress.
| The President in meeting the RESPONSE
bilties of the Cuban and Philippine aues-
| tions as they stand today is probably pro-
| Ceedng on the theory that 1t is time for
, Congress to meet its end Of the problem by
legislation In fact, many of us believe
| that Ii was the duty of the President to
convene the Fifty-sixth Congress in extra
session before entering upon the policy pur-
sued since the inception of the troubles in
the Philippines.
LAS the inaugural plans for the 4th of
March promise to rival in lavishness of dis
play and decorations those of previous in
| ausurations so are the arrangements of the
great fete of the south. the Mardi Gras.
| which | regret / cannot allend by reason
of public business. This year the carnival,
| the street paradeS and the pageants will eX-
| cttt lnOSt OIL me past IN SplenuOr and cost
| illness. The city welcomes its visitors with
| true southern hospitality. The parades are
viewed without cost, many of the mer-
chants along the line opening their build
| 1ngs to the public. The great balls are
| given without admission fee and on in
! vitation. The Mardi Gras is a great event
with us, and as the weather is usually fine
our visitors have royalty good time.
THE proclamation of Governor Smith of
| Maryland calling an extra session of the
! legislature has excited considerable interest
| throughout Virginia. said A L. Young of
| Richmond at the National Il think that
| the proceedings held will be keenly watched
! by our people as the subject IS mooted
! one with us. While I do not look, how
! ever, for similar action by our own legis-
! lature, If the legislature of Maryland passes
! a restric led franchise measure, it will make
the question in Virginia more prominent
| than at present
| Virginia is overwhelmingly demo-
| cratic on state and national issues that
! thousands of voters do not take the trouble
| TO vote Maryland, however, has developed
| INTO a close state, with decided tendencies
| toward remaining republican While l will
not JOIN in the charge that the true pur-
pose of the proposed bill is to restore the
former normal democratic majority | will
| say that believe that if the bill Is adonted
py Whlch an estimated vote of about 40 600
! VIII De eliminated from the aggregate total
| the major portion of this vote will come
! on the republican side. Such being the
case democratic majority would appear
! to be inevitable.
Il think that it will be demonstrated that
| the measure will meet with determined on
| position and it may fail. Many of the best
| ana ana oluest families in Maryland now vote
the republican ticket and their influence is
! very potent. l cannot imagine that Mary
! land has such an excess of non-residant
voters as Gov. Smith alleges. If he refers
J q r,1
! District of Columbia as [ assume he does
/ 10 considerable extent, Virginia and the
other states also have their proportion of
| these voters. They are however as JegalII,
| ehltied TO a place of residence and TO a
! vote as any person actually living in anv
| state, even though they return to their
m lloiiits put once year for the sole purpose
OF voting. TO attempt to disfranchise q
man because he is in the emnlov of the
government and therefore compelled fo re-
@ SIDE al the seat of government is a danger
| Gus proceeding, and one which docs nor
| accord with our Institutions However,
mere must be peg upon which to hang
the nat and 1t remains to be seen whefher
| making the tile Stick ~
L came down to Washington to pet
thaWed out" said Edward Vanvoort at the
Arlington, "and it is an agreeable rcIief to
walk around the capitals smooth. clean
| streets and see something else than ice
| snow and ice packs
"ashlnstonlans are in luck. We have
iau VerI'apie parrot-and-monkey time in
dear little old New York for the nast
week, and the naughty words of the sub
| urban population alone have been yolu
| mlnous and warm enough to have me1tad
dozen ordinary ice packs in the Nnrtb
ana East rivers, but the ice nacl. tbic
| winter has broken the record 1t has bean
!tearlul, and can only be appreciated by
| tnose who are compelled to cross the two
| rivers or come up the bay to their busi-
| ness IN Manhattan. 1t is estimated that
100000 people do this daily, and the incon
venience and actual suffering has been
very great.
There will be a big DELEGATION from
the metropolis this year at the inaugura-
ton. l have heard much talk concerning
1t among my friends
bank teller and the clerk at one of
| the big uptown hotels We're discussing the
ease with which they learned in their
| respective occupations, to read signatures
which were bird tracks in black to others
1T is puzzling at first said the clerk,
"but we soon acquire a faculty of deci-
phering the most illegible signature Now
and then we fioored, but it is seldom
In fact l will bet bottle of wine that |
can read signatures upside down.
II will take that bet" said the bank
teiei' eagerly. Type is READ Dy compost
tors with ease upside down, but handwrit-
ing, and especially proper names, presents
another question. This is well evidenced
when signature or written line is blot
ted when freshly written. 1t is almost, if
not an impossibility, to read the reversed
impression on the blotter.''
'All right, responded the clerk, but the
bet stands Here comes a guest now
| will stand SO as to be completely behind
| the register and will read the name as
| it is inscribed"
AS the guest scratched a signature which
looked like the signals of ship in distress
upon the register the clerk penciled name
| upon the card he held in his hand, folded
| 1t and passed it to the teller. Upon exam
lining the signature on the register it was
| found to be almost undecipherable right
side up. Upside down it resembled Sc
rial detective mystery But the penciled
| name agreed with it.
| The clerk compromised with a cigar at
the news stand later, and, he treated in
turn, he said:
| That was a trick. That guest has been
| har I know his