Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-22
THINGS HEARD
~ndSEEN

their claims. Every day since then from
ten to twenty people have called and In
quired about spoons until Mr.. German, the
clerk in charge, dreams about them, and
they are nothing but lot of plated spoons
at that.
When a woman enters the office and says
nothing about spoon everybody looks sur
prised and wonders when the next unex-
pected will happen One caller, little wo-
man. was more than disappointed at not
finding any of her spoons
Madam" said the clerk, ARE there any
marks on your spoonsT'
None whatever" was her answer. "but
l am able to identify my own property
Were your spoons silverr' she was next
asked.
Were they silver?" she repeated. DO
you suppose l would come here and bother
about some old cheap spoons?'
The man behind the counter had to admit
that many persons called to inquire about
articles Of much less value than even plated
spoons.
"All want to say" concluded the caller.
after she had failed to identify any Of the
spoons as her property. ''is that If you send
detective out for something that he
knows as we'll as l know my property and
he falls to identify 1t he ought to be put out
of the office"
Secretary Roots Christian name. "Elihu."
is frequently misspelled and oftener mispro-
nounced, but probably the worst distortion
of the name occurred one day last week
on letter addressed to 'Mr. L. I. Hui
Root" etc.
'Tt is too easy matter to purchase fire
arms and explosives in this city" remarked
a member Of the police department, discuss
ing the finding of five sticks of dynamite in
the Eastern branch last Sunday. TT has
been less than two months since dynamite
was used in the destruction of hotel, and
then comes the finding of SO much of the
dangerous explosive In the water.
Something should certainly be DONE" he
continued. Ito throw some safeguard about
the matter of the sales Of the explosive.
When a man thinks he wants to blow up
somebody or something all he has to do Is
to go to a dealer and make purchase. If
the dealer asks him a question or two con-
corning his identity or what use. he has for
the dynamite all he has to do Is to give q
fictitious name and satisfy the dealer. He
can say he wants to blow up trees or kill
fish, and that Is sufficient. 1t certainly
proved so In the case that resulted in the
partial destruction of the Golden Eagle
Hotel.
The same Is also true In the case of
person who wants to purchase revolver
for the purpose of committing murder the
policeman added. While it Is probably
true that the law against the carrying of
concealed wea ponS is inadequate and severe
punishments are not often inflicted, it is
also true that murder might sometimes be
avoided if there were more stringent regu-
lations regarding the sale of weapons. A
prospective purchaser should surely make
known his identity and establish a good
character before the delivery Of the goods"
X
"A scientific investigator Of this city has
discovered very interesting fact in rela-
ton to the works of authors" said Mr..
Thomas G. Alvord, chief clerk of the Ii
brary of Congress, to a Star reporter to-
day. by slow and laborious process this
investigator has discovered that the books
of any one author will show that In each
of them he has used the same percentage
of words of one, two, three or more sylla-
bles. This fact has allowed the formation
of what Is known as the authors hair
line'-that is, line that will show by steps
the percentage of words of one or more syl-
tables that will be found in any book of an
author whose work has been tested to de-
termine this hair line"
X X * X u
A printer of Jackson, Miss, has learned a
lesson he will not soon forget. This week
he had returned to him from the Supreme
Court of the United States the briefs he had
printed in the case of the Pullman Com
pany against Writ Adams. The Supreme
Court has strict rule that none of the
briefs that come to it shall be printed on
calendered paper, as 1t has been found that
the reading of matter printed on such paper
is injurious TO the eyes, and the justices
will not endanger their powers of vision by
even glancing a. a sheet that Is calendered.
This rule is we'll known to printers who are
accustomed to providing printed briefs for
the court, but now and then the lesson Is
taught to an inexperienced printing firm.
That Is the case with the Jackson printer
have hrtefS WApk
will have to run them off again on paper
with q rh1lnh sllrfana