The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1902-05-19

work in the cartoon line. Mr.. Stratton
is an able officer and a pleasant com
panion. He is PennsylvaniaG-
Mr.. Matthew f. Hanoran, of the Ger
tihcation division Of the Civil Service Of
fee. has developed high degree Of pro
fcieney as marksman and is fond Of
pTacticing the art of hitting things. Re
Gently at the gallery of the National
Guard Of the District, Mr.. HalIoran made
very high mark as a sharpsEoOter- He
also made a great many difficult shots.
His y ork in the shooting line is Uniform
y ] and he is claimed to now be cham
piol- .narksnan of the District. Mr.. Hal
IOraI is a thoroughly efficient employe of
the Civil Service Commission and has
many friends in the city
~. Thos. a. Davies. one of the veteran
printers Of the country, has just received
appointment as compositor in the Govern
Tlent Printing once. He is a most en-
tertaining gentleman-has seen nearly
every part Of the United States to good
advantage and purpose He has been in
nearly every State and knows many peO-
pie all over the country Mr. Davies has
his citizenship in Chicago.
The veteT ms Of two wars are getting
busy on account of coming events. \
large number OF Government employees are
members CT the Grand Army OF the Re
public ard are taking active interest IN
the preparations for the eDcampnent next
! fall. Decoration Day is also causing &C
tIyity among the employees generally The
young veterans the boys OF the Spanish
war, are highly interested IL the dedfca-
tier of the monument to their comrades
which is to take place at Arlington CT
Wednesday.
There are two sad and reflective young
men in the Government Printing Office
They are not IN the correspondence bust
ness any more. Both are converts to the
doctrine OF talk only. so far as relates to
the other sex. 4 few weeks ago these
sood-lool5ing and enterprising young men
inserted in a Baltimore paper q person
al stating that two desirable bachelors
would be delighted 10 open correspond
ence with refined young ladies. and pretty
soon the mail IN their alley became heav-
Ter For several weeks each of the boys
had correspondent in Baltimore, and
became somewhat enamoTed OF the fair
unknown, and thoroughly admired the
elegance and spirit Of the letters the Ia
dies sent Last week they went TO BaIti-
more to see the girls who wrote such
charming letters twice a week. At this
point the finish came
Going to the number from which the
letters Of one of the correspondents were
dated, they carried an immense amount Of
style and pleasant anticipation. Like
knightly conquerOrs, they assaulted the
doOrben and kept a close lookout for
hutteTing feminine watchers at upper
windows 4 liveried servant cane out. and
the boys shock hands witt themselves and
each other, and wondered at their great
good fortune. They asked for the young
ladies, and a serious faced. hondsome
young athletic man came out. They were
ushered into a luxurious room. but the
eXaitatiOn Of feeling fed right then. There
were no ladies on the premises, and they
had fallen into a den OF jokers members
OF 2 fashionable club-a hilarious dozen
OF greatly amused young men, who be-
slowed the equine "Hai haI" with such
earnestness that the Washington boys had
20 trouble in seeing they had been duped
They didn't stay long.
But that was not ali The boys had
some courage left and they went to an
other number which had appeared on tint
ed, scented notes from the fair answerers
OF the advertisement The young ladies
were not at home It was not so bad IN
I'll they found out that two newspaper
men had TOoms there. and that there had
been no ladies on the place since q large
family had moved out three years before
About I2:45 each day a strange bird ap-
pears in the fifth story of the Civil Ser
vice Once. Il has been making daily Wis
its for several weeks and has not missed
day so far Mr.. r. ~ PindeIl. the bird
oIoSist Of the corps, has given up the
problem as to what sort Of bird the Wis
itor is and as it has not fled any appIi-
cations or Endorsements the clerks do not
know what il comes around there for It
is pretty bird and the boys have become
quite fond OF il. It stays only q few min
utes each day and goes of without song.
Prof Otis T. Mason's book on "Aborigi-
nal American Harpoons'' gives fun his
tory Of all the methods used for catching
large fish since the human race commenced
the struggle for bread and meat Prof
Mason has put a great deal OF work aud
study on this question He regards the
haFpoon as now almost obsolete OF the
instrument Prof. Mason says:
The hsTpoon IS the most complicated
Of the devices invented by unciviIized peo-
pies. In hemisphere capable of awak-
ening every kind OF human want and need.
furnishing an infinite variety of supplies
TO these from place to place, providing one
sort OF material for the harpoon here and
quite another there. inhabited by native
tribes endowed with great range of genius,
it would be expected that a universal wea-
pom should take on every possible form
just as the whale ship of yesterday, its
contemporary, has been replaced By ship
driven by steam, so the Eskimo at pres
ent kills the seal, the waIrus, the whale
and the arctic land mammals with a rife
and explosive cartridges instead of The
ancient harpoon- Both the ship and the
haTpOon served benevolent purposes, since
they fostered and stimulated ingenuity IN
~ the fuIIness of time for steamships and
firearms arrived. The harpoon is the eli
max Of piercing Inventions