St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1902-11-05
WASHINGTON LETTER.
IopeclaI correspondence


encampment to mark the historic
points of Washington with placards
permanently has been revived by the
Business Mems association.
Two hundred of these sites were
marked for the benefit of the encamp-
ment visitors, each marker bearing
brief history of the location or build
ing. a small pamphlet was issued
and each article had a number which
corresponded with a figure on the va
rious signs. These booklets were dis
tributed among the visitors free of
charge and were the means of thou
sands of persons becoming more ia
miliar with places made historic by the
events of the civil war.
Secretary Buckley of the citizens eX-
| ecutiye committee, who holds the same
position with the Business Mems asso-
citation, is in favor Of petitioning con-
gress to make an appropriation of 3d.
900 for the marking of these points of
interest permanently. 1t is Mr.. Bulk
ley's idea to have placed at each of
these 200 sites bronze tablets bearing
inscriptions relating to the history of
each respective point.
The New District Building.
1t will be at least three years before
the new District building is ready for
occupancy, and it is likely that it will
be nearer four years. Such is the
statement made by Supervising Arch
| tect James Knox Taylor of the treas
ury department regarding the i'm
provement, in which the people Of the
District of Columbia are much inter
ested. The plans for the structure, on
which twelve architects are working
in competition, are to be submitted by
Dec. s. The decision of the judges
chosen to make selection will be
made Immediately after the receipt of
the designs. Following the acceptance
of the successful architects plans, the
winner of the competition will take up
the work of preparing the drawings,
plans and specifications, This task, it
is estimated by Mr.. Taylor, will take
from eight to ten months This done,
the work can be given over to the con-
tractors probably about year from
now.
The erection of the building will re-
quire, Mr. Taylor says, from two to
three years from the time the con-
tractors start on the work. Consequent
ly the end of 1905 is about the time
that WashingtOnians can expect to
transact business with their local gov
eminent in the new structure devoted
to its purposes. The limit of cost set
by congress for the building is $780,
900, excepting mural decorations and
painting.
McKinIey's Favorite Parrot.
After an absence of about six months
Loretta, the famous talking parrot, to
which the late President Mckinley
took such a fancy and liking, has re-
turned to Washington and to her old
home in bird store on Twelfth street.
Loretta is without doubt the most ac-
complished talker in the city and one
among several of the best talking birds
in America. She is a Mexican parrot
of the common, yellow headed, green
with a patch of red running along the
border Of each wing variety found
throughout the seacoast belt of our
sister republic. For something in the
neighborhood of six months Loretta
was at the White House, where she
improved her English, doubtless by lis
tening to those who came and went
from the executive mansion.
Loretta not only speaks good Eng
lish, but sings different songs as well,
and can swear a little when occasion
demands. While at the White House
she used to amuse the president by
singing "All Coons Look Alike to Me-
whenever a colored person, coachman
or domestic appeared about her cage.
MIR. AIlison's Shadow Portraits.
Portraits of President Roosevelt and
x-President Mckinley have been dis
covered in the imitation marble walls
of Statuary hall in the capitol. They
were not ordered by Uncle Sam, and
they will not be paid for. They were
painted into the walls by Mr.. Allison,
the artist who painted the big pillars
and walls in imitation of marble.
The two pictures of the present eX-
ecutive and his predecessor are similar
shadow drawings. Both portraits are
excellent and, while it is difficult to
discover them at first, so skillfully are
thsy hidden, when seen they loom up
lifelike in size and can be observed
from every portion of the old hall OF
representatives now adorned by marble
monuments Of the nations great men,
; The New Long Bridge.
Stone for the new Long bridge is
; now arriving, and the work on the
massive piers is being pushed a large
force of men being employed on them
Four piers in the river, the central plel
) for the draw and the abutment pier or
the Potomac park side of the river are
completed and another pier, on the
Washington side of the draw, is above
: the surface of Che water and will bt
completed in few days. The Golfer
dams in which the remaining piers
will be constructed are all in position
ready for the stonemasons to begil