Omaha daily bee., 1903-04-17
BITS OF WASHINGTON LIFE.
Minor scenes and Incidents sketched
on the SPOT.

-
Minor Scenes and Incidents sketched
on the SPOT.
The vacation dullness Of Washington life
has taken on a CHEEKY face, produced by a
clever bit of doggeral, conveying a delicate
hint. 1t reads:
Go ask papa the maiden said.
The young man knew papa was dead;
lie knew the life papa had led;
He understood when the maiden said, go
ask papai'
This bit Of verse" writes the Washing
ton correspondent Of the Inter Ocean, has
been floating about Washington fot several
weeks, and no man who has quoted II has
given the name OF the author. Cabinet mem
bers and senator's have used It and not
denied that It was the product OF their own
brains. Secretary Shaw got II of at the
cabinet meeting several weeks ago, end al
lowed the others to assume that II was one
of his happy Iowa thoughts.
He was discussing the reports of parlia-
mentary personalities in the senate and
suggested this as q good way to tell an
other man to go to hades without breaking
the rules or doing violence to parliament
tsry precedence and practice. tn story
was told outside the cabinet room after
ward, the other members insist, by Shaw
himself, though the secretary of the treas
ury denied this, and resented II as impugn-
ing his honor in keeping cabinet secrets.
but Secretary Shaw was not allowed In
retain the undisputed authorship very long.
other members OF the cabinet denied that
II was Shaw who told the story. and used
this verse as a suggestion for the senator's.
They did not deny that such discussion had
taken place In the cabinet room or that
some one had offered this verse as a sug-
gestion as a way to get around parliament
tary restrictions on the freedom of debate
of a more or less personal character. They
each and all simply denied that Shaw was
entitled to the credit, and each member left
his auditors to infer that he might be the
man. though he would not lay claim 70 such
trivial stun.
THE authorship seemed TO rest some
where In the cabinet circle. None of the
sober and dignifed secretaries would send
II out Of that charmed circle OF brilliant
minds. II was simply a happy though stray
thought which had intrTded on the more
serious business Of a cabinet member, as
such stray thought will in minds that are
brilliant by nature, breaking over the best
discipline Of serious work on great govern
ment policies"
hire Assistant Postmaster General Mad
den has given out an official statement up
holding his course in excluding from the
second class mails the railway guides pub
iished at Chicago and elsewhere. He says
that such a guide cannot be properly
classed with newspapers and periodical
magazines, which alone are entitled to the
second class mail privileges, because with
IN the meaning of the law 1t Is not a per-
'iodical publication, nor is It a magazine in
any true sense. 1t is simply, he said. a
book OF railway timetables and in the
great bulk of the print of any number not
a type is changed from the preceding issue.
THE matter in dispute in this case" he
added, us not only that Of the legal rate
Of postage. the whole question Of execu-
tive authority is at issue in the right Of the
department to classify the mail matter free
from judicial interference In matters In
volving its discretion.
There is no effort to exclude the guide
from the malls, as has frequently been al
legged. The position of the department is
that It, like other reference books. diction-
aries, city directories, telephone director
les, railroad directories, telegraph codes,
ETC., is third -class matter and subject, when
sent in the malls. to the postage rate pre-
scribed by law for matter Of that class, and
that it is not lawful to accord to it the fay
ored rate which the statute provides for
newspapers and periodical publications.
"What is true OF the railway guide is true
Of the Monthly Railway List, the case Of
which is also pending in the supreme
A vivid reminder of the burning OF the
capitol by the British in 1914 came to hand
recently in the repairs which are being
made in the document room Of the house of
representatives. This Yoom is a three-cor-
nered space in the northwest corner of the
old hall of the house, or Statuary hall, as
It is called now. In making the repairs the
old window sashes were taken out. Under
meath was a charred window case, and
when that, too, had been removed, there
was a quantity OF lead found; the old win
dow weight had been melted in the FIRE and
run down into the crevice of the stone
wall. This was dug out by Joel Grayson,
and is being preserved by him as a momento.
The window sashes were covered with a
coat of dirty white paint, but their weight
attracted the attention of the workmen,
and the paint was scraped of suficiently
to show that they we're solid mahogany.
showing that nothing was thought too good
to use in the original construction of the
capitol.
Only about 5000, 900, 900, It is estimated,
stands between the ambitious, nobly am
bilious. commissioner in charge of the
great work of developing the park system