Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-09
ASK QUEER QUESTIONS
sIGHTsEERs HAVE STRANGE
IDEAS ABOUT WASHINGTON.

.eTbe questions which are asked by some
NJ our Washington sIghtseers certainly are
by me all right" said a Capitol guide the
other day, MY friend, some of EN- would
stagger a walking encyclopaedia. during
the inauguration one old fellow walked up
to me while l was standing on the east
front of the Capitol and cooliy asked
What's this yere buildin' anyway? and
when 1 enlightened him on the subject, rs
said, Say pard, this yere amt such a big
town, is it2 Then why in thunder do they
want such a big buildin' for court houser
After a good deal more of explaining. sue
ceeded in making the man understand that
not only the laws for Washington were
made in that great building, but those for
all over the United States. An incident
similar to this occurred the same day Whlle
l was showing a crowd of visitors through
the House side. took them into the public
gallery and was pointing out different
Sronninent men on the floor and other fea-
lures of interest, when one young women
leaned over and whispered TO me- Is TINS
the place where they made the eleven hour
law for BostonT l hadn't the falntest luea
what she was driving at, but when we got
outside l learned that the party was from
the Hub, where there exists law prohib-
iting the sale of liquors in the restaurants
and hotels after eleven o'clock.
'sRut the people who don't know ana ASK
innocent though ignorant, questions are
easily compared to the ones VINO know IL
all because they read so-and-so IN the
PAPERS before they left home and have the
you-can fool em-style. In this same Bos-
ton crowd was a woman OF this type ana
whenever / was talking she always Sazed
right over my head at some unseen object
and might just as well have said in so
many words that | couldn tell her any
thing about this town, because she knew
more about 1t than | did. On our way out,
L took the party through Statuary Hall ana
thinking 1t would be something of interest
to remember when she got back home,
requested the lady of the Knowing stare
to stand on a particular stone and ex-
planned that would stand on another some
distance away, and, though l would speak
to her in low tone, she would dlsunctiy
hear me, owing to the wonderful acoustics
in that part of the Capitol But no lhueeu,
not She she had heard all about the guides
making sport of visitors from friend or
hers who had been here before, and she
wanted me to understand l couldn't fool
her because her friend said the guides did
not whisper at ALL they simply bawled so
that everybody could hear them, no matter
on what stone they stood
Finally, when we reached the Supreme
Court the girl who had asked the question
about the eleven hour law wanted to know
why in the world the men behind the rail-
ing wore those long black gowns and be-
fore I could answer her, she said, Oh 1
guess IL is because the President does too.
l know he does, because | saw his picture
in one with a lot of Harvard men, / will
tell you when guide gets hold of crowd
where there is some one who doesn't know
anything and another who knows every.
thing he has got his hands full and when
got through with that bunch l was as tired
as IL | had done a hard days work. Fre-
quently of course, We come in contact with
an intellectual and observing party who
really appreciate what information the
guide can give them, and ii is genuine
pleasure to show such a crowd around, but
these are greatly outnumbered by the ones
who look upon the guide as a bureau OF In
formation or else a man who talks 100
much"