Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-14


The popular theory that any man who
touches the stock market will keep at II
1lrtU he himself is touched is like most
rules. liable TO exception. Certainly this Is
true Of a Washington philosopher who IN
receipt of an income of 81 800 per annum
from the government. has been In the habit
for A long time past OF taking what he
called IAN occasional fly at the market.
Patient and painstaking he had only as ne
stated 1t bought on big slumps, and soid
on skVrocket Jumps" Never ratified ana
taking it quietly. his deals had been proht-
able in the proportion of eight in ten Re-
Gently a friend met him IN the iooos oi a
hotel and congratulated him on beins
ahead OF the game. Yes" said the phii-
osopher in stocks, I'm just Slooo aheau
today and I'm going to stay ahead.
But" said his friend, they will get II an
away from you, If you stick to it. There
IS only one way for you to stay aheao Oh
4 know that, all right" was the answer.
1--WE quit
Secretary Bonaparte was very late in re-
porting for duty at the Navy Department
the other morning. The explanation was
that he ran afouI OF county road-rollfng
machine and missed his train. The Sec
rotary has a beautiful country home at
Bella Vista, on the Hartford road about
twelve miles from Baltimore. The near
est railroad station is at Bradshaw, about
three miles distant. The Secretary comes
to Washington in the morning and goes
back in the afternoon. He usually catches
the $40 train at Bradshaw after a snort
drive from his home. On the morning
in question he started at the usual time
and logged leisurely along the road. When
he reached a small bridge crossing brook
he found it occupied by the road machine
81 TOW for a
The Secretary could not drive past the
steam roller and there was no other bridge
near at hand and the stream was not ford
able In HIS politest manner he requested
the operator of the machine to move OF
the bridge so that he could get by. ex-
planning that he was in a hurry to eaten
a train. The county officer said he couldn't
help 1t, but he couldn't give up mis- place
until he got his full supply of water. Mr.
Bouaparte argued for few minutes. but
with no success, and finally gave II up and
made long detour to the railroad sta
ton, only to find that the train had gone
some time before. The consequence was
that lie didn't get to the Navy Department
that day until about II o'clock.
K
There is an order duly promulgated at
the District building which reads somewhat
as follows:
Employees must wear their coats and be
otherwise suitably attired during office
hours"
This order is strictly observed during the
winter months, but in the summer it is
honurcd more in the breach than In the OBJ
servance.. Even the Commissioners when
the building is closed TO the public at 5
o clock may sometimes be seen shedding
their coats and buckling down to work on
their correspondence. and their secretaries
not to be outdone in ZealousnesS in the
cause will reveal the varied colored madras
of which their shirt waists are composed.
Dr. Tindan, the able secretary to the
board. shows a shirt OF striped red and
green and pair of %galluses' OF ultra
Rogers. the disbursing officer, wears
striped pink of the peek boo variety, and
Assessor Darneille. a large check plaid with
all the colors of the rainbow. The messen-
gers, elevator operators and charmen fol-
low the prevailing fashion, and the effect
OF the dizzy Colors on the caller at the
District building is dazzling.
The order is hoary from age and was
adopted before the advent of the lady
clerk" at the building, and no effort Is
made to make them wear goats, but they
are otherwise suitably attired" in peek
a-boos'' of the sheerest lawns, beruffied
and beribboned, aud are the envy of the
male bpeds who in their coatless
state suffer during the hot spell in these
days when the ice men fail to deliver the
goods and economy demands that the
electric fan shall work but half time.
It is generally accepted as a fact that
the inventor dies poor. OF course. there
ara notable exceptions to this rule. But
Il may be taken a general thing that
though a man may invent device that
coins a mint Of money. it is usually the
manufacturer who profits by it. while the
original inventor winds up in the poor
house. This is more true in recent years
than ii has been heretofore. The big man
u!arturing concerns especially, who are In
fair way to make use of a device have
great habit of buying il, and then not
using II till the original patent runs cut
II Is said that one big firm manufacturing
Il machine known all over this country
and In many foreign countries, too, is
holding no less than 1000 patents for I'M
prOvements that il has bought for all the
way from $40 TO $500. So long as that
firm. holds them nobody else can use them,
and after the original patent runs out the
company can extend the life of the patent
and use the device without paying royalty.
There was an interesting concrete In
stance of this in Washington several years
ago. \ man here had seen the necessity
of perfeCting some device that would tell
the man who was writing on typewriter
when hts paper had run out and he WAS
writing on the roller. 1t just neat
mechanical problem to solve, and the OBJ
servant man did il a simple device that
no at once had patented. Then he had
large visions of wealth ahead and went to
sell IL. to a typewriter company. He ap-
preached one OF the big companies and
they spoke about in this wise;
Real nice device: just what we have
been looking for. Go we'll on our machine
How much do you want for it
oh. | don't know said the man. I'm
not glgttouous. Give me a small price
and a royalty. Then, II Il is a good thing
I will make more out OF It. and If 1t is not
you won't lose much"
That suits US" said the typewriter peo-
pie. Take $500 down and royalty
Mr.. Man said he guessed he would, and
they drew contract virtue a which
he sold them all the rights TO the patent on
those terms. The impression he had was
that the typewriter firm was going 10 get
busy and put the device on their machines