Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-07

dreds of them In this big buiiding-I ven
ture to say that scarcely any one but my
self has ever noticed the popularity have
mentioned
A youthful Individual from a rural 0is-
trict. whose bucolic occupation and manner
of life found visible reflection In his appear
| ance and bearing. was a visitor the other
day at city hall. In the midday intermis-
sion OF one of the courts In which he was
attending trial this rrddy -yisaged horny
handed. ansophistcated son of the soil
started over the building on tour of In
vestigation
On his round he CHANGED to pass a room
on the second floor In which some work
men were renovating several llfe-size por-
traits of eminent iurists who have graced
the District bench at one time or another
| in the history of the local court. The grave
and sedate faces of these pictures have
! looked down daily from their places on the
| wall TO meet the gaze of reverent adrnira-
tion from persons attending the court At
once the striking character Of the paintings
End the care being taken of them impressed
| the youthful! swain Accosting a passing
gentleman who proved to be one of the
| justices of the District Supreme Court, the
| visitor asked:
Say. mister, are these pictures Of Grim
| inals?''
No" quietly replied the Judge. they are
| portraits of Justices who once presided
| here"
rs that SOP" murrnured the gentleman
| from the rural district. surprised but una
Dashed. Il thought they were convicts.'
X y 4
Anybody who wants can now have dahllas
| blooming practically all summer. The De-
| pertinent of Agriculture recently turned the
dahlia from a late fall flower 10 summer
| boomer 1t was more or less of an acci-
| dent, but one of the explorers of the depart
| ment was down in Mexico recently and
| found a little. Insignificant flower growing
half wild. as most flowers and cattle do
| in that country. 1t was true dahlia. but
It's flower was Insignificant and of a pale
yellow color. The only popularity about 1t
was that It started blooming in the early
spring and kept 1t up all Summer. The lit
tie dahlia was gathered III along with u
lot of other things and sent to Washing ION.
There was a question whether anything
could be made out of II, but Mr.. Oliver.
the plant juggler of the greenhouses. was
set to work with 1t, and by /. judicious
amount OF crossing and twisting of It's nat
ural proclivities he finally produced a plant
that not only would bloom all summer. but
bore a big, crimson flower as fine as any
misunderstanding dahlia In the greenhouse.
To be sure, with the average horticulture
ist raising dahlias in the spring may seem
rather like eating Strawberries st Christ
mas, but 1t had added another possibility
to the varieties that will deck the Amerf-
can garden in the summer, and 1t shows
too what good things are 1aying around in
the vegetable world only waiting for some
one to come along and make uso of them.
Speaking of pick-ups In the agricultural
line, orange raising may not he agriculture
in the strictest sense of the term, but the
seedless orange, which is one of the most
In portant factors In the orange market to-
day. was a pickup of the same sort. The tree
was find down IN Brazil where there were
a few seedless orange trees growing along
one of the rivers. Some of them were sent
to the United States. and by grating. bud
ding and enarefhng on ordinary sweet or,
ange stock a seedless tree was produced
that has multiplied and spread so az to
make the fortunes Of a large number OF
growers in Florida and California 1t only
shows that agricultural explorers are some
times worth all the money that Is spent on
| them on several trips where they turn UP
| nothing at all. They are more or less IKE
prospectors In the west. When thcy Go
strike, they strike It rich
II X
I'VE have queer case on hand just now"
remarked an officer of the Corps of Engi-
| neers at the War Department. Some time
ago we made a contract with man to re-
| move a wreck from Lake Erie. His bid
was zero That is, he engaged to do the
work for nothing in the hope OF getting his
money out of the wreck. The work was
harder than he bargained for, and he for
feited the contract II was then given to
the next lowest bidder His bid was about
81, 500 He, too, defaulted. and the contract
was then given to the next lowest bidder
whose bid was about $4,000
"As Is usual in such cases, the govern
nent !s protected. We hold the first con-
tractor for the amount we would have had
TO pay under the second contract. and the
second contractor will have to make up the
difference between his bid and that of the
third contractor. And to add 10 the compli-
| cations. the third contractor has already
| spent about the amount of his bid on the
| work and has thrown 1t up. The govern
| ment will now complete the work and will
assess the last contractor for all expenses
| incurred. The result is that the government
| gets the wreck removed for nothing, and
/ actually gets money from the contractors
| for the job"