St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1907-02-23
PALACES GOING UP
UNCLE SAM BUILDING TWO Ho-
Tells FOR STATESMEN.
White Marble Apartment Houses, One
for Senators and One for Con-
gressmen, viii Soon be Ready
= ns...-.4;-..
for Occupation.

gressrnen, viii Soon be Ready
for Occupation.
Uncle Sam is building two apart
ment houses in Washington. They
will be the most magnificent struc-
lures of their kind in this country,
and will cost $2,500,000 apiece. Exclu.
sively for use by congressman, they
will be to all intents and purposes de-
tached wings of the capitol, though
separated from the latter by several
hundred feet One of them will be
occupied by senators and the other by
representatives.
These official Congressional flats"
as they might be called, will be de-
voted wholly to the personal convent
ence and comfort Of the legislative oc-
cupants, who will be surrounded by
every imaginable luxury In effect,
they will be huge hotels, each of them
occupying more ground than the Wal
dorf-Astoria in New York, though not
SO high; and the dining rooms will be
on great scale and very handsome
though guests" will be at liberty to
have their meals served in their rooms
by messengers on the government
pay roll and in uniform, if they so de-
sire Also, there will be magnificent
barber shops; and, indeed, the only
regular hotel feature lacking will be
bedrooms, all of the apartments being
intended for daytime use merely--a
fact, which, nevertheless, will not bar
occupants from utilizing their quarters
for sleeping purposes if they wish.
The two buildings, which are to be
of white marble, will be exactly alike
in respect to their exterior, and will
not differ much SO far as their inter-
ior is concerned. Thanking the capitol
at either end, they will form with the
latter a harmonious architectural
whole, the great dome dominating the
group as the central feature. 1t would
suffice, then, to give a description Of
one, in order to convey satisfactory
idea of both-save for one or two diff
ferences, relating particularly to the
number of rooms. In the southern
fats, allotted to the lower house,
there will be 40 rooms-one for each
representative. On the other hand, in
the northern flats the amount of space
comprising the whole of three floors)
will be occupied by SO apartments.
Now, at the present time there are
in the house 391 members and dele
gates; so that 10 rooms will be left
over for future margin. In the SEN
ate there are 80, so that quarters for
eight additional senators from possible
future states will be available. But,
it will be observed, the smaller num-
Der of senators makes it practicable
to supply them with much more COM
modious qaurters and, while each rep
resentative will have only one room,
there will be for each senator an
apartment in the proper sense of the
word, comprising room for himself.
slightly smaller room for his secre-
tary, and bathroom.
These senatorial apartments will be
very handsomely decorated and fur
nished. A small army of uniformed
messengers will be at hand to furnish
the requisite service. and. with private
staircases and private elevators for
the exclusive use of the wearers of the
toga, the whole outfit will be of the
most comfortable. rot to say luxurious
description. Furnished private apart
ments in white marble palace, with
rent and all sorts of incidentals paid
for by the government, are not by any
means to be sneeZed at, so to speak.
In earlier days. when more simple
manners prevailed. congressman were
content to rub along with fewer COM
forts and conveniences Though the
capitol was much smaller building
than it is today, the space it afforded
was made to serve for committee
rooms and all other legislative pur-
poses. But congress, of course, has
grown numerically, and, though the
capitol has been likewise greatly ex-
banded, the wants of members of both
houses have multiplied. For a good
many years past every senator has in
sisted upon having his private suite,
and, the committee rooms in the SEN
ate wing being too few, the Maltby
building acress the street. has been
occupied for the purpose.
Meanwhile it has seemed to many
representatives that they were not get
ting their share of the pie, as it were,
and so they have insistently pushed
a movement for the erection of
building outside, which would contain
suitable quarters for themselves. Thus
it was that eventually $5,000,000 was
appropriated to put up the two great
apartment houses here described-the
senate naturally insisting that the up
per house should not be left out.
1--WE are most wasteful and ex-
travagant nation" said the Barnard
college SRI as she spTiinihied damp tea
leaves over a rug, preparing to sweep
it. This is what we do with our tea
leaves. Then we throw them away,
In England many of the well-to-do fam
lilies dry the tea leaves and sell them
to the grocers, who sell them to the
poor people in the neighborhood"
Senator Hale Objected.
Senator Eugene Hale, of Maine, is a
stickler for tradition and custom in
the senate and objects to anything
new creeping in. He has succeeded to
the place occupied by the late Senator
Hoar, of Massachusetts, as the lee
turer of those who start Innovations