Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1910-09-26
w ashin gton Life
Some Interesting Phases
and Conditions Observed
~ the Nations Capitol

~ the Nations Capitol
So long as the get-r,ch-quickers Of Maine
confined their opera lions to the extracting
of gold from salt water. the postoffice
authorities did not feel any suspicious up
lift in postoffice receipts and did not dis
tutb the scheme-s Comparatively few
suckers took the gold seawater bait. Re
Gently a shrewder resident Of the Pine
Tree state. ouartered in the town Of Gar
diner offered more tempting lure to the
gullible crowd and worked M so much
mail order business that GARDENERS post
office receipts attracted attention at Wash
ington. An investigation revealed one DR.
II. F. Merrill marketing an extract nj saw
dust as a cure for dyspepsia, a receipt Cor
4 converting sweet cider into champagne
and a sure-thing cure for bald heads.
Maine drug store on a holiday was the
only state rival to the doctors shop in a
business way. So much good money rolled
in that some Of II was carted to the banks
| of larger cities for safe keeping. IL seemed
to the postoffice officials that the doctor
was Offering too much for the money and
they got busy. IL was found that the
hair restorer" was a 30 per cent solution
Of Tactic acid. and that he made whisky
by chopping potatoes fine, placing them In
a jar and pouring in molRsses, the mixture
to stand three months. To make cham
payne he advised his clients to place fif-
teen pounds of brown sugar in a ten
gallon cask and then fill the cask with
sweet cider, permitting It to stand eigh-
teen days. The doctors cure for stomach
troubles was horn bean or ironwood, and
he asserted that epilepsy and other f.s
coud be cured by the root of the peony. He
also advertised a method OF making hard
water soft, and to his dupes advised that
two-ounce vial be suspended in the
water, promising that after boiling all i'm
purities would adhere to the vial
Unable to prove to the postal officials
that any of his formulas possessed virtue
fraud order was issued barring DR.. Mer
rill from the use of the mails. He has
been arrested and will be brought to trial.
| Washington will be more than ever
capital city when the plans of half dozen
foreign governments for providing more
elaborate homes for their embassies, at an
outlay estimated at S3,5OOO0O shall have
been carried out. Ambassador Bryce has
been providing better working facilities for
his people, and II is claimed that Great
Britain proposes to acquire two or three
residences which adjoin the embassy on
Connecticut avenue. and to use the entire
site for the construction of greatly en-
larged official quarters The French en-
bassy is now occupying leased quarters,
but plans are nearing completion by which
i Ambassador Jusserand will be enabled to
construct an official home for the en-
bassy on the property bought in 1901 by
Ambassador Jules Cambon, on Twenty
frst street northwest. Germany now holds
title to ground adjoining the proposed
French embassy, but the home govern
ment has not decided on the plans for an
official residence for her representative In
the United States. Other nations which
contemplate large expenditures on new
homes in Washington are Mexico, Japan
and Brazil.
a Washington landlords are determined to
give congressman a practical lesson on the
high cost of living next winter. Hotel and
boarding house keepers propose to put a
> higher tariff on table board lifting II
, notch higher than ever before. At the
city markets the best beefsteaks now sell
at from Is to 30 cents per pound Fresh
pork is retailed at Is cents. Prime rib
I roasts bring from IS to % cents. Lamb
2 costs from 20 to % cents a pound Eggs go
, all the way from rs to IS cents a dozen
Vegetables have sold higher this fall than
ever before. All dealers predict steady
5 rises from now on.
y Hotels and boarding houses kept their
prices on the old standard last year"
says a hotel man, but 1t looks like we
will have to move them up to meet the
situation II we are going to pay expenses
a this winter. Congress seemed to convince
itself-so far as Senator Lodges report
went-that the tariff wasn't to blame. I'm
. afraid the statesmen will have 10 stand
Ipha
3 winter. whatever the cause may be-"
Washington Is one of the most inter
esting places in the world for the obser-
walton of social and official phases of
life," says a representative And let 1t
Y be understood that the lines are sharply
r drawn. as is illustrated by this incident.
The wife Of a fellow member during my
term once took her 6-year-old daughter
to task.
Marjorie said she, you've been play
ing with those toy soldiers all afternoon
That's not proper amusement for a big
girl like YOU
" But. mamma, replied Miss Majorie,
I'm not playing with the soldiers. l
4 picked out all the officers and played with
n them"
II elected to congress this fall Caleb
Powers of Kentucky will be one of the
mOst-pointed-out persons in Washington.
To have been tried for murder four times,
convicted three times and sentenced twice
y to die, and in the meanwhile TO have
= served eight years in jail is an extra
n ordinary preparation for a congressional
4 career. As martyr to justice, Powers
made his campaign for nomination, but he
is said TO possess real ability of a high
! order.
" High Flyers Extra HazardOus.
is New York World.