Omaha daily bee., 1911-12-24
{ Nebraska
OFFICIALS DESERT CAPITOL
All Who Live Out Of City Leave for
Holiday Vacations.
AFTER PATENT MEDICTNE MEN
hancock Doctor seeks 10 Get LAW
on irresponsible Vcndor-Iincoin
POstOffice Handles Large
Quantities OF Mail.

From staff Correspondent
LINCOLN, Nob., Dec. 23-tSpecial)-
The state house was partly depooulated
this morning and this afternoon found
still less Of the officials and employees
about the big building. Some OF these
whose homes are OUT of the city left last
night for the Christmas holiday and the
remainder got away today. None of the
Ottices will be open Monday, as 10 the
usual custom. There was the usual in
terchange Of Christmas remembrances,
ana among these there were none more
appreciated than the presentation Of $40,
all in good coin of the realm, which Off
cials and employees in the east end Of
the capitol presented Major Moore, the
faithful colored jantor. Heretofore it has
been the custom to give the major
turkey, but this year it was decided to
make the. remembrance q cash one.
Inspect Federal BuiidinE.
p. j. Furlong of the supervising archi-
tects office at Washington was in the
city today inspecting the federal build
ing. While he is not directly charged
with such work, being inspector of me-
chanical equipment, he is also looking
into matters connected with the proposed
enlargement OF tne pullClng.
-Four Trnmps Arraigned.
Frank johnson. Thomas Nash, T. e.
Hayes and II. Hogan, four tramps. were
brought in from Fairbury today By the
federal authorities. They have been con
fined in the Fairbury Jail for some time
on charge OF drunkenness, but today
were arragned before United States Com
missioner MaTlay on a charge OF opening
mail sack at Fairbury on November 25.
The sack was a pouch mail between Fair
bury and Nelson. It is not known by the
authorities whether the men obtained
anything Of value from the sack They
were held under s10pO bail each, which
they were unable TO furnish.
After Medicine vendors.
DIR. Walker of Hancock was in the
State Board of Health office today to
ascertain If there was any way to reach
vendors of patent medicines when per-
sons taking the remedy were injuriously
affected by them. The doctor is con-
vinced that a baby which he was called
to attend died as the result of taking a
dose of a well known remedy for bowel
complaint. The bottle containing the
remedy bore a caution not to give 1t to
children under years old. The child in
AQuestion was 4, but according to the doc
<or possessed less vitality than the aver
age child of 3. Or. Miller OF the health
department informed him there was
nothing in the medical law which would
cover the case and as the label complied
with the provisions of the pure food and
drug act there was probably no ground
for legal action. EE .k.e
vital Statistics Blanks.
DR.. Miller of the Statc-Board of Health
is sending out a new set OF blanks on
which to report vital statistics. Hereto
fore birth returns have been made on
f, postaf cards, but the new blank is iden-
ticai with those used by the federal au-
thorities i'm collection of such statistics.
1t is thought conderable benefit will ac-
crue by tine use of blanks which will put
the state statistics in harmony with those
of the federal government and of a ma
jority OF other states.
Big Day for Postoffice.
Friday the local postoffice handled
$1,000 pieces of first-class mail, breaking
all records for the Lincoln postoffice In
dications are that today will exceed even
that record and the week taken as a
whole has been the most strenuous ever
experienced here. The mail, however,
gestion so far as first-class matter is
concerned and little if any delay with
other classes. OF the vast quantities of
packages received but one so far has
been in a seriously damaged condition.
Petition by Bedford.
City Clerk Redfern has prepared a
petition which is now being circulated,
calling upon the mayor to call special
election to vote on the commission form
of government for Lincoln when 2j per
cent of the vote cast at the last election
shall have signed the petition. The
petition is for government similar to
the one adopted in Omaha It is being
Niberally signed, though up to the present
no general effort to obtain signatures
has been made.
Tyler to Stand Pat.
Water Commissioner Tyler announced
today that he did not intend to resign
as a result of the present clamor re-
garding the Rice street well. He says
the well was in service under the same
conditions, so far as could be seen, for
years before he assumed office. and he
had no reason to believe it contaminated
until the meteorological examination was