The Washington bee., 1911-11-11
Public Men And dThinDs
(By the Sage of the Patomac)

- ease 10 ne discussed around
these diggings its the Capitol Saw
ihgS Bank, and funny, though true If
tIat most of those who discuss If
never had so much as postage stamD
on diSposlt. A bunch of rs down at
| tne CiuD-that Is street cOrner-were
discussing the old defunct bank the
other day, and upon the most careful
| inventory, not one in the bunch ever
mad an occasion to even draw their
breath at the bank, much less draw =
lcheck on the bank. Well this buncb
lot hnanCIerS in memoriun1 v,era ell
ing how this fellow took all the doe
and how the other fellow went so,,tb
with bunch of coin One fellow s.i5
that when the bank went down or nm
he had just about made I'D his mind 70
deposit neat sum. Another direct
| deCendent of Baron Munchausen ea;d
that if that bank hadn't failed he
would be worth considerable now
don't know how, for he never had 50
much as a four-card flush when the
! bank was in existence, and since #
failed he hasn't had enough at anv
time to wad gun. But oh these r0-
mancerS, and If town ever had its
| share OF them, Washington has her
| share. But most of these first cousins
to Munchausen around here are what
| Chase, in his default of the proper
adjective, calls "interlOpers." l never
| heard the Capitol Savings Bank
| knocked harder than Pete Peters
knocked it one day down at the old
MetropOle Club, and Pete, who
worked awfully hard about one dav
III the year, had Just two dollars and
| forty cents on deposit in the Capitol.
and he drew that out three davs after
he put It in. | confess [ never had
any money IN the bank, and I am
aWtuily sorry that | didn't, because if
| had, l could pose now as a million
are who had lost all his coin in the
blowing up of bank. What funny
things a fellow sees when he aint got
| his gun.
I don't know what made me thinl,
OF Henry Baker when I got my mind
on that late, lemented Capitol Savings
Bank. But somehow or another in
tuitlvely, my mind wondered to this
son Of Ham who at one time aspired
to be a mildly III Uncle Sans ser
vice. Now when that bank went up
sh! shl! sh!! don't mention it to
| blooming soul, Henry was greatly en-
barrassed. But Henry's fellow what's
| got great recuperative powers. 1t
/ didn't take him long after a few others
went broke to get on his feet Henry
| IS what | would call, in my moments
| of mental abnegation, a fnancier. IF
you don't believe it, Just 90 uD and
go through that beautiful $4,000 resi-
denCe of his. Henry came back. but
lots of them couldn't Henry has all
| the get-there ability of Morse I was
/ up to his house last summer, and
when | glimpsed around at his beauti-
ful lawn, and peeped through his
spacious rooms, | thought, what need
he care if the old bank did 90 to Join
the French imperialists. Some men
came out of that bank failure with
clean hands, some came out with a
carload of debts, some came out with
regulations just a bit singed but O
you Henry, you came out on Ely
street, or rather you got on that
boulevard after the bank passed into
innOCuOus desuetude But mebby
| that kid aint some ability! He started
in over at the Patent Office on a
salary that was in the lowest grade,
and now he's S2IOO man, and nobody
| helped him. The fact that he at one
| time was the financial lieutenant of
Barean Baptist Church, and that fact
| that he had a distant connection with
| Capitol Savings Bank didn't help him,
| he just got down and rooted, while d
lot of daubs were discussing failures.
Henry was intended for service in the
| u. S. Navy, and at one time was a
MILDLY" at the Annapolis Academy,
but he got cold feet, and decided he
was cut out for a fnanCier. I would
Riggs Bank, just to see what he
pretty high now, | know, but I'll bet
copy of Pierepont Morgan's sigma
ture against share of stock in the
Lincoln Memorial Building Co, that
Henry could send it several points
higher. and might, if he had time, send
it out of reach of lots of people.
Henry Baker is a keen little chap,
quick on his feet, and quick with his
gray matter. While a lot of people
stand around the corners and talk
just talk-Henry's at work getting his
know a certain real estate dealer
who they say IS always Just about
fifteen minutes out OF jail, and that's
simply because he takes desperate
chances Now Henry takes no des-
perate chances, he just lays up against
those sure snaps. and comes off in the
o. K class. You can all COnfab as
much as you like about him, and if he
heard all that was said about him he'd
go and plug up his ears with moultcn
lead, but the fellows got so much
industry about his clothes. and so
much real ability hid away in the re-
cesses of his gray matter that he can't
help but lay down a safe bunt every
time he comes to the bat And Henry
is one leghorn that never sets on
political egg. He just attends to his
own business, gets his, and quietly,
though beautifully lives in that $4,000
manson Of his out in Sherman
avenue He's so busy now, and so in
tent on improving his own oppOrtun-
tiles that he wouldn't spend the fifth
part of a second discussing such
ancient history as the Capitol Savings
Bank And he's right at that
I was sitting down in Gaskin's,
Saturday trying to put my molars
Al Il.