Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-07-24

| ment house up on Sixteenth street, a |
couple of miles from the Capitol. Now |
rs year and more ago when he be- !
came presiding officer of the House, |
Mr.. Clark walks to the Capitol nearly |
every morning and sometimes back |
home at night. That gives him some |
| fresh air. as fresh airs goes that is
| off the hot asphalt of Washington's
streets and avenues.
Considering that there are almost
| 100 representatives. and only four
short of 100 senators. mighty few con-
| gresslnen take up with the compare
lively n.edern idea of physical exer-
| else. They prefer to grow fat and
puffy, as so many American men who |
set along into the 40s and Sos do |
There may be 80 eolfing representa-
| tivcs and a dozen golfing senator's. The |
| fact that Presidents for the last ten |
years have been devotees of the eX-
ercise habit has not influenced any
great number of them.
But a goodly number, who do not |
swing the driver, the Drassey and the |
putting iron, have become philosophi- |
cal about getting through hot Wash |
ington summer. They know the cool |
| places out on the edges of the city.
| They flock there by the scores and |
even by hundreds in the evening. !
Many congressional families, of course, |
have moved away home, leaving the |
| men to stay here till that long -await-
| ed adjournment comes. And wet con-
gressional wives and daughters and |
sons are still in the city quite numer-
ously.
With two successive summer ses-
sions, these people from the northern
regions have become tolerably trained
at keeping comfortable in hotter plac-
| es. They now are as adept at 1t as are
| the army and navy officers who have
| done drty for two or three years in
| Manila They know the advantages
of wearing light clothing and of alb
/ staining from too energetic movements
| when the sun is beating down fiereely.
| The automobile has become more
| and more popular in congressional and
/ other official circles as an engine for
| hot weather convenience. The time
was not many years back, when a
| great many people of high degree rode
| in the street cars of sultry evening,
because the motion of the car kept the
air stirring for the passengers. The
| automobile is great Improvement
over that congressman now own
them by the hundreds. Several sem
ators might he named who have been
purchasers in recent months of the
more moderate priced machines. They
are great joy riders during the hot
days, particularly along toward eve
ming when the sun is low. They have
not the machines of high speed and
tremendous horse power that some of
their Weather colleagues possess and
out upon the suburban roads they do
not speed so magnificently. But they
; go along in staid fashion and are get
ting n tremendous amount of satisfac-
ton therefrom.
: But Washington, all in all, is much
, more comfortable city in summer than
. it was 10 years ago. There is really
; less condemnation of our first Presi-
: | dent for having located the Capitol by
the Potomac than there used TO be in
the years agone, whenever Congress
had to remain in the city for sum-
: mer session. The development of
street and suburban transportation
has been quite surprising. The hot
and stufty structures of the olden DAYS
have been giving way to up-to-date
houses There are three attractive
: country clubs within brief distance
and three or four general resorts
where some forms of entertainment
are offered together with opportunities
to keep cool. The city mas recently
acquired two or three roof gardens.
one, at least, of which is quite as well
equipped as are the more magnificent
roof gardens of New York.
1 he 10 or
nook and corner of the Capitol and of
the two big marble office buildings
have been equipped with electric fans.
Congressman. as well as other govern
ment officials, live in the breeze of an
electric fan from morning till evening,
during the hot weather season. The
government undoubtedly pays out an
nually tens of thousands of dollars for
electric current to lower the tempera-
ture of the avoirdupois of its public
servants 1t is only within a twelfth
month that enormous paddle fans, of
exquisite make. were suspended in the
legislative chambers. Electrically pro-
PEELED, they have sprung into great
popularity and the sweltering states
man at his mahogany desk, swinging
broad palm leaf, has become a pic
ture of the past.
The deep upholstered furniture.
which used to be feature of federal
offices in Washington. has likewise
disappeared. The furnishings are now
better adapted to the climate and ex-
istence is made more tolerable The
equipment conduces to better applica-
tioE to official tasks. Presumably the
federal official today should be able
to do more and better work in the
| summer season than he once did, al
| though that might have to be demon
strated. However. ii is undoubtedly
true that if any of the Presidents,
who are dead and gone, could resume
their duties in Washington now of
summer season, they would regard it
as very much of a paradise in COM
| parison with what it once was. And
| almost as much is true of the other
men in high places whose duty II is to
keep the government going in summer
| as well as in winter.