Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-09-02
UNIQUE DEVICES
INSURE HONESTY
Offices Where vaIuabIes May
Be Left Lying About
'CareIess Like"
ELECTRICITY IN A BOWL
PROTECTS BUNCH OF COIN
Skeleton Stands Guard Where Doors
Are Left 0pen-Snake in
Tobacco Jar.

| conscience doth made towards of US
1 all remarked Mr.. Shakespeare which
| only shows that Shakespeare was hep
10 humanity and wrote a good many
| thlnss that other people merely
thought. This philosophy on morals
may not have been written with a par
| ticular view to janitors, but there are
several cases in Washington where 1t
| would apply. There is one widely dis
| cussed at the Capitol. where it is
| well known that Supt. Elliot
Woods can leave jewels and precious
stones or anything else he happened
to have lying around with a perfect
| looseness, and there is not laborer on
| the place who would not walk around
the block to avoid going near them.
| Quite a while ago the Senate labora-
| tory was not the commodiOus structure
| 1t is now, but merely a private labora-
| tory and workshop for Mr.. Woods. He
was an electrical expert then, as he
| is now, and was always fooling with
| anything from wireless to high fire.
quency currents. He noticed at one
time that good many of his small
| personal possessions disappeared II he
did not lock them up, and as he seldom
thought to lock anything up the lost
| list increased to an annoying extent.
Quietly Sets Trap.
| One day he built large leyden Jar out
of big china bowl and little tin foil.
He dropped a lot of pennies and nickels
and dimes into it and charged it with
enough Juice to kill an OK maybe or at
least enough to make the OK think he
had been killed. He left it on a sheet
Of glass and walked off, leaving the door
of the laboratory open.
1t was not long before one of the out
side laborers slipped in and took a look
around. That bowl of small change was
an Irresistible temptation, and he evil
ed. He ran his hand into the BOWL but
before he could grasp nickel he felt as
though some one had hit him on the fun
ny bone with an ak. He gave a wild
| property yard. Since that time it has
been well and generally known that Mr..
Woods puts conjures" on anything that
belongs to him and you could not hire
anybody at the Capitol to touch thing
of his.
When the model shop of the Smith
sonian Institution was down by the rail-
road tracks in South Washington. Harry
Handley and the late Mr.. Palmer who
were in the shop. had the surrounding
population 'buffaloed'' to the extent that
it was never necessary to lock door.
The model shop IVES rather an eerle place,
anyhow, with its atmosphere of plaster
of paris. half dismembered bodies and
statues and rugs and skins and almost
anything else queer that happened to
float through the museum. There were
lot OF life masks in plaster, and the
residents of the shop were believed by all
IN the small boys and many OF the adults of
the vicinity to be body snatchers and to
make their living by questionable and oc-
cult arts. including human vivisection.
Cko1n<on ~ r1,aA cl4-
The thing that made the place sacred
or rather baleful, to illiterate neighbors
was human skeleton that lived in the
back Of the shop and that by a simple
arrangement of overhead cords could be
made to get up off a chair and walk a
few steps out into the shop. There was
one boy who ventured into the shop one
afternoon and almost had to be taken
to Emergency Hospital in consequence
But there were never any more tres
passers.
There is one of the clerks up in the
War Department who is an amateur nat
uralist of some attainment. He is also
a smoker and is in the habit Of keeping
small reserve supply of tobacco in
jar on his desk. SO that he can replenish
his pouch If he runs short during the
day.
He found. finally, that it was impossible
to keep any tobacco on hand and when
ever he wanted 1t in hurry the jar
was sure to have been emptied. The in
habitants of Ireland have nothing on the
sons Of Ham when it comes to dreading
snakes. All snakes look alike to them
and they are all deadly, merely because
they are snakes, quite regardless Of the
species. The clerk knew this quite well
and, carefully washing out the tobacco
dust from the jar, he one day dropped a
perfectly harmless grass snake into it
and put on the lid.
Hears Yell of Terror.