The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1914-04-23
Washington Whisperines.

WASh1N0TONs ~ W. ApEh HVs AOAHs
The recent seizure by the New York
customs authorities of the village Of
meadow ants which Mrs. c. w. Morse
wished to bring with her from Europe il
only an episode in the perpetual war
waged against undesirable immigrants,
human, animal and vegetable. Mrs.
Morse g village, like the one which reach
ed Philadelphia about fortnight before.
was probably by-product of the increas-
ed interest in nature study, but the Unit
ed States Government not only dis
courages such aids to amateur research
but absolutely prohibits them. BY law
passed in 1905 the importation of living
insects into this country is forbidden and
there are other laws which regulate SO
strictly the importation of larger ami
mails that in many cases no discretion is
left to the authorities.
Nevertheless tourists and amateur
scientists persist in their efforts to intro
duce additions to the flora and fauna of
the United States which the country
would be happy to be without. 1t is es-
timated that one-half the pests that af-
flict farmers and stock have been import
ed from abroad, such as the gypsy moth,
| the mongoose, the Australian flying fox,
which in reality is an overgrown bat, and
the San Jose scale.
Brides are occupying the center of the
social stage in Washington just now and
will continue to do SO for some weeks to
come, for an unusually large number of
noted society bellies in the National Cap
ital are to be welded this spring. A
bridal season with a White House we'd
ding in it is regarded as one that is indeed
worth while. The preparations for the
marriage of the Presidents daughter,
Miss Eleanor Wilson, are taking definite
form, and there is now an air of brisk
ness about the living rooms of the White
House that has not been known in the
historic mansion since the marriage of
Mr.. and Mrs. Sayre last November. 1t is
understood that the bride-elect of the
Secretary of the Treasury will make an
other trip to New York some time before
the wedding, which the wise ones say
will be in early June, to complete her
trousseau, but when that trip will be
made is as much secret as the actual
date of the wedding. 1t is expected
there will be more display at this second
White House wedding of the Wilson ad-
ministration than there was at the mar
riage of Miss Jessie Wilson, for Eleanor
Wilson has not hesitated to say in her
girlish way that she is for more fuss and
feathers and furbelows than either of
her sisters on joyous occasions such as
the approaching wedding, and Washing
ton society, also loving fuss and feathers,
is also correspondingly elated.
Some wag of newspaper correspond
ent few weeks ago published in num-
Der of newspapers throughout the coun-
try paragraph that has brought thou
sands of letters to the Director of the
Mint from every section of the country
asking that he send them $34. 80 as his or
her share of the per capita circulation of
the money of the United States. The
correspondent stated in his despatch that
that amount would be due every man,
WON an and child in the United States if
Uncle Sans money were divided up, and
thousands have actually believed that by
writing to the Treasury Department they
would receive the money. A form letter
in reply to the vast number of these let
tiers has been gotten up in the Bureau of
the Mint to disabuse the minds Of those
who were misled, but it has kept several
clerks busy for many days simply adj
dressing the envelopes to the misguided
applicants, many Of whose letters beg
cling that the money be sent at once are
pathetic.
Labor throughout the land has become
intensely interested in the proposed new
it is established, as the Bureau of Labor
Safety of the Department Of Labor, and
incidentally the nations vast army of in
dustrial workers, numbering about 3d.
600, 600 men, women and children, are
equally interested in the recent announce
ment by Victor j. Evans, a we'll known
patent attorney of Washington, that he
will give the sum of s., 800 to the three
persons inventing the most practical and
effective life and limb protecting devices
to be applied to machinery in industrial
establishments, the first prize to be $1,000,
the second $500 and the third $500 A
number of distinguished men, headed by
Vice President Marshall and Speaker
Champ Clark, have agreed to act as
commission to select the seven expert
judges to pass upon the merits of the in