Arizona republican., 1920-03-12

colors and some are oils A knowledge
 of the chemistry of these there differ
 ent methods is naturally indispensable | to the man who has to keep the paint l ings in good order.
 When he was nine years old, Mo
 berly came to Washington and he saw the great Italian artist, Brumidi. at
 work in the capitol. He was impressed ] by the fineness of his work, and he
 made up his mind to get a job as cap 1 itoI artist. He worked for a time with l his father and then went away and became decorator. He worked in New | York and Pennsylvania at the time when men were making great and sud- l den fortunes in the oil business, and
 many interiors of splendid residences did he decorate for newly-made mill | lionaires. One of his jobs was the dec orating of a private car, which cost l $65,000 and which the president of 1 the Lake Erie railroad had made for l his wife. 1 When he had finished his apprentice | ship. he came back to Washington, | worked on the mural decorations in the 1 Library of Congress, and then got the place in the capitol which he has now 1 held for 23 years During that period he has not <only kept all of the deco rations in good shape, but he has him 1 self painted designs on the walls and ceilings of many rooms which were never before decorated at all. One of | these is the office of William Tyler Page. clerk of the house. who is an old l school fellow of Moberly, and who be-
 gan his service in the capitol as page
 many years ago. Moberly has made Pages room one of the most attrac- l tive and artistic offices in the entire | l building. About fifteen years ago he I restored the presidents room, back of | the senate chamber. Many of the other rooms in the capitol have been almost 1 entirely redecorated by him. i Moberly can point out to you many l interesting things about the great cap I itol building which no one else knows. 1 l For example, opposite the entrance 10 the supreme court chamber there are 1 two pipe holes in the sandstone of which the walls are made. Moberly discovered these when he had the paint | scraped off the walls to show the stone a few years ago. He wondered what the holes had been made for. and the question was at last answered by an ol,. colored man, now dead. who had been about the capitol ever since the l days of Clay and Webster. The old darky said that years ago old-faSh | toned big-bellied wood stove had stood l at that point. and that the holes had been used for it's chimney. He said 1 i that Clay and Webster and some of their colleagues used to gather about 1 this stove and tell stories and chew to- l bacco, and spit the juice all over the 1 stove "jes like anybody else He also i said that directly under this stove on the floor below there was another stove which was used by the congress | men and senators for culinary pur- | poses. Lacking adequate restaurant | facilities in those days, the legislators used to buy beefsteak and pork chops | and broil them themselves between debates.
 The variety of the paintings on the | walls of the old building is something l that few visitors, in their nasty sur | veys, ever realize. Brumidf, of course. l
 is supposed to have done the work. but as matter of fact, no one man III
 his lifetimes could have done more than a fraction of it. Brumidi had
 number of assistants, and they did | about they pleased Some of them |
 were very good artists, and some were | very bad ones. Each. apparently. | painted whatever he liked to paint. | Thus one of these assistants was an enthusiast about birds. He decided on his own account that the capitol of the | United States ought to contain some i good portraits of'sthe native American ] birds So he went out with 9 shotgun l and made a collection of the local avi- | fauna. and put the likenesses of the birds into his designs. And he did it |
 wonderfully well. His basic designs | consist of the usual peculiar curlycews 1
 and things. perched all over these are all sorts of birds. painted to the very | life A man who knows birds can i identify everyone of them. And they | do not look a bit old-fashioned. like
 so much of the capitol painting. They | are so real. that you almost expect | some of them to open their mouths and i sing. They include not only a great variety of songsters but a lot of game | birds. such as rails. woodcock and |
 cartridges. When he needed touch of | bright color, this long-forgotten artist