Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1920-01-28

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wife.
When he had finished his ap-
premiership he came. back to
Washington, worked on the mural
decorations in the library Of con-
gress, and then got the place in
the capitol which he has now held
for % years. During that period
he has not only kept all Of the dec
orations In good shape. but he has
himself 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 school fellow
of Moberly, and who began his ser
vice in the capitol as a page many
years ago. Moberly has made
Pages room one of the most at
tractive and artistic Offices in the
entire building. About fifteen years
ago he restored the presidents
room, back OF the senate chamber.
Many OF the other rooms in the
capitol have been almost entirely
redecorated by him.
Moberly can point out to you
many interesting things about the
great capitol building which no one
else knows. For example, opposite
the entrance to the supreme court
chamber there are 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 few
years ago. He wondered what the
holes had been made for, and the
question was at last answered by
an old colored man. now dead, who
had been about the capitol ever
since the days of Clay and Web
ster. The old darkey said that
years ago an old-fashioned big
bellied wood stove had stood at
that point, and that the holes had
been used for its chimney. He said
that Clay and Webster and some of
their colleagues used to gather
about this stove and tell stories
and chew tobacco, and spit the
juice all over the stove "jes' like
anybody else" He also said that
directly under this stove on the
floor below there was another
stove which was used by the con-
gressmen and senators for culinary
purposes. Lacking adequate res
taurant facilities in those days, the
legislators used to buy beefsteah
and pork chops and broil them
themselves between debates.
The variety of the paintings or
! the walls OF the old building is
something that few visitors. il
their hasty surveys. ever realize
! Brumidi, of course, is supposed tt
have done the work, but as mat
ter of fact no one man in his life.
time could have done more than &
! fraction of it. Brumidi had a num-
Der of assistants, and they die
about as they pleased. Some o.
them were very good artists, ant
some were very bad ones. Each
apparently, painted whatever hi
liked to paint. Thus, one Of these
assistants was an enthusiast abou
! birds. He decided on his own &C
i count that the capitol of the United
States ought to contain some goot
portraits of American birds. So h,
went out with a shot gun and made
a collection of the local avifauna
and put the likenesses of the bird!
into his designs. And he did i
wonderfully we'll. His basic de
signs consist Of the usual peculiar
curlycews and things, but perchint
all over these are all sorts o
birds, painted to the very life. Ant
they do not look a bit old-fashion
ed, like so much of the capito
painting. They are so real that 20,
almost expect some of them to opel
their mouths and sing. They in
clude not only a great variety o
songsters, but a lot of game bird
such as rails, woodcocks and part
ridges. When he needed a toucl
of bright color. this long-forgottel
artist would throw in a parrot o.
a cockatoo for good measure. Hi
paintings are among the most in
teresting in the building, and We
few visitors ever stop to look a
them.
! Some other chap who shared il
the work had a penchant for car
nivorous animals, and he put in
lot of little pictures of coyotes
foxes, wolves and wildcats. Blu
his pictures are astonishingl,
bad. All Of his creatures lool
ferocious, but that is about all 70,
can say for them.
l There was still another arts
whose talent ran to small an
dreary landscapes. so he thought
| At any rate, he did a lot of then
some when he was sober and 9th
ers apparently when he was drunk
In one he has cactus plants an
spruce trees growing side by side
as they never do in nature. near
large purple ocean which slope
sharply to the left.
These are only a few of the man
interesting things that Moberl
pointed out, but they are all W
have room for. Moberly loves hi
work and his building, but he con
fesses that sometimes he gets dis
couraged. He had hoped to see tn
building decorated as he thinks
should be decorated before he die,
But he has about given I'D thi
hope. Congress won't appropriat
enough money. Congressman, h
complains, show. as a class, so lii
. tie enthusiasm for art.