Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-07-21
ART TO SHINE
FORTH AGAIN IN
u. s. BUILDING
Accumulated Dirt on Walls
Soon to GiUe Way to
Cleaning.

Decorations that have been hidden
from view for years will be brought to
light and dirt that has been accommodating
as relentlessly as interest on an overdue
note will be removed ruthlessly when
James II. Frye, custodian Of the Federal
building, and his assistant, Morton z.
Bonham. get through with the big clean
up they have planned
Plans and Specifications for the work
are now being prepared by the Treasury
Department at Washington. which is the
big boss of all Federal buildings and as
soon as these are completed contracts
for the work will be let and the job will
be put through as rapidly as possible
Every year some renovating work is
done on the building, but this year 1t
will be more extensive than ever before.
Never since the Federal building was oc-
cupied in September, 1908, have the walls
Of the corridor on the second floor Of
the building been cleaned or painted.
Originally the ceiling Of this corridor
had beautiful gold decorative effects TO
please the visitors e1pectant eyes. but
for many a long year they were buried
from view by the soft coal dirt Of Indi-
annapolis as effectively and completely as
was ancient Pompen by the lava from
Mt Vesuvius.
DECIDE TO DELVE
INTO MYSTERIES.
Several months ago Mr.. Frye and Mr..
Bonham decided to delve into the mys
teries of that ceiling and verify the ru-
mOrs that were current about the Fed
eral building. that il the excavations
could be carried far enough a lot Of
nifty decorative work would be brought
to light.
About this time a salesman breezed
IN with a convincing line Of sales talk
about a wonderful cleaner that would re
move the various layers Of accumulated
dirt. even down TO the 1905 stratum. He
was told to demonstrate. He did. and so
ont Of the Sty gian gloom Of the dirty
ceiling there shone forth a bright spot
where the magic cleaner had done its
duty. But as effective as this was,
Assistant Custodian Bonham had bunch
that soap and water could do the job
equally as well. So he put several jan
itors at work on a pronouncedly black
spot. a short distance from the one
cleaned II the salesman. His bunch
worked out 100 per cent plus, and pres
emily two nice, pretty, clean spots shOne
out on the ceiling where but one shone
before
DECIDE TO MAKE
REAL JOB OF 1T.
These cleaning experiments proved
concIusively that legends handed down
from generation to generation OF Fed
eral lob holders as to the existence of
gold decorations were correct, but unfor-
tunateIy they had lost their lustre in
sixteen years. and it was decided that
the best thing to do was to abandon the
cleaning idea and redecorste entirely.
Other renovating and redecorsting TO be
done will be in the north end OF the
main floor oS the postofflce. practically
the entire third floor and the second floor
with the exception Of Judge Albert B.
Anderson's suite, which was redecorated
last year
For the time being nothing will be
done with the law library on the sec
ond floor. The ceiling in this room is
very dirty, but it Is decorated With
Wonderfully attractive copies Of emblems
Of old time publishing houses of cen
turtles ago, and 1t will take the most ex-
pert work and artistic care to do this
properly. As a result, IL will go over
until some future time.