The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-10-27

congress that Henry D. Flood
representative in congress fror
Virginia and chairman OF the for.
eign affairs committee. who. dies
recently, was regarded as a sort ~
man Of mystery around the cani,o,
because Of his wholly unaccount.
able disappearance. The story
goes that at times when N,
F1od is dead and, presumably. NE
sact urgent business without inter.
ruption he would disappear abso.
lutely. He would be seen walkin,
down corridor of the capito1
would turn a corner and, suddenly
would be gone.
FLOODS secret Died With Hsn
Virginians took a large part in
the building Of the capitol, the pre.
eminence of such men as Washinr.
ton, Jefferson, Burr and others civ.
, ing them a prominent place in apy
governmental undertaking. Tn
theory has been advanced that M
Flood, of Virginia. the political
/ heir of these famous statesmen. in
some way became possessed ,i
some of the architectural secrets
of the capitol and used them. Mr.,
Flood is dead and, personally, his
secret, if he had one, died with
him.
/ The capitol remains and looks
solid enough to remain to the end
. of time. Will some enterprising
architect find its secret or will the
building crumble with no one the
wiser?
! The capitol is by no means the
oldest building in Washington. One
of the most interesting old houses
; in Washington is Octagon House
which stands at Eighteenth street
and New York avenue. 1t now is
owned by the American Institute
of Architects and preserved as
magnificent specimen of early
American architecture. 1t was
built by Mr.. Taylor, a Philadel-
phia capitalist. During the War of
1912 the British burned not only
the capitol but the White house.
President Madison and Dolly Mad
ison, the mistress of the White
house, removed to the Taylor man.
sion and that became the White
house pending the rebuilding of the
new executive mansion.
Octagon house, is filled with sec
! ret passages. For instance. if you
20 ND the main, winding staircase
and touch a certain panel in the
wall decorations, the panel will
swing open and reveal another
staircase, going down 1t was until
the new home for the department
of the interior was built that the
most interesting feature of this
house was discovered This new
) building stands just across the
street from Octagon house. In the
. course of excavation for the deep
cellars, the contractors discovered
secret passage running from 0c-
tagon house in q northwestefly
direction.
The young man who was super
intending the excavation unfortu-
nately was not a person of archeol-
ogical curiosity and the result was
that a great find has been OBJ
scured. Here is the story which he
told. The steam shovels wer.
. working in a great hurry to get the
job done. They broke into the sec
ret passage and in few hours
obliterated it. The passage ex-
tended to a point about the middle
of the square on which the build
! ing was to be erected. There il
opened into a fair sized chamber
From the secret chamber it con-
t tinued to a destination not yet as
certained. The fascinating point is
that in this secret chamber STOOD
a table and a chair. On the table
: was a candlestick. with burned
| out candle and a book, lying open
d The accumulation of dust indicated
l that the secret chamber had not
been occupied for century. The
!, book lay, opened, just as it had
! been left a hundred years ago.
q What was the book" he was
h asked.
e "Oh, l don't know" he said =
t was too busy to notice One OF III
e Workmen took it. We had to ge
\ the job done and couldn't stop Il
q bother about hundred year Old
4 books. If the book had been an!
t good the man who owned it would
not have left it there.
e Was it a book which President
u James Madison was reading. Wa
e some British spy Willing away III
e time in the secret chamber VIII
|, some romance? Probably no ON
S will ever know?
o Washington and especiat.
d Georgetown. the old Potomac. rive
s port, now a part Of the natlona
l. capitol, have many old houses
s with underground secrets. fran
l. els Dodge, for instance, built
y house in Georgetown and from
a secret passage extended Tor
If half mile under the city an
i emerged in the cellar OF his ware
e house on the waterfront.