Evening star., 1924-07-20
Real Workers in the National Capital

John v. Waite, Rush Clark. Charles
ONeill, John Hanna, William Aldrich
Martin I. Townsend, James H. Ran
Henry White, and more than half the
other members of the Forty-fifth
Congress, whose autographs are pre-
served by Mr.. Grayson and as legi-
Bile today as the day they were
Another document signed by James
Robeson Chairman of the caucus
and by some so members of the
Forty-seventh Congress-, including
Gen. Rufus r. Dawes, father of the
present candidate for Vice President
and the controller of the currency
advised that Joel Grayson should be
appointed document file clerk" to
the House because "his experience
and knowledge in regard to docu-
lnVaiuable to the members of the
House that they cannot well be dis
pensed WITH
Again on December 20, 1889
Speaker Thomas b. Reed wrote to the
doorkeeper regarding the reinstate-
ment of Joel Grayson to the place
OF assistant file clerk of the document
room, the place created for and for
merly held by him in the Forty
seventh Congress" This was signed
son, Charles O'Neill, L. c. Houk, ]. c.
burrows, Il. 3. Taylor, William Nc
kinley, Thomas NJ. Bayne and other
leaders.
Given a Gold Watch.
During the Spanish-American war
the members of Congress presented
Mr. Grayson with a gold watch and
chain on completion of twentv-f five
years of service and in apprecia ton
OF MS faithful and efficient work.
ia nd IL :
ters are preserved as heirlooms by
MT Grayson, but these have been
prleny noted to show that for fifty
years he has enjoyed the confidence
and friendship of the gratest men in
this country who have publicly testi-
neo over their signature that his
work was of an indispensable char
acter.
He is asked daily to look up old
laws and documents. and readily puts
MS hands upon them Frequently
members of Congress have ask ed him
now ne remembers such things, and
comes to me-" Since the loss by fire
two years ago of his valuable library
OF Zoo volumes of rare books that
cannot be replaced. and which he had
the Capitol, Mr.. Grayson has to rely
upon his memory and dig it out when
memory fails, as it seldom does
The present engineer a the Capitol
henry TAYLOR, owes his job, which he
has held by extremely capable work
for quarter of a century to Mr..
Grayson's insistence with Speaker
Reed. The latter had a colored man
for whom he wanted to find a place,
and had asked Mr. Grayson to LET
him know when he saw a vacancy.
one morning about o'clock Joel
heard that the engineer of the
capitol had died. He hurried at once
to to, speaker Reed at his hotel and said:
a
promote the men all along the line
and that will make vacancy for
your man" Speaker Reed demurred
IIhadnt we better wait until Mr.
He is just as dead now as he ever
VIII be. and If you wait, before noon
you viii be peStered by half the mem
bers to put some constituent of theirs
on the job" Joel had his way
Keeps L. s. SenI at Home.
In his home in Vienna Mr.. Gravson
has placed so that it is the frs: thing
you see when you enter the hospit-
able door replica of the seal of the
United States. This is one of three
casts which were on the grandstand
when Roosevelt was inaugurated
Mr.. Grayson had it finished with IA
carat gold and the duplicate was pre-
sented to Uncle Joe" Cannon, who
has 1t in his home in Danville, Ill
He also has copy-only six were
made-of the seal of the confederacy
| in bronze. made in London
While devoting himself so zeal.
ously to Uncle Sans work he has
raised large family, five sons and
four daughters, all of whom are livin g
but the oldest girl. Three of these
sons were in the Army One. Lieut.
;. NJ. Grayson. was in Texas went 70
france and was in all the principal
battles. lie was promoted to cap
talncy for bravery and had several
citations: He is now a major in the
Medical Reserve Corps and a practic.
ing physician in Washington. Lieut.
Laurence A. Grayson was injured ir
a fall OF 500 feet from an airplane or
the coast of England during the war
Both legs were broken through the
| ankles. He is now studying law al
the University of Virginia. The other
son. X. v. Grayson, was in charge oi
motor truck service at Camp Jessup
Ga, and awaiting orders to 20 over.