Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1924-12-04

ithe Washington sightseeing tired
me considerably, but / was not a lit
tile refreshed by the comic show our
national representatives had on that
day. Men whom the people pay for
making our laws and running things
like they ought to be, were moving
about the chamber after the fashion
of loafers on the public square and
paying about as much attention to
the proceedings as McConnelsville
idlers( are there any nowO pay to
the tick of the court house clock.
From the gallery. you must take
care If you are to know what Is be-
ing said on the floor. But now some
lusty Democrat has the floor and in
rich irony he is sympathizing with
one of the Administration officials,
one of the cabinet, If / remember
correctly-who has such heavy du-
ties, who is such busy man, who
has his office to fill, who has "pat-
ronage to distribute" etc. 1t was a
funny show and l enjoyed 1t, but
it's rather expensive, isn't 1t?
We saw Uncle Joe Cannon, the
Senate Chamber and Vice President
Coolidge, the supreme court and the
Senate subway, connecting the Sem
ate office building and the capitol by
an underground monorailway. A
friend who Is employed in the postal
department took us through the
great Washington office which is
accounted the model post office of
the country. A mere enumeration
of the departments we were shown
would impress one with the large
ness of the place: C. 0. ID. section,
postage due section, searchers' sec
ton, and numbers of others. Here
are the time clocks, and those pas
sageways hung to the ceiling and
closed with the exception of shut
ters and peep holes, are the look
outs where inspectors can spy on the
clerks and see if they loaf or labor.
There are conveyors, cancellation
machines, a "hospitaP' for supplies,
etc. A distributing machine is just
being installed-something new.
Stamps are machine cancelled at the
rate of from 200 to 500 per minute,
and permit system enables large
mailers to deposit matter without
using stamps. But if we discuss the
parcel post section, the registry di-
vision, and all the rest, we shall cut
off our opportunity to see other
places.
The Library of Congress must be
visited. Observe it's staircase, said
to be the handsomest in the world.
There are lovely painted ceilings;
also mosaics and vari-colored mar
bic floors and great square pillars
The congressional reading room has
a very beautiful ceiling. In the
newspaper room, we found papers
from Louisville. Seated images
pictures of some of these ceilings
are so well done they look bit
like statues or figures standing out
rather than the fiat drawings they
are. From the reading room gall
lery you can view a magnificent
dome over three stories high sur
rounded by columns, arches and
statuary.
In the new National Museum the
railway batteries completed in 234
days from beginning of plans will
likely attract attention. Look, too,
at the mastodon skeletons, the
dinosaur, The sea mammal skeletons
(55 feet long), and visit the geo.
logical room. The anthropological
room is well worth your time also.
The Corcoran Art Gallery is likely
to prove interesting to many. Here
are Greek marble busts, the Yelled
Nun (unique), bronzes, and paint
jngs. The Navy Building has 46
acres of floor space, and some one
said it is the largest building under
a single roof in the world. The
Was shington monument, SIS feet
square at the base, "a feet square at
the top, and 555 feet high, is the
tallest masonry work on earth. 1t
terminates in pyramid of pure
aluminium at the top; has winding
stairway and a free elevator. You
know the view from the top is grand.
The new Lincoln memorial is near
by. and rejecting pool or shallow
lake lies between these two monu-
ments.
Some visitors will want to go to
Mt. Vernon and see the old home
and the burial place of the first
president. The garden contains
labyrinth of hedges. The flower
garden gives a sweet perfume in it's
season. The dwelling house is a pc
culiar, old-tim structure carrying
colonial and early republican days.
A good view of the Potomac is af
forded from the veranda. We ram
BILE through the various rooms and
see the Bible with it's record OF
births, hunting horn given by La
Fayette to Washington, the Nelly
Custis piano, the music room, the
west parlor, sitting room, dining
room, bed with a canopy high as
the ceiling, the La Fayette room and
its rag carpet. There is green
room, and the room where Washing
ton died, with the bed upon which
he reclined. His camp bedstead is
displayed. You may also enter the
room where Mrs. Washington died.
The guest room is very small with a
rag carpet. The old kitchen con-
tains ancient pewter and china and
in the carriage house is an old time
coach such as is pictured in our
school books. There is brick barn,
and down here is the old tomb where
the president was buried until 1881
when it was moved to the new struc-
ture built of materials and at lOca-
tion specified in his will. The
sepulchre, which is much visited, is
in charge of an old colored man,
quite talkative, and a friend of the
birds, orioles, cat birds, cedar birds,
and others.
On the return to Washington, the
Arlington national cemetery can
easily be visited. Be sure to see the