The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1935-10-10

story proprietor In Nebraska, to file
for the United States senate against
Senator George w. Norris who was
then seeking reelection. Punishment
was melted out to the Groceryman Nor
ris who, 1t appeared after the thing
was over, was more or less of an in
nocent bystander who was willing to
lend the use of his name.
Thus, when few weeks ago, Mr..
Lucas personally sent a QUESTIONABLE
to the hundreds of Republican state
and county chairman, seeking their
views as to a Presidential nominee
for the party, those who remembered
his services with the Republican ma
tiOnal committee Immediately won
dered what his object was. / have
tried to ascertain what the purpose
might be and have thus far had no
success other than the statement
which Mr.. Lucas made to me.
He told me at the time of his poll
that he wanted to discover exactly
what the sentiment was of those party
chairmen far removed from the hot
bed of party control 1t was his con-
viction, he said, that the method he
was employing would bring to the at
tention of those in control of the Re-
publican party facts that should
awaken them and keep them from al
lowing the party machine to be SUBJ
ordinated to the wishes of few. He
declined to name those few.
Now, however, he is in the limelight
in new fashion. If he has been dam
aged, as he claims, by the conspiring
of Mr.. Hilles and others, then he
ought to collect and those who con-
spired ought to be exposed. Never
theless, unbiased observers remain
without a conviction that Mr.. Lucas
has been the victim of such con-
spiracy.
Let us turn from a discussion of
political rows and personal enmities
to learn something
Ao0ut MISS about one of the
O'ReiUv most calm and COM
placent women who
has ever served in a public capacity.
l refer to Miss Mary NJ. O'Reilly.
1t is probable that few of those who
read my observation on Washington
affairs ever have heard of Miss O'Reil-
ly, nor is it strange that they have not
heard of her for do not believe there
is any individual more retiring and less
DESTROYS of publicity than she is.
For 80 years, Miss O'Reilly has
graced an office in the treasury. Start
ing as a minor clerk she continued as
a servant of the public in the office
of the director of the mint. She did
job at once so faithful and so eff
cient that promotions continued to
come until eight or ten years ago she
was made assistant director of the
United States minis. Administrations
came and went through all of those
years and Miss O'Reilly continued to
do her job, to do it so faithfully that
no one ever thought Of what her polit-
ical affiliations may have been.
A few days ago, there came from the
White House an executive order which
said that the treasury might continue
to keep Miss O'Reilly on the pay roll
for year after November 1-she will
be seventy years old on that date and
under the law would be forced to re-
tire. Secretary Morgenthau, however,
recognized the unique capacity and
quality which Miss O'Reilly possesses
and has extended her term of service.
Her dread is publicity. Rarely, if
ever has she been interviewed for di-
rect quotation. Newspaper CORE
announced that she would be contin-
ued at her present post for another
year. She said:
Il am deeply grateful to the Presi-
dent for his extreme kindness. Life
without work does not even remotely
interest me.
But do you have to print anything
about me?"
And that last line is typical of Miss
O'Reilly and tells more of her charac-
ter than one could display in a whole
volume.
/ was telling Washington visitor
the other day the system employed in
the national Capital
why No for the Identification
"W Street? of streets, explain
ing that the north
and south streets bore numbers and
the east and west streets were named
after letters in the alphabet or with
names beginning with those letters in
the order of their appearance in the
PLANTATION my friend discovered that
there was no street given the letter
u" and it resulted in little research
work to determine why this had hap
pened.
From records of the Association of
Oldest Inhabitants of Washington and
from the office of the register Of deeds.
l found definitely that the letter never
had been used alone although out be-
yond "the first alphabet" where
names are used for streets and the
names begin with the alphabet in reg
ular order, there are streets whose
names begin with a." But there
was no u" street and never had been.
Further inquiry developed what
believe to be the basic reason,
namely, similarity of the letter II" and
~ when written. There were hints
that the early city fathers feared poor
penmanship would result in consider
able confusion when letters were adj
dressed to numbers in Il" or "J''
streets. So they eliminated the "J''
in difference to the average Ameri-