Evening star., 1935-02-24

5O VIDE ana Oeep, supports the main
weight of the great clock tower.
OLD PENSION OFFICE.-The
story here comes out of the cellar.
It takes one into that vast first-hoor
room where, beginning with Grover
Cleveland. many inaugural balls were
held. Eight thousand people crowded
the hall and balconies that night.
But note those towering terra
Gotta columns. There are 70 all told,
of them with circumferences that 3
men, joining hands, can just reach
around. They run to the ceiling,
high above.
On their outside they are covered
with peculiar paint, in imitation Of
marble. But if you will look closely.
from different angles of the hall
(sometimes you will have to stand on
your head you will note the faces
of earlier heroes of the United States
Washington, for example, is there
and many others, plainly outlined in
the flowing paint lines of the pillars.
RUT strangest Of all, 20 Of these
columns which surround the
large interior hall contain leaden
boxes in which Gen. Montgomery
Cunningham Meigs. born 103 years
ago in Georgia. placed Federal
archives in 1888. They are less bal
cony supports than the walls Of secret
chambers containing hermetically
sealed boxes filled with doucmentS.
Note, too. that coat of arms Of the
United States, wrought in exquisite in
laid tilework. which is sunk beneath
the floor and covered with glass, in
the west end of the great hall. A
brass railing surrounds it.
SENATE WAREHOUSES;
down an alley off Delaware avenue
northeast, a rambling. red brick barn
has a crazy slant to it that will make
| you wonder why it doesn't fall. The
reason for both the slant and the still
upright position of the place is the
same: It is filled to the ceiling with
books and pamphlets in piles that
| lean inside like a thousand towers of
Pisa, and the enormous weight of this
printed matter anchors the floor and
buttresses the walls. 1t can't fall
but it has wanted to for years.
Here are deposited the publications
Of every sort put out by the Govern
| ment ION credit" to Senators who
have never used their quota of them,
never sent them to their constituents.
They are piled 20 feet high in
chaotic confusion that only Jack
Deards, banker of this million-dollar
bookstore for 43 years, knows the key
to.
Is it a fish bulletin published in
1907 that is wanted? A pamphlet on
hookwormS? On the efficiency of Goals
at the navy yard? On the Weather
Bureau in 1921? Or perhaps the Sem
ator has sent for the 1913 nautical
almanacS or a batch of explorers
maps?
Hi" shouts Jack to one Of his
/ helpers. Bring me out from under
that far north shelf, way in under
the back to the left, one of those re-
ports on the cotton tare. There's only
/ three of 'em left, and bring me the
one with the Writin' on the cover"
! And the requested report will be
there. You can gamble on it.
RACK in 1915 more than half the
accumulated stock of the ware
house was disposed Of. After all Sen
ators, Representatives and department
heads had levied on the books. those
left in one whole building we're sold
for waste paper. More than S1,000,000
worth of printed matter went north to
be chewed up in a Michigan pulp mill.
Now the place is overflowing again.
CAPITOL BUILDING-Beneat this
venerable structure is a catacOmb OF
odd-shaped rooms. recesSes and
labyrinth of caves and tunnels no
architect in his widest moments
could ever have consciously created.
Since 1893 it has been growing, cut
through, chiseled out and bricked
over in such tortuous fashion that
no man not thoroughly familiar with
its every turn and twist can find his
way out if once lost in its countless
burrows and passageways.
And no one man, the writer dis
covered, is thoroughly familiar with
the Capitol cellars.
Through the dingy cavern, then
occupied by several silent gnomes en-
crossed in a game of dominoes, the
writer plunged into the clutter of vaults
beyond. Most of the tiny rooms.
which run off in crescent, clover,
square, triangle and indescribable
shapes at every angle, are filled with
Congressional Records are
stored by the thousands down here,
and have been gathering dust and
oblivion since the early days of the
Republic.
one room, unlighted except for our
flash, revealed floor and shelves piled
with evidence exhibited in forgotten
Supreme Court trials-an antique
telephone instrument, rusty type
writer. a rusted bucket once offered in
q Panama Canal case, stuff from q
mining case Of 1901. Another room,
cold and clammy as a tomb, was
shelved with law books, their backs
falling off, their leaves yellowed. Un-
der a low-vaulted archway, behind the
logs which burn in few Office fire.
places, was a blank wall of granite.
is the corner stone Of the Capitol.
IN 1898 this section, now a series Of
groined tunnels and caves, was
lifted up bodily, together with an en-.
tire hydraulic elevator and its shaft,
by the explosion of a huge gas meter.
Around and around, humping our
heads on pipes, low arches, bruised
on shoulders from turning sharp cor
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