Evening star., 1943-10-10
Capital SideIights
By Will P. Kennedy.

Time softens all blows of fortune.
Representative Jack Cochran of Mis-
souri,, eXpounding as a sage from his
wheelchair throne in the Speakers
Lobby the other day, recalled that he
ana Speaker Sam Rayburn came to the
Capitol at the same time-Mr. Rayburn
as hedging member, aged 81, while Mr..
Cochran was secretary to Representative
1goe. "Rayburn played in hard luck"
Cochran explained. He couldn't get
an Office in the then new office building
and was billeted in the old brick Maltby
Building, north of the Capitol on the
northwest corner Of New jersey avenue
and B street, which was the first build
ing erected for Use as Offices of Con-
gressmen. Representative Igoe also was
assigned there and We used to see good
deal Of each other In those days when
Mr.. Rayburn was in his Office and a roll
call was ordered in the House, he liter
ally had to run to get there in time to
answer TO his name. In recent years the
tables have been turned for now Speaker
Rayburn has control of all the Offices in
the too marble House Office Buildings
as we'll as all space in the House end of
the Capitol Building.
1t is recorded that the first word
Samuel F. B. Morse ever sent over a
wire was Eureka" from the Greek.
meaning Il have found it" This was
done under the roof"-within doors
when the sending power carried only
few feet. That eXulting exclamation
was quoting from Archimedes. the great
est mathematician, scientist and in
ventor among the ancients, who also
said: Give me place to rest my lever
and I can move the world" He ran
naked through the streets yelling "Eu-
reka" when he had solved a problem
given to him by King Hero who had
ordered crown of pure gold and sus-
pected that the craftsman had cheated
him. Archimedes was stumped for
time but solved it by observing the
amount of water displaced by his own
body when taking a bath. He proved
this principle Of the science of HYDRO
states: That a body immersed in
fulu loses as much weight as the weight
Of unequal volume of the fluid" Incl
dentally, he proved that the King was
cheated. The ordinary kitchen meat
grinder has resulted from one of Archi-
medes inventions-still known as the
"Archimedes screw"
1t is far cry from Archimedes (2S7-
212 B. c. to the invasion of Sicily by
United States soldiers, but Syracuse in
Sicily was his native city, and when it
was besieged by the Romans he invented
new war engines for its defense and pro-
posed using burning glasses to set fire
to the enemy ships. Archimedes was
slain in the massacre following the TAX
ing OF the city after three years attack.
When the Roman soldiers burst in upon
him in his study he was absorbed in
contemplation of mathematical figures"
and commanded the soldiers: Don't
disturb my circles
When the late Speaker Champ Clark
of Missouri came to Congress there were
in the membership of the House 16 gen.
erals, and at least one fourth of the
membership had seen service either in
the Union or Confederate Armies. The
most conspicuous and distinguished were
1t. Gen. Joseph Wheeler of the Confed-
eracy and Maj. Gen. Daniel E. Sickles,
VINO was corps commander in the
Union Army. Twenty years later, when
the House was invited to attend the cele-
bration of the 50th anniversary of the
battle of Gettysburg, there were only six
old soldiers left in the entire 435 men,
bers-two Union soldiers, four Confed-
crates, all six Democrats. That was
within the memory of some veterans now
IN service at the Capitol. The number
soon dwindled to three-Gen. Isaac r.
Sherwood, Ohio; Maj Charles Stedman,
North Carolina, and Maj. Henry T. Os-
borne, California. All had done notable
newspaper work Now they have all
been gone for many years.
George Washington was the first pres
ident general Of the Society of the Gin
cinnati, the oldest hereditary society in
the United States, formed by officers of
the Revolutionary War In 1888.