Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 February 1894 — Where There Is No Afternoon. [ARTICLE]

Where There Is No Afternoon.

Strangers to Washington often remark upon the custom of addressing one at all times of the day by the uniform salutation, “Good morning." It sounds odd to a Westerner to hear one address him with “Good morning” at 5 o’clock in the afternoonThis custom is as old as the Congress of the Untied States and the hours of executive business in the various departments. . It is said to be directly due to the morning hour in Congress.. The standing rules of the two Houses of Congress provide for a “morning hour,” which extends from 12 to 2 o’clock, and that provision has made it common to refer to “morning business” in Congress, which occurs before the “regularorder.” Frequently the regular order is not resumed, and the morning hour is extended until 4 or 5 o’clock, especially in the latter days of Congress and when there is u great jam of business. In the executive departments reference is made to the “morning work” during the entire day. This is all, of course, official parlance. The custom has grown so that it extends throughout social life and in all sorts of private business, until it is morning until all Government business is at an end in Washington. When the sun goes down and twilight sets in it is “Good evening." It is never afternoon in the national, capital.—lndianapolis Journal,.