Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1903 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

The grand total of appropriations made at the second session of the Fifty-seventh Congress is $753,058,506, according to a summary given in a volume just completed by Thomas P. Cleaves and James C. Courts, chief clerks respectively of the Senate and House appropriations committees. In addition to the specific appropriations made contracts are authorized to be entered into for certain public works requiring future appropriations by Congress, in the aggregate of $36,989,869, the principal item of which is $20,426,000 for additions to the navy. The new offices and employments specifically authorized are 11,316 in number, at an annual compensation of $7,927,639; those abolished or omitted are 1,815 in number, at an annual compensation of $941,481, a net increase of 9,501 in number and $6,086,158 in amount. The total appropriations made by the Fifty-seventh Congress amount to $1,553,683,002, an increase over the Fifty-sixth Congress of $113,193,367. This is accounted for in part by increases in the appropriations for the postal service of $54,000,000; for the naval service $17,500,000; for rivers and harbors* $29,500,000; for the isthmian canal, $30,000,000; for the Agricultural Department, $2,500,000; for legislative, executive and judicial expenses, $4,200,000; for public buildings throughout the country, $10,000,000, and for the Philippine Islands, $3,000,000. Reductions are made in the appropriations for the military establishment of $60,000,000, and for pensions $10,000,000.

According to the records of the War Department, Harry E. Mason is the champion deserter of the army and it has been found necessary to instruct all recruiting officers to be on the lookout for him. His record shows eight enlistments and an equal number of desertions in the period from Feb. 15, 1901, to April 2, 1903. The boldness of his operations is shown by the fact that he deserted at Philadelphia Mny 3, 1902, and re-enlisted the next day at Louisville, Ky.; and having enlisted at Mobile, Ala., March 21, 1903, under the name of Harry E. Bates, he again enlisted at St. Louis March 26 following, under the name of Harry Hastings, and then deserted while en route to Columbus Barracks.. In Addition-to the names given, Mason was also enlisted under the names of Harry E. Low, Harry Edwards, Harry Briggs, Harry Dubois and Harry Lewis. A deficit of $20,000 has been disedvered in the appropriation for rural free delivery. Postmaster General Payne has ordered that no more rural routes be established during the remainder of the present fiscal year, and that retrenchment be practiced in the hope that before July 1 the deficit will be recovered. It has been common since the beginning of the service to end the fiscal year with a deficit in the rural free delivery, and Congress has annually been called upon to make good the shortage. The growth of the rural service has been phenomenal. In 1900 the appropriation for the service was $450,000, and 1,276 routes were established. The appropriation for the present fiscal year was $8,029,400, and 15,092 routes are in operation. The •appropriation for next year is $12,021,700, and it is estimated that by July, 1905, .tiif.'re will be 27,092 routes. When on n cruise Captain Charles D. Sigsbee, United States navy, always takes a bicycle with him, and has had the pleasure of wheeling in nearly all the civilized countries of the world. When the ill-fated Maine was sunk in the harbor of Havana in IS9B Captain Sigsbee, ■who commanded the vessel then, had on board a bicycle, which went to the bottom with the ship. A few weeks later divers working in the sunken vessel came ncross this wheel, which they brought to the surface, and later it was exhibited as not the least interesting of the Maine’s relies. Captain Sigsbee is still an enthusiast.

Congress appropriated $12,500,000 for the rural delivery service during the next fiscal year, beginning July 1, and the department will establish 15,000 new routes on the money. On March 15 there were 14,005 routes already iu operation, and by July 1 this number will be increased* 4 by the natural growth of the service to 15,000 routes. Thus it is expected by the end of the next fiscal year, which will be June, 30, 1004, to have 30,000 rural carriers in motion, and 15,000,000 people living outside of towns and cities will have their letters and newspapers delivered daily at their doors. Notice is given the unsuspecting public by the eommi»sioner of patents that no patent has been or will be granted for perpetual npotiop machines. An effort is apparently being made to work a swindle by a newspaper paragraph, launched in the South, which is now going the rounds of the press, announcing that a perpetual motion machine hns been patented, giving the name of the alleged inventor and an involved description of the machine. The commissioner of patents lioi>e« the unwary will take warning and not permit themselves to be swindled. Tho War Department has received mail advices from Manila that Miss Floy Gilmore has been appointed assistant attorney general for tin* government In the Philippine Islands. She is the first woman appointed to such an important legal position. She went to the Philippines as a stenographer and gained her present position by good work in the “office of the attorney general.- — Admiral Dewey and Gen. Miles, though the best of friends, like to "josh” each other. Recently they visited Mount Vernon together and the general was much impressed by the bight of Washington’s grave. As they were leaving the place Miles said: “I wonder what Washington wonld say if he were suddenly to appear here ip the flesh.” Dewey glanced quizzically at his old friend and he answered: “I really don’t know, Nelson, unless he asked liow the devil ypa ever succeeded in getting the job he once held.”