Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 116, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 October 1904 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

Was Washington once the rite of •’ great city; long forgotten, unknown to the modern archaeologists? Did there live and thrive on the North American continent a race prior to the Aztecs? Are there treasures of art buried under the soil of tils capital? Wherefore, then, the mysteries of stone Just unearthed in the digging for the foundations of the new buildIng for the House of Representatives? Far below the foundations of the houses destroyed to make room for the-new edifice these fragments have appeared, and the memory of man today runs not back to the time when such structures were there as to call for these deep-laid bases. Nor do the oldest inhabitants know of any one who remembers having seen or heard of such. Washington was built upon virgin soil, so far as city creation was concerned. In the Judgment of its founders. Here were farms and small dwellings, a manor bouse or two, and an unbroken record of freedom from the Inroads of tbe city-makers. The North American Indians did not build cities. They did not dig into the soil to found their structures. Here, then, is a problem for the historians and the archaeologists to solve.

The first payment of $2,000,000 on ac'count of the purchase of the friarri land in the Philippines, has been authorized by the War Department There has been on deposit in New York since last December the fund of $7,230,000 realized from the sale of bonds authorized to be issued in purchase of the friars’ lands, and a draft for this first payment will be made on the Bank of England, which wllf pay over the money to the Secledad Agricola del Ultramar. The completion of these purchases has been very mudh delayed, as great difficulties were experienced In securing a closer title from the friars, owing to the fact that In many cases the orders .attempted to convey their lands to private Individuals and business corporations to prevent their seizure at tbe time of the Philippine Insurrection. The attention of Colonel Edwards, of the Insular bureau, was recently called to an advertisement appearing In the newspapers offering to furnish reliable and exact information to securing remunerative .employment with the government of the Philippine Islands at Manila. This advertisement states: “This information cannot bo obtained from Washington or any other source.” Colonel Edwards states that all necessary data to enable ons to make intelligent application for examination with a view to appointment In the Insular government service will be promptly furnished, gratuitously, either by the insular bureau of the War Department, at Washington, or by the United States Civil Service Commission, also at Washington, upon request Postmaster General Payne said the other day that the posrtofilce officials of Great Britain and Germany had agreed to co-operate with him in persuading the next postal congress, which meets in March, to agree to a reduction of the rate ofdnternatlonal letteAjJostage to two cents a half-ounce. If he succeeds in gening the rate of postage on foreign letters reduced It will mean considerable to hundreds of thousands of foreign-born Americans, who still correspond with the old folks at home.

From the report of Commissioner Ware, it appears that there were 994,762 names on tbe pension rolls of the United States July 1, a loss of 1,783 during the year. The cost to the government for the year was $144,712,787, which was about $3,000,000 more than in 1903. One widow and two daughters of soldiers of the Revolutionary War, and one survivor and 918 widows of soldiers of the War of 1812 are now on the rolls. Nevada has fewer pensioners than any other State in the Union, according to the latest report of the Commissioner of Pensions. Pennsylvania, with nearly a hundred and one thousand, heads the list, and is followed by Ohio, New York. Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Michigan and Kansas in that order, with the rest of the States and territories following, till Alaska is reached, with sixty-one soldiers drawing government money. The applications for patents during the last 4* cal year broke all previous records, according to the annual report of the Commissioner of Patents. There were 50,321 applications for mechanical patents and 2,554 applications for trade marks. There were 31,979 patents and 2,213 trademarks granted. The total receipts of the office were $1,663,880; expenditures, $1,460,124. R. M. Arango, a graduate of one of thp American technical schools, ha* been appointed consulting engineer on the staff of Chief Engineer Wallace in tbe Panama Canal construction. H* is charged to assist in building a* aqueduct to supply the Olty of Panama with water. It also is proposed In th* interest of tbe health of the employe* to lay pipe lines to supply fresh and pure water to the great forc*tof laborers at the Culebra cut and at othe* •amps along th* Un* of work.