RELICS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

T is probable that many do not know of the existence.

lumbia. There is such an Association, and among its members are to be found such prominent citizens of Washington as Chief Justice Fuller, Major General Schofield, Librarian Spofford, Commissioner Parker, Messrs. John Hay, Gardiner G. Hubbard, W. D. Davidge and Charles C. Glover. These residents and many others have joined themselves together for the purpose of cultivating historical interest, and strengthening that reverence for the founders and leaders of the Republic upon which a lasting patriotism must depend.

As means to this end, the Association is striving to have marked by tablets, or in other suitable ways, the houses and places throughout the city which should be points of interest to its residents and to visitors at the Capital. These gentlemen also hope to have preserved the most noteworthy houses in the District—such as have been made historic by the residence of the country's great men.

The first house to which the Association has turned its attention is the old brick building in Tenth Street, into which Abraham Lincoln was carried from Ford's Theatre on that fateful night in April, 1865, and in which he died. For some time the Association has been urging upon Congress the advisability of purchasing this house and preserving it as a memorial of the martyred President. But so far legislators have turned deaf ears to the proposal, and until recently visitors here looked up at the white tablet

In Springfield, Illinois, stands the house in which Abraham Lincoln lived from 1846 until he went to Washington to be inaugurated President of the United

war.

The house had been leased almost immediately by a family named Tilton who occupied it during the The Tiltons permitted people to go over the house, and fully sixty-five thousand names of visitors were registered while they lived there. During the eighteen years after Mr. Lincoln's death, the house was lived in by different families, or else infested by tramps, but in any event it was closed to the public.

When Mrs. Lincoln died, the Springfield house became the property of Robert Lincoln, from whom, in 1883, it war rented by O. H. Oldroyd. This man had been a member of a Wide Awake Club before he was old enough to vote; he had fought in the war, and through it all, and ever since 1860 he had been collecting mementos and relics of Lincoln. This collection he took with him into the old homestead, which was once more open to the sight-seer. For five years Mr. Oldroyd leased the house, and then succeeded in getting Robert Lincoln to deed it to the State of Illinois. In accepting the gift, the State undertook to keep the homestead in good repair and in the charge of a custodian who should open it to the pub

lic. Mr. Oldroyd was made custodian at a salary of one thousand dollars per year, and held the position for five years. During that time he signed an agreement with the State whereby his priceless collection should become its property should he die while acting as custodian of the house. This was a very one-sided agreement, it would seem, for when Governor Altgeld assumed the reins of government, Mr. Oldroyd and his collection were promptly ousted and a new man was made custodian, who receives the same salary for taking care of and exhibiting an empty house. During the ten years of Mr. Oldroyd's incumbency, twenty-six thousand visitors registered at the house.

Whatever injury may have been done to Illinois, Governor Altgeld has been of great service to the Capital and to the Memorial Association. This valuable collection of two thousand relics is now located in the old house in Tenth Street, in which Lincoln died, and the Association hopes to awaken patriotic sentiment—even in Congress-to the extent of getting the Government to buy the building.

Mr. Oldroyd has no wish to sell the collection-in fact, it would be difficult if not impossible to put a price upon it but I am sure he would be willing to give the articles to the Government if Congress were to buy the house and make him custodian for life of the building and its contents.

These relics and mementos form an almost complete history of the life of Lincoln. A series of old magazine cuts beginning with his birthplace in Hardin County, Kentucky, in 1809, goes on through the family removal to Knob Creek six years later, the second removal to Pigeon Creek, Indiana, the following year, and the final settlement in Decatur, Illinois, in 1830. One picture shows the spot on Salt River where the raft upset on which his father was carrying to the new home the ten barrels of whisky which, with twenty dollars in money, had been the purchase price of the farm he and his family were leaving behind.

In 1831, Lincoln struck out for himself. Leaving home, he went to New Salem. It was here that he began his political career by serving Uncle Samuel in the capacity of postmaster. The only memento of this period now in existence is a stand, angular and inartistic in body but with finished and perfect top, which Mr. Oldroyd had made of wood from the old cabin in which Lincoln kept store and lived in New Salem. Whittier wrote the inscription for it:

Let man be free! The mighty word
He spake was not his own,

The spirit of the highest stirred

His mortal lips alone.

It was in New Salem, also, we are told, that Lincoln fell in love for the first time. He was engaged to Ann Rutledge when she died in 1835.

Seven years later Lincoln married Elizabeth Todd in Springfield, and went with his bride to board at the Globe tavern, where Robert was born, and where the family continued to live until they purchased the homestead in 1846.

When the Lincolns were about to depart for Washington, they decided to sell their furniture, and what was not bought promptly by the neighbors for a song, was left with a friend for future purchases. When Mr. Oldroyd came to re-purchase the furniture, he found it both "scarce and high."

The haircloth and mahogany sofas and chairs, the proper parlor furniture of the time, had been purchased from Mr. Lincoln by three sisters-maiden ladies, milliners, and in these days it may seem strange to add,

poor in this world's goods. The three women were proud to be the possessors, at last, of real haircloth furniture. They gave next to nothing for it. Later, when Mr. Oldroyd wished to re-purchase, they asked five hundred dollars for the sofa and two hundred and fifty dollars for the rocker. They would probably have secured it, too, but that before Mr. Oldroyd had quite risen to the occasion they were forced by circumstances to leave for Texas, and preferred half their asking price to moving the goods.

To a carpenter who had been of service to him Mr. Lincoln gave a bedstead. In this shape the man had no room or use for it, so he used the material to make a useful but nondescript article of furniture, partaking of the leading characteristics of a bat-rack and a whatnot. Other articles of furniture which have been gathered together are an old cooking - stove, wooden diningchairs and a settee large enough for Mr. Lincoln to stretch out upon, some old rush-bottom chairs badly in need of new seats, and the chair in which he sat in Ford's Theatre on the night in which he received his death-wound. The latter chair has been lent to the Memorial Association by the Smithsonian Institution, which is also in possession of the hat worn by him on that eventful night. Last, but not least, is a cradle in which two of the Lincoln children were rocked and the stepping-stone which used to stand before the door in Springfield.

Of course in so large a collection there are many things which appeal to the morbid lover of relics. Among these are a bit of the lead coffin, pieces of the cloth which covered the dais on which the coffin rested when the body lay in state, a cedar shaving and silver gimp from the outer coffin, a star and pieces of velvet and crêpe from the catafalque, rosettes and badges worn at the funeral, a rose taken from the bosom of the dead President, and pieces of the ropes with which the conspirators were hanged. There is a bit of the rail fence which surrounded the hero's birthplace, and a piece of the surveyor's stake used in designating the centre of the monument to his memory in Springfield. The last apple which dropped from a tree in the yard at the old homestead has been preserved, in symmetry at least, by being stuck full of cloves, and reposes close to two nails taken from the house itself.

A part of the collection, however, is of value as well as of interest. The remains of three silver watches, each of which contains a vividly colored portrait of Lincoln, reminds one of the present and similar fad. There is also, in this case, a copy of Lincoln's favorite poem, "O Why Should the Spirit of Mortal be Proud," Lincoln did not escape the fate of other great men. "Abraham Lincoln spruce chewing-gum" was very popular in the sixties. There was Lincoln soap to wash with, Lincoln brick to scour with, and Old Abe tobacco to smoke and chew.

Of political souvenirs, there is the rail which was sent to Judge Burton of Kentucky in 1860, and which Lincoln's former partner in the business swears was one of the thirty thousand which the two men made in Decatur, Illinois, in 1830. The man appends to his oath.

HIS

JOHN X HANKS.

MARK

There are pictures of the stirring political scenes of the day, both comic and actual; there is a torch which was carried through the campaign of 1860, and through every one since down to 1888; and there are badges, letter-paper, envelopes, postage stamps and currency.

It may interest some to know to what extent the portrait of Lincoln found a place in the Executive Departments. Mr. Oldroyd has a revenue stamp calling for five pounds of tobacco, another calling for seventy gallons of distilled spirits, a third calling for four ounces of snuff and a fourth which has done duty on cigars. Of postage stamps there are four, six, fifteen and ninety cent stamps which bear Lincoln's head. Each Executive Department has a set of stamps for its own use, and of these the six-cent stamp of each Department has the head of Lincoln. Out of a full set of ancient shinplasters but one-the fifty-cent scrip-has a picture of Lincoln. His picture is to be found, also, on a tendollar greenback, a one-hundred-dollar United States note, and a one-hundred-dollar Government bond. These portraits are unusually satisfactory in their resemblance to each other.

"A bill of sale of a nigger" before the war hangs on the wall just above the Emancipation Proclamation. A feather from the tail of "Old Abe"-the eagle carried by the Eighth Wisconsin-cannon balls, shells, bayonets, canteens, badges and medals of every Presidential campaign in which such things were used, all the war songs that were published during the war and shorthand reports of the trials of the conspirators are also here.

It would take too much space to even enumerate all the really valuable articles in Mr. Oldroyd's possession, but I must not pass over the lot of manuscript which has not yet been made entirely ready for the public eye, and which contains an autograph letter from each of two hundred and twenty-five well-known men of the country, every letter embodying the writer's personal recollections of Lincoln. Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Hayes, Dennis Hanks and the Rev. Dr. Barrows have all contributed to the pile of manuscript, and a photograph of the writer accompanies each paper.

Scrapbooks carry the reader from Ford's Theatre in Washington to the tomb in Springfield; pictures trace Lincoln's life from his birthplace in Kentucky past his burial to the springing of the conspirators' death-trap in the Arsenal grounds at the Capital, and a thousand sermons in manuscript or printed form, sixty pieces of music written by as many authors, and one thousand biographies show the Nation's interest in its martyred President.

It will be a serious loss if the Government does not soon become the possessor of this collection. ELLA S. LEonard.

MARJORIE ABSENT

RONE, helpless, limp, upon the nursery stair

The little prompter gone, with childish air,
Soul of the Toy world, and its sportive strife!
The storybook along its ragged edge

Would fain the touch of baby fingers know;
Its pages else are dumb: and on the ledge
Of opened window, apple-blooms like snow
Flutter unheeded, missing Marjorie's eyes.
My Marjorie, the very sunshine's cold
Without the pretty rivalry of gold on gold,
Sunshine on golden curls-the quick surprise,
The babbling laughter-as if it were the Spring
Lacking the Sun, the heart of everything!

ELLA F. MOSBY.

Horsford's Acid Phosphate
For Night Sweats

of consumption, gives speedy benefit.

"THE PLAYERS."

ORATORIOS IN GENERAL AND "ELIJAH" IN PARTICULAR, HE heresy of to-day is the dogma of next week, and if the iconoclast waits long enough he will find himself the leader of a majority so eminently respectable as to make him doubt his own intelligence. Looking at oratorios by the light of the spectacular end of this century, it is difficult to believe that only a hundred years ago Handel, unsuccessful in opera, was denounced for daring to turn his genius into its natural channel. That ægis of liberty, the press, persecuted him for inventing "the thing called an oratorio," at which "new imposition the fairest breasts were fired with indignation." Poor Handel's shoulders were weighed down by abuse, and in my mind's eye I see him dashing about his room, wildly swinging his arms, and screaming, "Vat de tevil," at the top of his irate lungs. But that fiery period was not without consolation to Handel.

When others jeered at his oratorios, Gay, Arbuthnot, Hughes, Colley Cibber, Pope, Fielding, Hogarth and Smollett wrote them up. This fact denotes a far greater interest in music among littérateurs of past times than can be discovered in those of to-day. Nobles, not people, frowned upon Handel in his new departure. As it is to the people that art must look for lasting support, the master of sacred operas finally triumphed, and when the "Messiah" was first performed in Dublin, women consented to leave their hoops at home, in order that one hundred additional listeners might be got into the room! Can enthusiasm farther go?

That for which Handel fought with all his might and main, dainty Mendelssohn obtained without effort. Bringing out "St Paul," Opus 70, at Birmingham in 1835, it was received with great favor, and on December 16, 1842, we find him writing from Leipsic to Pastor Julius Schubring-Dessau on this subject. "I now send you, according to your permission," he writes, text of Elijah,' so far as it goes. I do beg of you to give me your best assistance, and return it soon with plenty of notes on the margin (I mean Scriptural passages, etc.). . . You properly allude to the chief difficulty of the text, in universally valid and impressive thoughts and words; for, of course, it is not my intention to compose what you call a Biblical Walpurgis Night.' . Secondly, in the dramatic arrangement, I cannot endure the half-operatic style of most of the oratorio words where recourse is had to common figures, as, for example, an Israelite, a maiden, Hannah, Micaiah and others; and where, instead of saying this and that occurred, they are made to say 'alas, I see this and that occurring.' I consider this very weak, and will not follow such a precedent. However, the everlasting he spake,' etc., is also not right. Both of these are avoided in the text; still, this is, and ever will be, one of its weakest aspects.

"Reflect, also, whether it is justifiable that no positively dramatic figure except that of Elijah appears. I think it is. He ought, however, at the close, at his ascension to heaven, to have something to say (or to sing). Can you find appropriate words for this purpose?" Later, Mendelssohn asks the same mentor, " 'May Elisha sing soprano? or is this inadmissible, as in the same chapter he is described as a bald head'? Joking apart, must he appear at the ascension as a prophet, or as a youth ?" In May, 1846, he tells the pastor, "I have now quite finished the first part, and six or eight numbers of the second are already written down. In various

places, however, of the second part I require a choice of really fine Scriptural passages, and I do beg of you to send them to me. I have now been able to dis

pense with all historical recitative in the form, and introduced individual persons. Instead of the Lord, always an angel or a chorus of angels; and the first part and the largest half of the second are finely rounded off."

Three months after, Birmingham, the scene of "St. Paul's" triumph, gave a most enthusiastic reception to "Elijah," and on the following morning Mendelssohn wrote a letter to his brother, which is worth perusal :

""

From the first you took so kind an interest in my 'Elijah,' and thus inspired me with so much energy and courage for its completion, that I must write to tell you of its first performance yesterday. No work of mine. ever went so admirably the first time of execution, or was received with such enthusiasm, by both the musicians and the audience, as this oratorio. It was quite evident at the first rehearsal in London, that they liked it, and liked to sing and to play it; but I own I was very far from anticipating that it would acquire such fresh vigor and impetus at the performance. Had you only been there! During the whole two hours and a half that it lasted, the large hall, with its two thousand people, and the large orchestra were all so fully intent on the one object in question that not the slightest sound was to be heard among the whole audience, so that I could sway at pleasure the enormous orchestra and choir, and also the organ accompaniments. How often I thought of you during the time! More especially, however, when the sound of abundance of rain came,' and when they sang and played the final chorus with furore, and when, after the close of the first part, we were obliged to repeat the whole movement. Not less than four choruses and four airs were encored, and not one single mistake occurred in the whole of the first part. There were some afterward in the second part, but even these were but trifling. A young English tenor sang the last air with such wonderful sweetness that I was obliged to collect my energies not to be affected, and to continue beating time steadily." Not to be outdone by the public, Prince Albert, no mean judge of music, wrote the following in the book of words which he used on hearing "Elijah" in London, and sent it to Mendelssohn as a token of remembrance: "To the noble artist who, though encompassed by the Baal-worship of false art, by his genius and study has succeeded, like another Elijah, in faithfully preserving the worship of true art; once more habituating the ear, amid the giddy whirl of empty, frivolous sound, to the pure tones of sympathetic feeling and legitimate harmony; to the great master, who, by the tranquil current of his thoughts, reveals to us the gentle whisperings, as well as the mighty strife of the elements-to him is this written in grateful remembrance by Albert."

66

Is it strange that all this homage delighted Mendelssohn? It killed him, however; at least, the composi tion of Elijah," combined with its production, told greatly upon Mendelssohn's already broken constitution, and one year later the charming musical romancer died. "Elijah" was his death knell. "It is enough."

It has always seemed to me that oratorio was a monstrous anomaly. With orchestra and chorus I am in per

IMPROVED SERVICE TO CINCINNATI AND ST. LOUIS. The Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern Limited, leaving Washington, D. C., 3.30 P. M., and the fast Express, leaving at 1.50 A. M., for Cincinnati and St. Louis, are now equipped with a complete Dining Car service, built ex essiv for these trains by the Pullman Company. Pullman Dining Cars are also attached to Royal Blue Line trains leaving 10.00 A. M. and 5.00 P. M. week days. and 8.00 A. M., 12.00 noon and 5.00 P. M. Sundays, for, Baltimor Philadelphia and New York,

fect sympathy, but when it comes to soloists in hammertails and panniers, my soul rebels.

"The fact of Elijah standing before us in a well trimmed mustache and clean kid gloves, does not in the least shock our sense of propriety," says Mr. Haweis, in his very sentimental book on music and morals. With all due deference to Mr. Haweis, I do not think he speaks or writes for the universe. Not only does this incongruity shock my sense of propriety, but it is a comfort to know that I am not alone in being shocked.

Rubinstein once said to me: "Oratorio as now delivered is a mistake. Think of Moses, Elijah and the finest Biblical characters, stupidly singing in dress coats on a barren platform! Handel never wrote with any such design. Public opinion forced him into the concert-room." As Rubinstein is a very great man I am delighted to be supported by him. Handel intended to produce sacred operas on the stage, but, as Rubinstein states, was forced against his will into the concert-room. Later composers have followed in his wake, for England is intensely conservative, and would probably tremble to its centre if Moses and Elijah arrayed themselves in the garbs of their epochs, and actually put dramatic fire into their utterances. It is this absence of the dramatic that causes oratorio solos to drag and puts audiences to sleep.

I venture to predict that if oratorios survive this generation they will be given with action, scenery and costume, and thus enter upon a new lease of life.

C.

BY THE WAY:

KATE FIELD.

W. WILLIAMS and his company of vaudeville artists are at Kernan's.

"THE COUNTRY CIRCUS" with its old-time parade and one-ring performance is to be seen at Albaugh's.

"A TEMPERANCE TOWN" is being presented at the Academy by the original New York company, which includes Caroline Miskel.

GUS HEEGE is playing at the National in "Yon Yonson." The piece is a comedy-drama whose hero speaks the Swedish-American dialect.

ALEXANDER SALVINI will begin his Southern tour with a visit to Baltimore early in February. His support this season is said to be unusually good.

DR. CONAN DOYLE'S famous stories have been dramatized under the title of "Sherlock Holmes' Private Detective." A production of the play was recently had at Hanley for copyright purposes.

THE CONTINUOUS-PERFORMANCE idea seems to be gaining ground in New York. J. M. Hill has adopted it for Herrmann's Theatre, which has not seemed to succeed very well as a home for legitimate drama.

PHILADELPHIANS may see Donnelly and Girard at the Walnut Street Theatre; E. H. Sothern in "Sheridan " at the Broad Street Theatre; "The Old Homestead at the Chestnut Street Opera House, and "The Girl I Left Behind Me" at the Chestnut Street Theatre.

CHICAGO'S amusements are John Drew at the Columbia Theatre; Russell's Comedians at the Opera House; "American's Abroad" at the Schiller Theatre; Frank Daniel's at the Grand Opera House; Mr. and Mrs. Kendal at Hooley's, and "In Old Kentucky" at the

Haymarket.

BOSTONIAN theatre-goers may choose between Marie Jansen, in "Delmonico's at Six," at the Hollis Street

Theatre; "Charley's Aunt" at the Columbian; Irving and Terry at the Tremont; Vaudeville at the Boston Theatre; Hermann at the Boston Museum; Henry E. Dixey at the Park Theatre, and "The Heart of Africa" at the Bowdoin Square.

SYDNEY GRUNDY's new play, "Sowing the Wind," is said to be the best he has ever produced. The scene is laid in England in 1830. Its story is about a rich, middle-aged widower named Brabizon, who, in his youth, had fallen in love. An old crony makes him believe the woman false, so he breaks off the liaison and marries. His wife dies leaving him childless. Having adopted the son of a friend, Brabizon wishes to marry the boy to a Miss Fretwell, but Ned loves a celebrated singer and is engaged to her. The fair singer calling upon Mr. Brabizon to secure his patronage for a concert, meets Ned there, and all is discovered. Brabizon refuses to consent to the marriage because the singer is an illegitimate child, but later when he discovers that she is his own daughter, permits the orthodox comedy ending.

PEOPLE AND THINGS.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE now prevails in Wyoming, Colorado, New Zealand, Iceland, Isle of Man and Pitcairn Island. It exists to some extent in England, Scotland, Canada, Sweden, Kansas and Australia.

This year's sugar receipts at New Orleans will probably be 1,300,000 barrels. The crop is estimated at six hundred million.

Dr. Parkhurst has become a journalist. He is editor of the City Vigilant, dedicated to reforming New York City. "It is a big job," as Abraham Lincoln might exclaim.

Governor Flower's message to the New York Legislature announces that for the first time in seventy-five years the Empire State is out of debt, and that with reasonable economy there need be no direct taxes except for schools, the insane and, possibly, the canals. The past year has been unusually propitious for canals, the usefulness of which the Governor thinks should be increased by the adoption of some method of electric propulsion at the lowest possible cost.

Governor Flower wisely suggests instituting a new holiday to be known as "Harvest Day," to stimulate interest in agriculture and in the harvest season. This suggestion is excellent and should be acted upon. by legislators whose friendship for farmers is usually confined to watching their votes during elections.

According to Governor Flower's report 1,080,228 children attended public schools in 1893, an increase of 10,135 over 1892, while 809, 160 children were educated in private and parochial schools or not at all! It is quite safe to believe that at least one hundrd thousand children had no schooling whatever. A fine outlook for the most populous State in the Union, and much more dangerous than the prevalence of the worst plague that ever afflicted this country. Death may be a blessing. Crime is always a curse.

Now comes the report that certain former polygamists of Utah are taking advantage of "changed conditions"

SUFFERED with Catarrh for years, and tried all

kinds of medicines. None of them did me any good. At last I was induced to try Piso's Remedy for Catarrh. I have used about half a package and am entirely cured. -PHILIP LANCRY, Fieldon, Illinois, June 22, 1892.

to utterly neglect their plural wives and their children. What splendid citizens these men will make! First they defy the laws of the United States and then use them as a means of ridding themselves of the most sacred obligations on earth. Men who repudiate the claims of the mothers of their children and ignore their own flesh and blood, should be branded as criminals and be forced to do their duty.

Oil City, Pennsylvania, has a blizzard every day in the year. This Blizzard is an evening paper. What a cold reception it must have!

By the death of Miss Elizabeth Peabody, Boston loses one of the most guileless souls that ever passed through the ordeal of this material world. Six years older than Margaret Fuller, Miss Peabody outlived her friend nearly forty years and is almost the last of a school that has done much for the thought of New England. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Mrs. Cheney and Frank B. Sanborn delivered short addresses at Miss Peabody's funeral, the Rev. Mr. Ames officiating. At one time Miss Peabody was engaged to Nathaniel Hawthorne, who afterward married her sister. A better woman never lived. The only purgatory she can know is the purgatory she often endured through sympathy with the miseries of humanity.

Kansas seems to be as blessed in her Secretary of State as in her Governor, who welcomes tramps as a sweet boon. The former has arrived at the brilliant conclusion that two hours a day of work by every able-bodied person will produce all the necessities, luxuries and ornaments that the world can consume, as well as perform all business. Suppose Governor Lewelling sets this reform in motion by putting his friends the tramps to work for the time specified. There's nothing so convincing as an object lesson.

Another new political labor party! It is called the Ancient Order of Loyal Americans, and includes all sorts and conditions of men, provided they are loyal citizens. It is to be non-sectarian, non-partisan, secret, conducted by military orders from headquarters at Washington, and will have a big free circulating library. I approve of the library, and hope women will have access to it.

The Senatorial contest in Iowa is fast resolving itself into a walk-over for ex-Governor Gear, who has served his party faithfully in the lower House of Congress. "Old Business" deserves to be in the Senate and should get there.

Washington's Cosmos Club has not only "polished up the handle of the big front door," but changed the door! The alteration gives more room within and is a decided improvement. If the powers that be will turn their attention to the ventilation and lighting of their exhibition hall, the prayers of many asphyxiated men and women will bless them.

Mr. Patenôtre has returned from Europe and taken up his abode in the new French Embassy which is the old Porter Mansion adjoining the Metropolitan Club. M. Paul Bourget, the eminent French novelist, will soon be the guest of the French Ambassador, who is an old friend.

Baron and Baroness Fava have taken a house in Connecticut Avenue for the winter.

The Chinese Legation has been moved to Boundary Hill on Fourteenth Street extended. Those who have met the new Minister say he is very clever and agreeable. China always has able representatives. She teaches us a lesson in diplomacy as in many other ways.

That clever artist and agreeable man, Mr. Gilbert Munger, has determined, after many years' experience

of which charms him. Mr. Munger has taken a fine studio at 1424 New York Avenue, where before many weeks he will be ready to receive old and new friends and show them a gallery of interesting pictures. The sooner art moves on the Capital the better for the whole country.

Miss Kate Bacheller is passing some weeks in Washington. She brings the good news that her family have not taken root in Paris and will eventually return to their old home. Their places have not been filled.

Mr. and Mrs. Bellamy Storer have shown their regard for the Capital by taking an old house on Rhode Island Avenue and transforming it into a thing of beauty and a joy forever; at least it will be when the library, musicroom, dining-room and studios are completed. These additions form the annex of the original house, which before long won't know itself. Here is a literal instance of the tail wagging the little dog.

Mrs. Harriet Lane Johnston is again installed at the Capital for the winter and hopes to make it her permanent residence if she can find a house to suit her. Well-built houses in Washington are much rarer than they ought to be. The advent of men and women of taste and fortune will soon make a vast difference in the quality of work. If taste only keeps pace with money the transformation will add greatly to the appearance of the town as well as to the comfort of the residents.

Mrs. Cockrell's grave is in the cemetery of her old home, Warrensburg, Missouri.

Mrs. and Miss Lockwood of Buffalo are again at the Shoreham, Representative Lockwood preceded his family several weeks ago, and will doubtless help to make a quorum when other Democrats show more regard for themselves than for their country.

The next meeting of the International League of Press Clubs will be held at Atlanta, Georgia, where undoubtedly the fatted calf will be killed for President Cockerill and his band of good fellows. Mr. Vernam, a wealthy friend of Colonel Cockerill, has donated a site for the home for aged and infirm journalists that will eventually materialize through the perseverance of vice-president William Berri and his co-workers. Mr. Vernam's land is in New Jersey, about an hour's journey from New York. Six thousand dollars have already been subscribed for the home.

Russia has bought five steamships from the United States and Brazil Mail Steamship Company. They will be used by the Amoor Steamship Company in connection with the Siberian Railway. Russia's gain is a decided loss to our commerce.

Ever since last May the San Francisco Art Association

OF INTEREST TO TRAVELERS.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad has placed on sale excursion tickets to San Francisco, Cal., account of the Mid-Winter Fair, also to the Winter Resorts of Southern California at unusually low rates.

With its vestibuled train service from Washington to Cincinnati, St. Louis and Chicago, the B. & O. is in the best of condition to handle Western and Southern California travel. That the line is a popular one, is attested by the immense World's Fair business handled this summer.

Those contemplating a trip West or South this winter, should write to Chas. O.