In and Around tJie Supreme Court. insist upon having the rest of the Capitol housekeeping directed by a feminine brain. The taxpayer is interested, too, as Miss Tompkins keeps the court comfortable and happy on less money than any of her pred ecessors. A few instances will serve to show the dif ference between a masculine and a feminine administration. Moths have no more respect for the draperies of the Supreme Court than for the overcoat of the ordinary citizen, so the hangings used to be annually devoured during the summer recess, or else stored at considerable expense at some upholsterer's in the city. Miss Tompkins had a great cedar closet built in an unused gallery for a very modest sum, and now the court dra peries are as safe from moths as the parlor curtains of the most careful housekeeper. Another instance : several of the judges like to lunch in the court room instead of in the
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badly ventilated Senate restaurant. When Miss Tompkins came she was horrified to see the highest court of the land eating off of tables covered with greasy newspapers. She bought tablecloths and other necessa ries, trained the messengers to act as waiters, and a hungry judge can now satisfy his ap petite at as seemly looking a table as he would find in his own home. A book could be written about the sur roundings and traditions of the Supreme Court,' and the sedate decorum of its daily routine, but it is to be hoped that no one will write it, since every lawyer in the coun try would be more than ever determined to gain a seat on the Supreme bench; and this excellent ambition is already too widely difused among a profession in which this dis tinction means the highest possible achieve ment. — ALICE M. WHITLOCK in Kate Field's Washington.
