Identifier: picturesquewashi00moor (find matches)
Title: Picturesque Washington: pen and pencil sketches of its scenery, history, traditions, public and social life, with graphic descriptions of the Capitol and Congress, the White House, and the government departments ..
Year: 1884 (1880s)
Authors: Moore, Joseph West
Subjects: Washington (D.C.)
Publisher: Providence, J.A. & R.A. Reid
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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desk, with his private secretary andhis stenographer near at hand. In the early part of the day he re-ceives members of Congress, the chiefs of the sub-departments, andthose whose business renders an interview necessary. The afternoonis devoted to an examination of the reports and papers submitted tohim for approval. It is his duty to make a careful study of the publicbusiness pertaining to the important department he controls, and toascertain the most correct and efficient methods of doing it. No man,it is declared, can master the details of this department who does notgive his nights, as well as his days, to their study; and unless thedetails are mastered, a Secretary of War can never fully understandthe questions he has to decide, or be competent to give proper adviceto the President. In one of the rooms of the Secretarys office is a collection ofportraits of past Secretaries of War, and in other rooms are portraitsof famous soldiers and a series of well-painted battle-scenes. The
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u< I92 PICTURESQUE WASHINGTON. office library is contained in a finely embellished room. It consistsof 3,000 works of reference, and 15,000 miscellaneous works, whichare freely circulated among army officers and the department em-ployes. In addition to this library, the various sub-departments andbureaus all have special libraries, consisting of works treating of thematters they are occupied with, and many of these libraries are largeand valuable. The rooms used for the headquarters of the army are very hand-somely furnished. They are occupied by the Lieutenant-General incommand of the army, his aides-de-camp, and clerks. Here reportsare daily received, and the numerous details appertaining to the su-pervision of the military force are attended to. The regular armyconsists of over two thousand commissioned officers, and 23,000 en-listed men, and is divided into twenty-five regiments of infantry, tenregiments of cavalry, and live regiments of artiller

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