Rats, Roaches

Than Secretary of the Treasury Mellon few persons are more dignified. Than rats and cockroaches few creatures are more undignified. Newsgatherers, who love nothing so well as the incongruous, had fun last week reporting how "rats and cockroaches in force are now picking on" Secretary Mellon. The genesis of these reports was that, with the razing of some old buildings across 15th Street from the Treasury Building in Washington (where the new Department of Commerce building is to rise), rodents and insects were noticed in unusual numbers near the treasury coal and trash vaults. Bug-catcher's were put on guard with "sweet air," a special gas, to kill the roaches. Rat-catchers patrolled the treasury basements by night with small rifles.