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Show UNCLE SAM'S UNIQUE CORD Tho rccullar Twin Always Vietl In th Stale lpaHinrnt, "Though tho Slnto Department has been using a distinctive cord for tying up Its official papers for over sixty years," explained an old official of thnt department, "known ns 'olllclal cord,' I hnve never seen n reference to It In nny newspaper or other publication. Tho cord Is about the usual size, aud Is made of silk, or three colors, Intertwined, Inter-twined, led, white and blue. As Is well known, the other depnrtmviits of the Government use red tains, nnd many of them use considerable of it. In various ways. The State Department, Depart-ment, as far as I can learn, hat always al-ways used the 'olllclnl cord.' which Is much more patriotic In appearance certainly, cer-tainly, nnd Is ns strong for nil purposes. pur-poses. The orlglu of the official cord Is u matter of considerable conjecture, and as far as I have been able to discover dis-cover Is somewhat misty. It Is known for a certainty thnt It has been used since 1845, for there are bundles of the olllclnl papers In the State Department De-partment to-day which nro tied up with the red, white and blue cord, nnd there nrc reasons for believing that it was used even before then. Every United States legation, consular office and consular agent tins used It on nil olllclnl papers which have been sent to Washington from all parts of the world, for the State Department has always supplied It to the legations for thnt purpose. Kvcry now and then Presidents hnve used official cords In tying up their messages nnd reports which they havj from time to time sent to Congress, and many of them have always kept n ball of It on their desks, though some have not. I personally per-sonally know thnt Presidents Buchanan, Buchan-an, Lincoln and Grant constantly used It. So did President Hayes, Arthur aud Cloveland. I do not remember that Generals Garfield and Harrison used it, but President Cloveland did, and President Hoosevelt very frequently frequent-ly uses It. I also know thnt every olllclal olll-clal paper that all of tho Presidents since 1815 received from the Stnto Department De-partment has been tied up with the official cord In preference to the red tape used in nil or the othc.r departments. depart-ments. The Stale Department has Its own way of transacting business, nnd It hns always used olllclnl cord. For similar rensons It has never taken kindly to typewritten -papers, and has never used the typewriter on nny communication com-munication ever sent' to n foreign Government. Gov-ernment. It sticks to tho old style of pen-written pnpers. and ns closely ns possible to the style In every wny to those used by the fathers of our Government. Gov-ernment. Kven tho pnper Is the snme size nnd shape, nil communications to foreign Governments being on n paper nbout one Inch wider and a couple of Inches longer than the ordinary legal enp lu genernl use. The State Department, Depart-ment, however, uses the typewriter for all official papers, except those sent to foreign Governments." New Orleans Times-Democrat. |