288 
OBITUARY NOTICES. 
Down to the beginning of this period, 1865, passenger 
elevators, scientific plumbing, house sanitation, and electric 
apparatus, other than simple call-bells and the telegraph, 
belonged to the realm of the unknown ; but in the succeed¬ 
ing years they appeared rapidly and with yet more rapid 
development, and imperatively demanded installation in the 
massive, stately, and resisting old-fashioned building. It 
was Mr. Clark’s difficult duty to make way for them with 
dispatch and the least architectural or structural injury to the 
building, although, under the conditions and the demands 
of the legislative occupants, not very successful in some 
instances. 
These things, however, were but incidents in the never- 
ending routine work of keeping the great building in order 
throughout its multitude of halls, rooms, vaults, attics, stair¬ 
ways, nooks, corners, and recesses, all actively occupied and 
often crowded for multifarious uses, and with more or less 
divided responsibility between the Senate, the House of 
Representatives, the Supreme Court, the Library, and Mr. 
Clark’s own office. Alterations, repairs, frequent changes of 
occupation and furniture, and the consequent demands for 
immediate attention from many distinct and often rival in¬ 
terests by men not always thoughtful and considerate of the 
feelings and strength of the Architect of the Capitol, but 
often quite the reverse, were some of the vexing and over¬ 
bearing conditions under which he labored. Few competent 
and earnest men are constituted as Mr. Clark was to retain 
his position and live a long life in such an environment. 
The secret lay in his quiet command of temper and long 
familiarity with the situation. Congressmen would uncere¬ 
moniously stride in upon him, soliciting personal favors, 
preferring complaints, or making threats, not always in the 
most polite language. The writer happened to be present 
on one such occasion when the caller poured on his innocent 
head the most violent, abusive, and threatening language 
and then marched out with his cigar at fortj^-five degrees 
elevation. When asked afterward why he had sat mute 
