Nashville Union And American

THE CRYPT OF WASHINGTON—A CURIOUS REVELATION.

A very good illustration of the extreme vigilance which prevails in Congress over public expenditures is reported from Washington. Among the appropriations asked for, the Committee found one providing for paying the "Superintendent of the Crypt," As nobody was aware that there was such a thing as a "crypt ' connected with the Government, still less that it had or needed a Superintendent, inquiry was made, and it was found that the appropriation had been regularly made for the last fifty years— further investigation showed that soon after Gen. Washington died, Congress provided for the construction of a vault under the Capitol, to be called the Crypt, in which his remains were to be deposited. A light was to be kept burning near it, and a Superintendent was appointed to watch it, as he has been doing daily for the last fifty years! Meantime. Washington's body was not deposited there, and everybody, Congress included. forgot that any such thing was in existence. The only memorial that exists to keep the memory of the affair alive has been the annual appropriation for the Superintendent. Twenty years after the close of Napoleon's Russian campaign, a French sentry was found on duty at Moscow, his superior officer having forgotten to relieve him from duty. The Circumlocution Office and Tite Barnacle, Esq are not, it seems, confined either to Dickens' novel or the English government— New York Times.