“Washington, D.C., May 7[, 1937]. Rep. William R. Poage, a first term Texas Democrat, likes gardening. He couldn’t find a plot of ground in the crowded capital, so he used his newly acquired congressional influence and won permission to help tend flowers and shrubbery in the government’s Botanical Gardens. So he works along with the regular laborers an hour or two daily.”
These days, many congressmen sleep in their House offices, but I haven’t heard of any tending the flower beds. Representative Poage retired from Congress in 1978.
Photo and text in quotes by Harris & Ewing via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
enclos*ure 