Dunster Flooded By Trickling Tap In House Office

Large yellow patches that appeared yesterday morning on the ceiling of Dunster House Dining Room were explained later in the day by following a moist trail that led to the House Secretary's office on the third floor.

One of the six repairmen, on the scene by afternoon, volunteered the information that at 9 o'clock he had discovered over an inch of water on the floor coming from a faucet in the secretary's private shower room. He said it had clearly been running all night. "Same educated person went in to turn on the water after the city water main broke," he commented.

Miss Meta Smith of Abbeville, South Carolina, who is substituting this week for Mrs. Marion S. Hambleton, the regular House Secretary, was taken completely by surprise when she reported for work at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. "Are they putting in a new floor? I have lots of work to do," was her first reaction.

"I've had nothing but trouble with bathrooms ever since I got up here," she complained. "Last weekend in my sister's apartment I got locked inside and only managed to get out by taking the hinges off the door."

Miss Smith did recall trying to use the tap unsuccessfully once yesterday to get a drink of water. Her efforts were rewarded by only a trickle of tepid rust, and she remembers turning this off.