Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1905 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and General Gossip of the National Capital. Special Correspondence to The Democrat: Interest has shifted during the week, that has passed from the President’s'order making it possible to dismiss peremptorily Civil Service employees, and now the Canal and Railroad questions areagain assuming their normal prominence. The President, who will be back in Washington by the time this is in print, has given the country an opportunity to know that he has not changed his mind on these subjects and it is thought that he has in his utterances anticipated his message to*Congress. Two important conventions on railway rate legislation are now assembled in the United States, one big convention in Chicago and another very small and from its own point of view very select convention in its Committee room in the—Capitol. The country in this case will lack no campaign of education + t t If the President does not decide to make a run to Panama and look over the Canal for himself when he gets out into the Gulf with three fast Government cruisers he will arrive in Washington about Nov. first, and he will in any event have broken the unwritten law that the President must not during his term go beyond the limits of the United States. Technically he may be within the limits as long as he is on board an American ship and under the Hag, but both in the Gulf and in the Atlantic he will be in neutral waters and many miles from shore. t t t Washington is anticipating not only an exciting political session but a very gay and brilliant social season. The city has made unusual preparations for the entertainment of the leisured fashionable contingent that spends the winter here in yearly increasing numbers, probably not less than fifty apartment houses have been built during the summer and these added to the numbers of similar houses will have the effect to make living more comfortable and less expensive than in former years. The increase in the number of apartment houses has had a marked repressing effect on the hotel industry. Hundreds of people who were formerly in the habit of boarding at the large hotels now seek the more comfortable and less expensive suits of rooms to be found in the new apartment- houses. Washington is far from being the most beautiful Capital in the world and this boast is made only by those unfamiliar with the better Capitals of Europe or by those, if familiar, who are quite regardless of the truth. There is here the plan and foundation of a city in every way worthy to be the Capital of the greatest nation in this hemisphere. Buildings are under construction on Capitol Hill and to the North of the Capitol and south of Pennsylvania Avenue which will involve a gross expenditure of over twenty millions of dollars, and when completed, (probably within five years) will greatly enhance the dignity of the Capitol. One of the District Commissioners is now lecturing in different citiee of the United

States in an effort to arouse National interest in the improvement and beautification of the Capital of the United States. The District of Columbia embracing the city of Washington has neither voice nor vote in National or municipal affairs. The city and district are governed by Congress, and Congressmen as a rule, are so much interested in their own state or district affairs that they find it both unprofitable and ungrateful to give time and vote money for streets, parks and public buildings in Washington. t T t If there were no other way of telling that Congress would soon be in session the appearence of the first delegation of Indians on the streets of Washington would be a sign. As the days begin to shorten and the time forthe opening of Congress approaches the Indians arrive at the old Beveridge House on Third Street where they have made their headquarters ever since they first had a cause to present to the “Great White Father” and Congress. During the session of Congress there are always from twenty to forty Indians in the city transacting business with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs or lobbying for more favorable legislation in the House or Senate. The first to arrive this year was Andrew John of the Senecas, an Indian as familiar with Washington as most Congressmen. He was a favorite

of the late Senator Quay and has been of great benefit to the Bureau of Ethnology in securing photographs of his tribe and in repeating and interpreting their legends and songs. Hollowing him came Rolling Bear of the Tuscaroras and some Omahas . all of whom have been spending time at the Bureau of Ethnology where they have more or less reluctantly consented to be meafiired and photographed for the records there. Two of them speak English but they walk the streets in their blankets and seem to be as much interested in the sights as they are objects of interest to the people.

t t t When a Government Department undertakes to clean house he does it thoroughly and without any penurious regard to what the cost may be. The Treasury Department is being cleaned this year of the smoke and dust that has accumulated upon its exterior walls and for many weeks workmen have been going over it inch by inch with scrubbing brushes, scrapers and mild acids. They began on the lower stories first and with this part white and the upper part a dusky gray the great building has had a chilly appearance of being out in its underwear. The work progresses though and before many weeks the building will be clean from top to bottom and the mar ble once more restored to its brilliant whitness. +ll At the same time work on the interior of the Capital has been going on, and at a cost of forty five thousand dollars that building will be made clean, comfortable and more attractive than it has been for many years. In order that some of the “hot air” of the legislative chambers may not return to asphyxiate the members all the llues have been equipped with exhaust fans and the ventaL itation perfected ata cost of ton thousand dollars. Every year for forty years the rotunda walls have been treated to a coat of paint, but last year Architect Elliot of the Capitol succeeded in persuading Congressmen who couldn’t have told the color of the walls if their next election had depended on it, that the paint must come off. During the summer, workmen have removed those forty coats of paint and gotten down to the original brown sand stone of which the walls were constructed. The hideous chandeliers have been replaced by 16,000 incandesbent lights, the picture frames have been gilded; the plumbing has been renewed, more light has been let into the Senate and House, regardless as to whether they could stand it or not, and last the Capitol has been scrubbed from top to bottom so that not a germ lurks about to menace the health of our law makers.