Saturday Evening Mail, Volume 28, Number 25, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 18 December 1897 — Page 15

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WASHINGTON, December 15,1807. Some English

tourist

When the British troops, in the course of a mock session of congress held in the rotunda of the old capitol seventy-three years ago, decided to give that hated "temple of democracy" over to the flames, the city of Washington was composed mostly of the magnificent distances for which it has long been famed. With less than Ave thousand inhabitants it was laid out on a scale that would put any western designer of paper cities to shame. There were miles of morass and thicket where avenues and esplanades were planned. The official classes escaped the miasma of the Potomac by residence in Georgetown, where there are yet families living in tumble-down houses on memories of the days when the great men of the infant republic gave social and political prestige to the place. Thomas Moore described the Washington of earlier days with such spiteful accuracy that bis name has lately been denied a place in the American Pantheon—the National Library. At the beginning of the war Washington had, in an ungainly way, begun to All out its skeleton. It was Southern in its architectural aspect, and the South was in the saddle socially as it had been politically until tbo election of Abraham Lincoln.

As the war brought to an end the domination of the South in national politics, it terminated the supremacy of Southern tendencies in Washington. The fact that Washington lay almost within the shadow of the hills of the Old Dominion, and geographically was apart of the South of ante-helium times, availed nothing against the invasion of northern men who came to the capita, to fill the offices and give a new spirit to the political fouutain head of the republic. Many of the old families cling to the harmless belief that Washington is a-Southern city, that they are its first people, that the newcomer are Visigoths and Vandals, and that the South will yet come tq its own. But the social and political prestige of the South is a thing of the past. Few of the conspicuous figures in public life are Southern men, and the social life of the capital centers largely about families of great wealth, of course not from the South, and there are indlnatious that the Now York Four Hundred is about to annex the uational capital as a winter resort. At any rate, the fact that Mr. Vanderbilt spent several weeks hertv last- winter has raised this hope among the thrifty tradespeople of Washington, who were really intended for the patronage of millionaires, anyway.

So that the Washington of to-day is a Northern city—that is apparent in the churches, the playhouses, the hotels and the stores. It is more like Cleveland or Detroit than it is like Richmond. Its only Southern features are its climate, its hnn dml ami thirty thousand colored people, and the ripple of applause that is always elicited when au orchestra or band plays "Dixie."

And yet Washington, with its population recruited from every state and territory in the union, and from every civili*ed country in the world through Its diplomatic contingent, is not a typical A merle tm city. It .halt an atmosphere jjecullarly its own. This impression is gained by even the tourist, and is intensified with longer residence in Washington. It is not all a matter of physical beauty, though those who have seen Washington In the Aral flush of springtime, when the city seems like a great fragrant garden, so bright and beautiful that it recalls on«t$ childhood's pictures of fairyland or have lingered on the terraces of tht tol to drink in the panorama of the mac and the Virginia hills in early Afay the most beautiful view, the troveler Humboldt said, in all the world: or who have stood entranced amid the glories of the new National Library though these, we say, may have concluded that the fascination of Washington is a matter of mere color and outline, it Is true that there is a distinct difference between the temperament of its population and that of any other American city. "It Is all more like Paris," said Mr. Joseph Haworth to the writer laat year, when the eminent actor was in Washington for the first time, after visiting all the capitals of Burope, supporting Booth and Modjcaka.

The New Washington. 81

A WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT'S OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING THE CAPITAL OF A NATION.

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The End of the Domination of the South in National Politics and How It Has Affected the Life of the Capital—Washington Nowadays More Like a Northern Than

in writing a car-

window commentary on the United States not long ago, said that nothing so astonished him as the number of oar great cities, and the rapidity of their growth. Oar larger cities are panoramas of progress, in which change follows change with a swiftness that is bewildering. The cells of the human body are said by physiologists to undergo a complete change every seven years. The process of replacement is scarcely less rapid in the typical American city. Yet this material growth, accustomed as we are to industrial phenomena that would be counted as miracles in any other land, does not so much astonish us as the change in the tvery character and temperament of our city populations. The best index of this change of spirit is found in our metropolitan newspapers. If we are to accept the newspaper as reflecting the temper of the time it serves, we have but to contrast the New York or Chicago journal of a decade ago with the New York or Chicago daily of today, to believe that the material changes apparent in our greater cities, are nothing as compared with the psychological changes which have been effected among their people during the past ten years.

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Southern City.

"It is all more like Paris than any other capital in the world.1

But the most marked tendencies in the development of the National capital are those which lead inevitably to the conclusion that Washington is to become what Berlin is to Germany, what Rome is to Italy, and what Paris is to France, not merely the center of its political existence, but of its educational and literary life. During the past few years it has been attracting scholars, scientists and artists with surprising rapidity, until it has acquired a literary and scientific life of its own, something it has never before possessed during the century in which it has been the political center of the nation. This is partly to be accounted for by the attraction to be found in the growing collections of the government, invaluable to the student, and partly by the inevitable tendency of the intellec tual life of a nation towards centralization in its capital.

The material manifestation of this new spirit is to be found in the projection of new educational institutions along the higher lines of education in Washington. Two such institutions have already assumed tangible form the Catholic university, which claims to be the only seat of learning in America which fulfills the functions of a university as that term is understood abroad the American university, which is intended to fill the same field for Protestantism, with Bishop John Hurst of the Methodist Episcopal church as its guiding spirit, and the National university, the founding of which in conformity with the views of George Washington as expressed a century ago, is now being agitated in congress. The Catholic university already has a splendid group of buildings, representing an investment of over a million dollars, with many chairs endowed, and a substantial matriculation of students. Dr. Conaty, the head of this institution, informed the writer last summer that the university at Washington was destined to become the center of Catholic education in America, and was intended to obviate the necessity of Amur ican students seeking instruction abroad The plans of the American university, as disclosed by Bishop Hurst to the writer some months ago, are fully as ambitious. One building of the great group planned is already constructed on a splendid oampus orowning the hills north of Washington, and commanding a view of the oapital, and of the Potomac valley to the Blue Bidge mountains, forty miles away. The National university, which it is proposed that the government shall establish, is still on paper, but it is intended by its projectors, to be the orowning feature of the American educational system.

The wonder is that the educational opportunities afforded by the national capital have been so long neglected. It is said that the value of government collections available for purposes of research, reach to the value of nearly fifty millions of dollars,—a laboratory which even the munificence of a Rockefeller could not duplicate. There has just been dedicated in Washington the most magnificent home for books the world has ever seen, the National Library, a structure so beautiful that it is said that only two buildings in the world surpass it,—the Taj Mahale in India, and St. Peters at Rome. As Indianians wo may derive just pride from the fact that its projector, Senator Voorhees, and its architect, John L. Smithmeyer, were lutlianians, a^ were also the projector and architect of the Smithsonian institution, Robert Dale and David Dale Owen. To keep up these collections costs several million dollars per annum, more than could be realized from most princely endowment. By an act of congress passed within the past few years, all are open to students, and are as available to the university located at Washington as if they were apart of their own equipment. With opportunity in the public service again opened to the people, thousands of young men could support themselves by government employment, while embracing the educational advantages now being developed in Washington. For ineeed we have at hand a new Washington, more worthy of the illustrious name it bears than the Washington it is destined to supersede.

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GROROSB. LOCKWOOD

Christmas Toys in profusion, inclnding everything that is new in mechanical toys, may be found at L. D. Smith's, 673 Main street __________________

The beat is none too good for tnose who patronize the Fonts A Hunter Co. This is ^he motto of the company, aid those who bay of this popular establish ment are secure in getting the very best that good workmanship aud the best material furni-h.

Talk About

THEY HAVE

Christmas, go to

You can

can

Candies Cheap

And Pare, Homemade, French and all kinds, you

ought

to see the prices and va

riety at Riser's, wholesale or retail. ... ,•*

MUSICAL BOXES

And Musical Toys at R. DAHLENSjg 640 Main Street.

Rf flics emy atglt Imt T«rt»yt, Oysters tai Cigar*.

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TEBRE HAUTE SATURDAY EVJBNINGf MAIL, DECEMBER 18, 1897.

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Christmas Buyers

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TO BUY THEIR GROCERIES.

ORANGES, LEMONS, BANANAS,4 APPLES, GRAPES, FIGS, DATES, RAISINS/ PRUNES, RAISINS, CELERY,

DRESSED TURKEYS, 7DUCKS, GEESE, CHICKENS. OYSTERS AND FRESH MEATS,

HOME MADE MINCE MEAT AND FRUIT CAKE.

CANDY AND NUTS,

Above with many other good things to be had at lowest as a

647 and 649 Wabash Ave.

For the Purest aiid Best'/CandiesK for

W. fl. Sage's

!'s

get the best here for what others charge you for inferior goods.

Don't buy £our CHRISTMAS CANDIES until you see us. w~~h

SAMPLE ROOM,

Choice Wines, Liquors and Cigars.

1318 WABASH AVE.

Unci

Strni ere 17 4mj.

at rag.

ah?

he immense stock of Boots and Shoes of N. BOLAND must be closechlout at once, and prices have been marked down to make

an inducement to every purchaser in this line. No shoe dealer in jjj

Terre Haute ever liad the reputation of carrying a finer stock jjj

than N. B0LMD7 and the inducements now* offered for the

purchase of goods are unequalled. No more Substantial

can be offered than in the way of a nice pair of Shoes or Slippers, and at the prices

fixed on this stock you cannot get better value for your money anywhere else.

WILL FIND,NO BETTER PLACE THAN

E. R. WRIGHT & CO.

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DESIRABLE XMAS PRESENTS

Smoking Jackets Cardigan Jackets Suit or Overcoat Silk Suspenders Silk Handkerchiefs Gloves of all kinds Caps of all kinds Linen Handkerchiefs Pants of all kinds

Telephone

349

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IF YOU WANT YOUR

Calf on P. J. OSBORNE*

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Present

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Mackintoshes Hats Hosiery Underwear of all kinds Dress Shirts Umbrellas .Jewelry Boys' Reefers Neckwear in all styles

Nowadays the boy wears the same as the man. him the .same as the man, in boys' All presents bought now kept and delivered when desired.

STORE OPEN TO-NIGHT.

Thorman & Schloss,

One-Price Merchant Tailors and Clothiers, Cor. Fifth and Main.

For Christmas ...

ROSES AND CARNATIONS

A Beautiful Assortment,

Holly Wreallis and Wlinns, Jartitrts, HUNT, THE FL0RI5T,

illlflllHillllillilliniillilllllllllHIIIIIIIl lilli!llllillllllllll!!!lili!il!llil!lilliillllllil!ilil AT LOW PRICES.

Boots or Sboes Neatly Repaired

109

South Fourth.

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Any of the Many Articles Mentioned Below would Make an Elegant Gift

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We can fit

sizes and boys' prices.

28 5outh Seventh Street. 4

LEVIN BROS'

NEW DRY GOODS STORE.

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11 01} and 113? wabasb A ve.

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