The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-12-14
"Reminiscences or our city.

est inhabitants of this city, has addressed the
following communication to the Hitelligencer In
reference to a statement lately made in the
local column Of the Republic;
observe in paragraph in one Of the news
papers Of this city 1.-THE Rsptblicl that witness in
late trial before the circuit court of the District
affecting the rights of property, stated that thirty
FIVE years ago USl7) che bathed far north a.
Str eet, near llth street. and caught fish there in
the stream; and that Mr.. Bradley, one of the coun-
sci, said that he had often shot woodcocks there
abous." In this statement am inclined to think
there 10 some defect of memory, some error in y
the topography Of our city, evinced by those gen.
tlemen. At the period referred to, or indeed ut
much moro remote period, there could not have
been found any thing larger than minnow in a
very small ravine through which the drainage
from the Whiteoak Slashes,'' as they were for
mery called, flowed. That the first may have
washed himself in the water may be correct, but the
fish story is rather improbable In 1877 suspect
there not many woodcocks to shoot in that part
OF the CITY, for they not twenty years
before, when the metropolis was a wilderness, and
but few hunters to bag them. New York avenue
passes at the point the witness mentions the
scene Of his youthful exploits in bathing and fish
ing and not far from that point east the farm
of MIR. Jenkins, part Of which afterwards
occupied by the city almshouse, or asylum This
" Whiteoak Slashes" extended some distance
north, from about 18th to 7th strcet west. 1t was
in these slashes'' that the body Of the fret man
hanged In our city was buried. He guilty Of
the murder of his wife, and Imprisoned in email
brick house OF three rooms, the first Jail in Wash
ington. which stood on q lot adjoining the present
bath house on street. The countrymen of the
murderer had caused his body to be inferred in Ho
meads burial ground, near that OF the daughter
Of poor but respectable widow of this city, who
became go deeply afflicted at this circumstance
that some OF her friends, to relieve her, undertook
to disinter the murderer's body, which, in great
haste, they deposited in the "slashes, now nearly
covered with fine buildings and gardens. But the
disinterment being discovered by the countrymen
OF the homicide his body was carried back and de-
posted in its former grave. Again the poor widow
became inconsolable, and complained bitterly of
this fresh outrage to her paternal feelings, and
the same persons Zone Of whom is now living in
this city, once more brought the body back to
where they had first placed it, with the lid down
wards. The body fell out, and 1T afterwards
buried near where ii had thus been left by those
who had taken such interest in his fate. The coffin
for several years served a kind of bridge n
small rut or gully near the spot where the muir
derer had been finally inferred. Fish, I believe,
did not ascend higher than about street north,
and only in the Tiber, then flowing across the
present Pennsylvania avenue, about seventy ct
eighty PAGES west of the brick arch, and over
which, in 1893, a log was cast which served as a
bridge, and over which the procession alec passed,
headed by General Washington, to lay the corner
stone of the Capitol Here, while boy, in con-
nexion with some of my juvenile associates, not
only learnt the art of swimming, but, in the fishing
season, caught with the fragment of an old seine
obtained know not how, quantities. Of heriings
and other fish 1t was in this stream mainly, into
which the tide flowed, that fish of any size were
found, and it was on its banks that boys angled,
and often, not far from where the canal now runs,
they shot white back and Sothcr ducks, or foated
pleasantly, in small canoes, on its bosom. The
waters Of the Tiber, in l793 occasionally extended
in places over the present Pennsylvania avenue;
the road to the Presidents House being consdera-
bly, north of it, and along which traveller, in that
day, might pass from the Capitol square to the
former without meeting human being.
Miss Lynch in her description of Washington
published in Harper's Magazine for December, is
mistaken in saying that "as early as 1868 the city
tras laid cut and called Rome, and The little etream
that flows at tho foot of the Capitol Hill still re-
tains the classical name of the Nber." The city
was never laid out till 1871, by Major L'Enfant
and MIR. Ellicot, two engineers employed by Cen
crai Washington for that purpose. In 1862 pa
tentee named Pope located part Of the presen
site of the city Of about four hundred acres, bor
derng ON the stream called the Tber, but after
wards frequently called Goose Creek and tradi-
ton says that, as his name was Pope, he gave to
tis plantation the name of Roms, called the stream
which bordered it the Ibsr, and the bill beyond it
Cupitol Hill, which, It is said, he predicted that
ma gniiccnt edifice would be erected at some fu-
ture period, which would be called the Capitol.
give you these "reminiscences. supposng that
they may be interesting to your readers, as the re-
collections of one now, I believe, with two others,
the only inhabitants of Washington in 1898.
GEO. WATTERSTON.
THE NEXT SECRETARY OF THE NAyY.-We have
no idea Of ferng project Of cabinet to General
Pierce niess he shall ask to do 80. We take
the liberty, however, of suggesting that, in tho
whole Democratic party, there ia not, in opin-
ion, man whose appointment as Secretary Of the
Navy would give greater more general satsfac-
ton than that of Mr.. Stanton, of Tennessee. As
| chairman OF the Naval Committee in the House of
Representatives, he has performed his duties with
unwearied industry and signal success, winning
the admiration aud regard of all the officers Of the
| navy and of all others with whom his official posi-
ton has brought him in contact. He is perfectly
familiar w th all the matters That Secretary OF
the Navy should be acquan ted with, and his fine
intellectu Il and noble personal qualities eminenty
fit him for the citation II the navy itself had The
| selection Of Democratic Secretary, Mr.. Stanton
would unquestionably be called to the post. -
Louisville Journal.
| From the st. Louis Republican, December 3.
First Locomotive West OF the Mississippi.
| Tho iron horse has been harnesscd on the west
aide Of the Mississippi, and yesterday morning at
seven O'Clock his fret loud and ahrili whistle
| heard. 1t cheering sound 10 those who,
| for years, have desired to see commencement in
| internal improvements in Missouri. Long and
| eagerly have they looked for this period, and at
| last il has come. Probably entertain more
lively feel ag in regard to the event thsn others;
but to every we'll wisher OF our country-to every
| one who deaires to the wealth of our State de.
veioped, and our city rise 10 the iinpostance and
| eninercc which il ia destined TO ocoup y this occa-
| siou will be one of rejoicing and qualification. It