The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1857-03-27
nae wAsHINGToN MYsrERY.

The dreadful results OF the rat poisoning,
at the National Hotel. Washington-the
death of at least one of the persons who was
boarding in the house at the time, and tie
dangerous illness Of a host of others. inclu.
ding sundry persons of distinction, (among
them President Buehanan)-have excited an
interest in the public mind, and given rise to
rumors which are not confined to the CITY of
Washington. Horrible suspicious are whis-
pered which it is difficult to entertain yet,
what are We to infer from a letter. said to
have been written by one of the proprietors
OF the National, TO a friend in this city on
Saturday, IN which he states that there is not
one rOrd Of truth in the story that poisoned
rats cere found in the pater at that house =
The reason he gives for not denying this be-
fore is, that he thought it too absurd to no.
tice.
1t is said, further-but with how much
truth we cannot say-that the first manifesto
tions Of the sickness at the hotel was as far
back as the End or Sd of February last-that
as the proprietors then had chemical analy-
sis Of the water, which discovered a mineral
substance, which might have produced the
distemPer, the spring tanks were closed, and
water thereafter was brought into their house
from the Capitol fountain. But the distem-
per, nevertheless, kept on necessarily. Fur
ther analysis were made-analysis now Of
milk ablaa in short kine,
that was eaten or drunk-yet it is now posi-
itively asserted that up TO this time no clue
has been discovered to the mysterious poison.
The rat theory, then. being rejected, and no
deleterious material having been discovered
in the food. there are some who believe that
the poison was secretly administered by hu.
man hands, to accomplish some Internal
scheme, which the Imagination can only guess
at. The belief is based chiefly upon the fact
that the post norton examination of Mrs. Ad-
ans shows that arsenic was taken into the
stomach in sufficient quantities to produce
her sickness and death, and the physicians in
this city, who have patients from the Nation
al, say that all the symptoms are those of
poison.
The Day Book, which seems to have been
at special pains to investigate this very
strange affair, gives prominence to those facts,
and Odds
Horace II. Day, Esq, is now lying very low
in this city. lie was boarder there, and
no donbt is affected precisely as Mrs Adams.
A daughter of Senator James is also very sick
and under the charge of DIR. Marcy, DIR Leon
has several patients including child of the
writer, who is very low. That we have all
been poisoned by some substance daily ad-
ministered to us in the food at the National
Hotel, is beyond question. What that sub
stance was, how or by whom administered,
remains a mystery. The proprietors Of the
house, we are satisfied, have used every effort
and means in their power to find out the
cause of this wide spread infection, but in
vain. To them it is as profound mystery as
to any in the land.
We know ourselves of some other parties
here who returned from Washington e few
days since, laboring under the same disorder,
contracted while at the National.
The whole transaction is one suggestive of
a species of crime which is happily new in
this eouHtry,-but species which we may
be importing, with other crimes from Cont
mental Europe, where secret murder by poi
son,-wholesae and retail, lis, and for centu-
ries has been, one of the Fine Arts. We have
all read of the PRISONERS of Venice, of Rome,
and Padua-but PRISONERS in Washington is
something entirely new
P. S.-Since writing the above. we see the
always careful and cautious "Intellgencer"
at Washington, speak out-on this subject
in such way as to excite an apprehension
that the poison" may spread beyond Dthe
walls Of the Na,ional,-if not looked to in
time. 1t says:
" 1t has become duty, the discharge of
which We may no longer defer, to cali the at
tention of those to whom the matter proper
ly pertains to the problem presented in the
existing condition of the National Hotel. and
its future possibilities. in reference to the
health of the city at large. If we could al
together disregard the numberless statements
of the distant press on this head. we are una
BILE to ingore fact after fact that have come
to our immediate knowledge. all testifying to
the exceeding insalubrity which has for seve
raj weeks prevailed in and is not get erddica
ted from tie establishment to phieh we refer
The cool weather which we have had of late
has probably operated to prevent the spread
of the morblic influence which, with singular
uniformity in its effects, has infected 50
many Of its guests and inmates but as soon
us the elevation Of the temperature takes
place-and at this season it is impossible to
say how soon that may BEETLE eUH may er
tend itself and invoire consequences far more
serious than any that hare get occurred TO indi-
viduais aud to hspubiic. We do no more in
these remarks than to suggest action whilst
opportunity affords, and to root out from our
midst source Of mnlady before it can be
come more injurious and perhaps fatal
IMPORTANT REVELATIONS RELATIVE TO KAN
sAs AFFAIRS. st. Louis Democrat pub
fishes a statement relative to the affairs of
Kansas given BY Governor Geary. From 1t
it appears that the cause of Governor Gea-
RVS resignation was the failure of President
Pierce to fulfil the pledges made at the time
of his (Geary's) appointment. These pledges
were to support him with an army of militia
at the expense Of the public treasury if nee
essary, but instead of receiving this aid he
has paid s 1000 out of his own pocket, the
administration having refused military sup