Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1859-12-16
FRoM -wAsHINGpoN..

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FROM WASHINGTON.
Correspondence of tho IntelIigOncer.l
VISIT TO THR NATIONAL ISTRIL1GRNcRR-
CONSERVATIVE APPEARASCE oE THE EsTAB-
LIsHMENT-A CHARACTER OF FIFTY YEARS
sTANDING-TGLK WITH Mr.. sEATOS-ES-
TRACTS FROM TIE FIRST NUMBER.
WASHINGTON, D. c., Dec. 18th, 1850
a morning or two ago paid visit to
the old National Itteltigencer establishment
bore, on the corner of and Tth streets.
do not recollcct whether in any of my
former letters from here, ever made
mention of this venerable concern, If l
did not, ought to have done so, for it was
q tilial duty, inasmucll rs your own Intelli-
geneer was named expressly in honor of its
illustrious patronyme here. And, besides
that, owe it q sort of an individual duty,
for, as near as can come at such dis
tant petiod, believe the old Intelligencer
was one of my swadling cloths. Ger
tainly, it is associated with my earliest no
ttous of types.
As you turn up to the building from the
Avenue, you would suppose that you were
coming to an old mill, or a Touring,
grain or provision establishment of some
sort. The roof is like mill. 1t has dor
mitories in it, and is moss covered. The
walls and the window gashss and q Ranss
o,,I;, e.. Ill i'.! Meo0J 1pPc"[4nCe pc
ing was put up in 1878 by its present own
crs and occupants, Gales i Seaton, the
editors and proprictors of the Intelliyencer.
At the time it was put up, it was consider
cd formidable newspaper buildfng-for
Mt that time there were very few houses of
any kind in Washington, and still fewer
that could approach to any style now
known as imposing. You enterthis build
ing through n rusty old door, with IL little
box recess about big enough for a couple
| of people to pass each other, and from
thence through a still rustier and more
primitive looking door, you pass into the
counting room-a dingy, antique, orderly
and highly conservative looking place.
There is an entire absence of anything like
modernism here. No gas fixtures, but
simply plain old brass candlcsticks. No
upright coal stove, such,as they have every
place else in the city. but simply little,
delicate, spindle-lcgged wood stove, the
first ever cast, probably, and sent in,
and the old, wood colored, ink stained
desks, and the shelving, together with the
rusty, faded and crumbling looking old
ledgers and day books, heighten the an
tique appearance, aud give the tout ensem-
Gte very ancient phase, indeed
Behind one of these desks, Mt the re-
ceipt of custom, stands little old gentle
man, sallow, shriyclled aud grey haired,
yet, active and spry as boy. He looks
as if he might be an own brother to a &C.
NAL old mail contractor who lives up in
Brooke county. He is one of the politcst
men ever met, and his name is Thomas
DonehOos He has been at the post found
him for precisely fifty years, and is as we'll
known to visitors to the establishment, al
most, as Gales & Seaton themselves. He
does the agreeable to visitors having sub
scription or advertising business with the
office, or to those who, like me, were on u
visit of curiosity, and who came to see
and talk with the visitors. Mr. D. informs
me that he has not been up at the Capitol
but once In forty years, and that was dur
ing the Hayne and Webster debate. He
gave me most vivid sketch of the scene
on that occasion. To show, as he said,
how absorbing was the attention which
that gigantic contest elected, he told me
that his side, which was pressed against
the iron railing of the gallery 6y the
dense mass of people, trying to get q view
of the champions of the debate, that it
was bruised and sore and black over a
space twice as large as his hand, for weeks
afterwards. And yet all the while of the
debate he was perfectly unconscious of the
injury thatwas being done to him, so ex-
cited was he and every one else around
him on that great occasion.
/ I-fOl6 Mr. N that NO ko 49,. NJ
Gales { Seaton. He said that Mr.. Gales
seldom got down to the Office now-a-days.
being very feeble in health, but that Mr.,
Seatoni was in and he would take me to
his room. We found the old man sitting
in his easy chair, quietly enjoying cigar.
l was surprised, to see how very hale fresh
and sound lie looked. He appeared as
full of blood, and life and vigor. rs most
1 middle aged men. There was not a trace
of decrepitudc about him, but on the CON
trary he looked the beau ideal of a s:grcep
old age" In another respect, too, / was
disappointed i supposed that it was
quite likely that old men like Gales and
oeaton, were OF another generation, ofan-
other era, men who wrote so learnedIy,
who were in possession of such vast cxpe-
rience In governmental affairs, who had
been in the confidence of "the Father Of
the Republic" who had been, still later
the daily co-counscllers of Webster and
Clay and Benton, who were known of all
men and all parties as the very precisest
political critics of the duv, would have
about them an air of that-listlcss indiffer-
ence to the call of visitors, especiolIv
young visitors. such as old age, in any sta
ton Of life, mostly have. But, as / said I
was disappointed altogether. 1t was lust
the reverse. One of the readicst men to
converse, to keep you sitting stilI, and from
thinking you were trespnssine on his
time hy laying his arm gently upon vour
rising movements, isMr. Seaton. Perfect.
~ unaffected, free, communicative. open
and alive to you, lie makes you realize that
he is glad to see You, and that be appreci,
| nteS the homage of a visit from vnnnn.