The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-11-08
English view Of Washington and Mount
VoPnun.

The special correspondent" Of the London
Times thinks that tho favorable impression
which the Prince received iE his three days'
visit to the National Capital would have besn
diminished in direct ratio to his longer stay
The "marble palaces Of the government y,
among the shabby, little, dilapidated houses,
seem like jewels badly set" Nothing 10 I'm
ished except these shabby, little, old houses,
which ought to be Immediately pulled down.
"When you have visited the Capitol and
Mount Vernon, admired the Treasury Patent
aud Post Offices, called at the White House.
suffered under Q bad hotel, and continually
taken the Washington Monument for a Iirht.
house, all of which-especially the two lat
ter-you do easily in three days YOU NAV nit
the administrative capital of America with
perfect ease of mind as to your having seen as
much m, OF the the place as II you had lived there
The Capitol receives honorable and admir-
ing mention:
"Its site is unusually fine, its proportions
are massive and noble, and its severe, grand
simplicity of architecture well becomes the
administrative halls of a great republic so
young and primitive as this.'
Ofcourse, like every thing else, 1t is unfin.
ished and the writer adds his private opinion
that 1t, ard everything else, never will be- The
works of art, however, failed to attract great
admiration-especially the "poor, clumsy. and
badly executed figure of Columbus; !" though
the Indian group at the the top of the main
steps is pronounced veryfine. The spittoons
commanded adap appreciative notice:
Nothing more forcibly repudiates the yul.
gar notlon as 10 the expectorating accuracy of
Americans than the appearance Of the marble
around these noisome receptacles. These spit
toons are the hrst things you see on entering,
and from this moment you never lose sight Of
them as long as you remain in the building
No matter where you wander-into the Senate
chamber, the House Of Representatives, the
Speakers room, the gorgeous room Of the
President-the yawnipg. dirty nuisance haunts
you everywhere. You tumble over them in
quiet corners Of rich frescoed halls they flank
the tribune and the Speakers chair, like uaint
supporters, and etanu in hideous rows and
semi-circles round the hatls-recognized insti-
tutions of the place; the little affairs on which
every one asserts his nauseous liberty Of spit
ting, no matter who is present or what the oc-
caslon. A lorg and, for the proportions of the
building, very low and narrow corridor leads
to the Hall of Represen tatives, large and very
low SO uare chamber, with the Speakers seat
and tribune facing the entrance, aid q large
semi circle of seats and desks leach with the
never absent spittoon, of course, )ranged around
the floor"
The Hall Of Representatives is described as
"a cham Der like disused showroom, which
has all window ws in its ceiling, and yet has no
light; which Is large without being spacious,
low in height without looking comfortable,
covered with gilt aud scarlet tthout being
decorated, giudy without effect, costly yet
mean and even dirty in its appearance, with a
tawdry vulgarity of spiendor that disgusts
every man OF taste, and with its enormities OF
gilt and paint sufficiently darkling and OBJ
scure to tail to impress the masses. There is
kind OF mixture OF a grand California bar
room and q second-rate Paris cafe-an air of a
rather well worn half business place of en- ter
tainment, &C.
Mount Vernon, in all its gloomy forlornity,
receives an ample description. "The most
bigoted stranger" says the writer, with hon.
a N ~ haf xxyifh fhacn
sacred precincts, cannot look around without
emo ton. cannot free his mind from a feeling
OF sorrow that this touching relic Of one OF
earth's noblest dead should be now in such a
state and left to such decay"
Down a rough, broken and encuube bered foot
path, like an abandoned cattle track" they
took their way to the tomb with it's red brick
wall and rusty railngs, scrawled on every
available inch with names OF vulgar travel
ers. "There is no pomp Of woe about the
spot" well remarks the observer:
"Over the bricks creep wild and tangled
shru bs-weeds, rubbish and mortar are Uttered
in front, while all around it is dirty, thrift
less waste, like the remains of a shrubbery in
which building once stood. No pious care
seems to have ever tended this neglecte grave,
none by to shield it from the dissertations OF
idle profanity. 1t is here alone in its glory,
uncarsd for, unvisited, unmatched, with the
night wind for its only mourner, signing
through the waste Of trees, and strewing the
dead brown leaves like ashes before the tomb.
SuCn 10 tnt grave Va " tOu
before this humble tomb the Prince, the
President, and all the party stood uncovered.
1t is easy moralizing ON this visit for there is
something grandly suggestive of historical re-
tributon In the reverential awe Of the Prince
of Wales the great grandson of George III,
standing bareheaded q the foot OF the coffin OF
Washington. What may not history bring
forth The descendants of a regenerated lii .
of Hapsburg may yet do honor at the tomb OF
Garibaldi. For few moments the party
stood mute and mohonless, and the Prince
then proceeded to plant chesnut by the side
of the tomb. 1t seemed when the royal youth
closed in the earth around the little germ, that
he was burying the last faint trace Of discord
between US and our great brethren in the wes t.
May it be so, and may no American in times
hereafter think of the tomb of Washington
without mbering the friendly visitor W no
planted the tree in whose grateful shadow 1t
reposes. May the act live in the memories OF
both nations green the tree that records 1t,
and Britons recoliect that in this graceful rite
Of homage to the memory of one whom we
must Eow strive to claim as our descendant,
the Prince did honor to himself and his ma
tion."