The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1865-03-18
Annapolis and the Legislature.
For room to travel in =.
The world WAS made so wild,

The world was made so wde,
says Goethe in one of his exquisite little faucies
And it occurred to US the other day while stroll
ing through the dirty streets of the Stale Capital
breathing the aniiquated air of the place and
looking up at its old buildings, brown with the
mould OF a century, that the travelling purposes
of creation would have been as well fulfilled if
Annapolis and the twenty railroad link
which connects it with the outside world, had
never emerged from choas. Excepting the ho-
telandlow restaurant keepers and the hook-nosed
Israelites who so shamefnlly fleece our returned
prisoners with their ''sheep eloting," we don't
know that any one would suffer much if even
now the railroad link were broken, and Annap-
oils were left to die natural death from want
of internal vitality. If it were not for the Leg
slatnre and the soldiers, the State and National
buildings, stranger would feel that he had sud-
denly dropped into some old Dutch burg, with its
hip-roofed dwellings and that oppressive lack of
life and hustle and business which berays the
listless inactivity of the inhabitants.
I And yet Annapolis is not without interest. It
requires but little effort of the imagination TO
go back to the time when our Forefathers under
the good Lord Baltimore landed at the wharf
and took possession Of the territory in the name
of their most august sovereign. How their eyes
must have strained toward the shore and their
hearts filled with anxious hopes and fears, as
they hoated slowly across the swelling bosom of
the beautiful harbor.
The State House occupies commanding posi-
ton, and from its dome, as fine a land scape
stretches away on either side as the eve can wish
to rest on. On one side is the Severn river,
winding gracefully amid sunny slopes and clumps
of trees, with cosy farm buildings, nestled along
its banks, growing wider and more stately as it
approaches the city, until at last, like everything
else, it is lost in eternity. On the other side, the
blue waters of the harbor opening out into the
distant Bay, where "white-winged birds of COM
merce" pass to and fro on their errands of peace
and prosperity.
On the first floor Of the Capitol lies an old can
non brought over by the first settlers under Lord
Baltimore and dug out of the st. Mary's river in
1924. The Senate Chamber is sacred as the place
where George Washington resigned his commits
sion as Commander-inChief Of the army when
the hard struggle Of the Revolution was ended.
The Adjutant Generals room is sacred as the
depesitary of the old standards of the Maryland
Regiments now in the field, torn with many
deadly shot and bearing the names of the bloody
fields over which their brave defenders carried
them,-each striking epoch in the history of
our State and Nation.
The-two busiest officers we met at Annapolis
were Gov. Bradford and Adjt Gen. Berry -
Theirs is that patient untirng industry which
hestates at no task When these Offices are filed
by men less Jealous for the public veal, the peo-
pie of the State may appreciate their present la
bors and sacrifices. ad 8il ..s..ts ll3l l5oG9a
We took the House OF Delegates to be a pass
1 able body of men, not by any means the best
that the State might have sent there. Too ma
ny members have been chosen as a reward FOR
real or supposed services elsewhere; too many,
without any special qualifications, have been
thrown above better men by the mere See-SaO
| circumstances of the war. As body they do
not seem to realize the important legislation de-
manded of them. Some of the members seem to
| imagine they were sent there to loaf instead of
to soork Too many sit with their heels toward
the speaker, instead of their heads. Too many
are afflicted with the gaJ disorder. And we con-
fess to feeling of regret, iwhen we remembered
how far the session was spent, and found MEM
bers practicing the windiest school-boy oratory
on questions oflnere local and trivial Importance,
while the School Bill the Militia Law, the Reg
istraton aud Township acts, were not yet taken
up. Nor were we very favorably impressed with
the scholarship of one of the members, who ina
clustering ,dcsk-pounding, fist-pitching style,
compared the Legislature toan loses in the dee
sert," aud then talked about "conciliating his
bree- -thern," 'tand bil the scnm out O. the
Union party ;'-thongh what all this had to do
with the Question before the House, we failed to
see. 1--WE hope this member will vote for the
new School Bill.
The Baltimore county members are convent
emily seated in a prominent part of the Hall, and
will compare favorably in personal appearance
and general intelligence with the Delegation
from any other part of the State. We had the
pleasure of hearing Messrs. Sothower and Lusby
make few pointed and well-timed remarks on
motion under discussion. Mr.. Sothower is
probably the oldest member of our Delegation,
and though not personally acquainted with him,
we take him to be an industrious and valuable
member There is attention in his eye, energy
in his step, business in his manner, and we i'm
;agine the interests of the county are well guard
ed in his care.