Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-02-03
From the HERALp's Special Correspondent
Washington Letter.
VIRGINIA BILL-woRLD's FAIR-THE
CITY GovERNMENT-woM sur
FRAGE AND THE SUFFRAGE
CONVENTION

CONVENTION,
WASHINGTON, d. O., Jan. "a, 1867.
During the past week the exciting top
les in Washington were the question o
the admission of Virginia; the great Elk
position or Worlds Fair; the removal 0
the Capitol, and the Woman's Suffrag,
question. OF the result of the first O
these, the world knows from the reports
by telegraph, how the question was dis
oussed in the House, passed, sent to tn,
Senate, passed with amendments calcu
lated to afford greater security to the loya
subjects of the State, and returned to the
House where it was discussed and the bill
/ passed, admitting Virginia as State.
The question of the Worlds Fair has
been confined TO discussions out of the
capitol. Meetings of the citizens have
been called, 6titae0nsJc speeches have been
mado and the whole eliminated in a sub
scription of $1,300,000, which was raised
to carry out the proposed object There
are, to my mind, many reasons why
America should make a Worlds Fair, and
as I was riding in the cars after entering
the State of Maryland and viewed the
hundreds of acres of unimproved lands in
| full view from the car window, I could
but think that the region through which
| was then passing, needed emigrants
! from the Old World as much AZ any por-
tion of the country. The effect OF a
Worlds Fair, we'll conducted, would be
the settlement of these lands by zenIi-
grants from Europe. But / said ''well
conducted"-and unless it were well con.
Quoted think it would be disgrace tc
the nation and an unnecessary outlay OF
funds. Since coming here I am inclined
TO believe that this is not the place to hold
a Worlds Fair. There seems to be a
screw lose in every enterprise started in
this city.
Selfshness and corruption settsl s5 enter
largely into the actions of many, and, iu-
deed, / may say most of the acts of the
officials here. They work not for the
happiness of others, but for the accom-
plishment of their own selfish aims
Plunder and official position seem to go
hand in hand. Honest people in Con
gress are getting tired of it, and to bring
the people into line, they talk of moving
the capitol. The Washingtonians are
alarmed at this and subscribe literally for
the Worlds Fair, evidently thinking to
quiet the question of removal, and that
the plunder which they may realize from
it will mpensate for the Investment
st. Louis is spoken Of as the place to
which the capital shall be taken. In
many respects that city is infinitely 9 upe-
rior to this. They have several railroads
entering there, and they have no Mary
land Legislature or Baltimore Council on
the line of their roads that levy per capita
tax upon those who travel through tho State
or city. Nor is a man when travelling into
st. Louis, if he has not time to get a
ticket at the Office, aud pays upon the
cars, charged thirty-fve cents extra, ss is
the case with the roads centcring into
Washington. This is the bungling way
they do on the roads between here and
Philadelphia, in order to keep the con-
duetors honest. If the passenger will
take the stub of his ticket to ticket
office, the agent will refund twenty-five
cents on presentation. A splendid ar
rangement, especially fonthose passengers
who are going further and find all the
offices closed, or for ladies, who, in addi-
ton to looking up their baggage, must
look up ticket clerk, aud by that time
the carriages and omnibusses are all away.
In st. Louis package of omnibus
tickets are good on any line in the city,
but not..so here. One line will not take the
tickets of another line, and on the Penn
sylvania avenue cars, the one most patron
lied, they will not trust the conductors to
sell tickets.
They seem to have no confidence in
each other. Now these are small things,
but these small things, and the incivility
and insubordination of the people, tend to
raise a prejudice against Washington.
Men who come here, aud respect law and
order, feel aggrieved to learn that the carl
tai of the nation is city whose public
meetings are broken up by rowdies and
snobs, and the saddest feature of the whole
thing is, these rowdies are in sympathy
with the present city government. Sew
eral meetings favoring woman suffrage
have been broken up by rowdies; and
within the last week, large meeting OF
the citizens in favor of territorial form
of government for the District, and OPP
posed to the present form, were compelled
to abandon the hall in which they had
Icongregated. Shame upon city where
law and order are prostituted by mob
In sympathy with its officials
AS now write, hear tin horns con-
tinually sounding. They are blowed by
those who go about the city with a pail
of oysters to sell. 1t is the way the vend-
ers have for advertising. 1t is great
nuisance, but it is claimed that there is
not enough of vitality in the city govern
ment to stop it.
Like the child of rich man, whose
every want has been gratiied, the people
here have become spoiled by the excess
of money that government has bestowed
upon them, and unless they can get q
"position' they do not work; and hence
thaS~ have become a sort Of dependant
hangers ON. .nd lack tho independent self
reliance that furnisss.s the best type Of
manhood. They can talk loudly Of what