New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-05-31
WASHINGTON GOSSIP.
SUMMER ATTRACTIONS OF THE CAPITAL.

IN yERDURE AND BLOOM-ROMAETIC WALhS
AND DRIyES-MUsIC, PLEASURE, AND IN
sTRUCTIoN-A SERPENT IN THE PARADISE
lPR0A AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT OF THB TRIBUsEi
w AsHINGTON, May 26.-This city is indeed
place sharp contrasts Today this week. it overruns
with life the four points of the compass send tribute
OF hungry swarms about its doors; crowds surge up and
down the avenue; carriages whr about al night. Next
week the dust will roll along the way in gathering
Clouds the hacmen will sleep upon their boxes tho
town will be waste and wilderness. Moreover, the
place looks like part Of Paradise it il half buried in
bloom and fragrance. II could it from dls-
lance with its white palaces and its bowery places they
could hardly picture farer ideal OF the Celestial City
itself But who does not know OF the cor
ruptiOn fostering out OF sight In IT. OF the pill
lage and plumber in great jobs the bribery ana
subornation egslaors the profgaoy OF throng Of
strangers released from the restraints OF homel Could
there be sharper contrast anywhere between the beauty
Of the city and the hot life Just under the surface ex
cept we found In graveyard, where the June roses
Chamber over the mounds that hide the mOlderng clay
beneath Yet If we doubt that Antioch or Pompei on
the day before their fall any vickeder than Wash
fngton during the last week Of the session. must also
If they any farer II is only this week. too,
that things will be they next week tho strangers
viii have fed the town viii take up its own life again,
and encampment on any oasis in the desert VIII not
have pure and innocent simplicity Fashion goes
but certain officials of Government army. navy science,
always remain; anO Tor the resi-, young men
everywhere an unYarying element.
When fashion and the millionaire, however, desert
Washington, it becomes really habitabe. Not that
fashion and the millionaire such unbearable things,
but that they have the bad taste seek other resorts
just this reaches its most allurng season. LOT
whe January and February full OF raw gusts ana
penetrating dampness and chill, the last weeks OF May
the first of the very of the year here
wind and weather perfection. and heaven and earth
frc ,ipp oudh in 1f
to make mere life luxury. From the plared porch OF
tine Treasury, set among its down the long haZy
sweep Of the avenue TO the Capitol with its shining
colonnades rising the waving geenery beneath and
lifting its dome into the dazzling dome above, Washing
ton and all ts encourage wrapped in verdure and
bloom. In the Smithsonian Grounds, that Downing
laid out in landscape, the bright naples and
brches and beeches standing full against the darkness
of the spruce and hemlock seem TO shed uster rather
than shadow from every side of their great towers oil
LEAKAGE and the tulpree, the rosy Judas-tree, the
aburnums. drOppingwells of fire." with tho dark red
gables and arches OF the Institute down every vista
make the picture brilliant Aaddin's garden might
have BEEN The grass in the parks, and squares, and
reservations is like the freshlybroken emerads" that
Dante saw, wild byacnths spring up in 1t. and every
sunny slope Is purple with vioets while the Ivy that
climbs over many of the buildings gltters with fresh
tips of growth and everywhere there roses, such
roses as rival the roses Postum Of tho Bosphorus
white cream blOOdred, and blush, and that make tho
strong south wind, which is always blowing here heavy
with their OdOrs
Tho pleasures that are to be had amid such surround
ings are in unison with them. Thrice week, at sunset
there is music in the Capitol Grounds and In the Pres
dents; every one stros up down that way, lovers
and assies old and young and bright draperes ana
pretty faces make tho hour festive Pretty faces by the
way are more album dant in Washington proper than in
most cities for tho residents chiefly descendants OF
men once high in office and whether their position gave
them wider choice among tho beauties OF the and OF
whether that good living which makes good blood,
and which rounding and contours, Is said IN Few
generations to make good looks, had anything TO do
with it, or whether social experience has cultivated re-
neents that have the same effect their families, now
DOOR i'm money OF dependent minor Offices are sngu-
larry rich In beauty. OF course, the young clerks they
cannot afford marry, yet can always AFFORD 10 make
love TO these charming girls and the circumstances are
entirely in their favor There all day excursions down
the river where they wander through tho breasthgh
hedges OF fragrant box at Mount Vernon OF other spots
peasanter STILL and picncs far into the country, with
haymaking la watteau; ana then there are drives
drives through the grounds Of Soldiers Home on mac
adamized roads that show what 1t Is possible 10 MAKE
the roads heredrves through all the delightful grounds
of Hardwood the country place OF Mr. Corcoran open
TO all who leave their cards at the UNCOVERED lodge-to
Arlington with its pillows of graves rolling away IN the
distance where the very mestOnes on tho road are
grayesones where the loneliness of wood and river
and the spires and dome accent with terrse
sbarpness this biy0uac Of deathdrves too, out over
the Maryland Hills, past the earthworks of old forts
that nature has already taken back to herself with
grasses and bushes and cobwebs birds aud where
ono looks down on city lying between the rosy waters
OF the Anaosan and the silver stretch Of the Potomac
like a vast dower-b which the dome hangs like
coud: and one drive above all. over Rock Creek
through woods in which the dogyo2d spreads s level
boughs Of snow, where the Mayhower and wakerooin
~ af,o ntfpr-e Will
lilly OF the valley through the cool shallow stream, ana
acros the Mill, ill you come out in the soft starlight
unon Tho villas of the Georgetown Nights the plash OF
fountains the perfume of flowers and home by way or
market the glow Of whose smoking ndHarng torch
lights lie heaps of feathered game curly letuces, and
ri ne straw berries while the heads OF mules and horses
thrust forward in the light the swarhy faces and the
strange cries, give the whole scene as foreign
and fantastic aspect as If you had sailed across
1000 miles to see 1t. Least Of all, tnere are
the evening delights of Lafayeesquare, where you can
sit in the GOODNESS of the starged shadows thl there
comes stealing toward you in the dark the raVlshhg
sweetness OF the grandaoTa magnolia, that AIts It's
great white cups heaven filed and running over win
and then there is rowing on the wide cool
river where the Anaostan and Potomac shells dart
about like winged things Swimming the water, between
the great banks that lift their foresgrowth far into the
v And to crown the whole precisely at midnight OF
every night the Gagged m0ckngbrds that hang outside
the windows begin to pipe and MARBLE till all the city
rnos and thrills with their songs. Is IL possible to
imagine reason why people who are at liberty to choose
should come here in the cold and damp Of Winter to
dance through couple of months and forsake the place
lust as all its beauties spring into llfef
Meanwhile II these charms are not enough, there Is
always the great library, most OF the time OleraDy
had theater and the Museum OF the Smithsonian Iii
the latter place at present are to be SEEM beside te
canon Of the Yelowstonethat great painting ofone OF
TuIfan via full