Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-01-12
WASHINGTON GOSSIP.
How Washington Strikes a stranger
The Chit-Chat of the National Cap

L
| ttaI N#FF ~
| Correspondence of the Union and American.
| WASHINGTON, Jan. 3-Oh, for the soft,
balmy, sunshiny winter weather Of the ever
| blooming, ever smiling Crescent City,
where the air is redolsnt of fragrant flowers
and where the skies out-riVal those of far
famed Italy Here it is either intensely
| cold or very damp and raining-driZzle,
drizzle, drizzle-e7ery other day; so cold or
| so wet, and sometimes a regular tip-tOp
| London fog, from ''morn till noon, from
noon I'LL dewy eye."
| WHAT WASHINGTON LACKS.
How strange that the capital of one ofthe
greatest nations of the earth should have no
museum of art, few public libraries, so few
historic "reminiscences. It is said that
| Washington has improved more under the
| administration of Gen. Grant than under
| the administration of any of bis pred
ecessors. If it is SO, it is a
| feather il his cap. To acorn and
beautify the nations capital should be the
| pride Of nations head. Augustus "found
Rome brick and left it niArble;" Frede-
| rick the Great adorned Berlin; Napoleon,
| Paris--Why should not the President of the
| United States endeavor to improve Wash
ington? There is not public fountain in
this ''City of Magnificent Distances" not
3 park deserving the name; only two bur-
| lesque equestrian statues of Generals
| Washington and Jackson; one recumbent
statue of Gen. Washington, one Of Presi-
dent Lincoln on very high pedest&l-a
great deal of pedestal and very little statue.
The sitting statue Gas the boys call it) OF
Gen. Washington is in the Square on the
east front of the Capitol. There he sits,
| dreaming, perhaps, of Plato's mathemati-
| cal man, diVes.ed of much ordinary cloth
ing, his finger pointing toward the. White
| House, as if admonishing the inhab-
| itants of that glorious haOitation that he
once inhabited there, and that having shuf-
fed off bis mortal coil, he reserved for himself
| solitary and alone in the fOwerless, walk
less, treeless square just before the Capital,
| only his Roman toga with which to cover
| his illustrioGs shoulders. viii his present
successor reserve for himself only Romsn
| toga? Alas! bis mantle of gold is already
full CT dents. [Borowed.]
DULLNEss AT THE CAPITAL.
The society of Washington is gay, but
the town is dull. No glitteriDg shops to
attract the restless eye of the stranger,
grown dim from ennui; no French modiste,
where ladies congregste, discuss the fash
| ions, their neighbOrs, and those 'lovely
bonnets." People do not buy here; they 60
elsewhere; and what more dear to wo-
mans heart than to shop. How chatty la
| dies, the most reticent, are, in a bonnet
| store,
CHURCHES AND THEATRES.
There is not actually one handsome
| church in this city-indeed, they are all very
common and shabby looking. But the
streets are so wide, and as smooth as mar
| BILE, and there are some very handsome pri-
vate residences. Although Washington is
mi.erabiy threadbsre in theatres, opera
houses, concert halls, etc, yet it gets up
most apprecistiVe audiences for dramatic
aad vocal talent. The National is the best
theatre in the place; small and ordinary
bailding, and though filed to OverfowiDg
with a most fashionable audience the other
night, in compliment TO BoucicauIt, yet we
| did not see much beauty or any distin-
| guished looking men.
GREAT MEN IN DISGUISE.
This place is the "head and front" Of
American talent, yet how few great looking
men one meets here. a stranger would
| seldom turn to gaze at the head and face
of any distinguished man in Washington,
unless he kne10 him to be so and so. A
stranger who had never seen Mr. Grant, or
Mr.. Sumner, or Mr. Schurz, might turn
once to look upon them, but
would not care to turn again.
The ladies might tHn SeUerGI
times to look at Mr.. Conkiing, the dainty,
the fasiidious, the Beau Brummel, with
hands like a French MsrquiSe, and blond
curls ike an infant. Voltaire says, "What-
ever is obscure is not French" In one
sense we can say, "whatever is obscure is
not WashiDgtOnian," for into the papers
you must get or you are Dot supposed to
| exist. The newspapers here might we'll eX-
claim to the people in the words of Milton,
''Not to k0Ow zoe, argues yourselves un-
known"
| WAsHINGTON's SUNDAY LOOK.
This is very moral place on Sunday.
! People attend church three times day
that is, they can; Few pedestrians are out
after church hours; few carriages roll by; no
military parades as in that wicked present
city, in that wretched State of Louisiana.
| The call of neWs-boys III
the early morn is almost
the only mundane noise that greets the ear.
All is quiet, staid, respectable, even the
! horse-cars have Sunday air. The de-
scendants Of Afric's sunny cline, dressed
| in Partisan costume, occasionally pass by,
and then have Sunday lock, and even
your Tespondent feels the atmosphere Of
! Sunday all through her nerves. do to
church, and everybody looks Sunday, even
your sable neighbor in the next pew-for
we suppose you know that the colcred
gentleman and lady rent pews here down
| among the other ladies and gentlemen. But
meet all these people tomorrow, on Mon
day, and lchat an ani-Sunday look they
have.
THE REIGNING BELLE.
hrs. Attorney General Williams seems to
be the reigning belle-''1rae femme nldrTiee"
ia not laid upon the shelf here as in your
City of Roc5s-ercept on Sunday.
THE BEAUTIFUL SNOW.
The snow has been very deep, and the
sleigh-beIls have been tinlzling in every di-
rection. All the world was cut in sledges
only a few days since, and one naturally
recalled the following beautiful lines from
Poe:
Hear the sledges with the bells,
Silver bellsl
| What world of meTTiment their melody foreteLsj
! How they tinkle, tinkle, tiRkle,
| In the icy air of night!
/ While the stars that Oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem 10 JWlIkle
With a crystalline delight,
| Keeping time, time, time,
| In a sort of RUnic rhyme,
| TOthe naturalization that musiCally swells
| From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells.
| From the iingling and the tingling of the bells
THE LADIES OF THE WHITE HOUSE.
Mss Nellie Grant Is by no means
beautiful, although sweet-lsoking and much
improved by foreign travel. Mrs. Grant,
who is by no means handsome, has an e4-
callent face, and is perfectly uDassuming
and well. bred, but so much is written about
those who now occupy the White House
that descriptions and opinions haYe become
fiat, "dull, stal3 and 1nproGtabls.n The
on books and newspapers all tell how
they look, how they dress, but never what
they say. Brilliancy of conversation does
not seem 10 be a weakness among the
ladies' of the White House.
'.THEY SAY"
A little fashionable gossip says that two
celebrated Southern, or CusGi Southern
bellies, namely, Eesdsmes L. Vert and
Gaines, have mortal antipathy for each
other, because both are such incessant
takers. The sun is out in all his glory.
How long he will illumine the hoayens is
as uncertain as the snils9 Of co9uette.
Ajieu, EMMA NASH.