Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-05-08
Our Washington Letter.
WAsHINGTON, May 3, 1875

WASHINGTON, May 3, 1878.
Edit0r Rutland Herald All quiet
along the Potomac. 1t seems as if we
had somewhere seen that expression be-
fore 1t seems so stupidity natural that
we wish that some other combination of
words would do as well, but the truth
is these just express the facts of the case.
and our pen has an odd old-fashiOned
way of sacrificing fancy, taste and some
times like Lord Byron, even rhyme, to
fact. But ''all quiet don't mean that
everybody is dead or asleep, or that
nothing is being done. Far from il.
You know once of old, the power of
mighty demonstration was noticed TO be
not in the whirlwind. or in the fire, but
in the still small voice. Special as was
that demonstration, how aptly it illus
trates the great principle or rule in ma
ture, whose silent forces exceed her
clamorous ones-well, we will, say, on
a rough guess, in proportion as noun
tain exceeds kernels of corn. For want
of positive data our approximation may
seem somewhat imaginative; if so, your
readers can vary the size of our sup
posed mountain, or cut down our esti-
mates to suit their individual notions of
organic law, while We will return to
live questions of the daY.
OF Congress, perhaps half dozen
Senators and twice as many Representa-
tives still remain here. Some have resi-
dences here and remain with their fami-
lies, perhaps waiting patiently to hear
the voice of the turtle in this latitude
before departing for mountain homes or
Northern Summer resorts. Others are
here for the third or fourth time since
Congress adjourned, touching a day or
two as they fit here and there over the
land, fixing things up, we presume.
The Capitol has not yet resumed the
wonted silence of recess, and will not
for some time yet Large numbers of
documents are being daily despatched,
and this will continue until the first of
July, when the frankiDg privilege viii
cease, and then, reader, your chances of
getting those precious Pub. Docs. "
will be greatly diminished, for the pos
tage is no longer the autograph of
your representative, but matter of
s'stamps." Then, too, the old Capitol is
kept clear of the shadows and imps that
haunt silent places by the numerous
strangers who have apparently COM
menced summer saunterings be-
fore summer has arrived, for you
must know that we still sit by
coal fires, wear oYercoats and wonder in
| time hot weather don't come and nearly
melt us. Brumidi, the genius of Capt.
toline art has just appeared upon the
| scene and with staging erected in the
Senate reception room he sits daily,
with all the gravity of dreamy owl,
and the noticeable result of said incuba-
ton is the development of the figures of
Washington, Hamilton and Jefferson
upon the wall, with hardly more rapid
ity, no less certainty, and in perhaps
better style than was the original done
by Brumidi's great tutor, Nature herself.
Powell, too, is finishing off his tPerry's
Victory" over the Senate stairs. This
is an immense expanse of canvass and
colors, say about ten by fifteen feet. 1t
represents Perryin the act of leaving the
disabled flagship for another, in the heat
| of battle. This has received so much
| unfavorable critscism that we withhold
ours, under strong apprehensions that it
must possess merit. In the history OF
civilization truth and right have SO often
been made the target for the keenest ar
rows of the multitude, that we are dis