The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-09-20
From Our Washington Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, d. c., Sept. 16, 1878.

WASHINGTON, d. c., Sept. 16, 1878.
Tho Summer is dying like the dolphin
bathed in gorgeous hucs, and each sweet
day seems more lovely than the last, and
yet we look back to it as we would at the
last sad smile of departed friends. Like
the closing days of a carnival, the end of
Summer Season is marked by sort of
frenzy. Regret for last opportunities in
tensifies the passion of tho moment. To
do anything with sense of its being too
late is one of the fundamental miscries of
life, which, under its saddest or most gro
tesque aspects, is always recognized by
tho instincts of mankind as infinitely pa
thetic. But if disappointed in expectations,
signing for the "might have been - is of
little avail, and many dream born in the
sweet spring bright as the tinting of
autumn leaves, is dashed to earth as with
the rains which tell us plainly that the
Lent Of the year is approaching. Nature
does penance in dead leaves, so must her
children, although they flower forth in
more luXuriant pleasures next season.
But with the return of the oysters, also
return those who have been spending the
Summer outside the city limits, and the
quiet of the city has been broken the past
ten days by the stay-at-homes welcoming
the return of their friends. What pecu-
liar vanity those people feel who are able
to spend Il few weeks or days away during
the " heated term - Is it not amusing to
hear them talking about the stay -at-homes,
and dilating upon the intense enjoyment at
the " Capes" and "springs?' | wonder
often how many sacrifices are made in
order that these fashion loving people may
crafty their ambition? | wonder, too, if
a good many Of the young ladies through
cut the country do not leave their winter
tinery with the man who has the "three
balls" for his sign, in order to pay their
expenses at the watering places, while they
endeavor to catch "dashing young and
wealthy beau, you know?' Of that sem
tence touches any one in tender spot,
please "axkuse me.") | was informed of
one young lady who tested the efficacy of
the above method, who played her part
well, and thought she had trapped an
English Lord,' and the would-be ''lord ~
congratulated himself on the "brown stone
front" he had so easily captured; but
when that "orful knot" was tied the
'lord " proved to be "five-dolar per
week drygoods clerk" and she-well, she
had "poor but honest parents ~ "And
yet they are not happy
THE "wAwAsET DISASTER
The report of the investigation of the
Wawaset" calamity has been submitted
to the Secretary of the Treasury, and the
Solicitor Of that Department has instructed
the United States District Attorney to
commence suit against all persons or cor
porationS who have incurred penalty or
forfeiture growing out of the management
of the i'll fated steamer. That gentleman
has not yet decided upon the course which
he will pursue; but | suppose it will end
as investigations generally do, in a few
words OF censurc.
NEW STATUTES.
The Congressional Committee on the
revision of the Laws will meet in a few
days to examine the work of the sub-com-
mittee appointed to revise the labors Of the
commissioners, who have now been en-
gagged upon the new edification of the fed
eral statutes since 1866. These commits
sioners have entirely arranged and codi-
fed all the statutes of the United States.
In many portions Of the work they have
radically changed the phraseology and re-
written the laws They have reduced the
number of volumes from seventeen to three.
| Their work, if enacted into a law, will take
the place of all existing statutes, and in
many respects will practically become a
new system of laws.
POLITICAL.
The political pot is boiling fiercely at
present smong the District politicians, and
a strong effort is being made to overthrow
the central committee, whose sway hitherto
has been absolute. "There be many Rich
monds in the field ~ grasping at the flesh
pots, and the daily papers fill their col
umns with reports of meetings where insen-
safe gable and vulgar personal vitupera-
ton make up the sum of oratorical effort
| Certainly no other city can boast of so
much excitement on the eve of an election
as Washington.
On Saturday last the President appoint
ed A. X. Shepherd to be Governor of the
Territory of Columbia, Eico Henry D.
Cooke, resigned. The appointment will
undoubtedly be a source of qualification
to majority of the people in the District,
as Mr. Shepherd at the time of his APP
pointment, was Vice President of the
| VI L uDllC w olhS, anu 1OE Il long
time has spent his whole energies Of body
and mind in making the city of Washing
ton worthy of its name and position, in
which he has succeeded well. He is Il
native of this city. and won his spurs by
hard labor. Gov. Cooke laid down his
trust with the respect and confidence of
the entire community by the conscientious
and painstaking discharge of his duties as
the first Governor of this Territory.
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (?)
Something or somebody is always being
investigated here. And now comes the
petty judiciary. Ostensibly the medita-
tors between the people in the more insig-
nifcent civil disputes, they have gradually
reversed relative positions by becoming
the aggressors. There are three parties to
each suit, and it not unfrequently simpli-
fies matters for bench and bar to divide or
compromise. We are being RECALLED with
Misunderstanding constable here, or
setting some sick family out in the rain
there, an excessive fine, a bill of COSTS by
some inscrutable fatality, always falling on
| the shoulders of the surest pay, which is
general encroachment on the toes of So
ciety, as it were. The Long" commit
tee, as the papers now call it, is still in ses-
sion, but the charges brought out against
the Justices and Constables are, for the
most part. Of that trivial nature which are
only unEearable III the insolate aggregate.
Among the rest are good and true men,
whose official character suffer only through
association. 1t suggests the substitute of
a court of petty jurisdiction, whose actions
cannot be hidden away in the back offices
and lanes of crowded city, where ignor-
ance is considered the legitimate prey of
the "shysters," and roguery so confound-
cd with law.
GENERAL NEWS
Secretary Robson has received letter
from the eminent Prof. Pcterman, of
Gotha, congratuating him on the very
great success of the North Pole expedi-
ton, and saying that the Americans have
eclipsed all other nations with regard to
Polar research, having penetrated nearest
to the Pole, established the navigablity of
the Polar ocean thus far and by finding
drift-wood, musk OK, and making many
other most valuable observations, shedding
81,