Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1874-02-07
GADABOUT'S COLUMN.
Written for the EUening Star.
KNAPP's WARRINGTON.

heads Oh Washington photography, and have
since fallen heir to another book of that class,
Sketches of Public Characters, drawn from
the Living and the Dead" by Sam1L. Knapp,
published in 1880. Knapp was Eewburyport
man, like Cushing, Poore, s argent, and severa
of our hGbitues, who founded the National Re
publican in 1s26, and was one of the pioneers of
American biography, and well acquainte ed with
John Lsthrop and Charles Prentiss, both OF
whom lived in Georgetown, Prentiss publishing
the EederaIist there, and Lathrop dying there
the same year Prentiss ded-I820. Quserly
enough, the man 10 whom Knapp dedicated
this book, Aaron Ward, also died in George
town as late as 1857, after twelve years spent in
Congress. KnapI's book is one of the most con-
scit ntious performances on the Federal society
in the second Adams administration. "FOr
the city of Washington" says Knapp, "Mr.
Adams has done more than any of his predeces-
sOTs ever did. He was surrounded by men who
had no sympathy for one another; they were
paired, not matched and brought together by
foItuitOus circumstances; the party he served
so heartily were not satisfied with one who
would administer the government without be-
ing Influenced by party, avowing openly that a
party administration was the true genius of a
republican government"
III says OF a national university: ga national
university to be established in this city was
contemplated by Washington. HIS views were
expanded and noble. The university was not
only to be one in name, but in truth, place of
letters and sciences, with the arts, both useful
and ornamental in their train; place where all
that is known should be taught. Such uniyer-
sity would be the resort for men of taste and
leisure, who with their families would come to
attend the lectures of the professors of the uni
veTsity: as none but distinguished men could
hold these Offices"
OF Capelano, who made the has relief of the
rescue OF John Smith in the rOtunda of the
Capitol, he says: "He had seen more Italians
than Indians, and his sayages are italian ban
ditti, and his intended child of the forest an
Here is something not now seen around the
White House: "On the southeastern side of the
wall there is stone arch for a gateway; it looks
from the antiquity of the style and the color of
the material as if il had stood centuries. Two
large ancient weeping willows, one on each side
OF the arch, add much to its venerable appear
ance. They are older than the national cOnsti
tuition or the city's charter, provincial seedlings
now national monuments"
We find also that there was a WdsIip0t0H
ChTOnicle here in JacksOn's administration, and
in Madison's The Hire and The Senator. This
description of Washington still holds good -
Washington Is the center of all this hustle,
the very ear OF Dionysius, in which every re-
mote whisper is reverberated. The complaints
of the great and little are all heard here the
feeble who mutter, but dare not speak aloud; the
bold who rave in their disappointments and in
woke the curses of the upper and better world,
are also heard"
The following early books are alluded to by
Knapp as published in Washington or relating
TO its. Budgets Statistics OF the Federal
City; b. WOOd~ard's Work on the Substance OF
the Sun; Mrs. Harrison Smiths two novels ga
Winter in Washington and "Whst is Gentil-
Ity;' DIR. Thomas Ewells Chemical Discusses;
DR.. j. Ewells Medical Companion; Thomas
Laws Book on the Currency.
There are sketches in this book of the father
OF Bancroft Davis and Of Walter Jones.
NOBLE HURDLE. oBIT FEBRUARY 5, 1874.
The old man counted Dinety-four-
His years OF gentle living
And passed away, with nothing more
For giving or fOrgiving.
His grandsOns' grandsOns saw his smile,
AS pleasant and as tender,
As when the cannOns of the French
he heard at \ Orks surrender.
The gracious climate nursed his age,
The kindly heart assisted,
Though life had turned the middle page,
When for the war he listed,
And made good time the helds across
The which he told with candor,-
What day the British, under Ross,
Alarmed We Marylander.
He knew the oldest Indian trails
That led about Swampoodle,
Long ere the war chiefs of the West
Came East to Yankee Doodle;
Real NacOstines that hshed the Branch,
And robbed like Black or Vandal,
But never stripped the clothes lines bare
TO hide their naked scandal.
Alas! the printer could not claim
That mind that Lethe girdles,
When round the ring of Presidents
His memory leaped the hurdles;
And noble in his look and name,
And to his country loyal,
The century almost gave descent
And made his lineage royal.
He saw the soldier of the race
The Magistrate by nature,
The great stone IN the corner place
With gravest word and feature,
And with the eye of private faith
God kept him at his station,
To see arise from slOth and scath
The city OF the nation.
His household tax the town forgave,
And all the Council signed il,
AS one who had Outlived the grave,
And frightened death behind it.
How beautiful in so much strife,
Where all is transitOry,
To see so sweet and long life
Flow like fairy story
Green be his rest where he may hear
Rock creek run down the valley,
A all his life it turned the mills,
So strong and unsteady.
- chapel belli most tender speak
To college chimes replying,
Ard all for once be Catholic
AT such an old mans dying.
PRoFEssoRsHIPs OF JOURNALISM
The daily newspapers are making some ado
| over the establishment OF professorships OF
| journalism at Cornell University and Washing
ton and Lee Colleges. This criticism generally
arises from uneducated men afraid of competi-
ton as public writer's | have the fullest ap-
Il
| success. Journalism must correct journalism.
| Some education and social responsibility is ne
cessary for profession so absolute as that of a
| public writer who abdIcates rarty restraint,
| erects his eDginery into a stock company ard
| revives that period succeeding the feudal sys-
TEN when outlaws took possession of all the i'm
| pregnable castles. Character which is the next
thing TO liberty for governments to insure to the
possession of the citizen, is cheaper to-day than
| in the history OF the world, and we have passed
for the worse the opinion of Jefferson, that 'the
newspapers had become power in the fedora
| ton indispensable to the existence of freedom
| and nearly incompatible with the maintenance
| OF public oruer."
That colleges Of learning should have shown
| the fOrethought to correct, chasten, and refine
| a calling already claiming, in advance of any
| special culture, to be one of the learned pro-
LESSONS, is to their credit. Newspaper proprie-
| tors of the present day are generally retired
| printers or business organizers, who must avail
| themselves of any tramp that comes along, and
have no choice over their agents. When edu-
| Gated young gentlemen OF habits, sensibility,
| and judgment are trained up for these proprie-
tors a good manv dead-beats now considering
! themselves qualified to measure the world in
their whisky flask, will recommence "journai-
ISM at the state capitals and county court
bOusee IL ought to be possible to educate a