The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-07-30

ores, to Hoodvink the People.
WASHINGTON. July 81, 1874.
cit here in my cool, comfortable
room and read of the trials and tribula-
,;ons to which my dear friends at the sum-
ner resorts and watering places are sub
iect, l can't help wondering why otherwise
sensible people permit themselves to be
driven by fashion to sacrifice their comfort
in this absurd and expensive manner and
I regret less than ever that duty ties me
down to this particular spot, and wisely
determine to see whether the pleasures
within reach do not outweigh those fur
nished at so much per day to the absent
devotees of that fckle divinity amusement.
A carriage comes bowling up the street,
stops at my door, and five minutes after
I'm seated iu it and am off on a tour of in
spection. We 60 a couple of squares, and
are brought up short by a'precipice of
eight feet: one of the streets left in this
unfinished condition by the late lamented
Board OF Pubic works.
We turn back, take the avenue, and
stop to take a good look at B. T. Buffers
new h~ouse.near the Capitol, People with
a taste for gingerbread ornaments do not
admire this building but to me the soft
gray of the stone, and the chaste white
penciling, bring to mind the day when the
first genuine Quaker lady crossed my vi.
sion, and took my fancy captive forever by
the demure beauty of face, form and dress,
Rumor has it that, when the building is
finished, government will rent it for the
use of the Coast Survey and as it prom.
ises to be both large and convenient there
may be truth in the report.
We pass on to first street west, and ad-
mire A. r. Shepherds elegant row Of
houses, built on and over the Tiber, talto'
Goose Greek, and formerly to Washington
what the slough is to Rock Island
praise the spirit of Improvement, as exhib-
tied by Mr.. Shepherd but Jack smiles in
that provoking way o his, and asks wheth'
err I've heard how the owners came to sell
the ground upon which the buildings stand.
| acknowledge ignorance, and hear that
they were told that the stream would be
arched over at the expense of the proper
ty owners that they, unable to raise such
an amount, sold the ground at one and a
half to two cents per foot, and that then
the work was done and the cost charged
to the city-an explanation which opens
my eyes to the value of business talent
at once.
And now we come to a hotel which sports
the red, black and gold sign of the
Teutonic origin of its proprietor and guests;
and, passing slowly, half a dozen of the
seedy, dilapidated looking specimens u n
der the trees on the sidewalk are pointed
out to me as bearing some OF he most
high. sounding names of the German no.
bility. Politics, debts, intrigues, or even
worse, have driven them from their homes
to find themselves, like fishes out of water,
in a strange, hostile element, unable to find
work they could do, and too proud to dc
what they find drifting, sinking into, first
the genteel hummer, hen the low casta-
way, and finally the pauper buried in Pot.
ter's field.
There is one among them whom | recog-
nize as having met in GA, at a musical
soiyee attended by statesmen, officers, and
people of means generally, with whom he
seemed to be upon terms of familiarity.
Since then he has gone down in the scale
of social existence, until now he does no,
probably know where his next meal Is to
come from and ,his while his children
occupy high positions in the old home, and
mourn him as long since dead.
The thought makes me sad and when
Jack asks me whose eat is dead now, (he
,cU talk slang and | tell him my feelings,
he shrugs his shoulders and. says that our
country is a bad place for noblemen, unless
they are wise enough to marry some of our
rich girls, and escape the necessity OF earn
ing a livelihood in that manner.
anu III" VIC pass inc Treasury, tue
home of g~reenbacks, Sanborn contracts,
and Spinner's signature. If walls could
speak what a story, stranger than any in
vented by Bulwer or Dumas, they could
tell! When Congress, finding that moth
ing had been accomplished by them dur
ing the session, out of which political cap
ital could be made, fell back upon the old
worn dodge Of cutting down the working
forces OF the departments, they filed these
same walls with scenes and incidents of a
heart-rending nature. As the different
papers have given q history of those days,
L shall not recapitulate it, and will only
add that those Members who had been
loudest IN urging the measure, were quick
est to come and uphold their " appoint
ees, thus causing the greater part of the
discharged to be reappointed within the
first three days.
Among the sufferers was a lady by the
name OF Dawes, who was discharged on
account of a supposed relationship with
the NJ. c. of that name who had put
the screws rather severely upon
Mr.. Richardson. She called upon Mr..
Dawes, TO her a stranger,) stating the
case, who at once made her cause his own,
and bad Der reinstated the same day.
But my prescribed space is filed, and
I've not given One-fourth of the trip. If.
nothing of more Importance occurs for re-