National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-09-09
THE RFTURNTNG SEASON

Even now, Wllle the september suns are
almost as fierce and unrelenting as those of
July and August, we begin to see with the
changing hues of the foliage of our avenues
and parks the signs of the return Of the
coming season, when the glories of New
port and Long Branch and Saratoga shall
pale before the splendors and entertainments
of our Capital winter. All the long sum-
mer months we have been in sort of
mourning and desolation; the Capitol de-
serted, the Departments silent and gloomy,
tenanted only by drowsy messengers and
plodding clerks, and methodiCal bureau Off
GERS, pouring over the never ending columns
of figures and the ever-open ledgers, sign
ing and countersigning those ever-increas-
ing mountains of routine documents which
every mornings mail brings from all quar-
tiers of the Union and all corners of the
globe. We have missed the busy Congress
man and the sedate Senator on his morning
round of duty from Department to Depart
ment, attending, as the phrase goes, to the
interests of his constituents. But now q
faint rustic of business is heard in the hotel
corridors; Newspaper Row is welcoming
back its wanderers; the Avenue-our great
Avenue, which has become as famous in
its way as the Partisan Boulevards, asso-
ciated with many of the most memorable
events in our history, with regiments
marching to the great war, and the return
of the legions of the North, with Jefferson
and Jackson and inaugural professions for
more than seventy years-the Avenue is
beginning to look bright with a new life,
to hustle with an activity to which it has
been for months and months a stranger.
What dull and dreary summer we have
had. No excitement about the Board of
Public Works, no injunction suits, no torn
up streets. the sounds of the hammer and
the rolling machine and the angry mutter-
ings of the sullen opponents of the city's
advancement and improvement-all hushed
and silent as if they had never existed.
The old form of government passed away
as noiselessly as the morning dew Of June,
and our new rulers came to US as softly and
gently as the buds and flowers and verdure
in the parterres of the Treasury. That
they have shed around them the same sweet
fragrance we are not altogether certain; for,
day after day, have we not witnessed scores
and hundreds of patriotic cOntrite contrac-
tors around the Columbia building in any
thing but a cheerful frame of mind, and
have not some dozens of courtly, accom-
plished clerks been politely requested to
leave the handsome walnut desks and the
soft, springy carpets which the enterpris-
ing Mcknight had placed there at such an
immense sacrifice to himself, merely as the
evidence of his taste and civic pride in
the capital of his country? But we forgot.
The midsummer brought US a solitary SEN
sation. There was the Taxpayers AssO-
citation, representing some dread, mysterious
power, and welding, in its own imagina-
ton at least, a terrific influence, arraying
itself against the new Commissioners, lay
ing siege to the Four-and-a-half street
fortress, where the naughty Shepherd had
ruled with imperial sway, only to be re-
pulsed and baffled as they had been so many
times before. 1t was a cold and cruel piece
OF business on the part of Mr.. Dennison
anu MI DlOM anu MI hGlCLdLl. Oluu I
Columbus and Jesse Wilson and the sweet
and exemplary Rives who never had
selfish motive in his life, bring about the
grand revolution which elevated them to
powerF Was it grateful in the new trium-
Virate to reject the disinterested friendship
Of these guileless patriots, whose only desire
was to protect their fellow-citizens and Sc
cure fair proportion of the patronage and
emoluments for that deeply absurd minority
over which Mr. Shepherd had so ruthlessly
tyrannized; upon whose necks he had so
long held his iron heel?
THE little episode referred to has been
almost the only break in the dull monotony
of our summer life. Since Congress left
US to return to their terrible districts
and their dread constituencies with their
fierce rivalries and animosities and inten
tons, to answer for sins of omission and
commission, we have been, comparatively
speaking, forgotten by all the world. The
national eye, which had been turned to-
ward US during so many months OF investi-
cation, or, as Mr.. Morton would say, intro
spection, swung round in another direction,
and the able editors who during so many
days and nights sat in their editorial chairs
and applied to US so many endearing terms
suddenly began to contemplate the fall
elections and the sweet and tender evil
dences of Christian goodness in the serene
and beatiic atmosphere Of Brooklyn. We
ceased to be sensation. The long columns
which told about the doings of the ''Dis.
trict ring" come to us filed with the de-
tails of the Beecher scandal Shepherd
gave place to the Plymouth pastor, and. in
stead of blackmailing politicians, we were
told about a matchmaking editor and his
wicked partner, the freeloveism of Wood
hull, the simplicity of Bessie, the falling
from grace of that icicle of propriety-the