Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1876-03-02
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
Special Correspondence.

SpeCldl Correspondence
WASHINGTON, d. c., Feb. %, 1876.
On the Odd inst, vivacious AleXan-
dria doffed her widows weeds for the
first time since the collapse of the re-
belliOn, and with much pageantry Gel
ebrated the anniversary of Washing
toms birth. Baltimore, the District
and adjacent communities of Maryland
and Virginia, contributed largely to
the festivities by the presence of thou
sands of their private citizens and their
military. A carnival, including pro-
cession of the military, trade and civic
organizations was the great feature of
the occasion. The veneration and es-
TEEN with which Virginia's first and
latter day patriots are regarded, and
the exact position which they occupy
in the widows bereaved heart was in
geniously and mOdestly indicated by
the pictures of Washington, surround
ed by those of Lee, Beauragard and
Jackson, and others of that kidney,
adorning many house-fronts. The pro-
motion of social enjoyment was assidu-
Ously attended to by the geptlemanly
restaurant-keepers SO successfully that
an OLD resident or visitor was frequent
ly seen reeling under the weight of
patriotic memories, his ardent spirits
stimulating and bringing out the fra
ternizing tendencies of the day to such
an extent that the usual feeling of aver
sion 10 policeman gave place to one of
good will, and he would escort one,
two or three of them, arm in arm,
about town until some station house
was reached, when he would playiully
desert them and retire to some place
within, to sleep, perchance to dream.
Still another, less fastidiouS or more
ardently devoted TO republican sim
plicity and the perfect equality of all
races, id nigger's excepted with
some facetiOus Introductory remark
about always occupying the best place,
would diSpoSSesS some itinerant hog of
his palatial sleeping apartment in the
gutter.
The gloom and dependency sur
rounding the Democratic hosts, has
been notably increased 10y the verdict
in the Babcock case. The trial Was TO
have "panned out" SO richly with
radical corruption" shown to have
its source and chief abettor in the
White Honse, that the revulsion of
feelings-the alienation from brightest
hope to keenest despair has quite given
them dreadful time, indeed. 1t is
asserted that some of the more enthu-
siasric reformers here staked and, of
course, lost heavily on the result. Their
nervous manner and hysterical merri-
ment only rendered their ehagrin more
apparent. The acquittal of Gen. Bah
cock, by jury OF st. Louis, where
whisky cOnspirators have not met the
least favorable consideration, has
proved as gratifying to that officials
friends as it has mortifying to that por-
tion of the Democratic and "independ-
ent"(?) press, which from the moment
of his irdictmnt, in advance of any ev-
idence, convicted (and executed, so far
as they could) him Of every sin men
toned in the decalogue.
The selection of st. Louis as the place
of meeting Of the Democratic nomi-
mating convention is regarded as an in
dication of the ''rag-baby's" vigorous
health, although it is claimed to be a
compromise between the most extreme
intiatiunists who hoped by bringing it
together in OJio to Over5hadow aud
indOctrinate it with the crazy views so
rampant among her DemocI acy, aud
the hard-money Democrat who desired
10 inject into it II pf0phylactic, only
possible surrounded by New England
or New York atmosphere. However,
that may be, it Is, 20 far rs can learn,
accepted as "tirst blood" for "Neighbor
Pliable" Hendricks who is so evenly
balanced on the financial fence di.
viding the East from the West that the
first divided wind from any quartz
will send him of to leewarL, and Gov.
Tilden whose war against the canal