The Wichita city eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1872-1883, 1876-06-29

Heights. and you have the prominent
! features of the charming picture be-
held and enjoyed by us that morning
after our very long and tedious jour
ney from the land of the setting sun.
Since our arrival in the city we have
Systematically disposed of our time
solely with view to enjoyment. A
saunter up Pennsylvania Avenue was
terminated at the pile of marble from
whose many lahyrinths go forth the
words that govern the American peo-
pie. An hour with the assembled dig
nitv and wisdom of the Nation, as per-
soniiied by the Senate, and another
hour in The arena of political battles
and graveyard of ambitious politi-
! clans. where some western Congress
man was vainly paving the air in his
frantic endeavors to be heard by his
three hundred fellows, who paid no
attention TO him, satisfied US, when
we proceeded TO show our better half
all the wonders OF that wonderful
building, from the top of its 800 foot
dome to the crypt beneath the founda-
ton, where is kept the catafalque that
| held the remains of the immortal Lin
coin, as also to dwell upon the mag
nificence of the marble room, the elc-
gance of the Presidents room and the
richness and taste of the Supreme
Court room with its long, dark silken
robes, and the hundred other rooms
and things which show the handiwork
of genius and art TO be found within
those mighty walls.
After an hour or so spent at the
Botanical Gardens, where flourishes
the vegetation of every known cline,
we sought Our hotel, thoroughly tired
out In the afternoon Governor Os-
born, who is in the city with his wife,
called; later, Judge W. r. Brown,
our Congressman, and III the evening
Senator Ingalls, with carriage, when
the day was ended by delightful
drive about the city. We might re-
mark here that when SO far away from
home one is glad to see anybody that
he has ever known, even if they are
only servants of the people, such as
Senators, Governors and Congress
men, but we hope they won't see this
last ''put in" for really we were ever
SO glad of the kind attentions shown us.
Washington City, as all of your
readers know, is the finest city of its
size in America; but really the i'm
provements that have been made since
the old Democratic party went out of
power, especially since the close of the
war, is wonderful. 1t presents 4 per-
feet maze of beautiful parks, orna-
mented with fountains and statuary,
aud miles upon miles of the finest
paved avenues, shaded by beautiful
trees and studded with palatial mar
bic and brown stone front residences.
| Clean, sweet and cool in spite of mid
summer, the grandly shaded avenues,
and drives. and public grounds of
smoothly shaven grass and fragrant
| flowers. the whole city at this season
of the year seems like the work of en-
chantment. And then, to add to the
| general charm and interest of drive,
arc the massive Government Depart
mental buildings, scattered here and
there, taking up whole squares and
cutting of streets with their towering
columns of Grecian architecture. To
| attempt a description of some of the
residences palaces we had better say
put up hero III the last few years,
woh.d take up columns of space. As
for the new State Department build
ing, being erected on the square west
OF the White House, it is magnificent
ly beautiful beyond description or
COMPLEMENTARY as the day dream
of a castlo-builder 1t will be, it is
said, the finest building of the Kind in
the world when finished. The lega-
lions of the aristocratic Governments
of Europe roll along these avenues,
handed about and attended by liyeried
servants, in all the pomp and circum-
stance of hereditary power and mod
ern gold and lace, but when they stop
to wonder at and admire the accom-
plished facts of this young Nation our
patriotic pride naturally swells little.
But enough of this,
Yesterday morning we boarded the
Potomac steamer for Mount Vernon,
the old homestead and present tomb
OF Washington. Nearly two hundred
strangers, principally over from the
Centennial, accompanied by band of
music, were aboard. We were sur
prised and delighted to meet some
Wichita folks Oh the steamer, Mr..
Todd and his wife and Patty" and
Miss Lulu McCabe. Mount Vernon is
in a much better state of repair than it
was at our last visit, but we were en-
tirely lost to the spirit of the place
and its sacred associations from watch
ing the ridiculous actions of the crowd
and listening to the extravagant re-
marks OF many of its members. The
curiosity seekers, with their note
books, were as good as show. One
wonderfully wise fellow had the whole
crowd tagging after him, telling and
explaining everything. The way he
dilatcd upon some of the furniture and
other relics would have been interest
ing to g. w. himself. But when he
came to explain that even the boards
on the outside of the house were the
same that were put on by Washing
toms darby carpenter we could stand
it no longer. We just locked wise and
said it was all too thin: that we had
seen these boards being put OH six
years ago. This coup d'etat trans
ferred the crowd to ourselves, when
we led them out TO an old stump and
assured them that it was the last of
tho original cherry tree about the de-
struction of which old man Washing
ton said to the hero of the little hatch
ct, that it were better to tell thou
sand lies than cut down one good
cherry tree. A fellow in the crowd
| think he was Boston Yankee-inti-
mated that we had things mixed, but