Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1876-01-29

vent fraud or lhett' and to choke caDdalS
when were not Kept alive by sheer false
hood.
"Now," continued the Boss" If ycu please
we will step into the library. John, bring
some wine and seltzer."
Arrived in the library, Q volume of reports
was accessible. Turning the leaves, Mr..
Shepherd resumed:
1.-The amount OF work done in those three
years-the three years when was vice pres
ident OF the board-was immense III Won
will take down these figures, showing the
number of miles of new pavements, Sc wers,
&C, which were laid GU VIII get some notion
of it: MLes
SuIpstone. 49, '.'..' -.'''.....'.....15
Brick sidewalks. ...-.-.................2Dl
Flag and concrete sidewalks ...
Gravel roadway. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. AK
stone paVemenIs .......'.........-..... %
Concrete pavements. ...................S 50
WOOD paNements. .................. 30
Main sewers laid. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. II
Smaller sewers laid, about........... -
" aVeI aualh '''.'.......'........... 80
Amount grading done. 3 ,O0O,0OO cubic var Is
81 personally overlooked the expenditure
for every part OF this work. And pushed
the work, tOo--work which had To be done
and which no one else had had the courage
TO undertake. We cOnsummated the new
grades around the Patent Office and the Post
Office. We made that cut on the east side of
the Capitol which led to the grading of the
new Capitol grounds. In former years when
the railroad tracks ran right across Pennsyl-
vania avenue in front of the iron fence
which surrounded the old Capitol Park, /
had seen the approach TO the Capitol blocka-
ded repeatedly by cattle trains, so that car
riaees full OF people in waiting occupied
Whole square. So, one night, / organized a
gang of men and tore up tho track. L did
that without authority of law, but 1t was
the right thing TO do, and the nuisance
would not otherwise have been removed.
"With similar disregard of red tape did
away with the wretched Old market building
which stood in the center of what is now
Mount Vernon Square, at the junction of 7th
street and Massachusetts avenue This
affair was so singular" said the Boss"
laughing, "that am in doubt whether TO
describe it to you"
al think you had better tell of it, by all
means"
1.-The ID old shed was so hldeous that
il had TO come down. and | so notified the
proper authorities. They immediateiy en-
gagged counsel and arranged for an injunction
the next day. j heard of this in season, and
got friend 10 take the only judge then in
the city out for drive. told hi to return
late. The Judge went with my friend. Wnile
they were away pulled the market down.
Really, however, had the best sanction. A
law had been on the statute books of the Dis
tTict for fifteen years authorizing and in
stTuctiDg the Commissioner of Public Build
ings TO remove the building. He had never
awaited himself OF his privilege under the
law. You would hardly recognize the site of
he ancient nuisance to-day.
THAT afternoon the Chief OF Police sent
me word TO be aware of mob. That night
fifteen Dc grOes armed themselves with mus
kets- came 10 my house and offered to guard
il: The darkies were always very good
friends OF mine"
"But, reverting TO the work that was
done, how is IL, Governor, that so many
streets are laid with this rotting NicolsOl
pavement"
THAT is not my fault nor the fault of the
rest of The Commissioners, l assure you.
me property-owners protested at first
many localities they were almost unani-
mOusly in favor of wood. In X street, where
l lived, everybody knew about wood pave
ments, and pretty nearly everybo dis
trusted concrete. / myself took ground at
The start against stone and wood, and in IA
YOr OF concrete, but could not draw the ma
lority over to my way of thinking. There
had 10 be compromise with the people who
owned houses and lots, and, as you have
seen, we put down fifty miles of wood pave
ment 10 thirty miles OF concrete"
"Ihe property owners reason was the on
~ one?"
Certainly"
'There was no Job nor cheat2"
"NOne whatever"
"Yet you are spoken of as a very rich man,
GOVERNOR and people say that you have
mace most OF your money since You became
when 1 entered that board" responded
the Boss, 81 was worth 100000. When 1
came out Of 1t had just about So, 900 less"
"Since then it has not been difficult for me
to make SlC0, 900 year In real estate. / am
constantly accommodating that, and disposlng
pl III IOr d Dullu houses and sell
them. take it that this is a perfectly, ie-
Ultimate, not In the least fraudulent, thing
TO do"
You pick out good locations for these
Always. will show you one whole block,
consisting of thirty-five wellings. The block
I, h, stu unfinished, but all but two of the
Really, governor" remarked, after
scanning his face and meditating on his as
snred and undertaking manner, "you are, If
binary man. L an. almost disposed to In
quiTe Into your ancestry"
my grandfather and my great uncle set
tied on the Potomac just before the revolu.
tionaTy war. My great uncle, Frank, was q
mate under Paul Jones in La Bonnie Homme
Richard, the celebrated privateer. My father
came to Washington about 1884 and car
ried on large lumber business. In 1916
came here with my mother. was then IL
years old. Soon after that, quitting school,
went TO work In a grocery, after wards In a
shoe store, and then at carpenters work. L
stuck at that trade for two or three years,
aud In the meantime my mother opened a
boarding house, opposite the old 9th-street
church: That was the beginning. The rest
OF my life has been mostly spent In Wash
ipgton."
Towards noon next day the Governor called
with chaise, and sped through the new cap
ital, explaining TO me many of the alter
ations. IL is impossible TO deny to this man
the credit OF an achievement which, consid-
eTing the preliminary conditions and physi-
sends that of Hausmann in modern Paris
Hausmann had the empire at his back
Shepherd, the Washington Boss, was OBJ
posed by Congress, and had all he could
do TO stitie the prejudices of Old, and the
resentment OF new, taxpayers. To carry
out his plans he was compelled In numer-
GUS Instances TO defy the laws and pub
Tic sentiment. AS we rode he polluted
out, here and there, places where every
thing would have been stayed had it not been
for the resolution which OVERRIDE all consid-
erations but current necessity. Injunctious,
protests, threats, these seem to have been or
no avail against the relentless rush and
hurry OF Shepherds 600 shovelers, pick axe
men, paviers and teamsters. Driving to-
wards the Naval Observatory, he Indicated
the streets and avenues that had been laid
out In that direction, and said:
my plan was, up to the time when was
Super eded, to remove that observatory and
rae the hill Ii sits on. Tue observatory is
useless where il Is. Already the jar of
neighborlDg thoroughfares disturbs 1t, and
renders observations untrustwOrthy IL
ought TO be put across the river. Tnen the
hill could be utilized for the most beneficent
purpose. / would dump IL by car Is full into
The marsh just beyond, at the edge of the POI
tomac. 1t would fill up that marsh, which
is, and has been for years, the source OF all
the malarial diseases in Washington, and 1t
would create river front for commerce."
The Oli lnpLyai an "a IA nd