The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-12-22
NEWSPAPER ROW.
THE DULLNEss OF THE CAPITAL
DURING THE HOLIDAYS.
The career of Washington CoFrespOn-
| dent-Hfs Rise, Decline and Final


Especial Correspondence OF the Democrat.I
RIGG's HOUSE.
washington, Dec. IL, 1877. !
Washington in summer vacation is popularity
supposed to be dismal. whereas the fact is there
are few summer resorts moro quietly. pleasant
or more refreshingly given over to dolce far
nieate But in
THE WINTER RECESS OF CONGRESS
Washington Is all that the saddest croaker
could ask. In ordinary times this period Of
suspended animation does not last more than
ten days. But this year we are confronted with
an interregnum lacking only five days of q
whole month. The gayetiss of the Capital arc
hushed and still. Gone is the representative
circus with It's Clown and its Pantaloon.
Gone the senatorial opera bouffe. with it's
comedy of the lingering carpet bagger and it's
tragedy of Conklng in curl papers and a small
sword. Gone, likewise, are the innumerabe
small side shows Of the committee rooms and
the lobbies; the Jobbers. the applicants for
place and the hobBobbers who wear out your
button-holes with boredom that would provoke
homicide il it did not at the same time suggest
suicide. and thus produce what Herbert spencer
would call tao eauipoise of originative forces.
In my tender youth used to forcibly enter
THE sCHooL-HoUsE DURING VACATION
ny luSEeSS III LILO L6hE WIuuuW, sLuu bl5Eb ItNbl
for hours In the solemnity of the solitude that
was sweet because Of the contrast of repose it
afforded to the wonted scene. There were the
desks where so many weary hours had dragged
on leaden feet away-desks hard, angular and
hateful when their occupancy meant task OF
study with the baleful vigilance Of the peda-
gogue to repress every bounding impulse of
youth. But now. in vacation, they were empty.
their grim surfaces betokened no cares. and
there was no pedagogue to molest or make one
afraid.
If one can bring his soul to the point of such
an emotion. he can find balm in the repose of
Washington during recess. There will be at
least a few weeks of respite to the vigilance Of
the news gatherer and of rest to the soles of his
feet, for that the Statesmen whom he must in
tervew have flown and the servants of the peO-
pie, whose wa chful Overseer he must be in his
own estimation, at least-are off duty and do
not require any watching to restrain. them
from the destruction of the country. ! here is
time, then, for glance at subjects which in the
rough and tumble of the active session are
overlooked. When Congress is in session.
Journalism is busy, looking after. it. But now
that Congress Is out, let us look after journal
ism itself little.
When We say
WASHINGTON JOURNALISM
the natural inferenceis that Newspaper Row is
meant, because, unless the new Post fulfis the
hope OF its founders there is no local Journal
ism in Washington of diurnal character.
Enough space, indeed. has been consumed in
writing about
NEWSPAPER ROW
to make that institution a household word in
the land But unfortunately the Row has never
been described as it is. It has been abused on
the one hand by Congresgsme1 who feel called
aggerated by the fancy OF its own votaries on
the other hand. until the country has reached
an even balance of doubt as to whether it
the innqustry q eads
country, @ % as inssparaby part and parcel Of the
fabric as the ballot box itself. Moreover. it is a
most tremendous engine for good or for mis-
chief. working wonders in a noiseless way and
overcoming the age like summer cloud. do
not mean to say that the individual correspond
ent is q formidable person; far from it. Az
plodding youth, mediocre If not modest, and
II he lacks respect for the statesmen who sur
round him he more than makes up for it in the
awe with which he cOntem plates his own man
aging editor at a distance But collectively. and
viewed as a continuous force operating by
gradual processes upon the public mind at
large.
THE WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
is truly formidable; for that he has come to be
the agent of the premises. upon which our po-
litGal p9ilos9ph,y Is ba1ed as,+utons
Row has acquired unto itself q certain code of
unwritten laws, and has come 1mperceptibly
under the operation OF certain organic
the effects of which are apoaren5 On Jngh. but
whose processes do not seem to attract any at
tention whatever. For example: E.ery season
brings one or more new men into the arena.
These are usually young Journalists who have
caught the eye OF the managing editor by clever
work in the home office in all conceivable de-
partments of journalistic industry. from the
diction of powerful editorial to vivid descrip-
tion of a prize fight. l speak from experience
in the latter instance. because the particular
induced Mr.. William Hyde to accredit Ee hither.
five years ago, as the Washington correspond
ent of the st. Louis ReDuthcan was an aesthetic
report | made of the celebrated encounter on
Chouteau Island between Tom Allen and Nike
McC ,ole.
Well, the youth thus selected comes to Wash
ington in the fixed be ief that he is divinely
appointed to usher in the new epoch of cor
respondence. To his untutored mind the capi-
tai of the nation represents veritable male
balge of seething corruption, compared to
which the visi n IF Dante was merely small
basin Of hot pitch sizzling over slow fire; and
OF this bazag In tfrno ne a. Snce ar bpa
the pent-up vapors.
HIS MAIDEN EFFORTS
are, in kind. to be apprehended. With pen
forged out Of the body Of thunderbolt AMI
lightning, he proceeds to deal damnation round
the land On each he judges the foe OF the people
or, discovering the imminent peril of our be-
loved institutions, he leaLs in Gthe breach With
fell resolve TO do or die.
From the female patronage Of tho Treasury
Department to the peanut stands which Keep
com pany with our nat onsl statuarY in the base
ment of the Capitol building. he revels in the
discovery Of abuses and the exposure OF cor
ruption.
But as rule the poison of our novice is its
own antidote, because mis- representations are
so vastly at variance WITH facts that they be-
come grotesque. and so while he fancies that he
is playing the reformer On a colossal sc lie. the
calm reader is voting hna an azaoos n little cuss.
rs the late A. Ward would say. and waiting to
see what his next effort will bring forth NJ an
while he Older heads 20 on in their humdruln
way, doing the sort OF work which goes to make
up the sum of things, and which has its value
in the fact that it ,flls SO nicely r.. into the
current as to make. n 8 sturbance. Tnl5 sum
OF things is what + lis The pyf aniAs OF Egypt
tell no biography of those who Suit fe them; even
sgnalized in re sweat aud toii Of the humble
thousands tug gtng at the great blocks that com.
pose them ar forgot n, tut there they stani
eternal monuments Of aggregated labor. Th.
British En- 1ire. gr4ntest OF all net products Of
human for ee and skill, has no demi-gois en-
shrned III The history Of its origin and hardly
has beer, bu;ldel ny a whole D .opIe. 81, to IL
lustrate. the impapabie by tle palpable, the