The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1878-05-04


betpeen a United States Senator and ea'
drirer-Socinl ResumptiOn-The Belle from
Detroit, and another Belle from Kansas
From our regular Correspondent
This warm weather has the effect 10 create
an adiourning panic in the breast OF many a
member of congress. From physical causes
more easily understood than overcome, Wash
ington is a warmer and more unhealthy locali
ty than many points farther south The capl
tai city Is anything but sanatarium, even in
the winter. and when the wan government
clerk after alternating in sitting furnace
heated Department rooms, and subsisting on
the execrable victuals of cheap boarding houses,
finds himself, on the verge Of hot summer,
inhaling mlasma from the swamps that flank
the city on all sides, he need not be accused of
sentimental biliOusness If he discerns mirages
of tombstones, or feels sensations of cremation
run up and down his back. With the member
of congress it is much the same; he is better
FED than the government clerk, but he lacks
acclimatlon, and the air that he breathcs in the
capital is even more pestilent than that OF the
Departments; and we see men of powerful
physique, like Conkling and Blaine or tough,
wirey veterans, like Christiancy and Howe,
succomb to malaria and subslst on quinine.
In spite of the millions that have been spent
in Washington to make its streets solid and
smooth, and to make its public edifces rival
the architectural splendors of the old world,
the day may yet come when the capital will be
removed to more healthful locality, and when
the New Zelander, or some other fellow, will
wash his fish nets in Babcock's artificial lake,
and calk his boat with pitch from its most arts
tocratic avenues.
Last night, while riding on an F. street car,
your correspondent was edited by converse
ton between statesman and Car drive, which
he will relate rerbatim. As the car passed the
Ebbitt House it was boarded by the dtstingue
military senator from Rhode Island The
Senator was to all appearances in state of
equivocal exhileration, from what good society
calls good living, but what Mr. Murphy calls
by another name, and, from sentences muttered
indistinctly, with eyes half closed it was in
ferred that he was thinking of what he had
recently done or had yet to do, in the cause of
education Suddenly, from IA lurch Of the car
turning a corner or from gesture delivered in
halt-dreamy oratory, his military elbow went
through the glass window, SCATTERING IT into
small pieces. The driver, who is also conduct
or on this line approached him with great po-
likeness and said II don't know but may
be to blame for this accident, but don't think
| was, and the company will deduct half dol
lar from my wages. If was to blame, Of
course | must lose the money" "Of course
you were" said the Senator; but little later
under a magnanimous impulse, he drew from
his pocket twenty-five cents of the remonetized
and extending it to the driver, said, "d-n it,
suppose we divide, that's all the money I've
got" The driver reluctantly accepted the
when the Senator called after
him, IN pay you the rest when | come this
way again. and then resigned himself to the
following soliloquy: ride on these cars three
times a day; guess III take carriage after
this" Then to the driver "Oh! you will
know me; you will see me when you come to
the Capitol, you will find me on the floor, guess
you will recognize my face, and getting off at
the Arlington Hotel he concluded, "Recognize
my face will you? Well, just take keen
look at these whiskers-take a keen look at
these whiskers-y0u will recognize me again,
l guess"
Social gaycty has been resumed with the eX-
piration of Lent, but the weather Is rather warm
for violent dancing, and Washington has been
bcreft of many of its transient bellies, who have
gone home and are making preparations for
the summer resorts, or for Europe Last WIN
ter the best dressed lady at the capital q give
the opinion of another lady who Is a connois-
seur) was young lady from Detroit To be-
eclipsed by lady from a frontier village
caused the bellies of Baltimore and Boston
some surprise. But there is no reason why a.
Detroit modtxte should not have as good taste
as Worth, or be as successful in adjoining the
human form divine. Then there appeared
another belle from Kansas, near the Indian
who made her own dresses, and
was much admired for her style as well as
for her intelligence and thoroughbred manners.
The facts are that the distinctions between ri.
raj and urban people are not so sharply mark
ed as they once were, since now newspapers
and fashion journals penetrate every home,
and the moral is that taste like genius is con
fined to no locality. {. y. >.
whitehall, the fish so priced for its delicacy|
by English cpicures and hitherto supposed to-
be found only in English waters, has appeared
in Now York -.