The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1878-08-08
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.

OuE LutT0OueLeTs nave BeeQ cllmD Dlul
up so high of late that one begins t,
think they have exhausted all alti
tudes, and are now sending down sucl
blasts of sweltering heat as to arouse (
suspicion that this is an installment o
that perennially hot climate which
gives such great concern to Bob Inger
soil and the clergy. It's hot as blazei
here, and our whole population seek the
country. Excursion parties go down
the river and in our beautiful parks tc
escape the suns sweltering rays. The
coming elections, Investigations, Mrs.
jerks, and the Paris Exposition are all
forgotten through the all-absorbing
pressure of a 5'-in-the-shade ther-
mometer.
Our Daily Post is sued for libel. This
paper, under fiaring headlines, re-
Gently announced a painful and very
embarrassing scandal occurring in a
certain Methodist Church in this city,
the parties thereto being one "Britt, a
boOk-binder," and a Miss Julia A. Sim
mons, whose tender heart was throb-
bing with dreams Of heaven and hus-
band, aud whose young girlish nature
felt it necessary to cling to some strong
pillar which promised protection in her
pilgrimage to piety aud paradise, etc.,
all of which appears, by the petition
asking damages, to be unadulterated
fiction, the parties being total strangers
to each other, etc. 1t is doubtless inter-
esting to the Post to contemplate the
notoriety of one suit by Miss Simmons
claiming damages at ten thousand dol
lars, and another by "Brother Britt"
for an equal amount. Had the item re-
ferred to "Julia," not "Julia A." it
would have escaped a suit.
There seems to be an unusual emula-
tion among discharged clerks, employees
and the like, to prefer charges against
their superior officer, bringing on the
inevitable investigations of which this
season was so prolific. For some time
past our Columbia Hospital, one of our
Congressional pets, has been the stage
Of grave inquiry into certain serious
charges of brutality to the inmates on
the part Of DR.. Murphy, the physician
in charge, preferred by a discharged
nurse. Not only has the evidence
failed to sustain the allegations, but the
complainant has ingloriously failed to
appear to sustain them, and our public
mind is relieved from the indignation
excited at the supposed eruelties and
wrongs done to the helpless.
Our defunct Board of Health, which
Congress wiped out of.existence by the
new District government charter, grace
fully submitted recently to the inevitable
by holdings final meeting, at which each
member alluded to the work accom-
plished during the seven years the
Board has been in power. No one who
has noticed the summary manner by
which health nuisances have been
abated, typhoid fevers and smallpox
have been stamped out, and the sani-
tary reforms effected among our ig-
norant colored and white people through
our Board of Health, can, now that it is
gone, refrain from commenting its
labor, and from hoping that its good
works may be continued by the health
officer who succeeds it.
The President has pardoned Charles
Goodman, who was sent from here to
the penitentiary for shooting Sam
Weeden, and thus ends rather exciting
feud. The two WORTHLESS had been warm
friends in the fast circle in which they
moved, but between a bad woman and
worse whisky, they became deadly
[ fighting enemies, aud for several years
our police courts chrOnicled constant
series of assaults upon each other
First one would perforate the other with
bullet, and the wounded man, upOr
recovering, would give a Roland for the
Oliver he got, and as a consequence the
doctor, the police, and the prison au
thorities have had constant charge o
the fellows. Both, however, have be
Gullt AEIouNAAEu AAAGAlhof auu AAAb 4 AN5l
dents pardon Of Goodman, we trust
takes both out of public notice by
terminating their jail-bird career. Oul
roughs in their brawls rarely oblige u
by fatal shooting. We could wei
spare many of them, and we regre
their undoubted longevity for evil.
Mr.. Hayes has removed to the Sol
diers' Home, where he and his admin
istration will remain during tine sum
mer. Nature and art have done 81
much for the Soldiers Home, that NJ
more fitting place for rustication by th,
President can be found in the country
( Martin Van Buren spent many Of hi
summers at Alexandria county, Vir
ginia, at the house of a friend name,
Brown, distant about three miles from
Georgetown. Since the war Calel
Cushing purchased the Brown resi-
dence for a summer-house, but has re
Gently sold it. FELIX.
Washington, D. c., July 10, 1878.
REASONABLE SUPPOsITIoN.-In III