The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1878-10-31
Wasllin gtOn Letter.

WAsHINGToN, d. c., Oct. %, 1878.
The telegraph brings the welcome
news that the yellow fever is waning
at Memphis and soon will have dis
under the chilling touches
of Jack Frost. We know by personal
and observation in 1873
the horrors of a Memphis epidemic
and for the few who remained there
this season to lead a fOrloru hope
against the King of Terrors in that
horrible struggle for life given by the
yellow fever we have had most ear
nest sympathy and fellow feeling.
Many friends have succumbed. One,
DIR. VIM. II. Lowry, physician who
began treatment of yellow fever dur
ing the Mexican War, and since has
been in more or less annual contact
with it, to our intense surprise and
pain, was not proof against the disease
and his name too is inscribed in the
roll of the dead. Mr.. Tomoncy,
lawyer, who in the past made Wash
ington his home during the sitting of
Congress with all his family, is also
among the dead. To the few who sur
vive is due the greatest praise for
their courage. One of these, J. NJ.
Heating, Editor of the Appeal, seems
to bear charmed life. In 1867 he
was in daily contact with Cholera and
Yellow Fever, the same in 1873 and
this year was at times the only one of
his force at work in the office. Acting
as editor, composition, clerk, &C., he
labored necessarily upon his paper
and among the sick and afflicted, and
we are thankful indeed that such a
brave, loyal man has been spared by the
destroyer. Memphis seems doomed
city. Plague has swiftly followed
plague, sweeping thousands out of ex-
istence and crushing out and paral-
wing all trade and business and though
revival has followed yet it has not
been of that permanent type which be-
gets Improvement in values and in
crease of population. In 1866 the
Gayoso House was the largest hotel
III Memphis; in 1873 it was given up
to squatters. Other hotels were aban-
doned, and on every hand were other
indications of decay and abandonment.
How can it recover from the fearful
blow of 1878? We fear it is impossi-
BILE.
Ford's Theater, in which Mr.. Lin
coin was killed, and which has since
been used by the Government as an
army medical museum, was found this
summer to be in a most unsafe cond1-
ton. 1t was a mere shell erected upon
the weakest of foundation walls, and
there is every reason to suppose that
had it been continued IN use as a the
ater, some terrible accident would be-
fore this haye occurred, through the
breaking or collapsing Of its walls
under the pressure given by some
large audience. In view of it's inse-
curity the wonder is that it has not
already fallen down. Thorough re-
pairs have been made and the building
is now regarded as safe for the pur-
poses of the Surgeon General.
The new State House is being slow
ly finished and by March next the
War and Navy Departments can be
removed to it. Congress is to blame
for the slow progress made towards
completion of this magnificent as well
as essential building, for instead of
appropriating enough to finish it in
one year, the funds requisite have been
doled out in such manner as to stop all
work one half of each year. How not
to do il, is somewhat the rule govern
ing appropriations unless votes are to
be gained. Then, as with the River
and Harbor bill, the merest schoolboy
fishing stream, where a pin hook suf-
fees to catch the largest minnow
therein, can secure slice of plumber
if some member demands it. Dean
Stanley when visiting here said he re-
garded this new State building as the
finest official structure he had ever
seen, and that it was one of which
Americans had cause to be proud.
The Capitol begins to show signs Of
life as the workmen are busted max
ing the usual repairs and preparations
for Congress. Proper ventilation of
the House Of Representatives is the
most difficult problem in the whole
m after of repairs at the Capitol. Ey-
cry year some new scheme is devised
only to be abandoned, and there is con-
slant complaint by members at the
impure air which fills the chamber
during the daily sessions. We fear
that bad air is the scape-goat for every
i'll afllicting our solons. The more
dissipated the member, the greater his
indulgence in liqucr and tobacco in
and out of the Hall. the greater his
condemnation of the imperfectness of
ventilation. A member whose diet at
home is of plainest food and whose
regularity of habits Is precisely what
is needed to give him rugged health,
enters our hotels, feasts at all hours of
the day and night upon the richest Of
yiauds, and abandons all exercise and
regularity. i'll health necessarily fol-
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