The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1879-12-06

(Fnm Our Regular corrsspondent.)

From Our Regular Correspondent
WAsHIEGToE, d. c., Nov. %, 1879
For the last two weeks Congress has
been breuing in the air, and the hotels
and boarding houses have more than Q
quorum. The heart of the city throbs
with new life. The avaricious faces
of the shopkeeper, the bartender, and
the innumerabic host who have rooms
to let are lighted with the expectation
of gain. The Departments, and Gov
erument clerks we have nearly always
with MS. Congress comes and Con-
gress goes and these 60 on forever.
But Washington is never really herself
socially, morally, immortality and po-
liticafly except during the congressional
session.
IA common remark is: !" What a
splendid capital we will have in five,
ten, or twenty years." Architectural
improvements are in constant progress.
Millions have been expended to make
smooth and solid the streets. Parks
have been laid out in every section of
the city. Forests of trees have been
planted. Colossal bronze equestrian
statues mount guard in the squares and
circles. Fountains, flowers, and foliage
contend with the miasma of surround
ing swamps to make this unfortunate
locality an urban paradise. But the
surrounding swamps and physical ge-
ography are more patent than congress
sional appropriations on the enterprise
of real estate holders. We will have
o splendid capital when the seat of
government shall be moved to locality
more favored by nature, and this re-
moval will probably take place much
sooner than is anticipated. The polit-
ical significance of the next census will
soon be felt in Congress. In five years
the questions of Solid North and Solid
South viii have ceased to agitate and
distract the country. The Solid West
will loom up, and not even the North
and South solidified can prevent that
unsentimental section from removing
the capital thousand miles from the
Tomb of Washington. But the North
and South cannot be solidified on this
question. What objection viii Texas
make, or any State whose borders are
washed by the Mississippi or the GULF
Tennessee and Kentucky have the pre-
ponderance of wealth and population
in their western sections. New Eng
land, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland,
Virginia, the Carolinas, and, possibly,
PENNSYLVANIA and New York are all
that can be relied upon for solid oppo-
sition to the westward movement. 1t
would seem at FIRST thought a Titanic
task to remove the group of palaces
that compose the National, Legislative
and Executive Departments, but the
work will be easy when compared with
the transportation feats of the Egyp-
tians 5000 years ago. The cost wenld
be less than the sum Louis XIV. ex-
pended ON Versailles. With modern
appliances the removal might be ac-
complished in five years. The reluc-
lance of Congress to improve the har-
bors and drain the pestilent swaups
that environ Washington is found in
the secret conviction that this is not
the abiding city of the nation, and that
it is poor economy to expend treasure
on temporary habitation.
In the Congress that will convene on
next Monday the democrats will have
a majority Of eight in the Senate and
seven in the House.