The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-12-18
Washington Letter.
From our regular correspondent.l

meet to adjourn. They have adj
journed almost every day after 45
minutes labor, and have crowned the |
pyramid of adjournments with reso.
luton to adjourn from the 10th inst |
until January 6. An old salt re-
marked that, at sea, a dead calm was |
the precursor of big storm. If the |
nautical sign is applicable to an
American Congress, we may look for
q big political earthquake or first
class simeon when the flags are run
up over the Capitol after the states
men have returned from eating the
rural rooster and the aristocratic tur
key of the holidays. In looking over
the House committees we were struck
with the strange mutations of time.
Fifteen years ago Gen. Joe Johnson,
one of the most skilful of the Con
federate Generals, commanded Con-
| federate army, and was striving with
all his power to destroy or disorgonise
the army of the United States. To-
day he is member of the Military
Committee of the House of Rep
resentatives, and chairman of the sub
committee on the reorganization of
the army of the United States. If the
wheel of fortune continues to turn as
it has been turning for a few years
| past, we would not be surprised to see
his portrait yet hung up in the War
Department by the side of Stanton
and Rawlins, and Sherman and
Grant
Apropos of the War Department, in
tearing down the old War Depart
ment building this fall, it was dis
covered that the foundation was not
of stone. The bricks were laid on the
ground in bed of mortar, and the
place of u cornerstone was taken oy
mortar-imbedded brick. This curl
Gus piece of masonry, in a somewhat
dilapidated condition, has been fixed
in glass case, and is kept in the of
flee of the Chief Clerk of the Depart
ment
Writing of the mutations of time
reminds us that one of Washington's
old farms, part of the Mt. Vernon
estate, is advertised to be sold at auc-
ton in that sleepy old town Of Alex
andria, on the 18th inst. Washington
had five farms, all lying adjacent to
each other on the Potomac. The
"Union Farm, containing 92S acres;'
"POgue Run Farm" containing 649
acres;" "Mudy-hole Farm" contain
ing 476 acres" "River Farm con-
tanning l,207 acres, and the small
"Mansion House Farm" where his
) beautiful home and silent tomb look
down from a lovely slope on the
broad river below it. What portion
of this large, estate again changes
: title, the lucid description of the auc-
tioneer does not indicate.
Among the many superb statues
which adorn the public parks and
| squares of the National Capitol, there
have none yet been re ,red to any OF
the great and accomplished iursts OF
America, whose name and learning
stand out in our legal literature and
, OH the pages of history as great as
those of Easkin, Eldon, or Coke
1t is gratifying therefore, to see that
a bill has Just been introduced in the
Senate appropriating $4,000 for tn,
; erection of Il statue of eX-Chief Justice
Marshall, of the United States Su
preme Conrt, in Judiciary Square
Washington City. Whether it will
} pass, depend on the Congressional
appreciation of Americas most EN-
: nent jurist and greatest Chief Jus
= tice.
We have two classes Of migratory
, birds in Washington just now. The
tramps from the north, who are NOV
ing southwark, and the black bird i
exodus from North Carolina, on thei
way to the happy land of Canaan
known as Indiana. The first are il
tribulation at finding the doors of the
station-house closed to them after the
second nights lodging and the work
: house open to them as vagrants. They
are therefore gathering pennie.
through the day. Six or eight vii
meet among the board piles at nigh
l dump their pennies into a common
bank, "pool their issues" get quar-
of whisky as a partnership blanket
and make night hideous with theil
: orgies. The black emigrants cam,
here 10y rail, not alone, but with thei
ebony families, not in small gangs
: but by the carload. Out of none,
and out of transportation, they ar
y given a place of refuge, in coloreC
church-men women children anC
dogs-untill money is raised by con
tributions throughout the city t.
L send them to their land of promise il
the ague districts of Indiana, wher,
= they can shiver and rejoice as they
look back with scorn on the deserted
tarheels and clSy-eaters in the turpen
5 tine forests of the Carolinas.
The joint committee of the library
= have under consideration a proposition
D to purchase the sword worn by Gen
$ eral Washington when he resigned
his commission at Annapolis. Tn,
e sword is offered for sale to the Go,