Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-01-17
WASHINGTON FIFTY YEARS AGO.

the country, and the members OF Congress
from those localities used often to leave
their homes three or four weeks before the
opening Of a session. A few performed
the journey in their own carriages, anG
others rode saddle horses, which they re-
tanned for their use during the session, and
then sold. But large majority of the
Senators, Representatives, correspondent:
and claimants who came to Washington
travelled in the stage coaches, and there
was always great demand for seats just
before the commencement of session or
all the lines which conferred at the metrop
oils
The stage lines which ended at Washing
ton always had fine teams of horses to rur
in and out of the city, and passengers ar
irving used to be taken at full speed up tC
the door of the hotel which they had pre-
viously indicated to their driver. There
were half dozen from which to choose,
but the favorite establishment was the
Indian Queen Hotel, which occupied the
site of the present Metropolitan Hotel, and
was designated by large swinging sign.
upon which figured Pocahontas, painted il
qlaring colors. The landlord, Jesse Brown,
who used to come to the curb-stone tc
"welcome the coming guest, was native
of Havre de Grace, who had served his ap.
premiership to tavern-keeping at Hagers.
town and in Alexandria. A glance at the
travellers, as they alighted and were ush-
cred by him into the house, would enable
him mentally to assign each one to a room,
the advantages of which he would describe
ere sending It's destined occupant there I'M
der the pilotage of colored servant.
When the next meal was ready, the newly
arrived guest was met at the door OF the
dining-room by Mr.. Brown, wearing large
white apron, who escorted him to a seat,
and then went to the head of the table,
where he carved and helped the principal
dish. The excellence of this - fish, or
flesh, or fowl-he would announce, as he
would invite those seated at the table to
send up their plates for what he knew to
be their favorite parts and he would also
invite attention to the dishes on other
parts of the table, which were carved and
helped by the guests who sat nearest to
them. Those at the table thus knew
what was before them without read
ing deliberately printed bills of fare,
often containing the names Of dozen
dishes that have no existence except
in the imagination of the caterer.
Washington had then been called by an
observing foreigner d" the city of MAJ mfr
cent distances, an appellation which was
we'll merited There was group of small,
shabby houses around the navy yard and
the marine barracks another cluster on
the river bank, just above the arsenal,
which was to have been the business center
of the metropolis and Pennsylvania av-
enue from the Capitol to Georgetown, with
the streets Immediately adjacent, was lined
with houses, many of them with shops on
the ground floor. The executive depart
ments were located in four brick edifices on
the corners of the square in the center OF
which was the White House.
Pennsylvania avenue-the Appian Way
of our REPUBLICANS graded while Jeffer-
son was President, at a cost of Sl4, 600 ;
he personally superintended the planting OF
four rows of Lombardy poplars along that
portion of it between the Capitol and the
White House, row along each curb-stone
and two equidistant rows In the roadway,
which was thus divided into three parts,
like Inter der Linden at Berlin. In the
winter and spring the driveway would
often be full of mud-holes, some of them
axle-deep, and some of the cross-streets
would be almost impossible beds of red
clay, worked by passing horses and
wheels into thick mortar. On one &C.
casion, when Mr.. Webster and friend
undertook to 90 to Georgetown in a hack
ney-coach to attend a dinner party, the
veh;c1e oot stuck in a mud hole. and the
driver had to carry his passengers, one at
a time, to the sidewalk, where they stood
until the empty carriage could be pulled
out. Mr.. Webster, in narrating this Incl
dent years afterwards, used to laugh over
his fears that his bearer would fall beneath
his weight and ruin his dress-suit. John
Randolph used to call Pennsylvania avenue
"the great Serbonian bog, and descant on
the dangers of a trip over it, to or from the
Onion Hotel at Georgetown, in the large
stage with seats on the top called the
Royal George