National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-06-15
THEN AND NOW.
WASHINGTON TWENTY YEARS AGO.
The City Before and When an Armed Camp-The
Splendid Improvements Since-Yiews from
the Dome-An Enchanting Prospect
The Glory of the Capital.

Capital as the grandest city of the universe. He
found it, so to speak, altogether common
place and in some of its aspects repul-
sive. The Capitol building was incom-
plete, the dome scarcely begun, the streets
unpaved and, with the exceptions of q very few
public edifces, scattered at rare intervals, the
aggregation of the builders art appeared unworthy
of even the country town from whence the notes
of war had called the observer. Eastward lay a
broad expanse of barren plain, fringed upon the
farther side by the Maryland hills across the East
ern Branch of the Potomac. Looking southwark,
the unsighty sheds, excavations, and novels
marking
THE "BRICK-KIIN DISTRICT"
met the eye. In front, and almost at his feet, the
neglected Valley of the Tiber, which seemed to
have gone into its decline while Rome was yet the
mistress of the world. and to have retained only
the Stored geese of that immortal city, meandered
amid the dilapidated shanties and tumble down
stables set up as monuments of a shiftless
age. Farther to the westward, especially
beyond Seventh and between NJ and
Boundary streets, swamps and commons and
patches of meadow met the eye. Even in what is
now the heart of the city, running diagonaly
through the square bounded by Ninth, Tenth, F.
and 6 streets, was pasture and muddy stream
well known to every four-legged animal and
aquatic fowl having an abiding place within the
Loving nETuS VI hiue
at will to and fro, cropping the heritage;
SWINE TURNED Up THEIR NOSES
at tine authorities and at the same time plowed up
the earth of the ill-kept thoroughfareS, and the
Thrilling music of the COW and sheep bells, min
Cling with the discoriant cries of geese and
other domestic fowl, left little of the peculiar de-
lights of rural life to the work of the imagina
ton. Less than a year later and Washington
had become an armed camp. The encir-
cling hills were dotted with the white tents
Of the soldiery; huge carth-works. briStling
with cannon, crowned every eminence; flags
flOatcd in the breeze from every hilltop and the
streets and avenues reSounded with the inspiring
strains of martial music and echoed the tramp,
tramp. tramp of marching men. The necessities
of the hour inaugurated a pcripatetic system of
Improvement Here, there, everywhere that
occasion required streets were repaired, build
ingS erected, reforms entered upon and carried
out by the strong military arm. But these were
neither conceived nor executed with any view to
their perInanoncy. They were merely temporary
creations to meet the exigcncies growing out of
the period of strife. FsSthetically considered,
everything done might better have been left I'M
done: and the close the war left the city where
it found at the beginning, save that some faint
spirit of enterprise manifested itself here and there
among its inhabitants
THE BAY OF wASHINGToN'S GLORY
had not yet come. That was less than twenty
years ago. But what change has been wrought
since them The neglected and djlapidatcd Capt.
tai of great Nation of 1S61-5 has now become, in
this year of grace 1881, the beautiful city,"
known the world over for its magnificent thor
oughfareS, its grand public ediiceS, stately resi-
dences, and delightful scenery. Visitors who
behold its beauties for the first time are hap
PLY surprised, and those who return hither after
Id
1t is truly a royal city, in which every American
citizen is king Seen as a whole from the dome of
the Capitol, which vieS with any similar structure
in the world in grandeur as viewed from the
Maryland or Virginia heights or Meridian I'LL,
Washington presents
4 PLEASING PANORAMA.
But 10 appreciate all its beauties and to satisfy
the poetical and artistic taste for fine effects
must study it in detail. There are some eX-
quiSite bits of sccncry-views surprising many
which people have travelled thousands of miles to
i'll our very midst. For instance:
Let the seeker after the beautiful select some soft
summer day. when the sky is fecked with feecy
clouds and zephyrs whisper soft and low, and swing
his hammock underneath one of the stalwart
oaks upon the heights at almost any point be-
tween Seventh and Twentieth streets. Below him
lies the city; to the left the Capitol; in 'front.' the
Smithsonian, with its annex, whose tall towers and
walls of the one and half Moorish
architecture of the other carry the mind back to
the middle ages and the halls of the Abencerrages
farther to the right, the Agricultural Department
building meets the eye, and then the white shaft,
now rapidly growing Of the Father of his Country.
Beyond, the Potomac stretches lazily along expos
ing its broad bosom to the sun, and yet farther
away,
ARLINGTON AND THE VIRGINIA HEIGHTS,
bod hao
ground. In the faint distance the spires of Alex
andria loom up above the foliage, and Us the eye
follows the horizon toward the West it rests upon
that of the Seminary pointing like an index finger
Dolce far RjcILc! Sweet spirit of
idlencss! Who among the thousands congregated
in the Capital City have sought the bissful repose
the enchanting perspective to be had of
an afternoon, and without cost, by sim
ply lying at rest beneath the trees and
dreaming away the hours, while his vision is
feasting upon the prospect spread out before him?
How many of our people have thought it worth
their while to visit Meridian Hill when nature is
at her best, only for the purpose of gazing away
and drawing inspiration from the
beautiful picture presented to view
When the clouds. like shadows. lie
On the bosom Of the sky.
And the ships upon the silv ~ tide
Go grandly sailing by:
But it IS not the panoramic effect alone that is
pleasing. There are
ENCHANTING PROSPECTS
lying in wait at the head of nearly every one of
The numbered streets to cntrap the aesthetic taste
Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Four
,ccnth, aud Fifteenth streets present delightful
vstas. Sixteenth street also has its charms At
one end the broad thoroughfare is closed by the
Presidential mansion, cleaning white and
classical firm orOiI SURROUNDINGS nf ,1or
green foliage; at the other that marvel
Of engineering folly, the stand-pipc. eievatcS its
lofty head (bGt no water to attract the attention.
even though it fails 10 please. ThestrectS extend
ing uninterruptedty through to the river afford
CLEANS of silver and of the slender SparS and web
ike tr0ccry of the rigging of the shipping-those
hat do not, present other attractions equally pleas
ng. Looking along Tenth street, for instanc
he view is barred by the SnithSonie
along Thirteenth street by the Agricultr
8uildiDg-both stately piles. Another fine pc
If observation is from the south front of the
State Department Building, which of itself
specimen ofarchi,cctural skill,w
If more than n passing glance. Coming
avenues, the finest view TO be had Of the cl
Of them is from the tcrraced steps at The
front of the Treasury Department, from
point THE REPUBLICAN building tnow Gems
-eau) and the Pension Office form
4 GRAND GATEWAY,
through which the vision travels eastward
Capitol, from whence a person may loo
Maryland or any one OF the intersectng
md find himself amply repaid for the
From Howard University the vista presel
Rhode island avenue is charming. Com
avenue is full Of quiet beauty. In fact,
my one ofthe delightful circles tha, are
per>ed throughout Washington and it
,ult to look in any direction, folewil
course of street or avenue witho,
holding effects of light, shade,
perspective more beautiful than are to be sc
Iny other city in the country. Beautiful
hese are. however, Massachusetts, avenue pre-.
" all odds the most enchanting view. To ap,
late fully the magnificent prospect one must sta
lpon tie high ground east Of North Capitol stree
md look westward just as the sun begins to sink