National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1882-04-15
OUR NATIONAL BIRD
FLAPS HIS WINGS AND TAKES ALooK
What the Great American Eagle Observed In wash.
ington After Eighty Years Had Passsd-A
Retrospect and Prospect-Tho Bird
Evidently Well Pleased.

The great American Eagle was observed myslerl.
ously lowering over the Goddess Of Liberty ON the
dome of the Capitol the other day, and, after
various movements and counter movements,
alishtcd on the tawny shoulder ofthe maiden and
INDUCED in the following soliloquyi III little
thought when built this nest eighty eight years
ago, that the future had so much I'm store for my
englets. Just why selected this spot can hardly
tell, True the country around here is right pretty
with hill and vale, slope and bluff, surely there
is variety enough to suit even the most fastidious
taste. And there is the Potomac Riveri n very
good river performing its duty oftrayellng on to
the sea az faithfully as any one could wish for
But II Is not TO be compared TO some other rivers
have seen-indeed, thought very seriously at
one time of building on the noble Delaware, and
again Of trying the picturesque Susquehanna,
think was fully seven years making up my
mind. The climate is right agreeable here, too.
The days are bright aud sunshipy, and the nights
are not too cold, but the town itself was Of no ac
count at all when came here and
MY WHOLE POSSESSIONS CONSISTED oP
only thirteen tracts of woodland filled with deer,
bears, Indians, and other game, with here and
there clearing and a small settlement Things
have changed very much. Why, this city had
only twelve or fifteen olusiersef houses, and that
sleepy old town-the other side OF Rock Creek was
then the business place in this part OF the country
The marshes extended up 10 the very edge Of
Pennsylvania avenue In many places. There
were no wide, smoothly paved streets and ave-
nues like the present forming charming yistas,
ending in graceful statues Grecian columns, and
marble domes. No. Corduroy roads and wooden
footways were the only helps one found then for
getting over the marshy ground. There were no
street railways then There were no steam cars
with laundering engines to frighten one out
Of his wits; no network of telegraph wires
to entangle my feet when flying and TO fash
lightning from one end of the country to the
other. All the lightning feared then was held In
the mighty storm cloud which occasionally burst
over the land. There were no beautiful public
buildings then; no marble Post Office and Patent
Office; no handsome granite Treasury building;
no Smithsonian Institution, with its wonderful
collection of curious things; no imposing State,
War, and Navy Departments no arsenal and no
navy yard no public schools opening the door Of
learning to ten thousand little ones; no How.
ard University for my dark featured children,
wherein they might obtain peep at the hitherto
sealed book OF knowledge; there was no brilliant
morning journal then
LIKE 1.-THE NATIONAL REPUBLICAN,"
disseminating truth and light on every side. MOI
/ say things have changed very much since then,
| ana am right well pleased with 1t too-but my
eagle eye sees far more yet to come. / see these
wide, smooth avenues extended for miles in every
direction and lined upon either side with rows Of
handsome dwellings ! see palatial residences
crowding close to the gates of the Soldiers Home
away off there in the distance. i see the turbid
waters of Rock Creek confined within an arch of
masonry, ana the same become the fashionable
drive of the city. | see the hills bordering upon
IL covered with graceful villas and beautiful gar
dens. ] see palace on yonder heights, made Of
column and Understanding in the midst of spa
cious grounds filed with flowers and shrubbery,
and statuary and dancing fountains NJ
home for the four years ruler of great
completed, he highest structure in the
of the world l see the Potomac Flats reclaimed,
substantial ea.wall along the river-f front, and
| the grounds around the monument beautifed to
the waters edge with arbors and vines and flowers
| and fountains and cosy nooks-a beautiful pleas
re-garden free to all see the river Spawned
with bridges and the hills on the other side dotted
with cottages and gardens and happy homes.
see churches and schools and colleges multiplied,
music halls and art galleries and institutions of
| benevOence springing up OH all sides. More than
this-I see my original thirteen tracts Of woodland
| improved, enlarged, extended, until they reach
| from the rising TO the setting sun the one hand
and from the ce-bound north 10 the balmy tropics
on the other.
! SEE EVERY TERRITORY FORMED
| into States; and FARMS and homesteads, and VIII
lagos, and cities, and railroads, and manufactures
| in every vale and on every mountain side. see
the teeming millions of other countries looking to
the golden harvest fields of the prairies for their
daily bread. see the Indian swallowed up in
| the sweeping wave of civilization. Mormonism
and communism rooted up, tossed out and become
y
| the Southern States. l see the little brown
| man"-which is causing trouble in the West Just
| now-compelled by the overwhelming power OF
| superior intelligence and civilization to remain
| within his own door and go on with his eating,
dressing and thinking for the nextthousand years
as he has done for thousand years past. see the
| Nations greatest foe-vz., strong drtRk-which is
| more TO be dreadedth than MoTmonism communism,
| or Characterization 1t has its fangs fastened upon
| the very vtas. / see 1t seized throttled, and
| chained as the only safety for the future life
| ofthe Nation. see woman, fair woman, SO occu-
pied with Affairs of home, and with business per-
| tanning TO her own sex, to have no time nor
inclination for affairs of state see men-Tcaiz-
| upon them-forced to lay aside passion and party
zeal and self-aggrandizement, and become states
men in the true sense OF the word. see the strong
| oak and the hickory and the hemlock of the
| opened mines, worked by skilful hands into ships
and barges and schooncTs and sloops, and my
| ships of war riding proudly upon every sea; the
| oceans dotted with the white sails ofmy merchant
| the forest of masts in every foreign port. see
time and space so completely annihilated by the
PERFECTED INVENTIONS OF NAN
| that conversation can be carried ON between per-
| sons residing in San Francisco and New York,
Tallahassee and Portland as easily rs II is now
carried on between them in the same city, l see
| the plough, the harrow, and the spade in the hand
| soil of the Western plains, and where for hun.
| bred years have roamed the deer and buffalo /
see wheat fields and corn fields orchards, and vine
| yards. see these same yeomen so prosperous and
contented that they do not know uor even care
whether their great-great grandfather first saw
the light in the highlands of Scotland, the low
| lands of Holland, or amid the green fields of the
| Emerald Isle. sec - here the eagle, evidently
| pleased with the prospect, gave II scream of de-
| light, Tapped his wings, and SCARED away.