Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1882-03-17
Washington People.
SOME GOSSIP ABOUT THEM.

It's strange how motives govern the
hidden impulses of mankind, and how
the eternal fitness of cognation is in
sensibly asserted, even in the mixture
of Washington hotel life. If you go to
the Ebbitt you find one class of guests
predominating, to the National anoth-
Wizards yet another. The loiterer in
the lobbles Of these great posadds, the
habitual loiterer who studies human ma
ture from the standpoint of quick-wit-
ted experience, will tell you at once to
what hotel any stranger he meets in
Washington really belongs, albeit the
said stranger may by some hook or
crook have strayed for the time being
into the wrong caravansary. But in
whatever hotel you may 60 you will find
characters worth studying and notables
worth seeing.
THE CoLoNELS, JEDGEs, GOVERNORS AND
SIGH
aside, there are real men of action,
factors and proctors in public affairs,
to be seen hourly in any of them,
whose names are as familiar as house
hold words and whose achievements
and ambitions are the constant theme
of public discussion. For instance, mere
comes an egg-shape faced man, walk
ing rapidly into Wizards, whose name
and fame have reached the fouI cor
nera of the scientific world, who has
been laughed at and jeered at and who
still enjoys that privilege because OF
his stupendous schemes in engineering;
but with all that man who has never
failed in any of his public undertakings
up to this date. say he is egg-shaped
as regards his face, for imagine that
with the accessories Of hens egg
large enough to carry n silk hat,
some white hair for beard around tie
chin, some more white hair to cover
the Uranium back of high, bold fore
head; somethipg to make prominent
nose Of; ditto for thin, decisive, and
compressed lips; also ditto for gray
eyebrows, and especially something to
fix up small, twinkling, deep-set,
rather foxy eyes with, / could manu-
facture very fair counterfeit likeness
of
CAPTAIN JAMES b. EADs.
And there is nothing edious in this
comparison, for an egg, you know, is
proverbially full of meat. Spare-built,
medium sized, quick and nervous in
his every motion, the captain seems 10
take in at glance all that is to be seen.
Another character OF the Willard
species, who may be seen at almost
any and odd hours in the lobby OF that
hostelry, is a round, full, red, pump
kin-faced man, one who always looks
as if he had just won a prize in a box
OF tea or coffee. | mean, of course, the
RED HEADED RANGER or THE RIO GRANDE,
Colonel Tom 0chiltree. can imagine
when Tom was a youngster, and his
head was more flamingo like than it is
now. As little, innocent boy, the
ladies must have said OF Colonel Tom
sOh isn't he cunning?" meaning
thereby that his obliquity of vision
gave him a mischievous and saucy
look. But, sir, Colonel 0chiltree is no
longer inno-that is to say he is longer
cunning, in that juvenile or feminine
acceptstion OF the word. He is mis-
chievous and saucy. Leaving Will
| liard's, with It's cosmopolitan species,
follow you now me around the corner
of Fifteenth street to the Riggs House,
and I'll skow you any number of New
Englanders, some of whom drawl their
words out through their noses, and
some of whom do not. New England
| ers they are, though, even when
they come from the west, as
Charley Reed, ex-counsel for
Guiteau does-Yankees, in fact, by ex.
traction and inherited peculiarities, no
matter from whence they come latter
iy. But the man you see first, with
both his hands now in, his breech es
pockets, now stroking his long full
beard, and now nervosly playing.with a
toeth-pick, is a man who would get
angry were to describe him as a
Character"
sol woN't DO IT.
Nevertheless he is, insensibly to him
self. one of the noted characters OF
Washington, and / must say very
lovable character, too. He preceded
Cakes Ames In the house, and the first
| and all the letters OF his name are
Timothy Davis. He doesn't look a
minute older than when, half gener-
alton ago, he went out of politics for
the ayowed purpose of doing some
thing for himself. And possibly he
has done something in that line, mas
much as he has the reputation of being
one of the most successful izternal
revenue lawyers in Boston, goody-
goody place, you know, wherein inter
nal revenue infractions are practiced
upon strictly moral and upright basis.
Retrace your steps row as far as K
street and go with me to the Ebbitt.
The army and navy are there, and the
names on the register include those OF
nearly all the professional belligerents
who happen to be in Washington
transiently. Mixed with them are a
number Of southern republicans, es-
peciaIly North Caroiinians and Ala
bamians, who became "worted," /" to
repeat the word, TO the Ebbitt, while
| the late Senator Morton, of Indiana,
made It his headquarters, and PEI
force the political
MECCA OF RAEIcAL RADICALS.
Bat astray In this couglomerate
crowd is an old gentleman, who walks
with cane, his broad shoulders slight.