The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1883-07-04
Not in Washington Guide Books

people know OF w aS0l0gCOU anu lUS
life. Fifteen thousand strangers
come here every winter, and hum
dreds of thousands visit the capital
every year, but as usual, not one man
in ten sees anything, and the great
mass at home know absolutely mo-
thing of the. strange sights and
strange people who make up 2OO,O 900
residents of Washington. Last night
for instance, in a stroll IN Pennsyl-
vania avenue, I noticed q couple Of
congressman entering . little saloon,
nearly opposite the National Theatre:
It was a low, wooden building, old
and weather worn, and ON the lintels
of its door 1 noticed the words,
"John Hancock, founded 1910. "
Directly over the entrance wa the
sign ''Old Curiosity Shop" I enter
ed a long, narrow room, with q cell
ing SO low that the head of Slade
would scrape it. The bar, fitted out
as elegantly as any in Washington,
covered the wall at the right of the
entrance. Back on it hung pictures
and relics of the crimes and horrors
of the past, and the walls of the rest
of the room were covered with arti-
cles which would make any museum
rich.
The old, gray-haired negro who
tended the bar was in himself q curl
osity. He told, as he filled my
glass, that he had been tending the
same bar for thirty-6ve years, and
that his saloon was the chief resort
in former times of the statesmen of
the capital. Said he: II have often
seen Clay. Webster and Calhoun
drinking here together. Henry Clay
and Daniel Webster used to be here
night after night. Clay always
drank brandy juleps, and his spirits
rose rapidly under the influence of
liquor. Webster drank considerable,
and the only Observable change in
him was that his eyes grew brighter
and his talk became, if anything,
more measured. Calhoun seldom
drank strong drinks, and took either
lemonade or sherry, and often no
thing. He would come in to talk.
They were lively fellows in them
days, and they liked their fun just as
we'll as the big men do now. They
often played cards here"
Ibid they gamble ?" 1 asked.
mot for money, but generally for
the drinks. l remember a game of
cards Clay and Webster and two
other men played here one rainy
night. They played here for the
drinks and smells. The men that
won drank and those that were de-
feated paid for the drinks and were
forced to smell tho glasses of their
opponents. They started in at 10
o'clock and they played until 2.
Luck was against Clay, and I don't
think he won a drink during the
whole evening""
I spent a very pleasant half-hour
examining the curiosities hung on
the walls and put up in cases around
the rooms. In one place there was a
pair of shoes formerly worn by
Washington, No. los, I should say,
with broad, flat soles and common
sense heels. No aristocratic instep
had the Father of his country, and
this pair looks more like the slip
shod pair of a cobbler than those of
an r. r. V.
Next to this was the seediest look
ing white plug hat ] had ever see D..
Large, old and fuzzy, its nap worn
of, and its color changed by the dirt
of several decades. It was labeled as
the hat Of Gen. Zach Taylor, and the
card stated that it came from the
battle of Palo Alto. An autograph
letter from President Lincoln stood
near by one of John G. Calhoun's,
the great s%ecessionist and the great
Unionist almost kissing each other.
A picture of Charles Guiteau was ap-
propriately made a companion to J.
Wilkes Booth, and on the other side
of the room was a theatre bill, giving
the play at Ford's the night the as
sassination of Lincoln occurred.
Bills offering 500, 900 reward for
Booths arrest, the extras published
by the Washington papers the mOrns
ing after the tragedy, and one con-
tanning a special telegram announ-
cling that the assassin had been shot,
and calling for rejoicing, made up
parts of the collection Showing up
the last days of the civil war. There
was currency of all kinds, postage
stamps dating back almost to their
origin, and a hundred or more auto.
graph letters. any of which wonld be
very valuable now. This little
saloon is one of the curiosities of the
capital. 1t is not down in the guide
books, but its history and museum
make it worth seeing Wash. Corr.
to Cleveland Leader.