Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1884-08-23
THE FUTURE CAPITAL.
What Washington Cnght To Ise, and
What 1t Will BE, i'm Time.

what 1t Will BE, in Times
E. ". Lightner in the Pittsburg Dispatch.
What shall be done to Washington to make it
the most attractive spot in the world beyond all
comparison? Many say 1t is the most attractive
place in the world DOW. 1t is in many respects,
but what it needs is the addition of a few spe-
cialties which can easily be added, and which
will be added in due time beyond the
peradventure OF q doubt. There is no
question now that the capital will remain at
Washington. The great public buildings. the
admirable plan of the city, the scores OF miles Of
smooth concrete pavement. the upward of 100.-
ooO shade trees. the monument. the parks al
ready made and the parks in prospect, the
money invested here by scores Of men who will
WELD lncontestiblc power with Congress for
many years to come, the pride already felt of
the place 10y every American who visits it-all
these conditions combine to prevent the removal
of the capital. Washington is the capital of the
nation. 1t is nothing else. 1t has no business
or commercial status. 1t is a center of social
and political life. and will always be, and that is
all there will ever be of it; and that is enough.
That Is rlst what the people would like to have
it. The fact that any other city would be less
truly social and political is quite sufficient to
decide the matter
This point being settled what shall we add to
'"'uhe,tott W iutsht III Tile III Will
not do to be all esthctlc and nothing practical;
all pleasure and trivOiity and nothing serious.
My opinion is that we ought to be all that the
most beautiful capitals of the world are, minus
their manufactures. minus their great whole
sale shops, minus their bourses and their ex-
changes, minus their bulls, their bears. their
thrones of MammOn.
First and best. we should have the greatest
library of the country. and one of the greatest
OF the world, where all the treasures Of litera-
ture. that are past and that are to come. may be
stored, without danger from fire or flood, in a
temple worthy OF Jupiter and Minerva: where
the students of the land would love to cOngre-
gate, and where every thought worth preserv-
ing would be shelved in its proper place and
easily found for future use the existing
library. where precious books are sent only to
be ruined, is Il national disgrace.
~
We should have great museum. where all
that ius.rat scientific discovery all curiOsities
OF nature and art all inventions, could be
stored; counterpart as nearly as possible OF
the British Museum. whose contents attracts
students and savants from all parts of the
world.
We should have great national gallery of
fine art. with all ofthe living artists represented
by specimens of their best work. and all of the
dead ones representedby copies of their master
pieces made by the most expert of living copy
lists. These would be second in value only to
the chefs d 9ure1es of the great masters them
selves. Such gallery would be as interesting
to the mass and almost as attractive to the con-
fOisSenrs as the Gallery OF the Louvre or the
National Gallery of London. or the great gal
leries of Milan, Venice, Rome. Munich and
Dresden. or those smaller ones of the Neither
lands, which contain tire masterpieces of the
immortal Dutch and Flemish masters, who. to
my mind are the greatest painters of all time.
We should have a great park, equal to the
finest In the world, or even greater I'm its var-
ETY.. for few cities, if any. have tine natural adj
vantages. exhibited in the grand forests, high
hills. deep ravines charming creeks and brooks,
to be found in the Rock creek district to the
north of Georgetown, and just outside of the
boundary of Washington proper. 1t could with
facility and at comparatively little expense be
made more beautiful than the Bots de BOulOgne
of Paris. the Bots de Chambrc of Brussels. Cen
trail Park of New York. or Paramount Park OF
Philadelphia. while London's Regent and Hyde
Parks would not be worthy OF comparison.
We should have. and could easily have hort-
cultural gardens finer, than those in the Jardin
des Plantcs of Paris. and equal to the Royal
Gardens at Kew. that loycest spot on the
Inames-Where. rs iii the gardens OF Dublin all
medicinal and ornamental plants could be seen
and studied-Therc in short the flowers of the
whole world could be viewed in a days travel
Last. but not least. so twenty million young
children and forty million older children of the
land VIII saw We should have great geological
gardens. where specimens OF all the living fauna
of the world could be assembled. and which
would attract the babies of all the Americas. as
the geological collection Of Regent Park Is seen
by the whole universe. which visits London at
one time or another People may laugh or sheer
at the thought of this government of sixty mil
lion Of people engaging in the collection of
monkeys and birds, and kangaroos, and rats,
and mice. and snakes, but such collection Is
scarcely more Insignificant in point Of scientific
value than a garden of flowers and plants, or a
museum OF fossils. or of geological specimens
Animals both instruct and aInuse and who will
deny that it would be pleastueable to the whole
county, which visits Washington at some time
to see what they could never hope to see in
other circumstances in the way of strange ami
malsI New York, or Boston, or Philadelphia
may have good geological collections. but only
small portion OF the people who visit WASH
ingtOE visit all or one of these places The great
geological assembly should be here.
Long before all of these things are accom-
plished Washington will have become the seat
of great university. equal to any institution of
learning In the world. it will have reared the
most thoroughly equipped ObservatOries and
scientific laboratories of all kinds, and will have
taken the lead in scientific research as it has in
scientific and all other inventions; it will have
built other scores of miles of the finest streets
in the world, and will have vastly increased the
area filled with charming residences.
All other of the worlds great capitals are
afflicted by trade to a far greater degree than
Washington can be. / do not mean that simple
commerce which is necessary for feeding and
clothing, but Trade with big big T, the struggle
for wealth. the anxiety for riches which debases
the mind and leaves it unable to comprehend
those purer en;oyments which may spring from
estheticai culture. When men and wo-
men come to Washington they leave the
bring his gCrgeOusness and luxury with
them. The most ardent devotees of the god OF
gold are sometimes glad to escape from the vi
cinage OF the throne and forget the argOn of
worship. SO they are more and more building
houses at the capital to which they may resort
for season each year and rest and study hui
mainly and human government and minge
with cultured society gathered from the ends
OF the earth and learn a language whose alpha
bet is not cOmprehended in the worlds cent per
cent.
There is a grand utility in beauty and in
amusement that at first glance seems only for
children. and in fine art and in books as well
as in luxurious homes, and the first may be en-
jOyed by all, while the second is enjoyed to the
full only by the few Members Of Congress. if
they look among the intelligent classes. who
should rule, if they do not will find that ma
tional pride will not only pardon but favor and
urge large expenditure i'm the rapid improve
ment and identification Of Washington in all the
avenues suggested. 1t is the one spot that must
illustrate the nations taste and culture, and
bon hn& kaI