McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1884-12-11
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Washington, D. c., Dec. z, "a.

.
The last session of the 49th Con.
gress has reassembled, but with little
prospect that any great amount of
beneficial Legislation will be accom-
plished before the time of its final dis
persion. Usually about three weeks
are taken out of this short session for
the holidays, but during this winter
there are numerous other events be-
sides those intimately connected with
intriguing for office, to distract the at
tention of the members. Nc sooner
will the holiday vacation be over than
the time will be here for the opening,
counting and declaring of the elector-
al vote, which must be had on the Sec
ond Wednesday in February. Right
upon the heels of that comes the cele-
bration ofthe completion ofthe Wash
ington Monument, upon which the
handful of workmen are putting the
finishing touches. And then the prep
arations for the Inauguration ceremon-
les than which none that have ever
taken place were more completely
elaborate, to say nothing of the hand
that members propose to take in Civ.
ing attention to the New Orleans Ex-
position.
Relative to the Inauguration, I am
at loss to know, and the people at
the Capital are puzzled to find out,
how they are going to lodge the scores
ofthousands ofstrangers who are COM
ing to see the Inauguration Of the first
Democratic President in almost thir-
ty years. The friends of Mr.. Cleve-
land are determined that his access
sion to Office shall be more stilted than
Mr.. Jefferson's, who rode to the Cap
tol on horse back, tied his nag to a
tree, took the oath Of Office, and trot-
ted off just as he had been in the hab-
it Of taking grist to mill. The Wash
ington hotels are all first-class, but
they would be rated in Chicago, St.
Louis or Cincinnati several degrees
below the frst-class hostelries of those
towns. Willards is an immense car
avansary, capable Of sheltering fifteen
hundred people and dining half of
that number at once. 1t has already
rejeeted four thousand applications
for quarters. The Arlington, Ebbitt,
Riggs, National and Metropolitan,
which can accommodate an aggregate
of five thousand guests, have already
agreed to provide for all that they
can possibly find room for, as have all
the eating-houses and other places
where refreshment for man and beast
is usually supplied. Alexandria, (Va.)
five miles away, has also been drawn
upon for all the room that she can
furnish and the prospect bids fair that
Baltimore, full hours ride from here,
will have to succomb to the universal
demand for hospitality.
l see that the President urges up
on Congress the necessity of aiding in
the construction OF the Bartholdl ped
estal, work which the people Of
New York city alone are interested
in, and other people are not. AS we'll
might Congress be asked to help New
York build her East River Bridge or
her Tweed Court House, or any other
of her numerous impositions. These
Bartholdi schemers are begging the
school children and everybody else
for contributions to this pedestal fund,
while they are paying a lazy tramp
of a secretary six thousand dollars
year for keeping the books, and host
of other hangers-on who do nothing
under Heaven but draw salaries from
the fund that these imposters are
squeezing from the people. Congress
had best let the fraud severely alone.
Dom PEDRO.