Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-02-17

But the speech will I've READ every
where in Northwest Texas, and Mr.
Lanham's constituents will at least
discover that they Numbered In nothing
when they made him their representa-
tive.
PROCTOR KNoTT's LETTER.
1t might be well for tho GAZETTE to
inquire what are the peculiar contents
ola letter from Proctor Knott to Speak
er Carlisle, having reference, am tol
to the validity of the marriage of Fred
Douglass and the white woman. The
letter Is much talked about, and il a.
supposed that Senator .s will ex.
mc rus philosophy and force on the
floor Of the house. Old Virginia and
Maryland statutes prohibit the inter,
marriage OF different races, and Fred
Douglass may have put his foot in It,
These old codes are still in force IN
this district. But call for Proctor
Knots letter.
AUsTIN's MAYOR AND THE CUSTOM
HOUSE.
Mayor Saylor Of Austin will prob
ably secure the custom house ut
Brownsville. He has the endorsement
of nearly all the great leaders of his
party, and so prizes That given him by
Beecher that he will not send 1t to the
president. He prefers Beecher's APP
proval to the sweets of place and pow
er. There may be many tender chords
of sympathy between the excellent
CHIEF magistrate of Austin and the
greatest preacher Of his time, and
neither may be the worse man for it.
The country's capitol, that massive
pile of marble and granite which has
cost thirty millions or more, is yet UNI
finished. Not spacious enough to &C.
romnodate the two houses of copgfess,
their committees and postciiices and
libraries and salons a esoi'ger, it must
be greatly enlarged, Spacious apart
ments occupied by the library and its
reading rooms are required for
library building is to be constructed.
Only last week Mr.. Speaker Carlisle
was negotiating with Ben Butler for
the Use of his granite domicil by the
superintendent committees OF the
bouse. The evacuation of the capitol
by the library will be Il confessed relief
70 the swelling dome and protuberant
rotunda, and if the ever.expanding
librarian himself were transpanted,
the great structure beneath whose pill
Jared splendors he has achieved his
matchless renown would be less col
icky, and of course less pufied up.
PECULIAR ARCHITECTURAL EFFECT.
Everybody has said, who has seen
the capitol, that it is long, low, flat
structure, apparently much depressed
in the middle 10y the weight of the
superimposed massive dome. 1t is vas
and most imposing in its splendid
towering grandeur and majesty. Tn,
old dome was perfectly proportioned IN
height and width to the ole
capitol which it crowned. i remem
Der how its beauty impressed me when
] was younger than to-day. | lay be-
meath the shade of great trees, destroy.
ed by barbarous landscape gardeners
taste and skill, and gazed upon the
capitol as it was when Clay, Webster
and Calhoun were reigning triumvirs
governing tides of opinion ms does the
moon govern the ebbing and flowing
of the sea. thought this temple the
fit abiding place Of such gods. and
even dreamed that cherubim, finding
the spot which the structure would
most adorn, let the fair building down
with golden chords from the skies. II
was perfectly adapted TO the place, ant
and all its parts and tastefully modest
proportions 10 one another. Its unit,
Is no more. 1t is magnificent and i'm
posing, but no longer beautiful. Tina
tremendous dome has smashed il.
FLATTENED OUT.
To remedy this llatness-its flatulen
cy OF course Is irredeemable-Mr Man
ming of Mississippi once proposed /,
eXpend few millions in absolutel
lifting up the old capitol and the neS
dome resting on it about fifty fee,
This can be done by means of hydrau
lie machines, such as were used i'm ele
waiting monstrous buildings of old Chi
cago To the level of the new streets
Fifty feet thus added 10 the hight @
the dome would make IL quite as loft.
as 81. Peters in Rome and as respecta
BILE in altitude as the Washington
monument. We would then hay
the Hottest, If not the largest, dome, "a
well as the tallest monument, eve
reared by human hands. st. Paul
and the church at StrDsburg and ~
Peters aud the pyramids, the moderl
by our monolith and our capitol
But better still, this cen
trail elevation of fifty fee
would reproduce in the new, the pris
tine perfection OF outlines and propol
tions of the old capitol.
HOW THE CAPITOL GROWS IN HEIGHT
But while Mr.. Manning is gather
ing estimates of the cost of upheayin
this vast dome with portions of tn
building ust lining it, quite 20 feet wi
be auaed " the apparent height of til
whole of this mighty pile 10y the whit
wall of carved marble, which will 500,
encompass its base, the top of the wal
being of even height with the visibl
base of the capitol. The space between
the top of the wall and the capitol will
he paved with marble, and ,eneath
and within the wall will be counties
apartments. But while the Who'll
building will be apparently heip bl
ened, at least thirty feet, OF the neigh
of this wall. the apparent relative de
preston of the center of the capitol /
unchanged. and Mr.. Manning. lik
another Samson us he is, toting of tn
gates of another GAIA, should procee
at once to pump thunder under tn
dome, instead of into the house, an
lift the capitol, instead of the mob, q
he often does, out of its melanchol
depression.
INGALLS,.
ingalls, is perhaps the readiest an
astutest and boldest of senators. If II
could only live five or six years dow
South, aud see and know what we Sc
and know, he would be the impersoni
ton of much that the South admire