McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1884-07-10
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Washington, d. c., July 6, 'S4.

abdicating his power and leaving the
government to take care of itself. OF
all the line Of presidents, from Washing
ton down to the nineteenth, Grant was
the first chief magistrate who had ever
taking summer junketing. Mr.. Lincoln
in the last summer of his life slept
occasionally out at the Soldiers Home,
but in his four years administration,
he never left Washington. Nor was it
particularly because of the existence
of war and the supervision of military
affairs that detained him, because these
duties could as well have been performed
from any other headquarters, but Mr.. Lin
coin would not establish the precedent of
leaving the Capital and the duties of his
high position, simply because of the eli
mate and its malarious accompaniment.
Yet the Washington of to-day is infinitely
mole healthful then it was then, and the
neurology of the White House shows but
two Presidential demises-that of Harri-
son who was killed, not by malaria but
by the office-hunters, and that of Taylor
who ate too heartily of ice-cream that
was favored with the same villainous
vanilla that afterwards poisoned Mr..
Buchanan and others at the National
Hotel, and is now slaughtering the youth
and beauty of our land.
This leads me to mention that Mr.. Ar
thur, who has never spent summer in
Washington, never intends to. As soon
as Congress is done with its work, the
President will goin the Dispatch straight
to Newport, and during the summer will
60 up and down the eastern coast, fishing
around Poppysquash Point, digging
CLAIMS at Squantum and eating them at
the Gut. How the President will spend
his days of retirement after the 18th of
March next, is a problem which even
he cannot solve. He can hardly assume
any prominence in the political world, |
for the dignity of his retirement will be
above that, whatever it may have been in
the time of John Qincy Adams.
The prospect Of Congress coming to
an adjournment as early as the third
of July or the fifth, is not so fattering. |
The fight over the Notifications bill
promises to be both long and desperate
Indeed it would not be surprising if this |
part of the appropriation may not go |
over entirely to the next session, for
what does the country want of fortifca-
tons anyhow If Congress would 90 to
work and do something toward rendering
our navy something like respectable,
we could well foreSo any necessity for
Notifications or coast defences of any
kind. As [ have hitherto written, the
Chicago (Which is said to be the best
specimen of marine architecture that
the Government has ever turned out
of its own accounD has proved dismal
failure so far as fighting qualities and
are concerned
By the first of September the Wash
ington Monument will have attained a
height Of 500 feet, when the shape of
the structure will be changed to that
Of pyramid, to continue On for So feet
to the apex, which will be the completion
Of the monument proper. The dedica-
ton of this grand memorial will take
place on the 22d of February next, just
thirty years from the date of the laying
Of the cornerstone. One of the peculiar
and appropriate features of the dedica-
tory exercises will be the delivery of
,he Grafton by Hon Robert C. Winthrop,
If Boston, the same orator who oficiated
thirty years ago. The ceremonies attend
mt upon the dedication will be the
most elaborate that have every taken
,lace upon like occasion in this coun-
ry, Congress having by joint resolution
appointed committee of both houses,
to make such arrangements
IS will be appropriate to so august an
occasion. The whole cost of the monu.
nent when completed will be not less
han 81, 100000, but to the everlasting
isgrace of some of those who had the
manipulation of the funds when the orig