The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1885-06-11
washington Letter.
WASHINGTON. June 6. 1885.

w aSh1ngtOn Letter
WASHINGTON, June 6, 1885.
Notwithstanding the hot weather
felt in Washington, learn
that the president and his cabinet
propose to remain here all summer.
There had been talk of going to Sol
diers' home, which place has been
convenient dog days retreat for
presidents since President Lincoln
set the fashion. But it is now said
that Mr.. Cleveland will remain at
the white house right through the
hot season and set an example to
several thousand Extensively deli
cate republican clerks, who have
considered a summer in this city a
thing to be Stunned as deadly, or
worse, vulgar. Washington, how
ever, is not now the heated and
suffocating place of former days.
Its many parks, cooled by shade
trees and fountains and made luxu-
rious with seats and paved walks,
furnish abundant and convenient
escape from the ardent rays of the
sun. The asphaltum streets that
were wont to absorb heat through
out the day and radiate it during
the night, TINS making day and
night intolerable, are now shaded
with the trees planted ten years
ago and the mean summer heat has
been summarily reduced about three
degrees. If you take your stand on
the top of the Washington monu-
ment, you will be able to see the
cause of the improvement. You
will overlook labyrinth of young
and vigorous shade trees. In q few
years Washington will be the forest
city of the world. The trees shade
not only the grand bouleVards where
fashion in livery takes its drive, but
the squalid shanties of Virginia
and Maryland avenues are shaded.
Th ere are about 10000 shade trees
along the streets in Washington
and many more in the different
parks. 1t has been estimated that
the city has l25 miles of shaded
streets. 1t was the plan of those
who have had the matter in charge
to plant the narrower streets with
two rows of trees, and many of the
wider ones with four rows. This
plan has in the main been carried
out. Bet out in single file twenty
five feet apart the trees would ex-
tend from Washington to New York.
Planted in a grove with a space of
twenty five feet between the trees,
they would form a forest OF 500
acres.
The last few years have made
great changes in the appearance of
Washington. Your correspondent
has resided here but twelve years,
but he has seen in less than half
that time whole streets of negro
shanties give place to the elegant
houseS-the Blaines, the Dorseys
and the Robesons who flourished
during the unctuous presidencies of
Grant and Hayes. The city has now
population of more than 100000
and the wealth of the country is
daily seeking investment here. Re-
tired wealth here finds a larger
number of attractions for a winter
residence than il the larger eastern
cities. But it is in the summer
that the city is most attractive.
Cool, spacious parks then take the
place of heated and crowded draw
Ing rooms. Who would not prefer
paradise to pandemonium? 1t is
not remarkable that the president
has decided to spend the summer
here. He is less a sybarite than
any president since Lincoln, and
the thermometer at ninety has no
terror for him surrounded by the
grand trees of the white house
grounds. His cabinet will also re-
main here. The secretary of the
interior and the encouragement
know the advantages Of a summer
in this climate as compared with
that of their native cotton belt.
Secretary Bayard will leave every
Saturday to see his family at his
ancestral home in Delaware, return
ing to the state department on
Monday. The other secretaries
will remain here, as will also the
chiefs of bureaus, and a much lar
ger proportion of clerks than have
hitherto remained in the city.
Many clerks cannot leave because
of the new rule prohibiting leave to
those who have been absent from
sickness or other cause for thirty
days. Others are not willing to go
because they are afraid of fndin g
big democrats in their places when
they return.