News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-09-03
WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON, D. c.,
Auo. "a. 1885.

The week has passed without even
of political Importance at the Capital
There has been sensational rumors
regarding the health of the President
but these have been quieted by intel
ligence, direct from his camp in The
mountains, that he is unusually well
He is not expected with his string O.
fish until the latter part of Septem
Der.
The Cabinet is scattered here anC
there, Secretary Lamar and Attorney
General Garland being the only on es
who remain permanently in the city
The various departments of govern
ment are conducted without hitch, and
with very little friction by the subor-
dinates trained and skilled by long
experience.
Secretary Bayard has gone to his
country residence in Delaware and
the Department of State is in charge
of the Assistant Secretary, ex-Gov-
ernor Porter, of Tennessee.
Secretary of the Treasury Man
ming is making a.short stay at Watch
Hill, Rhode Island, while Assis tant
Secretaries Fairchild aad Coon are
experimenting the machinery of the
Treasury Department.
Postmaster General Villas is in the
woods of Lake Superior, and Secre-
tary of War Endicott is at the tradi-
tional home of witches, Salem, Mass.
The only two cabinet members who
remain in Washington are those from
the extreme south, Mr.. Larmar from
Mississippi, and Mr.. Garland, from
Arkansas, who, seasoned by the sui
try heat of the cotton belt, find no
terror in the summer climate of the
Capital.
There was never a greater scarcity
of Senators and members in Wash
ington than at present. Senator and
Mrs. Logan, who had spent the great
er part of the heated term in the city,
have gone to the Thousand Islands,
where they will remain for two weeks.
They were quite busy last week NOV
ing into their new $4,000 home.
The fine old house has been furnished
in plain but comfortable fashion and
will be an addition to the many noted
and attractive homes of the Capital.
Mr.. Blain, we learn, is living very
quietly at Bar Harbor, where only a
year ago he had the eyes Of the whole
country upon him, and where he was
assailed by such a mob of we'll mean
ing but tiresome intruders that his
relatives had to establish a guard
about him. Then he had an immense
amount of political work to direct,
now he enjoys complete rest and is
scarcely noticed, except by the tour
ist who is startled as if by an apara-
ton when he sees for the first time
the original face of a thousand por-
traits and caractures.
In month or six weeks all the &C.
lebrities will be back in Washington,
for, no matter how far they wander in
the summer, the winter brings them
here again. Here many of them have
palatial homes, and here all enjoy So
cial opportunities such as cannot be
found elsewhere on this side of the
sea.
Great improvements have been
made during the summer, but they
have been made here and there, over
an immense area, and are not directly
to a casual observer. In a |
drive which / took yesterday I count
ed over two hundred buildings either
in the course of erection or finished
during the season. The improve
ments at the Capitol, for which near
ly million dollars were appropriated
last year, will add greatly to the SYM
etry, as well as to the convenience of
the huge pile. Improvements of the
streets and parks are constantly 60
ing on, and if they are continued for
ten years longer the progress of the
city will be no less remarkable than
that of the past decade.
The Washington papers are discuss
ing the style of monument to be erect
to the memory of General Grant in
Prevailing opinion ia
yors an arch similar to the Arc de
1riomphe in Paris. One artist, who
has an eye to the useful as well as to
the commemorative in art, has pro-
posed stupendous stone bridge with
a single arch spanning the Potomac
from Observatory Hill to Arlington.
The latter place is now a cemetery
where thousands of the soldiers of the
ate war are buried, and was formerly
he home of General Lee. Such a
bridge spanning the Potomac would
De in itself proundly suggestive, and
art could make it all that
could be desired as a monument to
Grant.