Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-03-31
A NEST OF NIISFoRTUNE Els.
Evils that Have Fallen Upon Dwellera
in the Fashionable West End in Wash

DOuuOeu Dy OOuuecLlcuJ ana vermont dN-
enues. Some years ago all this was
dreary waste land. Swamp and negro
novels prevailed. The swamps have been
made to disappear, but scattered here
and there through this section are many
surviVals of the rude negro shanty. In
the time ofPresident Polk the race course
was located nearly where Farragut
square now is. and in the night time foot
pads made it unsafe TO go unarmed. A
walk as far as Massachusetts avenue was
a stroll in the country. The section had
s malOdorOus repute, and he would have
been called crazy who predicted that it
would ever become the abode OF fashion.
The imperiOus will of Shepherd, aud the
cunning manipulaLiOns of spectators
brought the region into favor and made II
what it is. But 1t seems as though an
evil spell lowered over it, for it would be
hard TO find anywhere tract so small as
this upon which so much of misery, an
guish, tragedy, and suffering have come
as here. There are people OF wealth and
culture in Washington who could not be
induced to live in that section, and the
sad tales that a walk on almost every
block suggest would, il told to one who
strOlled about, seem like an appalling
volume of miseries. There have been as
sassinations, suicides, broken homes,
ruined ambition all within this little ter
ritory within the past generation to such
an extent that one might think almost
that a perpetual pail was upon it.
If the stroller turns from Pennsylvania
avenue, up by the Park, toward the Ar
hngton, he will see, only few steps
away, the spot where Sickles sAot Key.
The old house, by whose door Slckies
watched for Key to come out, is still
pointed out, and though the tree behind
which Key tried to shield himself has
been cut down, yet the stump is
there. Not day passes that strangers
do not ask to be shown to the site OF this
memorable tragedy. Then, turning to a
house directly back of this spot, another
still more startling tragedy is suggested.
At that door, in April, 1860, Payne rap
ped, and, gaining admittance, rushed up
stairs to the sick chamber of Secretary
Seward, and there dealt the blow that
only missed being fatal through the
watchfulness OF Mr.. Stewards son. Across
the way. in the park, is the bench upon
which Giteau satin the spring of 1881,
plotting and planning the assassination OF
Garfield.
There stands fine old-fashioned man
sion next to the house of Mr.. COTcOran,
facing the park to the south. Mr.. Henry
Adams, son of Charles Francis Adams,
has made this his home for some years,
and gathered there the most cultivated
people in the city. Recently, and with
out any warning OF illness, Mrs. Adams
died there-a death so sudden asto shock
the community. over in the corner, dl-
agOnallY opposite Mr.. COrcOran's house,
is the old Decatur homestead, out of
which the Commodore went proudly one
morning to the duelling field, and into
which he was brought few hours later
victim of the code of honor. Going up
C0nnectieutavenue there appears, facing
Farragut square, arrow Of handsome Tree
stone houses. That one on the corner
nearest Connecticut avenue was built by
Alexander Shepherd, and designed for the
most sumptuous place of entertainment.
Yet in a short time he was bankrupt, and
was driven into voluntary exile in MeXi-
CO. Here the recent Russian Minister
lived, and in his family was little Jap
anese lad Of royal blood who had been
made a member of Baron de Strives fam
lily that he might go with the Minister to
America and be educated. but the little
fellow sickened and died here. The house
at the other corner was bought by Gen.
Brady when IN the flush of his influence.
But he had lived there but short time
before a sea of trouble overwhelmed
him, and there a domestic grief, hard
er than all the others to bear, came TO
him.
A few doors up Connecticut avenue is
a substantial residence thatwas the home
of Attorney General Brewster while he
was member of President ATthur's Cab
met. In one of the neighbOring houses
the wife of Gen. Bingham, one of the
Pennsylvania members of Congress, sick
ened and died of a dreadful and incurable
malady. In another residence near by,
the beautiful and cultivated Mrs. Craig
Wadsworth was stricken with an incura-
BILE malady, OF which she recently died.
On the westerly side OF Connecticut ave-
nue. Secretary Folger lived fortwo years,
and not far away was the house from
which he went to his death at his home in
New York, while PostmasterIGeneral
Howe, another member of President Ar
thurs Cabinet, who died in Office, resided
in this neighborhoOd. In house near
l. street and Connecticut avenue a for
eien Minister committed suicide; on
II street the scandal of CatacaZy occur
red.
The two Rhode Island Senators, Antho-
ny and Burnside, resided for years in a
house on l street, while Secretary FIRE.
linghuysen went from his / street home
to his other home in Newark to die.
Near the massive residence OF the Brit
ish Minister, the late Senator Miller, of
California erected a fine residence. He
enjoyed 1t barely half Of his term, and not
far away is the house in which Senator
Matt Carpenter died.
some years ago Senator Stewart built
the silver palace on Dupont circle, and
after two or three most gorgeous enter
tainments came his collapse, and he left
the house TO creditors. Fire afterward
almost ruined. Across the street James
G.. Blaine put up a massive building
wherein, as the President elect. he should
entertain. BE lived one season in IL, and
went to Augusta and his great disappoint-
ment.
But when we reach the Scott circle we
seem 10 be in the very wreckage OF hopes,
ambitions, and family ties. Almost every
house there suggests a sad story. Don
Cameron was the first TO erect n snowy
building there. He had no sooner moved
into ii than his political trials in Penn
sylvania began, and were speedily fol-
lowed by his own dangerous illness. Some
OF bis superstitious friends warned him 20
move away. He did so, and OF course
they point to the coincidence of his recov-
cry and his regaining political power in
Pennsylvania as a vindicatiOn OF their
Then Senator Window built
his elegant house across the street. Every
one knows how that act cost him his seat
In the United states Senate. just beyond
Senator CamerOn's house In sixteenth
street George n. PendletOn built a beau
tiful house, but he has quilted IL because
the Ohio Legislature refused TO return
him 10 the Senate. Next SecOr Robson,
with his ill-HOtten gains built a ehOWV