Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1886-05-08
WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON, May 8, 1886.

WASHINGTON, May 8, 1886.
The events OF the week at the
Capital City have been sufficiently
varied in character to give to peo-
pie of every taste and tendency
something to see or hear or think
about. OF meetings there has been
no end. There were mass meetings
to express sympathy with Glad
stones Home rule bill, memorial ser
vices to celebrate General Grants
| birthday, meeting in behalf OF In
dian education, in which Red and
White orators divided the time.
There were meetings of the Amer
| lean Historical Association, meet.
ings of the American Surgical Asso-
citation, and lastly the great char
liable or calico meeting for which
society had been cutting and fitting
all through Lent. Easter week re-
stored the social world to gaiety.
Released from restrictions of the
forty days and forty nights of the
penitential season, it first met again
at the Chinese Legation and danced
for charity's sake in calico frocks,
walstcoats, and neckties. There is
little inclination, however, to return
to large entertainments and late
hours. Until the time for flight to
the mountains and seaside, the af-
ternoon and early evening receptions
will attract fashionable folks, and
the matinee will be the favorite
form of friyolity.
Aud then our lawmakers on Cap
itol Hill have been versatile, irrele-
want, moral and extravagant. The
River and Harbor bill has been be-
fore the House, and Members have
been voting away the peoples mon
ey as recklessly as If the Treasury
surplus were inexhaustible. There
are some Representatives, who will
never vote money for great harbors
and streams unless they can vote
money to be spent in their own dis
tricts upon little streams or inlets
for the benefit of two or three OF
their constituents.
Civil Service Reform has been at
tackled by a Kentucky Congressman,
Mr.. Taulbee, who said the law was
conceived in sin and brought forth
in iniquity. He contended that its
founder, Senator Pendleton, had
been made cats paw, and that
Commissioner Eaton had made mon
ely out of the system.
The senior senator from North
Carolina, Mr.. Vance, disaffected
Democrat, called upon the Senate
to pass over the Presidents veto the
bill that refuses to promote anatom
ical science through the robbery Of
graves. Mr.. Vance was badly de
feated, and was surprised and al
most overwhelmed at the eloquence
which was called forth by his propo
sition.
Il The Senators also discussed steam
ship subsidies. From this they
drifted into tariff debate on the
relative condition of labor in this
country and Europe, and they lis
tened to prohibition speech from
Senator Blair although there was
no temperance bill before that body
Since the Senator from New Hamp
shire is always agitating some mora
question he is called one of the pur
lists of the Senate. But his speech
was none the less good for its being
irrelevant. He said In conclusion
that he had spoken partly as Re
publican. He believed in doing
this that he spoke more as an Amer
lean and more as a man. With al
its faults-with all its failures tc
reach It's ideals, he thought the Re
publican party was the great agency
which under God had saved the Re
public. That party would yet, from
the law of its superior being aud un
finished mission, concentrate its ire
mendous energies upon this gigan
tic national evil until it was destroy
ed.
The energetic citizens of Wash
ington. who are asking COMPRESSION
al aid for the establishment of a
grand international Exposition in
this city in 1889, hold weekly meet
ings to discuss the subject. They
are enthusiastic over the prospects
of success, which are presented on
every side, though they say they
can do little more than inaugurate
the enterprise by 1889, leaving the
grand commemoration for 1892, the
40Oth anniversary of the grand dis
covery of America by Columbus.
They have printed diagram
which is interesting as proving the
statement made in their address to
Congress, the public and the press,
that within radius of 200 miles
| fharo aro IN 000 mo .,.-~.t. -