Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1886-10-08
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
Regular Cores pondcnt.

on the streets; the temperance of ia
miliar but long absent faces in
churches and in theatres, are indica-
tiOns that the season at Saratoga, the
White sulphur and Newport is over,
and that the season at Washington is
about to begin.
When the capital of the United
States was village, and the Govern
ment a loose-jointed federation, the
season at Washington was synchron-
Gus with the congressional session
But now the United States has risen
to the place of primacy among ma
nations, not as military power, but
in population and in wealth. The
capital has grown to be great and
beautiful city, and each year the res
gesta and res dicta at Washington
whether social or political, grows in
importance and are read with increased
interest by an increased population
the most intelligent in the world
What will the combined increment
population, wealth, intelligence, be in
another hundred years? The thought
is staggering, like the fathomless and
the infinite. One hundred years ago
we were an amorphous string of weak
sea coast colonies roughly estimated
at 100000. Now we have GO,000,.
600 with wealth and resources incalcu.
liable, a great empire whose eastern
and western boundaries are oceans
Is it too much to predict that in an.
other hundred years our northern and
southern boundaries will be the Arc.
tic Ocean and the DeLesseps canal!
Or shall We say Terra del Fuego for the
southern boundary, with an electric
railway running from Hudson Bay to
Cape Horn? This prospect does not
seem more eXtravagant than the retro
spect for the last hundred years il
wonderful.
There is to be centennial consti.
tutional and presidential celebration
in Washington in a few years and the
establishment of permanent exposi-
ton of the products and resources OF
the various States and Territories
Other cities, of course, are contendine
for the honor, and insisting that theil
corporation limits shall be the locus
of the National Exposition. But it is
not intended to have any more Phila-
delphia provincialism in our national
celebration. The capital of the United
States is Washington. French ia.
tional celebrations are not held al
Cherbourg, nor British national expo.
siti0ns at Birmingham. We have nc
reason to be ashamed of the national
capital, for, aside from its being the
cleanest and most beautiful city in the
world, it is especially adapted for pa
geantry and entertainment. More
people have sisters, cousins, aunts
and other relatives in Washington
than in any other city OF the union
They are here in the public service
from every State and Territory. The
visitor to the Exposition will be in di
rect communication with a relative OF
friend who will entertain him or direct
him to place of entertainment
Half the houses of Washington are
boarding houses, and half the popula
ton have been boarding house keep
ers. In short, here is a bureau of in
formation and a city of expansible
boarding houses ready to hand
Washington to-day can and does ell.
tertain a larger transient population
than Philadelphia. Then there is
much more that is historic and worth
seeing in Washington than in Phila-
delphia. Besides the building in which
the Continental Congress was held
and the Liberty Bell, l do not remem-
ber anything that patriotic visitor
would care to see in Philadelphia
Here are monuments and colossal
statues commemorative of the illus.
trious dead and of every epoch in our
eventful history. Here are public
buildings, museums, the Corcoran Art
Gallery, the White House and the Cap
itOl; the National Botanical Gardens
and the Agricultural Department, com.
prising, before a dollar has been ex.
pended, such an Exposition as nc
other city in this hemisphere could
produce, even at an expense of $2O,
100000. But perhaps the strongest
claim of Washington is the fact that
here, right in the midst of the city
in sight of all these commemorative
and architectural monuments, and in
easy walking distance, is a great un.
occupied plain of three hundred acres
for the temporary or permanent build
ings of the International Exposition
This plain is on the banks of the Po
tomac, and no exposition in the his
tory of the world has had site so per
feet and so accessible. Dem.
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