Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1886-09-23
Washington on the Outside.
Washington Corr. Cleveland Leader mai
Herald

Washington Corr. Cleveland Leader mai
Herald.
The people of the United States
know but little about Washington,
and of the sixty millions which we
have now in the country, perhaps
fifty millions have never visited the
capital. 1t is the finest national cap
jtal in the world, and travellers who
have gone the rounds OF the globe say
they have never seen anything to
equal it. IL now contains over 30.
900 people, and its citizens spend
more money proportionately than
those of any other city IN the United
States. 1t lies in q sort OF basin
on the banks OF the Potomac, which
is mile wide where it flows by it.
Great hills surround this basin, slop-
ing almost abruptly mp from Bounda-
nv street, which bounds the city on
the north, and rising upward from the
banks on the other side of the river.
Some OF these hills are wooded. and
on many OF them residences are now
being built. 1t rs supposed that they
will in the near future form the most
fashionable parts OF the capital city.
The capitol is in the exact center OF
Washington, and all the streets are
laid out at right angles to it. The let
tered streets run one way and the
numbered another, and the number
ing of the city is so arranged that you
can tell at glance just where house
is located by its number and street.
All OF the streets of Washington
are wide, and the avenues which
cross them in diagonal way
are wider still. They are paved with
dark gray asphalt, and are as smooth
as floor from one end to the other.
The bicycler will be interested in
knowing that there are 279 miles Of
these Washington streets, and that
they could here ride almost the dis
tance between Cleveland and Chicago
on pavements as smooth as so many
planned boards without going over the
same ground twice. Their ride would
take them past elegant houses of as
much variety of architecture as there
is variety of human brains. 1t would
lead them about statues of the most
noted men of the nation, through
parks filed with all kinds of tropical
plants, and along into the drives of
great reservations, by public buildings
which are modelled after thestructures
of half dozen different ages and peo-
pie in past history. They would go
along streets from 100 to $50
feet wide, lined for many miles
with gIeen lawns in front of
the houses. For the govern
ment here owns the lawns as well as
the streets, and it has a strip of grass
on each side OF its streets from ten to
seventy feet wide, extending through
out the city, to the edge of which the
builder may come but no further.
Washington has the greatest area of
streets in proportion to its size ofany
city in the world, think. Forty-one
pei cent. of the territory of our cap
ital is laid out i'll streets, whereas
only twenty-five per cent. of Paris,
twenty-six per cent. of Berlin and thir-
ty-five per cent. of Vienna Is devoted
to streets and avenues.
There are in Washington city limits
Gill acres. and more than half of
this Is public property. The govern
ment reservations, which are scatter
ed throughout the whole city, con-
tain 40S acres, and the most of these
are filled with flowers and trees. The
streets and avenues are lined with
trees, and during the last ten years
there have been more than $4,000
shade trees set out by commission
which is appointed and paid by con-
grese Tor this purpose. Standing on
the hills above Washington and look
over it, the city now appears like a
great garden. with houses poking their
heads out of the foliage. Ten years
from now it will be 9, 900 acres of for
est, and it will be the greatest shade
tree city of the world. Trees grow
rapidly in the Washington soil. They
are we'll taken care of, and they are
planted about thirty feet apart all
over the city as soon as the streets
are graded. The government puts
tree boxes around them, and if one
happens to die it is at once replaced
by another. These trees are of all
kinds of shade trees which one finds
in the north and south. They have
already materially affected the eli
mate of Washington city, and it is
cooler now by far than it was dec
ade ago.
The parks of Washington are scat
tered throughout the city, and you
cannot walk more than THREE or four
squares without coming upon a green
spot filled with rare old trees and a
statue or fountain. There are seats
in these parks, and in the flower beds,
which you will find in most of them,
plants are kept blooming all the time.
First there are the earliest blossoms
of the spring. Then as the year grows
older these are taken up as soon as
they cease to bloom and Others are
planted in their places. An army OF
laborers is required to keep the
parks in order, and a continuous
Improvement goes on. Many OF
these parks, such as Franklin
for instance, are surrounded by ele-
CANT residences, and as rule vacant
ground facing upon government res
ervation will bring double the price
of other land in the vicinity. The
capitol park alone contains fifty-one
acres of plateau and sloping hill. 1t
is full of trees of many kinds, some OF
which are mere bushes and others old
elms which appear to have dated
back to Jefferson's day. The capitol,
you know, faces the east, and Just in
front of it there is a wide plateau OF
green of several squares which will lie
between it and the new library.
Through this capitol park there are
well-kept roadways and fine walks.
Seats you will find on the way up to
the capitol, and if you go at night
your path will be lighted by electric
lamps.
1t " a mile from the capitol to the
treasury, and there is wide stretch
OF green OF about two hundred acres
running between the two, a little to
the south and back of Pennsylvania
avenue. 1t is called the mali. This
green two hundred acres is a series of
parks, and on it is erected a number
of public buildings, and among them
are the flashy red brick-and-til Ma
tional museum and the medieval old
brown-stone castle ofthe Smithsonian
institution. Beyond the Smithso-
MAN is the agricultural department,
and further over in another big reser-
walton is the Washington monument,
which, with the Potomac almost wash
ing its foot, and some pretty lakes W.