The Daily Tombstone., 1886-01-29
WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON, Jan. IS, 1886.

ington for many years. The river is
 covered with a solid sheet of ice, and
 navigation has been entirely suspend
 ed. A foot of snow upon the smooth
 pavements has afforded excellent
 sleighing, while the ponds of the Fish
 Commission have been transformed
 into mammoth skating rinks. Owners of sleighs have been in great demand, delapidated old boxes upon runners,
 which in the north would hardly be
 deemed worthy of the title of sleigh" have rented readily at the modest rate of five dollars per hour.
 1 The attention of Congress has been about evenly divided between the sev-
 eral important questions before it for
 consideration. The Senate has held
 several animated discussions upon the subject of the admission of Dakota. It is not improbable that in the Senate a
 bill of admission will passed, but while the Republicans in the House favor the admission, they know that the measure would meet with opposi- tion from the Democrats, and so do
 not take much interest in it. Although Dakota has been knocking at the door of Congress for three winters it is prob able that the Committee on Territo- ries will not even report the measure to the House.
 The silver question has been dis cussed in all its phases, and now ap- pears that the silver advocates have so strong backing that notwithstanding the recommendation of the President, | that the issue of silver be restrict ed, that it will be impossible to check | the coinage at present. Col. Snowden, | who for many years was Superintend- ent of the Philadelphia Mint, says in reply to Congressman Horr's declara- ton that "there are fifty million coun l terfeit silver dollars in circulation" :" that "it would be impossible to circu, late imitation dollars in any consider able amount without detection. The | dollafs could not be minted without costly and elaborate machinery. With all it's appliances the Government has been able to float only 50,000,000 sil- yer dollars in seven years. Evidently counterfeiters could not duplicate this issue secretly" Col. Snowden con cludes that there are fewer counter felt dollars in circulation than at any previous time in the history of the Government.
 The Hoar Presidential succession bill which passed the Senate before the holiday recess, occupied the at tentiOn of the House during the greater portion of the week, and when put to vote on Friday it was passed by vote of 1S3 to v, and it now awaits the signature of the President.
 Notwithstanding the fact that the Washington monument has frequent ly been the subject of unfavorable criticism, 1t appears that the advo- cateS of the plan of perpetuating the memory of the nations dead by the erection of a monument of a magni- tude commensurate with the degree of reverence entertained by the people for the the deceased, still have their representatives in Congress. A bill was introduced in the Senate on Mon day last providing for the construction of two monuments in Washington one of which is to be erected in memory of Lincoln, and the other of Grant. The monuments are to cost $1 100000 each, and are to be completed within ten years after the passage of the bill.
 The great telephone contest which has been occupying so much of the time of the Secretary of the Interior has at last been decided in the man. ner that was expected. The Secretary holds that the Bell patents are con testable, and should be brought into the courts. He says: "In my opinion, the proceeding should be in the name