Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-03-29

Personnel of the White House
n Leading Element In the Conn
ing National Struggle-HOnest
Purpose of the Democratic
House of Representatives =
Personal Notes
DEAR HERALD: | had taken a run
out to st. Louis pending delay in the
concern that brought me to Washing
ton second time. and returned the
very morning the most phenomenal
blizzard Of the age set in. ] got the
first pattering drops on the way to the
Hotel Arno. Itrained all that day, Sun
day, and bylMonday morning all the va
riations of rain, sleet, hail and snow,
with boisterous accompaniment OF
wind, had been experienced by the
denizens of this meteorological metrop-
oils. Nj nday morning saw great limbs
broken from the trees in the White
House grounds. During that day l
walked through Lafayette Park, and
it really looked as if one was in dam
ger of having ones brains dashed out
at any moment, 50 boisterous and over
mastering was the wind, the trees
creaking and groaning to the music of
the bowling tempest. Telegraph and
telephone poles were prostrated in
eyery direction, and on all hands the
pedestrian was frequently entangled
in the fallen wires. To the deep snow
succeeded another rain, and then
came the coldest weather ever re-
corded in Washington, congealing the
partially melted snow into vast ex-
panses of treacherous ice. Not hav-
| ing walked on the slippery material
for sixteen years, l am not ashamed
to say that l "tOok tumble" to my
self, coming down violently on my
head, and fortunately escaping with a
few face bruises, which little court
plaster made all right. No one who
was not out in this blizzard can have
any idea of its violence and intensity
of cold at times. On one occasion ]
remember that in walking up Penn
sylvania avenue against the pitiless
storm of wind and sleet, / really
thought l would freeze in my tracks
l could just keep my legs going. Even
under such circumstances the most
painful pedestrianism was preferable to
calling coupe, because the cold was
SO piercing that the freezing of some
member OF ones body would, as like
as not, have followed. But there was
no coupes to call. That ordinarily
abounding and clamorous tribe, ,yclep
the coupe and cab Jehu, was no
where to be seen. They had hieC
them to their little beds or to some
other coigne Of vantage, and were
conspicuous for their most judiciou
and almost universal absence, while
the managers of the various lines o
street cars were most diligently en-
gagged digging out their tracks from
the ice, slush and snow. The unpre
cedented character of this swoopin,
sweep Of the Weather Clerk may b.
Judged from the facts: (D. That TO
tie first time since its establishment
the Signal Service was cut off abso
lutely from communication with tn
country; (2). That the New Yorl
daily papers, due in Washington a
10 A. NJ. Sunday morning, did no
reach here until II p. NJ. Thursda,
night. Undoubtedly this storm vii
be spoken Of for generations. How
any unfortunate wight, who had beer
pampered on the exquisite weather o
California, wished in his b art that {
few slices of its choice climate hat
been lying around for his consolation
To-day is the first day of spring, &C
cording to the astronomical standard
l happened to be over at the capito
when the first storm of thunder an(
lightning had heard or seen fo
years made its bow. There was ,
terrific peal of thunder and a play o
lightning that made many people il
the Nations marble halls think the
dome had fallen in. In fact, the ex
plosion killed horse in front of the
Senate wing, entered the hall where
the Senatorial Solons were deliberat
ing, played around the chamber in 9
most threatening manner, and wounC
mp by destroying all the electrical ap
paratus in the Senate wing OF the
Capitol. For time there was genera
CONSERVATION.
Rain and slush, sleet and snow
hail and ice, with interludes of de
ceptive fair weather, are the stories
which the Weather Clerk has regaleC
us with during the five weeksI have
been in Washington on my present
trip, with the boasted fine streets
plentifully supplied with muck ano
other pedestrian impediments, and
yet can recall times when l have
complained of a little mud in the
streets of Los Angeles, under the
glorious skies of Southern California
PRESIDENTIAL sPECULATIoNs.
Having made two somewhat pro
tracted trips to the East since the 6tl
of last November. and having talked
to multitudes of people and listened tt
multitudinous talk when was not al
interlocutor, my experience embrac
ing Salt Lake, Denver, Kansas City
st. Louis, Chicago, Columbus, Pitts
burg, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Bal
timore, New York and Washington,
feel emboldened to say somethinI
about the next Presidential election
There has been at no time serious
question of Mr.. Cleveland's renomi
nation. There have been mutteringl
from New York and Indiana and {
few other points of opposition to the
President in his own party, but they
have never amounted to anything
that might be called formidable, and
now they are scarcely heard at all
Most Democrats accustomed to heed
ing the signs Of the times have lone
ago made up their minds that Grover
Cleveland would be the choice of his
own party. The only question has
been as to his election. The immense
mass of Democrats have settled down
enthusiastically to the belief that the
only thing that can prevent him from
being his own successor would be an
act of God that should prematnrely