Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-03-21
Washington Gossip.
From our Special Correspondent.
WARRINGTON. Mar. Is

Warrington Gossip.
From our Special Correspondent.
WAsHrsGToS. Mar. Is.
The WEATHER AND THE President,
The terrific storm which ragged in New
York and New England last week, was also
very severe in Washington, but not much
snow fell. Local telegraph and telephone
wires were. however, completely Frustrated
But the most remarkable feature of the
fierce blizzard was absolute suspension of
all mail and telegraphic communication with
the north. After day or two we began to
receive meagre messages from New York
via Chicago. From Sunday night until the
next Friday morning, we did not receive a
single bag of mail from New York or New
England. Congress actually began to feel
lonesome The members had no letters to
answer, and it was utterly useless to make
bunc0mbe speeches, for they could not be
telegraphed to the papers for far-away consti-
tuents to read. But for the fierce gale which
continued for four days and blew las twad
blown its last" the city would have gone to
sleep. The Congressional mill ground slowly
and with a soporifc monotony, the hotels
seemed quite deserted, and there was an ut
ter dearth of news. There were few who
laughed and professed to believe that the
wide spread disaster by land and sea, dark
hints of which came now and then, was, per-
haps, the awful catastrophe which the Presi-
dent did so gloomly forecast in his message
last December He has always been ac-
counted lucky" man, and perhaps, the
very elements, plying the emptiness of his
late free-trade observation-disclosures cast
of the horoscope, thought to rob Wiggin of
his laurels and place the chaplet upon the
brow of our present Chief Magistrate, who,
by virtue of his Office. is Commander in
Chief of the army, and, therefore, able to
dictate to that military institution called the
Weather Bureau, or more Familiarity, ''Old
Probabilities"
SENATOR INGALLS, RELY TO Cor. AMBER
Senator ingalls, vigorous defense of the
Grand Army of the Republic. his arraign-
ment of the President and his allusion to
Generals Mcclellan and Hancock. have
called forth the tiercest denunciatons of the
professional democratic howlers Among
those who seized the opportunity to get their
names in print. was one Col. Finley Amber
SON who quite exhausted his vituperative
vocabulary in an open letter to the Senator.
The latter singled out this communication
probably because of its excessive malevo-
lence, and stated openly that he should give il
such reply as it deserved. The Senator's I'M
surpas sed powers of sarcasm are so well known
that Newspaper Row was all agog, and every
newspaper correspondent waited breathlesslv
last evening for the issuing of the letter AT
the appointed time he handed to the eager
news gatherers copy of the missve which
read as follows:
Washington, ID. c., March Il, 1888.
Col. finley ANDERSON, New York;
Si,': have the honor to acknow ledge
receipt of your favor of the 18th instant.
Respectfully yours,
john J. INGALLS,.
Not another word The Senator looked at
the correspondents. and laughed Me-
phistophelian laugh as he asked them to
use their influence to have it printed conspic-
uously in prominent position. Every one
knows that Senator ingalls, intended no re-
Election upon the character of Gen. McClel-
Ian, or of the brave and patriotic Gen.
Hancock, as officers of the United States
army. He meant that the Democratic party
of the north was, and is. the tool of the peo-
pie of the South, mere clay in their hands. to
be moulded as they wish, and that those two
distinguished officers, by accepting the nomi-
nation of the Democratic party, as its candi-
date for the Presidency, became, indirectly
the allies of the South. And the patriotic
people of the North recognized this fact so
clearly and distinctly that they defeated them
both at the polls by an overwhelming vote.
Senator Ingalls, is in receipt of great piles of
letters from every part of the country. thank
ing him for his plain. unvarnshed statement
of facts One of the most touching of these
is a little missve received in the mail yester-
day. containing a few blossoms plucked by a
grateful old veteran from the garden of the
prison at Andersonville, to which the Senator
had made allusion in his speech.
ONE GUN FOR THE DEFENSE OF WASH
r>GroN.
A bill has been reported favorahly TO the
Senate, appropriating S35 900, for the cree
ton of counterpoise battery mounting one
six-inch breech-loading rifed cannon of q
new pattern, Tor the defense of Washington.
1t is TO be located about twelve miles below
the city. The people of this broad land will
now have the proud satisfaction of knowing
that there will be one gun--if completed in
time-snd only one, standing between the
national capital and any invading fleet of gun
boats that may choose to steam up the Poto-
mac Out of the large number of forts
which u fSiieNt thaih VI
cations around Washington from 1861 to
1865, and which were mounted with the
heaves, siege guns. and protected by outlv-
ing batteries, rifie-pits and abatts. not one
remains, and hardly vestige of them is to be
seen, Some of your readers will remember
old Fort Stevens, just beyond Brightwood
on the Seventh street road. and how il poured
shot and she'll into Early's troops when he
invaded Mary land and knocked ut tho ,,ates
of the capital in the summer of 1864 Al
pretty little church now stands on the very
site of the fort, and the pleasant sound of the
bell is heard where once when was boy,
| listened with bated breath to the fierce roar
of deadly conflict.
The PRESIDENTS BIRTHDAY
This is President Cleveland's ffty-f rst
birthday, and certain Office holders and other
certain would-be otiice-holiers. will make a
great to-do over it. One of the Democratic
papers here which Processes TO be very near
the throne says this morning "A good many
presents will find their way TO him to-day.
some of them very handsome, oue of the most
Of which is a fiower-holder which
has been prepared with much careful work
at the Smithsonian institution 1t |
is a rams horn richly mounted in silver. and
one of the finest pieces of workmanship ever
produced in the District. | am not at liberty
to say from whom it comes to him." should !
say not. 1t would seem very clear to orii- |
nary mortals that he from whom it comes"
had better stick to his legitimate business in /
the Institution where he is employed, instead
Of using government time mounting rams